This past month I visited my dad in southwest Florida. During that trip, I spent some time photographing the natural beauty of southwest Florida. My dad also gifted me with a nature photo workshop at Rookery Bay.

Red Sky

I was a little concerned about the description of this two day workshop as it sounded too basic, but I thought maybe I could learn just one thing. That would be a good thing.  Plus Florida is an area I, as a photographer,  am not as familiar with since I do not live there. The workshop was a total of nine hours over two days with 3 hours in the field. When I say “Field”, I do not mean it literally, but we did go to a restricted Florida DEP site where the six of us were the only people there. It’s cool to be in nature when there are few people around. All of your senses are heightened, and that makes us better observers. After the critique of all of our images in the final hours of the workshop, I felt that I had taken and submitted  images that were not up to par except for possibly “Red Sky” shown above. But I also felt that the workshop was valuable. I knew I had gotten a lot out of it because my images sucked, and I knew that!  I also knew that I had forgotten to incorporate some of what the instructor had taught us in the workshop the first day.

Wildflower

So the day following the workshop, I went around my dad’s community where there are lots of ponds and natural wildlife and shot a few photos before the rain came in.

Spring Day

Two days after the workshop, I trekked to  Naples Botanical Garden, a place I know very well as I visit every time I see my dad. With both outings, I incorporated what I learned, and my photos reflected that. The tools the instructor gave me were not new to me, but he explained them and illustrated them in a way that I “got” it.  It finally clicked what I needed to do to make my nature shots stand out. Throughout this blog, I have added these post workshop shots. Let me know what you think of them. I always appreciate the feedback. I am working on some exciting new ventures with my photography and will announce them as soon as they are finalized.

Little Blue on the Hunt

Until then, Enjoy! And thank you for supporting my work.