Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @135 - 1/50 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
Spooky kitty.
The above was taken at some point from home. From my new office as it would become. It was just a sun-room before, an extension of the living room that at one point or another had a computer, or a TV with xbox. Just depends on what I felt like arranging where. It became an office only a week or two before, when my job went from talking about maybe a day or two of remote work a week to suddenly all remote all the time. I was concerned about this, as I had never done remote work before and I had serious concerns that we would be replaced by our overseas counterparts that worked for significantly cheaper.
In the end it didn’t matter anyway, as if you read from posts at the beginning of this year I don’t work remote at all. And even at the beginning of the month now when I’m posting this I’m not working at all. I’m playing a lot of video games, and thinking about spending money I don’t have. I recently finished watching Our Planet on Netflix and boy does it make me want to pivot from straight up photography to recording video of wildlife. I priced out and made an Amazon list of a rig. A very basic beginners type of rig, I think the total cost was around three grand. Which is an insane amount I don’t have to spend on a hobby… again.
Plus that doesn’t even include cinematography lenses, that’s thinking I can get away with what I have already. The footage they had in that documentary was amazing. But the cost is staggering to think about. Just the body and lens alone I know to be valued around at least 130k. With everything else they had I’m guessing a total of 200-250k. That’s easily a small house where I live, and a much nicer one a bit further away from the city. Like I said, staggering. That’s so far out of my reach I can’t even begin to imagine a way to acquire something like that.
Anyway, back to July of 2019. Before a virus has most of us hiding inside our homes. And a increasingly shocking number of stupid people out and about. There’s no way this is over anytime soon.
About the only way to be able to afford to take a vacation was by going in a group, which was more fun anyway. I have a fairly large family and we all get alone decently well. Better yet, almost everyone has a significant other that is also working full time. Split two AirBNB’s between 10 adults and the cost is much more affordable. Which is how we found ourselves in Florida in the middle of July. Almost all of my live we go to the same place when we take a vacation. Small beach town in the gulf, a good drive from Atlanta. But that’s where my dad has a relative and where his parents owned a house.
But first, more cat pictures. I was playing around with light from different angles and the cat was being playful.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 1/25 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 1600
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 1/30 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 1250
So, Florida. Like I mentioned it was a good long drive, and my dumb ass had the brilliant idea to try and break up that drive. Instead of waking up early to make a 10-12 hour drive in one go like we always do. We leave the night before, drive until we get tired then just pull over and sleep for a bit.
Except that around midnight, in Florida, in July, it’s fucking hot. So that wasn’t exactly pleasant. I thought the windows cracked a bit would make a breeze, but no. It was a sweaty sticky night in the car. We only slept for a few hours anyway before we couldn’t stand that anymore and kept driving.
The extra time we had before we could check in I had planned for slightly, we stopped off in Tampa at around 5 AM. Which was interesting to see such a large city so empty.
I found a place on google maps where you could watch the sun at the horizon.
At sunset. Not sunrise. East not West. Duh.
Oh well, it was still a little beach with a dock and some people fishing.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @28 - 0.5 Sec - F3.5 - ISO 3200
It was still so early that there was almost no light. We needed a flashlight to walk around in the grass and over to the beach. Did see some wildlife though.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @135 - 1.3 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 3200
Can you tell what it is? No? You mean shooting in near darkness with an extremely slow shutter and handholding the camera means that it’s a bit blurry? Sorry let me try again.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @135 - 0.6 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 3200
There we go. Two things that are too blurry to tell. Perfect.
Ah well, packed up and moved on. After breakfast we found an actual park with a beach and went for a walk there. This was right around 7, much more light. And I managed to see wildlife, surprise.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @115 - 1/800 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 200
After the beach was a little walk through the park. It was nice and quiet that morning, and there was plenty of wildlife in that park. But as I only brought the wide angle with me I didn’t take too many pictures of that, I did the scenery instead.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30 - 1/20 Sec - F16 - ISO 400
The walk gave us a chance to stretch our legs for a while and kill some time. It was nice, would do again for a break in a long car trip. Just not overnight in the heat.
Next stop, St. Petersburg.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @135 - 1/1600 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
Again, for me. Never been. But my girlfriend knew about it from relatives living in Florida.
I had fun, we walked around a while. Played pokemon. Saw some wildlife.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @135 - 1/1000 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @105 - 1/1000 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
And saw some cool cars down there.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @47- 1/1000 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @28- 1/3200 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
This pink hotel was a really cool building that caught my eye, probably the reason why it’s pink. I remember trying to find an angle where I wasn’t out in the road getting hit by a car, but to find a way to make it interesting in a photo.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @30- 1/5000 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
One of the last things we did was a little walk through a park, playing pokemon of course. As we approached it this sculpture caught my eye. Even though I took pictures where we got up close, this one actually came out more interesting framed between the trees.
Canon 5D Mark II w/28-135mm @135 - 1/2000 Sec - F5.6 - ISO 400
That’s all the good pictures from St.Petersburg I think. I took a few of boats and the tall hotels across the water, none of them really stand out as super interesting though.
We were in Florida for a week, and I went out with my camera as much as I could. I have a good amount of pictures still, but this post is long enough.