downtown st petersburg

Friday morning was cold. But photo walks are not cancelled for cold. I made the trek across the bay hoping being near the water would make things warmer. But the wind was stronger bear the water so we ventured inland.



I have been a few times to St Pete. The drive is too long to venture over more often. There are still many places I have not scene.



This time we walked south along Beach Street. Although I live shooting the red chairs, I didn't want to follow Jeff and the rest of the group up Central Avenue. Sherry, Jessica and Derek walked with me. We soon lost Sherry as she tends to wander off.



I wanted to see the Dali Museum. I expected a more elaborate design. The front of the building is deceiving plain. Only the sign hints as what lies ahead. I will have to come back and go through the museum.



We walked back against the wind. Jeff was there first so of course he picked the Grayl's Hotel. The place is small, food just OK, and the service is slow. I am glad I put extra money in the meter.



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back to the butterflies

Allen wanted to go back to the Butterfly Rainforest. He was told the blue morpos will open their wings when the weather is cooler. I had intended on saying no but Norm asked and well, I said OK. I should have known he would ask me to drive.



We met at First Watch and I watched Norm and Dick eat breakfast while I tried to ignore the headache looming. The weather was gray and ready to rain. "My mood is very dependent on the weather. I was a bitch back in Michigan." It was one of my better lines.

We got up there first. There was a new art piece to greet us. What a welcome!



Norm paid for my admission, my lunch and filled up my tank when we got back.



I don't know why but I thought the place was kept at a constant temperature. It was not. It was cold! I saw a thermometer that read 49 degrees and I only had a turtleneck.



There were fewer butterflies and they were not active. At one point, a guide brought out more butterflies and put them on a tree. We got some great shots. I was glad I brought my flash.



The birds were more active and I tried to get some shots. They would not stand still.





After twice through we went to lunch. Allen and Mike went to Cracker Barrel. We went to the Camellia Cafe at the campus.



I drove home. Dick and I chatted while Larry and Norm dozed.

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sunken gardens

Sunken Gardens is one of the places I have known about and wanted to visit but never made the effort. It did fall into disrepair and the city of St. Petersburg took ownership. It is maintained but you can see the effects of budget cuts. The butterfly house was empty and there were only 3 flamingos. But it was still enjoyable and I got plenty of photos.



OP rsvp'd late so I doubt Mike realized he would be there. But everything seemed to go well enough. I think it helped that OP knew Mike was sensitive to his sarcasm and probably kept it in check. Also, OP chose to walk with Jeff and Gary and not with Mike and Allen.



The temperature was cool and breezy that morning but it was warmer in the park. Many of the trees and shrubs were old and tall which blocked most of the wind. I say most because the flowers tended to move every time I wanted to take a shot.



I brought my tripod but forgot my plate so I let Doyle tote it around in his cart. There wasn't much I needed a tripod for. There were so very small fountains with falls over rocks. After being up north, it didn't seem worth the effort to set up to smooth the water.



The flamingos were cool. It was nice to get so close. There were some beautiful parrots but the mesh on the cages was to tight to try to get any shots.



I had forgotten to get a new woodling to replace Chip and his missing foot so I had to use the small one. Because of the rod I cannot remove, he is harder to pose. Doyle suggested to flower between his legs.



The place was smaller than I expected but it was noon when we had finished. OP, Allen and Mike were gone by then. We talked about lunch. Panera was across the street but Jeff suggested Ted's Montana Grille. He gave us the address and we all left to drive only to find that Ted's was not there. We ended up back at a crowded Panera.

sykes chapel

We had a by-week for the Friday photo walk. Norm suggested University of Tampa and I said the chapel. He called and got permission for us to take photos. It is a good thing he said indoors since the morning was very gray and misty.



Doyle & I met Norm at UT and Jim let us into the chapel. This place is just so beautiful. It makes me proud to be an architect and almost miss the work. Almost.



We played around for a while. Doyle and Norm ended up lying on the floor to get the shot.

I didn't realize they have a mini labyrinth in one of the meditation rooms. One day I will take the time to walk through it. I wish I could have gotten a better shot of this one.



We met up again and went into Plant Hall. We went into Fletcher Hall. I was happy to finally have my tripod. We should have asked to get into the loge.

We had lunch at the Rathskeller. It is a lunch place run by the campus and they serve Starbucks.
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american victory ship

Someone suggested the American Victory Ship for a photo walk. It didn't interest me much but I scheduled one. I was a bit disappointed that the people who seemed interesting in the walk did not show up. We ended up with 5 people including myself.

Jeff had suggested we bring tripods. I didn't want to have to carry mine but I am glad that I did. From the beginning, I was shooting at 1600 iso and then that wasn't even enough. So I pulled out my tripod. Then we went on top of the ship and I put away my tripod.

The weather was good for being outside the ship. It was sunny & breezy. There were lots of cool things to shoot. Lots of stairs to climb too.

The cabins are in the middle of the ship. You could see in but not enter. With the light streaming through the portholes, shooting was difficult. I tried some HDR but am not sure it was worth the effort. Being inside was hot.

I had done enough shooting and setting up the tripod. I was on my way back to the beginning and I saw the mess and kitchen. I didn't feel like getting my tripod out again so I didn't get many shots. I plan on doing this walk again and will spend my effort on the interiors next time. Maybe I will bring my flash too.

We had lunch at the Greek Taverna in Channelside.

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tampa downtown market

Our Friday morning photo walk yesterday was at the Tampa Downtown Market. I drove down and found some cheaper parking right across from Sacred Heart Church. The morning was chilly but the sun was shining and warmed every thing up nicely.

The first vendor I saw was the hydroponic farmer with fresh strawberries. I did not wait and bought 3 pints right away. I carried my backpack just for this purpose.

Soon the rest of the group showed up and we started our walk. We broke up into many small groups and individuals and checked out the other vendors. Many were cooking and it smelled so good. It was going to be hard to wait for two hours for lunch. Actually I didn't make it, I got some caramel corn and ate some while people watching.

We had lunch at Jimmie Johns and we leaving before 1 pm. That must be a new record!

(check it out! I actually clicked on gallery and up popped all the pics. Cool! You can click on them to see them larger.)
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[photo walk] tampa bay history museum

We rode the street cars to Channelside and walked to the Tampa Bay History Museum. The building is more interesting than the contents. The lighting was poor inside and I did not have my tripod. I didn't feel like carrying it about. I did take Chip out and shot him in some of the exhibits. Patty was enjoying posing him.




























We had lunch at the Columbia Café in the museum. The food was good and rich (I paid for it the next day.) and expensive. I am glad I didn't buy anything at the market. As it was, I spent $43.
















Patti, her husband Richard and I took the street car back to Ybor and went home.

Gulfport

We went back to Gulfport for another Friday photo walk. The weather was much better this time with clear blue skies and a warm breeze.



Jeff also posted this walk in the NPPF forums but did not show up to lead the walk. He had car trouble and I had to call him to find that out.



There were about 15 photographers and we split up in several groups. Doyle, Bridget and I started walking up Beach street. Neither one of them had been there before so I had to let them shoot the places I shot in June. Doyle was smart to bring along his flash as we were invited to take photos inside the hotel and spa. I took a few shots but deleted them as I didn't want to deal with the noise.



There was an area formed by two older homes and their garages turned into a small shopping/artist area with a paved courtyard. I would love to have something like this close to us for our photography meet-ups.



We met Nung and he seemed to fit into our group pretty well. In other words, he is sarcastic.



Bridget started getting hungry so we went to The Village Pub. We ate outside and the birds left us alone. Only 12 of us for lunch and we basically had the restaurant to ourselves.

special olympics bowling 2010

(still catching up!)



Soon after school starts, Special Olympics begins to hold their fall events. First up was bowling. I knew what to expect so I was not overwhelmed. Also they seemed more organized and got the high school kids out before it was our turn to play.



Special Olympics organizes which kids play on what teams. They are mixed according to ability. Well, mostly. This means that some of the more able kids play together. The more able kids end up finishing their games first.



On one team were two boys from Andy's class. They are both extremely competitive and want, need, to win. Both cried and threw tantrums each time they didn't get a strike. One of the boys finally had to stop playing.



I learned from last year to order food early. It took 20 minutes to get out 7" cheese pizzas. Andy ate 1 1/2 of the pizza. Though I got all the crust. The pizza arrived before Andy was done bowling. He ate then went to play his turn. He couldn't care less about bowling at that point. He was tossing the ball and running back to the table.



We waited awhile for the ribbons to be distributed. Andy got second place for his age group. He doesn't care about the rankings.



Once the awards were given out, Andy came home with me. But first he wanted to go to Chick Fil A. He didn't eat much after all that pizza. But he took the food home and ate it later.

chestnut park

(catching up)



Chestnut Park seems to be a popular place for early morning photo walks on Sundays and Mondays. Since I can't do those times, I scheduled a walk for Friday. The problem is that 10am is too late for all the birds. But Chestnut Park is large and there is more to look at than just birds.



I picked up Todd and we drove over to Palm Harbor. We got there early and walked around waiting for the others to show. In one of the ponds, we could hear an alligator croaking. We couldn't see him.



Around 10am, Sherry showed up. We were expecting 7 more people including Jeff and Theresa. They are usually early. I called Doyle and found he was on his way. He was running late because he put the wrong address in the gps. After waiting a bit, the four of us started. Weird that no one else showed up.



Sherry had been to the park before so she led the walk. Since the birds had left for the day, I used Chip as my model. We had tried to get the squirrels to check out Chip but they could not be bribed with a mint.





We walked to the playground where Sherry rode the dinosaur and Doyle recorded a video.









We saw an alligator in the pond we threw stones and sticks trying to get him to move.





Then we drove over to another area of the park to walk the cypress swamp. Sherry gave me some insect repellant which just made my arms burn. I ended up with over a dozen bug bites.





Sherry wanted to go right and I wanted to go left. I didn't say that I was have very bad gas cramps from all the fruit I ate the night before. We went left and saw deer! There were 2 fawns and a doe. They were walking in the water. When we got put the swamp, we saw the deer again but couldn't get good shots this time.





Doyle begged off of lunch. He is losing weight with Jenny Craig and hates to "cheat." The three of us went to Pizza Villa in Land O' Lakes.