I recently watched a YouTube video where friends were chatting about Instagram, and blogs on websites, and both said that blogs are still relevant in today’s photography world; especially if you’re trying to tell a story. I thought about my blog and (or the lack thereof) and decided to commit to write about each of my significant outings; what I did, how I felt, some of the back story, and a few of my photos. I share images on both my Facebook and Instagram accounts, but with this website still “a work in progress” (aren’t they all?), new images rarely made it onto my portfolio. Perhaps its my inability to make a final decision whether an image is worthy or not, regardless of the fact that many of my images in my portfolio now are not worthy. Perhaps it’s because I write too much, every little detail and snippet of my ordeal, that even I get bored with writing it. So with that, I’ll start with my latest outing into the Everglades. And yes, it’ll be a long read. It was an overnight trip; of course it’ll be a long read.

I’ll preface this story with my conversation with a fellow camera club member about her stay in the same place during the 4th of July. I had seen these Eco Tents last August (2019) when our club went to photograph the Perseid meteor shower. They were just installed but not operating yet. (I found out that they did a soft opening in October, and then a full grand opening in November. But back to the convo.) She said although there were few amenities, it was very nice and peaceful. Said it was hot, but at night it cooled off enough, and was quite nice. The concessionaire had removed all of the furniture except for a floor lamp and box fan. But, there was electricity! And they only charge $50 a night, not $150 they charge “in season”. I was thinking, hmmm, that sounds really interesting. A week later I did more research and booked a night during a near new moon.

A few days before my outing, I looked at what else this concessionaire had available, and saw they had a back country boat tour that looked interesting. I had never been in the back country before so I went for it. I had made a day all planned out, and would really enjoy it, as long as the weather held out.

That Friday night I made sure to pack all of my camping essentials. Because I camp so often… haahaa (not). I loaded my cot and camp table from my work office to my car. Did some essential shopping, and made a physical checklist of things to bring. You’d think I was going away for a month! I’m not one to leave any stone unturned, so to speak, so I had to make sure I had everything packed that I could ever need. Because no matter how many lists I make, I always forget something.

Saturday morning I woke early, made myself a good breakfast and sat for a cup of coffee and a few YouTube vlogs before showering and loading up. ‘Ms. Procrastination’ that I am, I’m never ready on time, and today was no different. I pulled away from my house and made my way to Florida City for ice and some water. Flamingo had NO provisions so I had to stock up before I left. I debated on how much ice to buy and decided on 2 10-lb bags. Perfect fit for my 2 coolers. *Note to self, bring the hard sided cooler next time; and 2 gallons of water per day. (more on that later.)

I made Flamingo with a little time to spare. Thank heavens my procrastination didn’t cause me to miss the boat ride. The naturalist guide suggested we brought along some water for the 2 hour ride. I didn’t think it necessary, but went back inside the little store to buy a bottle anyway.

So off on the boat! There were 9 of us in all. While we sat there and waiting on a no-show passenger, a big crocodile swam past the rear of the boat. The boat captain yelled “croc!” We all turned to look and of course my camera was still stowed safely away in my Shimoda. Thank goodness I had the wherewithal to put my 100-400mm lens on the camera before leaving the house. So I did a quick grab, ripped the lens cap off, and started shooting the crocs backside as it swam away. When it went below the surface, I stopped to look at the results. I laughed because I just made a rookie mistake, didn’t check my settings. I had the ISO set at 6400! Oh well, it was WELL exposed. Not like it’s a portfolio image anyway. Lesson learned!

Big crocodile swam behind the tour boat while docked.

The boat ride took us north along Buttonwood Creek (parallel to Bear Lake Road), into Coot Bay, along Tarpon Creek, and finally into Whitewater Bay, located in the interior of the southwestern section of Everglades National Park. The naturalist spoke of the history of the park, pointed out the different types of mangroves. The creeks and bays were lined with mangroves. Not much out there to look at in the middle of a hot August summer day. My thoughts were that the boat ride would be much nicer in the morning, just after sunrise, or evening, just before sunset, to see more wildlife. No creature known to man should be out and about in the middle of the afternoon, in the middle of the Everglades, in the middle of summer. Except us ‘duh hoomans’ of course. I did see an alligator under the road bridge on the way out, and a few birds in the bay area, but that was it. To be honest, it wasn’t the most exciting ride, but I’m glad I went.

This red “blob” caught my eye (thought it was a cardinal), just a discarded Bobber. :D

By the time I returned I had inhaled that entire 20oz bottle of water. Glad I bought it. But it was HOT. I got into my baked car and headed over to the camping area to unload and set up “camp”. The AC was barely started to blow ‘cool’ when I arrived. The car said 97 degrees F. HOT! The sky to the north was turning black and rumbling. I knew I had better get ‘chop chopping’ on moving my gear to the tent before it unleashed the hounds on me.

My first ‘trip’ to the tent, along a meandering boardwalk, was just with my purse and Shimoda. I wanted to get the layout of the tent before filling the push-cart with everything I brought. My tent was almost at the end of the row of tents, which was very nice! Right in front of the bay. Then I saw that someone was staying in the tent next to mine. Here I thought I was going to be secluded. Guess not. Not to worry though, she was an older woman who only wanted to relax and read her book; much like me. No trouble at all. I arrived to my tent and unlocked the padlock, unzipped the ‘door’ of the tent and was surprised at how big it was! I’m guessing 10’x10’ or 12’x12’? I unzipped a few of the ‘walls’ to get the cross-breezes flowing. Then back to the car I went to grab the cart and unload the rest of my stuff. Cot, table, lawn chair, 2 coolers, 2 bags of camping essentials, my PB (piss bucket - cause you never know)! Then back again to the tent. Phew… did I say it was hot? By the time I unloaded everything INTO the tent, I had to ‘sit a spell’ in front of the fan with a cold glass of water. Wow as it was brutal! I didn’t linger long as I didn’t want to hog the one and only cart available to the other campers. So back to the car I went. Did a double check in the car to make sure I didn’t miss anything. But of course I did. My bag of hiking boots AND snake-proof boots, just in case I decided to go wandering in the grass. (Rumor has it these grasses are teeming with those creepy-crawly snakes… and not the friendly kind; Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnakes and Cottonmouth Vipers [or Water Moccasins]. They don’t want to deal with humans, but if people step on one, it will bite. And that would be very bad.) I also forgot my tripod and overnight bag with clothes and few toiletries. So BACK to the tent I go. Did I say brutal? Oh, and did I mention I was wearing jeans and a heavy t-shirt? Yeah, not so smart. When getting dressed that morning I was thinking bugs, not heat. Needless to say, everything got dumped on the floor and I plopped down in my chair, in front of the fan, water and ice next to me for at least an hour before I moved again.

After that hour I had cooled down enough to drag my chair out onto the deck. It was actually pretty pleasant out there. Big view of the bay, dragonflies zooming about everywhere, and the occasional ibis or egret flying overhead out to the mangrove islands in the bay. Light breezes flowed from the storm that ensued to the north of the area. But the big attraction for me were the big fluffy clouds forming over the bay. I finally dragged my camera bag out with me and set up. Shot some stills, and then went crazy with timelapses. Found a feature in my Z6 that does them in-camera. That was very cool. (However, it creates a .mov file, not multiple RAW files. I didn’t find that out until I returned home and put them on my computer. Valuable lesson learned.)

Between the hot breeze outside and the cool breeze from the fan coming out from my tent, I was relatively comfortable. I had nothing to distract me, except for the camera of course. No wifi, no phone service, no books, no radio, nothing but nature. I have to admit, I was a bit fidgety. I’m used to distractions. If I’m not engaged in something I’ll grab my phone. Mindless scanning of Facebook and Instagram, being bombarded with images, beautiful photos I look at in awe and feel I’ll never be good enough to capture myself. Sometimes they inspire, sometimes I judge, sometimes I wish I was there to see the scene for myself. But not today, not this moment. I am consumed with the heat, the bugs, the clouds, the grasses, the bay, the tent, my 2 neighbors and what they were doing. My immediate neighbor was a woman by herself too. She just sat in her lawn chair reading a book. She looked very content. Then she left. Took her backpack. She returned some time later. I’m guessing she went off to use the solar showers down by the parking lot. I thought that was futile as it was still very hot. My other neighbor, further down and ahead of me, she had a red kayak. I envied her. I’ve never been on a kayak and I’ve always wanted to try, just afraid of what might happen. I always said I’d like to try in a group setting or with someone who knew what they were doing. I kept saying “if I lose X amount of pounds, I’ll give it a go”. Well, now would be a good time. Perhaps next time. The kayak neighbor, she was in and out of her tent. Then she emerged with the kayak and walked to the bay. I was intrigued. I didn’t know what was ahead of me except for grass, then water. I couldn’t see the shoreline. I thought I might walk out there with my snake boots on later to check it out.

Florida Bay was full of big white puffy clouds. Perfect for black & white photography, and timelapses!

As the sun started to makes it’s descent to the west, it cast a beautiful glow on the grasses in front of me. I took a page from some of the folks from the Out of Chicago conference and got lost in the weeds. Right in front of my deck were these beautifully delicate grasses that twisted and had these tiny leaves on them. I absolutely had a ball.

Leaves look like they’re holding on for dear life!

All around me were these beautiful small little sections of life. Small things just trying to survive and thrive, just like we are. I couldn’t resist photographing all of them.

The sky was getting dark and there was no more good light falling on the subjects so I thought it was time for a bit of dinner. Then I checked my weather app and sky tracker app and set up for the milky way. I decided to to a timelapse of it appearing in the south and veering off to the southwest before setting. Hell, I had it sitting right next to the cot so I could set it and forget it, and go to bed. :)

As I said above, I didn’t know that my timelapse would render a .mov file and not several hundred separate files that I could edit and make into a proper timelapse video. I don’t have the software to edit videos, at least I none that I know of. So this is what I came away with. White balance is off and made the sky look yellow. But you can see the milky way’s journey across the sky.

While time lapse went on for hours, I went to bed. I woke up occasionally seeing car lights from the roadway behind me, their loud engines, etc. After a while, I woke up and didn’t hear the clicking of the camera. I decided to bring it in for the night. Good thing too because around 4 or 5am, the skies unleashed an hellacious storm. Never was I so glad to be in such a sturdy tent as these. I lie awake watching for lighting and wondered if I should just get the camera back out to shoot the lightning. Barely having a few hours sleep, I decided against that. Besides, the storm was starting to subside. It just rained.