Dance After Dark Photography

I was going to wait until I got back before editing any of my photos, but I had some free time today when, despite a promising 80-degree morning, the sun decided to bake the city once again.

That’s my favorite so far, and I think the reason is obvious. Prettier pictures below:

Sunset over the South Maricopa Mountain Wilderness

First Baptist Church, or what’s left of it after fire damage

Statue atop the Orpheum Theater

Anhinga

Jive Turkey!

A few more on my website.

Lazy afternoon

Wow. Busy day today! I got moving at 9:00 this morning, despite a severe crick in my neck and ominous clouds on the horizon. I loaded up the kayak and put in at Katie’s Landing on the Wekiva River. I went upstream for about an hour, taking my time and taking pictures. That’s right, folks. I finally brought the camera long. This is the first time since I bought my own kayak that the camera has made the journey with me.

As if my 2.5-3 mile trip up the Wekiva wasn’t enough, I just got back from the YMCA where my workout total equaled 25,930 lbs! I’m tired!

This is Rashi, one of the red-shouldered hawks at the Audubon Birds of Prey Center. I was right - he is fully grown. He’s about 7 months old, and these hawks are fully grown within the first two months. Rashi was brought in as a baby and accidentally imprinted on people, so he’ll never be able to live on his own. He won’t stay at the Center, though. He’ll eventually be given to another facility.

I always knew kestrels were small, but today I found out just how small. They’re tiny! I thought I was looking at juveniles, but fully grown adults were only about 9″ tall, head to tail.

So today I followed Kira around, scrubbing water troughs and cleaning the big rehab mews. Most of the birds are fasted on Saturdays (to simulate the fact that they wouldn’t be able to eat every day in the wild), so there’s not a lot of cleanup on Sundays. Not compared with the rest of the week, anyway. Some of the birds were fed, though, so part of my duties were picking up leftover mouse, fish, chick, and quail bits. They count the amount of food left and subtract from the amount provided to keep track of the birds’ diets. Logical, eh?

Oh, and I got buzzed by a bald eagle. He was nervous.

This is the same place where I was nearly hit and killed last time around. This time I sacrificed a better vantage point for a little safety, sticking to the old bridge (now a fishing pier) instead of the highway. I wound up talking to a couple of kids who were fishing, an old homeless man, and later a few very interesting rednecks who showed up for some after-dark fishing. Got a pretty good view of an alligator, too, though the photos didn’t really turn out. He got spooked when I leaned over to get a better angle.

More photos in my Sunset photo gallery.

More in my Sunsets photo gallery.

The title for this photo struck me just as my eye lined up the shot. The clouds were just right. The glowing lights of the Orange County courthouse reminded me of the headlights of an automobile, barreling over the smaller, dark buildings and leaving a despondent Bank of America behind.

Or maybe I need to stop thinking so much. Who’s to say?

This was taken on the shore of Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. The lake and its fountain are probably Orlando’s biggest landmarks. More in my Sunsets photo gallery.

More pictures and larger versions in my Sunsets photo gallery.