It’s getting too hot to enjoy camping comfortably down in these parts of Florida. So our last camping trip before summer sets in was a really a wonderful one. We took a week off and headed up to the Oscar Scherer State Part, in Sarasota, Florida, ready to explore our world!

What a lovely park! And we had a great camping spot, too. Nice big backyard of dense coverage with a trail that lead in, perfect for setting up chairs and lounging around a campfire, away from civilization. The park is really quite lovely, just like the other parks around Southern Florida. Lots of Oak trees, covered in Spanish Moss. The bathrooms and showers were sparkling clean, and the campground hosts were very friendly and made sure everyone felt at home.

We saw an abundance of Cardinals here. Their brilliant red colors stood out vibrantly from the greens and golds of their surroundings. They have a great song, too. I love those birds and it was great to be surrounded by them at any hour of the day.

Since we had a lot of time to kill during the hot hours of the day, we headed into the town, Sarasota. I’m no stranger to this town. We lived here for 4 years while I went to Ringling School of Art and Design for my degree in photography. It’s a neat town, home to St. Armands, the Ringling Museum, the Medieval fair and lots of other art-related activities and centers.

It was great to see my alma mater, too. It was especially wonderful to see how much the school has grown both in size and in offerings. If you are serious about art, whether it be photography or interior design or computer arts, I recommend Ringling highly!

So what camping trip wouldn’t be complete without pictures? I did a flare picture of course (for those of you new to our blog, I love to shoot flare pictures)! But for the most part, my photographic challenge during this camping trip was reflections. I wanted to focus on a different part of the scene this time. And while reflections are hardly anything new as a photographic subject, I haven’t played around with them too much. And I like shooting things I don’t usually do on my off time.

So on with the goods! My first shot here is probably one of my favorites of the park. You have to drive over a lovely one-lane wooden bride to get to the campground. So on one of our exploratory missions, I jumped down and below the bridge for this shot. I love the angles and texture here. And I didn’t find any trolls under this bridge!

This is one of the first reflections studies I made. I like that you can’t really see the ground here, and if you do find it, it’s all the way at the top!

And what would a trip to the great outdoors be without some lovely flare? Here I was practicing some post-production in Photoshop, too. I wanted to create some rainbow-ish flare color.

The contrast of color in the woods is fantastic. Most striking are the contrasts of deep reds and greens.

Another study on reflections. I love the mystery I see in this image.

This reflection study does include land. I just love woods that look like this. I’d love to have a house with this view as my front or backyard!

Another example of bright color in the woods. The Cardinal, we love this birdy!

Playing with line and shape.

And of course, next to flares, I also love to shoot Palm trees. Good thing I live in Florida, huh! I love how the colors came out here. And the texture adds a nice dimension to the image. This image was shoot at dusk in Sarasota Bay.

This is another reflection study, taken at Sarasota Bay, with the lights of the Ritz Carlton reflected in the water.

There are a good amount of bottlenose Dolphins in Sarasota Bay. These dolphins are immortalized as statues. I love how this shot came out. A low shutter speed at dusk and a bit of flash, and the dolphins look almost superimposed. The shadows were caught in camera and the only post-production done here was color!

Hope you have enjoyed this visual trip. Camping at Oscar Scherer and a visit to Sarasota is definitely worth it!

~ Astrid and Rene ~

Tags: flares by Astrid
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Yes, it’s true and we had no idea either! We were totally taken aback at just how lovely, how quaint, how Southern and how unique Ocala really is! I can’t believe that I’ve lived here in Florida almost my whole life and I never made the drive to visit such a hidden Florida jewel.

Our wedding was set for Saturday morning so after our meeting with our bride Friday evening, we set out to explore before heading to our hotel for the night. Enamored with the venue for our wedding, we walked around the historic district whose perfectly manicured lawns adorned beautifully restored historic homes with character, personality and colorful history.

Naples is relatively new and the historic district in Naples certainly has a different look and feel than the historic district in Ocala. I found that the beauty of Ocala is the kiss of Southern style abundant everywhere. Beautiful old and sinewy Oak trees, covered in Spanish moss elegantly sway in the cool air here. They are so romantic and really transform the scene tremendously. I’ve seen some of these trees around Naples as well. A good friend of mine has a backyard full of them, right here in Naples.

Back to Ocala, the roads follow rolling hills. A quick drive out and you are in pastureland. The greenest velvety grass covers the hills that roll, one after the other. Beautiful horses, of all colors and shapes dot the landscape. It’s a horse lover’s paradise. And after a bit of time in Ocala, you can see that the city revolves around horses. We came to find out that Ocala is considered a serious center for thoroughbreds that began in the 1940’s, calling itself the horse capital of the world! Several Kentucky Derby winners have come out of Ocala and the penchant for anything horse here is strong!

Unfortunately, and as it is with the rest of the world, the future of the industry there is in question. Urban sprawl is threatening to take away the rolling pastures, which the horses require. Apparently, Marion County is becoming very popular, land prices are going up, and developers are flocking in. The city has offered no incentives for farmers to hold on to their land and continue to raise horses. So, what’s to keep farmers in the area when a developer offers them a lot of money? It’s sad really but just another example of what’s wrong with this world.

On a lighter note, since Ali has fallen in love with riding, Ocala took on a new significance to us. We will be visiting Ocala much more now and keeping an eye out for horses. She’s already mentioned (more than once I might add) that she wishes she had her own horse. If she’s serious about, we would certainly do our best to accommodate her wishes and Ocala seems like a great place to learn all about the sport and the animals.

So, if you are looking for a wonderful place to visit, see some different scenery and look at some magnificent horses, definitely check out Ocala!

And a very special thank you to Karla Fountain, of Karla Fountain Photography in Orlando. She referred us to Jennifer and Claude, the bride and groom we photographed in Ocala (teasers very soon)! Thanks for getting us up to Ocala!

And what blogtrip post wouldn’t be complete without eye candy? Here they are!

Here are a few of our favorite shots of the magnificent trees we encountered while on our journey.

What would a blogpost be without a little flare love?

This was the most incredible tree I have ever seen! It sat directly next to the house and must have been 10 feet wide at the base! What an incredible tree. It’s about 75 years old!

These are some of the trees that grace the front yard.

Working our way to downtown square, we couldn’t resist grabbing some detail shots along the way.

Grabbed this shot of a tiny toddler folding chair in this entrance way.

There are some totally cool and unique stores here. These are just a couple of the windows that caught our eyes.

A bit of architectural detail.

I absolutely love this shot. Perfect backdrop for a portrait, too!

This is the fabulous little gem of a theatre, called the Marion Theatre. This beautiful art deco structure was built September 11, 1941. It closed in the mid-1970’s as a movie theatre and stood empty for 13 years. The exterior is in its original state and looks absolutely fantastic. The interior has been restored to a nostalgic 1940’s style and feel. Visit the Marion’s history page here if you’d like to learn more about the theatre.

If you’d like to take a look at how the Marion theater looked like during its grand opening in 1941, take a look at this link! The Marion Theatre opened on September 11th, 1941, with a seating capacity of 800. “Aloma of the South Seas”, starring Dorothy Lamour was the feature!

Four of the loveliest hand-painted horses adorn the downtown square. This one was our favorite because of the butterfly on his face. We immediately thought of Ali, who loves butterflies and horses. If you’d like to see a whole bunch of images of painted horses all throughout Ocala, make sure to visit this link!

Last but certainly not least, this little gem caught our eyes the moment we passed it. It’s Ocala’s own, Rockiversity, The Music School! I love the Jimi Hendrix mural on the wall. We definitely wanted to stop in and visit, but it wasn’t open during our trip. Check their site out here! They have a great mission to teach music to all ages in a fun and creative way!

Tags: flares, ramblings... by Astrid
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The last time I went camping I was probably 8 years old. My mom, dad, aunt and uncle packed up the ol’ station wagon and we set forth, destination Texas and yes, we drove from Naples all the way to Dallas, camping the whole way there. We did camp in actual tents and we stayed in cabins a lot, too. We had a lot of outdoor cooking, got to know each other a whole lot better and enjoyed some of the incredible sights that this country has to offer. I look back on those memories now and they really do make me feel warm and fuzzy inside (I know, cheezy but so true). I think that’s what good parenting is all about: creating memories that make your kids feel warm and fuzzy inside once they reach adulthood.

So this last weekend and the first weekend of the New Year, Rene decided that it was as good a time as any to start creating those kinds of memories for Ali and Helena. I do have to admit that some of these family outings CAN leave older kids scoffing. But I believe that most kids secretly enjoy and love these family outings. And if they don’t, too bad! It’s good for them and the parents, too. I think more families should camp out in tents, in the middle of dark and spooky forests while trekking through this land in search of adventure! What great food for the imagination….and talk about recharging after a mondo long worklife!

Ali and Helena are still at an age where they still like us and their world revolves around us. We are still cool and they look up to us and they still prefer to be around us more than anyone else (ok, well maybe they like grandma better). That’s a great feeling and we capitalized on that feeling BIG time this past weekend!

We did buy the tent, and the sleeping bags, the lantern and the bug spray. The cooler was loaded, the car was loaded too and we brought Halley, the hound dog with us. Our destination: Myakka River State Park. Needless to say it was a wonderful adventure. I’ve been to a lot of parks around here but this park is definitely worth the visit. We only spent one night at the park (what??) (and we picked the coldest night, of course) but Rene managed to put up the tent in under an hour and we had an awesome air mattress (I know, that’s cheating) and super-warm sleeping bags. What fun and memories we made! We did roast marshmallows, too! And once the girls went to sleep, Rene and I sat by the campfire, staring at the stars with a beer in our hands. Talk about a perfect evening….

Take a look at the gallery below. You’ll get to see some of the animals we met during our visit. There were lots of alligators in all the waterways. We saw a family of wild hogs (they were a deep dark black and the mom had like 12 piglets), plenty of deer, vultures, hawks and insects galore! And look at those amazing oak trees with the Spanish moss hanging from them. They are fabulous! There are parts of the park that are a little when it started to get darker but incredibly beautiful, too in the late afternoon and early morning light.

The girls loved it, hound dog loved it and we loved it. I also got to take a lot of pictures of landscapes, which I’ve always loved to do and haven’t done in a long time. And yep! I got some flare in there, too! It really felt great to shoot for myself in such a beautiful and inspiring place!

Sure, when given the chance to spend a weekend at the Ritz or a weekend camping, well, you know what I would pick. Ha! But weekends roughing it with the girls and Rene are worth a lot more than a weekend at the Ritz!

If you’re visiting Southwest Florida and love parks, make sure to check out this park. You won’t be disappointed!

Another perfect weekend!
~Astrid~

Tags: flares, ramblings... by Astrid
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This Monday wasn’t a bad Monday in Naples, Florida. Ali stayed home sick and I stayed home with her. She’s on a nebulizer for a cough from Bronchitis. Sounds pretty bad but she’s feeling great and doing well.

We went on a walk this morning. The day was absolutely perfect. Jewel-blue skies, big white fluffy cotton ball clouds, just enough of a breeze, a bright sun and a cool morning temperature. Well, cool for Florida! It was about 65 degrees and absolutely a perfect day.

I took my camera and stumbled on a palm tree that had beautiful Bougainvillea growing in front of it. Add a little flare/sun starburst and look at the beautiful image right in my neighborhood. Yeah, Naples is definitely gorgeous!

~Astrid~

Tags: flares by Astrid
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So we’ve been totally swamped with work (which is always a good thing, right)!

And even though we don’t shoot a wedding every single weekend, we have been busy with family portraits, holiday card sessions, charity work and children’s portraits! Add to that the fact that our weddings don’t take a couple of days to edit. We take our time and we create unique works of art for our brides and grooms. And all that takes time, of which we seem to run out of more and more lately. However, our steadfast rule of no work at all on Sundays (which is exclusively family day) is still holding out very strong….

Last Sunday we took advantage of the awesome weather and headed over to the Koreshan State Historic Park. The weather down here has been absolutely fantastic! I LOVE the cold fronts that keep coming through. I am totally NOT a hot/heat/sweat/flip flop/shorts kind of gal, but have to be here in this heat hole! So whenever the temperature dips below 70, watch out! That means cold front to us Floridians!

The weather was perfect for a hike at one of our favorite parks and of course, I took my camera as always. But instead of focusing on palm trees (yes, I have been neglectful of the palm tree gallery) I decided to have fun with flares!

Flares, you ask? Well, camera lens flare happens when light enters the camera and hits the sensor or film directly. The flare will then appear in the form of a polygonal shape that is the same as the shape of the diaphragm of the lens. If I proceeded to confuse you more and you are interested in the topic, check out this link!

A few weeks ago we photographed a wedding (which will be up on the blog soon) and I caught a great shot of the bride and groom from behind with this amazingly golden, bright, buttery starry-night flare shining down on them. I LOVE this shot and you can see it in the gallery below. So while at the park, and while searching for something new to photograph and hyper-focus on, I decided to practice my flare. Now I don’t just let the sun shine right into my lens to create the flare…I also stop down considerably to get the sun looking like a star….

I’ve used Photoshop flare a few times…but I love getting it right in the camera from the get go. Not to diss Pshop, but filter flare just doesn’t have the awesome personality of natural flare!

All the flare below is natural in-camera flare…with color and contrast enhancements made in Photoshop. Ah flare! You have indeed become my new photographic interest for now and I just may have to devote a few more posts to you!

Enjoy the flare!
~Astrid~

Tags: flares, ramblings... by Astrid
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