Sunsets, Astrophotography & Birds @ Venice, Florida – 10.25.14 – 11.5.14

November 14, 2014 | Other Photography

I visited my parents down in Venice, Florida back in February but unfortunately had to make another trip down there again for almost 2 weeks since my Dad was having pancreatic cancer surgery. Thankfully the cancer was removed and shows no signs of returning! One day at a time I suppose and hope everything gets better from here on out. My brother and I managed to still get some shooting done at sunset time and at night, which definitely helped with what was going on.

Matt and I would go to the nearby beaches most nights to capture the sunset. Last time we were down there it was foggy and cloudy so it was tough getting some good shots. This time it was clear nights most nights so that was great. I got a chance to shoot with my new lens 14-24mm f2.8 for the majority of the trip. We went to Sharkey’s on the Pier, Caspersen Beach, Service Beach, BroHard Beach(haha) and the Venice Jetty. Lots of beaches but all really close by to everything in Venice.

We would do sunsets and post-sunsets, which always looked better after the sun went down. Then we’d wait around until the stars were visible and tried out astrophotography. I never really tried that before so I think I did a good job with it. I would shoot around ISO 3200, 20-30 seconds exposure when it was dark enough and f2.8. The first time I tried it, the photos came out the best since the moon wasn’t full. By the end of the trip, the moon was almost full and illuminated too much light. I know there’s other ways of doing astrophotos but for the most part, was just trying to get everything to show up and in focus. I didn’t want to expose things to the right and fix it in post. I’m of the old school mentality of shooting the best you can and doing minor fixes later on.

Besides the sunsets and astrophotography, we were trying some light painting as well. I used to do light painting in college but haven’t done that since then. We went to the Dollar Tree and got a bunch of glow sticks, wands and other fun goodies. I still have glow fingers and mustaches to use but didn’t get a chance to use them. Maybe I’ll break those out when the power goes out and have nothing to do. In between the sunsets and all the other stuff, I managed to get some shots of some local birds near my parent’s house. I was always half-ass jogging around the lake where the birds were so couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take some photos of some birds. I missed the alligator, who was laying out in the sun during the day but I missed him at sunset time when I was shooting.

The Full Gallery Set

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