Canaveral Lock, Port Canaveral

Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 18mm, f/16, 1/80sec @ ISO 200

Fujifilm X-T10, Rokinon 10mm lens, f/8, 1/320sec., ISO 200

Fujifilm X-T10, Rokinon 10mm lens, f/8, 1/500sec., ISO 200

Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 135mm, f/20, 1/640sec @ ISO 200

A few weeks ago I had no idea that Canaveral Lock existed.

I was scouring the internet for local photographic opportunities and came across a mention of the lock being at the west end of the ship channel, near Exploration Tower and Jetty Park.

Canaveral Lock was built when a canal was dug in the narrow bit of land between what is now the port's ship channel and the Banana River Lagoon.

Only problem was the small, daily, three to four foot tides that would make the narrow canal a rushing river.

Answer, the lock.

I headed up to the lock, about thirty five or forty miles north of my home to see and to photograph. The channel and lock are at the southern end of Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. The strange thing is that I have been within a half mile of this lock many times as I have been in this area photographing rocket launches and whatnot.

So, as locks go, this one deals with the small tides in the area, but it's pretty neat to me nonetheless.

The four photos are: 1, foot entrance for visitors. 2, the gates of the eastern end that open into the western Port Canaveral ship channel. 3, a pleasure boat going through the opening eastern gates. 4, looking west down the length of the lock into the Banana River Lagoon (and the ultra-bright evening sun).

Wood Stork in Port Canaveral

Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 135mm, f/5.6, 1/30sec @ ISO 200

Many people would recognize this as a stork.
It's not a particularly great picture of a stork, but is is a clear, close picture of a stork.
I posted this so y'all could get a good look at what a stork really looks like in detail.
Enlarge the photo and get a good look at this thing.
When we moved to Florida all those years ago, I was not prepared for just how ugly these birds are.
Their head/neck/face is the stuff of nightmares.
Plus, although they are fairly large birds, they're way too small to be carrying infant babies hanging from their beaks in white bed sheets long distances in flight.
That leaves me wondering, "Where DID I come from?"

Before Sunrise at Castaways Point Park

tripod, Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 18mm, f/14, 25sec @ ISO 200

I had gone to Port Canaveral to see a rocket launch, but the rocket launch was scrubbed.
Instead of going straight home, I went to Castaways Point Park in Palm Bay.
Coming down I-95, as I got to Palm Bay, I could juuuust make out a blueness to the sky instead of blackness, and knew morning twilight was here.
The park is just a few miles from our home, so I went and set up my tripod in a place where I knew the sun would eventually come up behind this derelict sailboat at the park.
(I used The Photographer's Ephemeris to project where the day's sunrise would occur in relation to various points in the park. On this morning, I used the Android mobile app version of The Photographer's Ephemeris on my phone.  So, I knew within a few feet of exactly where I needed to stand to get the sunrise and the boat together. I cannot tell you just how amazingly useful the ephemeris has been to me for several years now.)
By the time I had my tripod/camera set up, the horizon was orange.
So I look my first shot, above.
It was a great sunrise, more photos later, but I just loved the deep blue sky that appeared with the orange band at the horizon in this 25sec shot.

Great Blue Heron and Great Orange Sunset

tripod, Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 135mm, f/22, 1/4sec @ ISO 200

tripod, Fujifilm XT-20, Nikon 300mm w/1.4X (35mm = 630mm), f/8, 1/80sec @ ISO 400

Much of this past spring, and most of this summer, about twenty minutes before sunset, a solid wall of clouds have appeared in the distance and right along the horizon most days.
You just have to go out anyway, but this day surely looked clear less than an hour before sunset, so I was hopeful for a few shots of the red ball 'o sun touching the horizon.
My hopes were mostly dashed.
The sun gave its all though, sending some bright orange rays through the sudden clouds as if he were determined to not be blocked.
As I took a few photos of the orangey sky with this derelict pier/boat cover in the foreground, a great blue hereon flew up and landed on the boat cover.
He posed there for a while.
Long enough for me to go to my camera bag on the picnic table near me and get out and change my lens to my old Nikon 300mm f/5.6 lens with the Nikon TC-14 extender and a Nikon AI to Fujifilm X lens adapter. This gives me a 450mm telephoto on my crop frame sensor, and the 35mm equivalent of a 630mm lens.
Sometimes I feel I should wag that semi-heavy beast around with me and on this day, followed my gut. Sometimes I have carried it around without taking it out, but it paid off on this particular evening.
That lens allowed me to get a couple of pretty neat shots of the heron up there against that dramatic orange backdrop.

Blue Sky Rainbows

Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 88mm, f/14, 1/320sec @ ISO 200

Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 32mm, f/14, 1/200sec @ ISO 200

Is there such a thing?

Did I just invent a new term?

Probably not.  I know, I know.  Google it.

Hmmm.

Mixed results. Not exactly like I was thinking of the term, but close enough I guess.

A blue sky rainbow is a rainbow that appears on an otherwise sunny day with lots of blue sky.

I saw two of them last week within three days.

The first one was this past Wednesday at a local park, Castaways Point Park in Palm Bay.

There is a sailboat wrecked there that has been there well over a year now.

I had gone there Thursday evening at about 6pm so the afternoon sun would be just right on that wrecked boat.

There was a rainbow above the boat from the shore of the park and I posted that photo on this blog on Wednesday, August 2nd.

I was in Port Canaveral on Saturday and saw another one.

Neither one was a complete arch from end to end, but I rarely have seen a full rainbow anyway.

I had visited Canaveral Lock and when I looked eastward down the ship channel toward the Atlantic, there was one end of another blue sky rainbow.

That second one was harder to photograph, it was fading even from the second I first noticed it.

The two photos on today's post are from the rainbow I saw on Saturday in Port Canaveral.

Scroll back in this blog to Wednesday's post to see the clearer one, at a local park.

Come to think of it, both rainbows were out over the Atlantic.

Still, it's a nifty phenomenon.

Genesis 9:13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

Lesson Learned

tripod, Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 29mm, f/20, 0.8sec @ ISO 200

If out with my camera in the evenings, and the light seems to be gone, and therefore my shooting done, I head back to the Camry.
If I'm in a public place, I mostly stop at a convenient park bench and go ahead and turn everything off and put everything away in my camera bag. I completely fold up the tripod for the night.
When I get to the car, I can place packed bag and folded tripod in the back seat and head home.
When I get home, hey!, the camera's ready to grab and take inside. Simple.
Problem is, I often see "One More Shot" on the way to the car that I would take if I still had my camera out. Or as I pull away in the car I see another photo screaming to be made.
I have often ignored that urge for one more shot because I simply don't feel like unpacking my camera and unfolding my tripod, setting it all up again for three or four last shots.
Pure laziness. Inertia.
Saturday night in Port Canaveral, Florida, I had been taking some sunset photos that featured the nifty-looking Exploration Tower.
As explained above, I passed a seating area after the sky's color was deadened, and put all of my equipment away.
I got in the car, backed out, drove to the first good place for me to turn around and turned and headed toward home.
Well, as I looked at the tower to my left, I saw a lovely photo with the tower, whose lights were now coming on, against the very last, pale sunset colors.
Without trying, I envisioned the photo you see above, and knew that this time I could not just ignore the impulse for one more shot. In my mind I had already jazzed up the colors and contrast to something gorgeous.
I pulled into a parking spot again, and it turned out to be the exact parking spot I had just left.
I quickly jumped out (if you can in any way consider my slow-motion to be "quick" or "jump" in any way) and unpacked the camera and tripod.
I simply took about three paces in front of the parked car and set up the camera/tripod and framed and shot about five images.
Then I had to pack it all up again and head home. For real this time.
When I got my photos on the computer, this one caught my eye as having the most potential.
I jiggled it in Lightroom and resized it in Photoshop and ended up with my favorite image of the whole day's shooting.
From now on, I will not fully put my camera away, and fully fold up my tripod until I get home.
Lesson learned.

Over the Line

Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 18mm, f/16, 1/180sec @ ISO 640

This was actually shot with me standing in our county neighbor to the south, Indian River County.
It's a wide angle shot at Sebastian Inlet State Park.
The inlet itself is a dividing line between Brevard and Indian River Counties.
In the distance in the photo is a jetty sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean. That jetty is on the north side of the inlet, in Brevard County.
So, I guess you could say this is a photo of Brevard, taken from Indian River County.
Not quite so grand as that See Seven States! mountain vantage point on Lookout Mountain, Tennessee.
But on a hot afternoon, as the sun goes down, and a breeze comes along, and with the pastel colored sky here, this is pretty hard to beat if you ask me.

Rainbow at Castaways Point Park

Fujifilm XT-20, Fujinon 18-135mm lens at 40mm, f/18, 1/100sec @ ISO 200

Well, actually "I" was at Castaways Point Park in Palm Bay, the rainbow was some miles away, out over the Atlantic Ocean.
I'm not exactly sure why there was a rainbow in an almost totally clear sky, but I'm not going to sit and reason why when there are photos to be taken.
Of course, I was right in getting right to the photography and leaving the wondering why until later because the rainbow faded within ten minutes or so.
I had come to this little beach within the intracoastal waterway at this particular time to get some nice golden afternoon sun on that wrecked boat there.
The rainbow was a bonus.
About five minutes after taking this shot I had a bad fall and banged myself up pretty good and soaked myself in the brackish water. I also got my camera gear somewhat wet too. I dragged myself up and came straight home to lick my wounds and dry my camera gear. My camera has fog in the viewfinder, so it is presently undergoing my personal, tried-and-true methods of drying and rescuing wet electronics. I won't bore you with the details of that.
We artists sometimes have to suffer for our art.
Or, you could just call me clumsy.