Today’s Bike Ride

So we're up on the observation tower at Jack Island in the Indian River taking a break and this amphibious ultralite goes flying by!  Quite unexpected.  I was hoping for some pelicans or other birds, but this will do.

Taken from Jack Island in the Indian River

This guy was having a blast just weaving in and out of the spoil islands.  The boat in the background is in the main channel of the intracoastal waterway.  You can tell it's dead low tide by the birds standing in the water.  The spoil islands were formed by the dredge material when the intracoastal was dug out.

Taken with a Nikon D40 and 55-200mm lens, shot at f/5.6, 1/1250 sec, ISO 200, focal length 200mm.  I like the way the airplane is framed by the reflection of the two light poles in the water.

The Learning Continues…

I was able to eliminate the sidebar on my single posts and on my pages by editing the .php files.  So I'm getting somewhere.  Here is the pix from my bikeride over the weekend.  I have not been able to identify this flowering tree.  I'm still doing some research though.

Geiger Tree, Cordia Sebestena - The Moorings Golf Course

Update: This tree has been identified thanks to Parrish McGrath near Tampa, FL. It is a native of South America and Florida, known as the Geiger Tree, or Cordia Sebestena. Height is 25 feet. It is a beautiful flowering tree.

Still Learning…

Today begins a new month, more importantly we are through September with no major hurricanes!  I feel like if we can get through September we are home free.  This is not always the case.

Golden Shower Tree

Anyway, yesterday I went on my normal bike ride, and as is my custom, I try to take a picture of something notable along my route.  The day's entry is posted above.  This is a Golden Shower tree that just happens to be in bloom this time of year.  Yes, I am still learning the WP system and this is all about learning by doing, so party on!

My First Post

I set up this web site to have a place to publish my photos and to post my random musings.  I am still learning WordPress so this is a trial post to see if I can make everything work properly.

Here is a photo I took on 9-28-09 using my Nikon D40, a 55-200 kit lens, ISO 200, focal length 200 mm.  Light was fading fast so this was shot using Auto-ISO which would tweak up the ISO for shutter speeds below 1/60th sec, just in case.  It turned out this was not necessary, however, as the P (Program) mode selected a shutter speed of 1/400th sec and aperture f/5.6.

Indian River pelican at sundown

Post processing was done with Photoshop Elements 7.0.  I cropped the image,  popped the saturation a little, and that was it.  For a full-size version of the photo always click on the image.