It’s good to be back, again! For those interested in my absence, I explain at the bottom of this post.
I recently took a 4-week travel trip to Florida. This was a combination vacation to see friends, as well as a photo trip. My first stop on this trip was Crystal River, where I was able to snorkel with manatees (aka, “sea cows”). I learned that the manatees are having a struggle this year, with the widely ranging temperatures that Florida has been seeing. Bottom line is that their food supply is being eaten up, as they are staying in the warmer waters … if they stay in the warm waters, there is little vegetation to eat … if they leave the warm waters for the cooler, Gulf waters, they are risking freezing to death. Not an easy choice to make!
Here are a few of my favorite images I captured at Three Sister’s Spring, a warm water refuge in Crystal River:
It’s always fun to be with our wild brothers/sisters that we don’t get to see on a regular basis, including the lovable manatees!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Pentax Optio W60 waterproof camera (purchased many years ago for snorkeling with sea lions in Baja, Mexico)
- Fixed 5mm-25mm lens
- Camera in automatic/under water mode
- All images shot as jpeg files and edited in Lightroom and Photoshop
Now, for “the rest of the story” … For the past few months, my postings have been very sporadic. The reason … over the several months, I have been working around my home and getting it ready for sale … the reason? Actually, a couple of factors here: (1) as I “age” (hopefully, gracefully!), I was finding it much more difficult to keep my acreage up to snuff … constantly mowing, cutting up downed trees from storms/winds, keeping the multiple flower beds weeded and maintained. And secondly, I met a wonderful lady from the Lake of the Ozarks in September 2018. After spending a lot of time together in the past 18 months, we became engaged. So, that made my choice to sell pretty darned easy!
It didn’t take long to sell my 9.5 acres in rural Cass County. As things worked out, I closed on Friday, February 07, then moved (to the lake) on Saturday, February 08, and Bobbie (my fiance) and I headed out for Florida on the morning of Sunday, February 09. We arrived back home a little over a week ago. Since then, it’s taken some time to unpack things, organize two households into one (still many things to do), and then to find and set up my computer … but here I am! I’m planning on getting back on track with postings really soon … and with a lot of new outdoor areas to explore and photograph!