April 11, 2021

2021 Desert Southwest Trip - Day 2 - Sunday, April 11th (Nelson, Nevada)

April 11, 2021

(On my last blog post I chronicled my first day of my trip, flight, RV pick-up, and hilarity ensued on my way to Nelson, Nevada.)

Sleep didn’t come as easily as I thought it would last night. As tired as I was you’d think I’d slept like a baby! Nope, new environment, new sounds, too much excitement, 3-inch thick cheap vinyl-covered RV mattress on the over-the-cab bed? Whatever it was, it was. Every hour or so I woke up and peeked out the teeny windows overlooking each side of the RV. Thought maybe I’d see something. Mountain lion? The Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote maybe? I even looked up looking for stars. If I was going to be awake, maybe I’d see if I can catch a milky way. But no stars were visible. The RV was parked facing north/south, so I was sleeping east/west, with my head toward the east, toward the mine property and the beautiful view of the Black Mountain range of Arizona. I finally fell asleep. When I woke again and peeked out the window, I saw a hint of orange light skimming over the mountains. Since nature called, and I answered, and I was already up, I decided to have a coffee and go out early to explore the Eldorado Canyon area east of me, photograph the stuff I saw, and then shoot the sunrise.

Pre-dawn orange glow over the Black Mountains.

It was so calm and quiet. No city noise, no traffic, no car alarms, just a few birds. I walked around with one eye on the plants, the other eye looking out for rattlers. I saw none of the latter, thank God. But there were many new plants, cholla cactus (pronounced choy-ya) which I at first thought were Joshua Trees - nope, not; creosote bushes, Sagebrush, and many other bushes that all look alike and I can’t identify just yet, but they were everywhere. So different from what I’m used to.

Many teddy bear cholla cacti, just kissed by the glowing sunlight.

Another buckhorn cholla and the mountains of Eldorado Canyon to the north, being kissed by the soon-to-be rising sun.

Silver cholla, maybe sagebrush? and a creosote bush in front of Eldorado Canyon.

The neat thing about photographing in the mountains, I observed, that sunrise may be at 7am, but that’s not when the sun breaks the crest of the mountain, that may be another 10-15 minutes later. What results is soft light well past sunrise, unlike here in Florida where when it says sunrise is at 7am (barring clouds of course) those sun’s rays will be shining on the landscape at 7am. I was able to wander around for quite a while before that sun crested the mountain. I got a few shots of the sun with some sunstars. But I couldn’t dilly dally much longer, I had a mine tour to go on!

There she is, the rising sun over the Black Mountains over yonder in Arizona.

And there’s my Jezebel, along with my abandoned rest and relaxation area, and neglected coffee!

I went inside and had breakfast and another coffee and prepared my camera gear for the tour. No long lens is necessary. Too heavy to drag along with me anyway. Just the camera and my 24-70 would be enough. By 8:30 I headed off to the mine. I didn’t want to be late. I stopped on the way to shoot some more cholla. I couldn’t get enough of them!

Mountains of Eldorado Canyon, with buckhorn & teddy bear cholla cacti.

I went inside and paid my fee and asked if I was allowed to photograph the grounds. Many signs outside telling people to keep out and that they had to get permission to do just about anything. The folks there were really nice and said I could explore all I wanted, because I just paid. They just didn’t want people pulling over and taking advantage of the place for free.

I walked around and shot a bunch of their buildings and some of the cool antique stuff lying around. They certainly had an interesting collection.

Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours - ELDORADO CANYON MINE TOURS - Home

Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours (this is aftermath of the exploded plane from the scene from the 2001 movie 3000 Miles to Graceland starring Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell. Click here for a YouTube link to the scene https://youtu.be/NTuSFRFsaWM — Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours (this is aftermath of the exploded plane from the scene from the 2001 movie **3000 Miles to Graceland** starring Kevin Costner and Kurt Russell. Click here for a YouTube link to the scene https://youtu.be/NTuSFRFsaWM

By 9am though, it was time to get on with the mine tour. Our guide was Joe, he was the son of the owners. Quite a colorful character. He talked about the history of the area, the history of the mine, how gold was mined back in the day, and some of the townsfolk, and some of the notorious people to live and work in the mines. I had my doubts which stories were true and which were tall tales. I guess it didn’t much matter. It was all very interesting.

He said the name Techatticup was derived from the Indian word for “eat” or “food”, something like that. Prospectors would hold up a piece of white quartz and ask if they’d seen this (gold could be found inside the quartz). They’d reply with “Techatticup”, meaning they wanted food for info. The miners would give them food and the Indians took the miners to the quartz which held the gold. So it was named Techatticup Mines. It’s pronounced Tee-chat-hiccup with a soft “h” (I had to ask).

Inside the mines. Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours — Inside the mines.
Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours

Inside the mines. Left over tools. Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours — Inside the mines. Left over tools.
Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours

Inside the mines. Prop skeleton I’m quite sure, but what could easily happen to you if you did something stupid.Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours — Inside the mines. Prop skeleton I’m quite sure, but what could easily happen to you if you did something stupid.
Eldorado Canyon Mine Tours

After the tour was over I photographed some more of the interesting grounds. As it was mid-day, I converted everything into black and white. Light was much too harsh in color. When most everyone else had left, I went inside to give the guide a tip. Having only $20’s in my purse, I went looking for something to buy. A t-shirt, bag, water bottle, or even a sticker - something with the mine’s name on it, a little memento of my visit here. Nothing. They had a table of antiques for sale. Not quite what I was looking for, but I found a neat looking old padlock with a skeleton key. Only $15 so I bought it and had enough change to give the guide $5, and an original souvenir.

I headed back to the camper. I was supposed to be going over to Valley of Fire today, but I decided earlier that I was going to spend another night. I really liked the area and wanted to see if I could get some good light for tonight’s sunset. By now it had gotten pretty hot, about 90 F, but like they say, it’s a “dry heat”. Still pretty freeking hot, but I knew from yesterday that once the sun started to go down, it would cool off. I pulled out my laptop and downloaded my photos and backed them up, processed a few. Its not like I can do anything with them out here in the boonies. But just in case, I wanted them backed up. I had a pretty good view of my neighbor too. Saw him packing up and then he left. No more neighbor. I guess it’s just me tonight.

There’s old Jezebel, all by her lonesome, Eldorado Canyon mountains in the background.

Finally, the sun dipped lower than the height of my RV so I grabbed my lawn chair, and a guide book of Utah hikes I bought along to see if I can find something interesting for when I go, and sat outside shaded by the RV. There was a nice breeze and it was nice and comfy. Definitely something to this “dry heat”, beats the oppressive humidity in Florida for sure. I’m sure I’d change my tune come summertime when it gets to nearly 120 F. Dry or humid, that’s just awful hot.

By this time I was getting hungry so I thought I’d fry up some hamburgers for dinner. I went inside, washed my new frypan and got my burgers and cheese out of the fridge. I opened the stove cover and turned the knob to light the propane stovetop, and nothing… I tried the other burner, nothing. Shit… now what? I knew I should have bought that grill lighter at Walmart the day before. Oh well. What to eat? Tuna again! Tuna salad and a couple slices of pepper jack cheese; yum. (Glad I bought those cans of tuna!) Took my gourmet meal outside and watched the weekend traffic head back to Vegas or wherever they were from. There was nice breeze now, and it was pretty comfy. I also could see some wispy clouds to over the east. Maybe setting up for a great sunset tonight? Let’s hope!

When I finished eating I went inside and grabbed my camera, lenses, and tripod. Quite a few high clouds were hovering over the Black Mountains across the Colorado River and I was excited for a colorful sunset. I put my long lens on and was trying to isolate some specific areas of the mountains that were getting hit with dappled light, but the lens kept doing wonky things. Got a few shots but they didn’t really work. The lens had been doing weird things for a while, every so often, but now it was happening a lot.

Eldorado Canyon Mine and the sun glowing on the Black Mountains across the river in Arizona.

I changed lenses and put the 24-70 back on. The light was spectacular and I got the bright idea to do a timelapse of the sunset and the shadow falling over the mountains. I set it up for a half second interval. Hindsight says that was too short. You can barely see the clouds moving. Traffic and birds yes, but minimal cloud movement. As soon as that 300-shot series was over, I started another one up, this time with a 2 second interval. Unfortunately buy this time the light had pretty much faded and the clouds never kicked off. Skunked again.

Beautiful dappled light in and out shining on the not-so Black Mountains.

Timelapse video of the sun going down behind me, putting the mountains in front of me in shadow.

As soon as the timelapse was finished, I went to put my camera gear back in the RV, but to my left, the north, I could see a hint of pink in the gray clouds. So instead I turned to the north and photographed the bits of pink that were forming. Then it started to streak.

View to the north of the Eldorado Canyon mountains and bits of pink starting to glow on the gray clouds.

View to the north of the Eldorado Canyon mountains; pink streaks forming and getting more intense.

Curious what was happening to the west, I walked around the other side of the RV, and holy cow! It was like a neon cotton candy factory exploded! Bright pink streaks going all over. I quick grabbed my tripod, composed and got a few shots in of the beautiful sky behind the mountain. That beautiful pink only lasted a few minutes. The RV which shaded me from the hot sun, nearly hid a photographic gem! Glad I got up to check it out. Now I didn’t feel so bad the timelapse was a bust. I was one happy photographer!

View west of the neon pink sky over the Eldorado Canyon mountains.

With that being done, I went inside to get my images secured on the computer. I plugged my memory card in the laptop, downloaded the images to my hard drive, uploaded to Lightroom, and then backed them up to my second hard drive. The laptop battery was dwindling so I just did what I had to and shut it off. I may not get power if tomorrow I can’t find a proper campsite and I didn’t want to waste what battery life I had left.

I got ready for bed, put Edward Abbey audio book on my phone again, and hit the sack early, I think it was 9:30ish. I laid in bed and watched out the window while listening. Quite a bit of traffic heading back west for so late at night and remote of an area. Maybe I’m just getting old. lol

I really enjoyed my time here. But tomorrow I’d be on my way north, to the Valley of Fire State Park. Yay!

Barbara Livieri

April 10, 2021

2021 Desert Southwest Trip - Day 1 - Saturday, April 10th (Miami-Las Vegas-Henderson-Nelson)

Barbara Livieri

April 10, 2021

Sat. April 10th

Seeing as how I had very limited connectivity on my trip, and unable to give you all a day by day posting of my activities, I thought I'd do a little recollecting and photo story-telling. This first story is long. It was a long day. Not all will have as many photos, some will have more. Some days I didn't take photos at all! Enjoy!

2am

My vacation started off in the wee hours of Saturday morning of April 10th. I woke at 2am-ish (after maybe 2-3 hours of sleep), showered and then confirmed that my 2:45am Uber ride was coming. I then scrambled to make sure I grabbed all the luggage that I had packed the night before. So glad I packed everything last night rather than trying to remember stuff while half asleep after waking up. That never turns out well.

2:45am

Uber to Miami International - arrived at the airport at 3:15am. Plenty early. Matter of fact, so early that the airport employees weren't even on duty yet. Had to wait around until 4am to print my luggage tag at the kiosk and then deposit said checked and tagged bag with the airlines before moving on to security. No issues with security. They didn't bat an eye at my oversized tripod nor hiking poles attached to my camera bag. Shocking!

5:30am

We have lift off! Me and 300 of my newest best new friends were off to Dallas. Flight was uneventful. Dallas airport was nice. I like the ease of switching terminals (well planned tram). Not like Atlanta or Chicago. Ugh... hate those airports. Highly recommend Dallas if you have to change planes. Then around 9am we lifted off for Las Vegas. Again, uneventful flight. Just how I like 'em.

10am

Landed in Las Vegas - baby. Holy moly, another long-ass airport. Felt like I walked forever to get to baggage claim. While walking through the terminal, some lady at a skin care kiosk stopped me and put some firming cream on my under-eyes. Said it would help with the dark circles and bagginess. lol I said "lady, if you got up at 2am after 2 hours sleep, and spent the last 5 hours on a plane, your eyes would look like this too!" LOL (Didn't help by the way). I also stopped off for a Starbucks before collecting my suitcase. Even rented one of those grocery cart thingy's for my luggage. Stuff was so heavy. Since I couldn't get my RV rental until 1:30pm (or so they said), I was in no hurry. I sat down outside and relished the "dry" air and enjoyed my coffee.

11:30am

By now I was getting bored so I decided to go find some transportation. I stopped and talked to the taxi porter or whatever they're called and she suggested I go up a floor to get an Uber rather than a taxi. Problem was, everyone else was doing the same thing. There didn't seem to be one Uber driver available in all of Las Vegas! So back downstairs I went and hopped in a cab. "Take me to Henderson!" I said.

12:30pm

$50 later... Taxi drops me off at Cruise America. Holy moly, maybe I should have waited for the Uber. Oh well. I was there. I went inside and the rental agent was very nice and said my RV was ready and didn't have to wait. YAY! Another guy came out to show me the RV and how to do things. I was in la-la land and didn't ask all the right questions, apparently. I watched the videos and memorized that the black water lever was on the left, and gray water lever on the right (you'd think they'd actually make the levers the colors of black and gray, right?? Wouldn't that make sense?) And to turn off the propane when refueling. Gotcha!

Here’s Ms. Jezebel - the Rolling Billboard

My starting dashboard - 356,000 miles! And only a 2019

1-1:30pm

On the road! Holy cow! What did I get myself into!!? Haahaa RV had a wee bit of play in the steering wheel, at least compared to my Equinox. Took a little getting used to, but I made it to the nearest Walmart without hitting anything. Got honked at a couple of times, but I flipped 'em off. Not like anyone could see me lol. They should have put a big sign on the back "STUDENT DRIVER"

This will be an ever occurring issue in my vacation story. CELL PHONE This time it was battery. You see, I had pre-ordered all of the necessities I'd needed online on the Walmart website to be shopped and brought out to me at this specific store. Well, not knowing when I'd actually get to the store, I never hit that order button. So now I had like 14% battery left and decided to "wing it" and go inside and shop for all the stuff I needed, from memory! SMH... what a bad bad idea.

I do admit, I did better than I thought, I had been looking at my items online and obsessing over them for the past 2 weeks. Yep. So it was just a matter of finding them.

About an hour or so later, I had a full shopping cart. I checked out and unloaded everything into the RV. I sat down and tried to cool off (it was really hot that day!). It was then I realized I forgot to buy water and ice. Geez... yeah, kind of important stuff IN THE DESERT! So, back into the store I went. Got what I needed and back to the RV. Put as much ice into zip lock baggies and into the mini freezer as would fit. Tested out my new "throne" and pulled my destination up on my Waze app. Nelson, Nevada please.

4pm

On my way to Nelson! Most people have never heard of this place, and that's exactly why I was going. It's actually quite popular in a secretive kind of way. Remember the movie "3000 Miles to Graceland"? Kurt Russell & Kevin Costner? Bits of the movie were filmed here. Other movies too. Here's a clip from the scene they filmed at this old mine from YouTube https://youtu.be/jYVhuXHVAOQ.

Anyway, that's where I was headed. A small 'ghost town', actually an old gold mine called Techatticup Mine in Eldorado Canyon http://eldoradocanyonminetours.com/index.html. The road goes past this old gold mine, and 5 miles further east runs into the Colorado River, the border with Arizona. The views from the ride down this paved (but in need of some upgrades) road was spectacular! Then on down to the Colorado River, wow... I was a bit hesitant to pull over on the road, still feeling the RV out and all, steep grades, and very little shoulder; I kept on driving till I got to the end. There was a short circle viewing area with lots of room to park, so I stopped and took some photos. What a cool place this would be to camp! But... no camping allowed.

Colorado River & Black Mountain Range of Arizona

Creosote Bush with Black Mountains as a backdrop.

5:30pm

Headed back toward the old mine, I noticed at the mine they were having some sort of celebration, wedding maybe? It certainly was a neat place for it. I pulled into this open lot next to the mine and had the whole place to myself. I drove around, remembering I needed to be level for the fridge to work properly. What a fiasco that was! Finally found a fairly level spot. (Glad I “borrowed” that level from work. Came in real handy!) Put her into park, rolled up the windows, locked the vehicle doors, and proceeded to set up camp. I got out my new lawn chair and put it outside. Done! haahaa I was quite hungry by now so I made myself my first gourmet meal in the RV, tuna salad! LOL (Remember, this was now 18 hours since I woke up after only 2 hours sleep, there was no way I was cooking anything!)

As I was making my fabulous tuna salad, I heard a vehicle pull up. "Oh no" I thought. "They're going to tell me I can't stay here". The property was supposedly BLM (Bureau of Land Management) land, the owner of the mine even told me so a few days earlier when I booked my tour. I stopped my tuna mashing to peek out the window. It wasn't the po-po, it was another RVer, in a schoolie! How cool was that! I had company. I finished my salad and took it outside to eat in my new yard and look at the beautiful sights in front of me. This place was pretty awesome for a free campsite.

A few minutes later the guy from the schoolie rode by on one of those one-wheel electric skateboards. What a cool way to get around! He waved as he kept on going. When I finished my dinner, I went inside and grabbed my camera gear and proceeded to try and capture the sunset. By this time my neighbor was coming back and he waved and stopped to ask about my camera. Went back to his bus and brought out his drone. He was having fun, and I was having fun. He came back over and we chatted about photography and his schoolie. Quite impressive for a 20-something to have built it.

View to the east from my campsite. This is looking down at the Techatticup Mine camp and it's buildings. Pretty neat historic area. Reminded me of the old movie, Paint Your Wagon.

Zoomed in view of one of the buildings. Look at that light on the Arizona mountains! It was pretty spectacular.

Looking south into one of the mine shafts. The tour guide the next day said they go down at least 600 feet!

Facing north here. My neighbor in a self-converted schoolie. His IG handle is @bumming.with.bigbetty Check them out if you're on IG.

The sign in the old watertower caught my eye. Hamms. lol

7:30pm

The light was pretty much gone by now. I decided to go back into the RV for the night. Not quite sure what kind of critters might be roaming about. Besides, I was beat and I wanted to start my journal of my trip. Other years and other trips I rushed through writing them and never quite got all the details on paper, and then only abandoning it after a few days. Trying to remember things days later was futile at best. I wanted to be sure I didn't do that this time.

9:30pm

Couldn't keep my eyes open much longer so off to bed I went. Good thing there were no cameras in that RV watching me get my old ass up into that cab-over bed. lol (I can hear my Dad in my head "I'll bet that was a sight! lol). But I made it up there. I had a few audio books downloaded on my phone, so I started up Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey again. Perfect time to listen to that book. Unfortunately, I didn't listen long. I was out like a light!

Barbara Livieri

August 16, 2020

"Glamping" in Flamingo - Everglades National Park (Aug. 15-16, 2020)

Barbara Livieri

August 16, 2020

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.