Color AND Black and White

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 41.3mm, f/16, 1/125sec., ISO 200

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 41.3mm, f/16, 1/125sec., ISO 200

My photographic background, learning, roots, or whatever, can pretty much be summed up in the phrase "Color AND Black and White."
My first camera, a Kodak Pony IV, was found, almost totally forgotten, in a closet at my parent's home when I was 13.
Having no instruction manual, I checked out library books from Robert E. Lee Junior High School, and later Neville High School, and learned f-stops, shutter speeds, ASA (now ISO), optic theory and all manner of things about operating a camera and also about how cameras operate.  (That last part, being just as interested in how things operate, would be a crucial part of my psyche in pushing me to become an engineer, but that's another story.)
I used that Pony IV to take snapshots of my friends and I until a couple of years later I when I had saved enough money from mowing lawns to buy a brand-spanking-new Canon AE-1.
With the AE-1 came learning to develop black and white film and black and white prints.
I had the joy and foundation of developing many rolls of TRI-X and thousands of black and white photos while on the yearbook staff in high school.
I took a couple of photography courses for fun while in college the first time and learned from a truly kind and patient and passionate instructor more about all aspects of photography.
By the end of my college photography classes, I was so very disillusioned with color 35mm prints.
You take a photo, and you get back prints produced by some machine, or if you spent the money, some other person's ideas of what you wanted your prints to look like.
I had begun dating Lovely Wife by this time and her father, my future Father in Law, was an amateur photographer who took 35mm slides.
I was in awe of the color and clarity of the slides and so bought my first roll of slide film, some Agfa slide film.
This led to decades of slide film use.
Even to this day, my grown daughters beg me to prepare slide shows when they come to town or are around on special occasions.
Digital photography, to me, is like putting on a favorite old flannel shirt.  The "expose for the highlights" ethos that dominated my decades of slide film use is back in play with a vengeance.
Now to the two photos above.
Based on my personal experience with black and white imagery AND with the foot-thick, saturated colors from Kodachrome and Velvia slide films, I often see an amazingly colored image through the viewfinder and know that the colors themselves make the photo worthwhile.
On the other hand, some looks through the viewfinder have me immediately planning a contrast-y black and white final image.
This photo of the bright yellow pedestrian crossing sign with the rows of palm trees in the background was one of those photos where the instant I looked through the viewfinder and saw my composition come together, I knew this would have to have to be processed in both ways.
I hope you like them both.  I do.

Tide Pool at Sebastian Inlet State Park, Florida

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 36.6mm, f/5.6, 1/1000sec., ISO 200

Sebastian Inlet State Park is, as state parks go, a small but amazing state park.
I have been to the Atlantic Ocean beach here (behind my back while taking this pano) many times, yet have never actually even waded into this tide pool.
On a hot summer weekend day though, all the picnic tables around this pool will be occupied and the tide pool will be populated with many kids of all ages.
It's a really cool, and rather safe water feature for families near the Atlantic Ocean, the Inlet Water flow, and the Indian River Lagoon water. There's a floating barrier/net in the opening there on the left where water from the inlet can flow in and out of the tide pool.
To my back while taking this photo, where the fast moving waters of the Inlet are meeting the Atlantic Ocean waters, frankly, is almost always dotted with sharks. That's bound to happen in such fish-rich waters where two bodies of water meet.
But, this tide pool is pretty much a gentle, safe, place for the whole family to get nasty sunburns and otherwise have a great day on the water in a beautiful place in Florida.
(The panorama here was taken while out with my oldest daughter and our cameras, on Saturday, July  7, 2018.  We paid a dear price to watch the sunrise; we were seriously eaten up by no-see-ums."

Sebastian Inlet Sunrise, Sat. July 7th, 2018

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 18mm, f/20, 1/200sec., ISO 200

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 135mm, f/20, 1/1000sec., ISO 200

Number One Daughter and I got up way before dawn (Saturday, July 7) and headed on a thirty five minute drive to Sebastian Inlet State Park. (That "way before dawn" part is not an easy task for two life-long night owls, believe me.)
We will both be in misery the next few days, having stood there knowingly being devoured by the legendary No-See-Ums, just in the hopes for some decent sunrise photos.
The sunrise was worth the effort though, don't you agree?
Sebastian Inlet State Park is a small park, but it's a gorgeous place.
Atlantic Ocean, stone jettys, the fast-flowing inlet, the Indian River Lagoon.  Many varied things to see and photograph.
And, if you like birds, most tropical migratory birds are here in abundance.  This is probably the best fishing location I have ever seen in my entire life. The birds are intelligent enough to know humans won't kill them here, and will let you get close, hoping have fish and that you'll have some nice fish guts to hand them.
Birds in most wildlife preserves are skittish around humans, but if you can find a place like this where lots of people fish, you can see all the desired exotic birds you want, and they'll let you get close enough for great photos .

Mellow Sunset on a Hot Day

Fujifilm XT-20, Fuji 18-135mm lens at 25mm, f/10, 1/50sec., ISO 200

Sunset of Thursday, July 5th, 2018, while at the appropriately named Sunset Park in Indialantic, Florida.
We have had so much rain in Palm Bay this year.
In the late 1990s, when we first moved here, almost daily afternoon thunderstorms had long been the norm. I do mean thunderstorms too, a plain ol' rain shower without thunder is a seldom sight.
Between roughly 2000 - 2015, summers here were in almost drought conditions. Lots of forest fires during those years.
But in 2018, we've gotten back to the old way of doing things, weather-wise.
We have all that comes with all the rain; beautiful, intensely colored greenery and flowers, but also suffocating heat and humidity and BUGS.
Nonetheless, us intrepid amateur photographers around Brevard County itch to get out an do some shooting when carrying that lightning rod we call a "tripod" hopefully won't get us killed.
Yesterday I had that itch to get out, even if the photos were mundane.
I found a little bitty park in Indialantic, Florida, about fifteen minutes from my home, that I had never been to.  I had no idea it was there until I simply found it.
This park is along the barrier island that is known locally as "beachside," and it faced west, toward the mainland with the potential to have dramatic sunsets across the Indian River Lagoon.  (our section of the east coast's Intracoastal Waterway).
The photo above is one of many I took, and is as good representation of the colorful sunsets we get when the conditions are right.
I was the only person in this park, and had an hour or so, and the three park benches there, all to myself.

SpaceX Falcon 9 CRS-15, 5:42am June 29, 2018

Fuji X-T20, Rokinon 10mm lens. 261seconds @ f/22. ISO 200

Taken at Exploration Tower in Port Canaveral, Florida.
My daughters and I got up, up, and away, way before sun up to see a night launch, more-or-less, of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket this morning. The sky was just beginning to lighten before sunrise, and, on top of that, the 4min 21sec photo gathered light to make that awesome deep, blue sky. (This is actually MUCH better than the dull, black background of a dark night launch.)
The launch was SpaceX's 15th International Space Station (ISS) resupply mission. SpaceX launched a Dragon spacecraft on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Launch Complex 40. This Dragon spacecraft will deliver supplies, equipment and science investigations to the ISS.
The engine noise hits fast when you are this close to the launch site.  We live about forty miles south of here, and when we watch from our front yard, the noise hits us down there about two minutes into the launch.
Rocket launches never, ever get old! If they ever do, I'll move, knowing I NEED a different place to live.
This was my first second stab at making this photo look good. I'll try again and upload that if I can improve it. I have removed the original photo from this post, and replaced it with this much better adjustment job.
Truth is, an exposure that long that includes a lit-up, white building WILL have the building's exposure blown out.
This is where shooting RAW files helps.  In Lightroom and Photoshop I was able to pull back most of Exploration Tower's building details from what initially appeared to be blown-out highlights. Sweet.

Ryckman Park Sunset (probably about number 3000 by now)

At Ryckman Park, Melbourne Beach, Florida

(Photo Details: Fujifilm X-T10 with Rokinon 10mm (15mm 35eq), f/8, 1/various-s, ISO200, RAW, hdr of five images)
Chronic pain can sure rob a fella of the desire to get out and walk around in this beautiful world.
When I was young I dreamed of living near the beach, a big lake, some kind of "big" water.
Well, here I am near the Atlantic Ocean for the past twenty years or so.
Here in Palm Bay, in Brevard County, Florida, "big" water is easy to find.
Pain-free days, pretty much nonexistent.
So, when I can get the pain beat down a bit, the urge to be out with my camera comes on me very strong.
After several months of more-or-less being house bound, I've finally lately been up to getting out.
Photographically, I'm VERY rusty.
Fortunately camera operation is kinda like riding a bicycle, so, out I go.
Ryckman Park (pronounced RIKE-man park according to old-time locals I've met.) , about 20-25 minutes from my home, and located on the Indian River Lagoon in Melbourne Beach, Florida, is one of my very favorite go-to places.
Here, I can always get great sunsets if the sky provides, but even if the sunset is so-so, like this one, then, Hey!, who cares, it's still a gorgeous place and a gorgeous view.
There's no down side to going to Ryckman Park, even if I don't take a  single photograph.  The evening view is always balm for the troubled soul.

Falcon 9 Rocket Launch, 1:26AM 8/14/16

Nikon D750, Nikkor 18-35mm lens at 18mm, f/22 ,  352sec., ISO 100

My younger daughter leaves this week for graduate school in Sweden.
We went with her older sister to Cocoa Beach, Florida to watch one more night rocket launch together.
Having grown up here on the Space Coast, space shuttle and rocket launches have been a recurring part of their lives.
She knows it could possibly be years, if she's ever able to see another rocket launch.
They never get old.