71 replies to this topic

[Isaac Szabo]

Nice video rc6750. I have not snorkeled the Ginnie springs complex yet, but I plan to next time I'm in the area. If I had known that another NANFA member lived nearby, I would have invited you to join us for some snorkeling.

I like your sticker, Casper. I'll be sending you an envelope.

That's a great manatee shot, Michael. It really shows their personality.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Did you guys feel intimidated by the manatees at all?

[Michael Wolfe]

I had 20 minutes or so alone with 3 or 4 in about 7 or 8 feet of water.  There was only once in that time and only for about 20 seconds when I thought about leaving the area and they sort of headed me off and kept in min their area that I felt a little intimidated.  But overall they were very calm, and very deliberate, and very curious.

[Isaac Szabo]

They are huge animals, but they are very gentle. Like Michael said they are generally calm and deliberate in their movements. You don't feel like they're going to do something unpredictable. I never felt intimidated by them. At one point I had a young one (about 5ft) playfully swimming circles around me and "skipping" along the bottom with its front flippers. It was a special experience.

[Matt DeLaVega]

Wow, It really just seems amazing. I have seen a couple when visiting Florida. They were hanging by a boat ramp/harbor area on Sanibel. I touched them. I was on land. I am not sure that the size alone would not intimidate me, even though I know they are not an aggressive creature. They look gentle, and perhaps wise.

[trygon]

Michael, thanks for resizing the alligator images, I was in a hurry and didn't check the sizes.  I hope these are a more appropriate size.

 

There are a lot of animals to observe in and around Florida's waterways, but it is a little disconcerting when one of them is doing the observing, like this guy.

Black Vulture

 

But this guy isn't so bad.

Cormorant

 

This is what one looks like underwater.

 

There are manatees...

 

and ducks.

 

And fishes galore, like these two Bluefin Killies and their friend,

but if you want to see more you'll have to wait until the AC article comes out.

[trygon]

Apparently I need a tutorial on what size image to post.  The last group is 4800x3600, are there any guidelines posted on what size images should be when posting through the gallery archive?  Can these be resized in place, or do I need to start all over?

 

Bryce 

[Michael Wolfe]

I can fix it if they are in the Gallery Archive like the last ones were.  It is just that you have to have the large size photo on the screen when you copy the url that you are pasting into the poloroid icon thingy.  Looks like you are selecting the thumbnails.  You have to actually open the picture, not just click the thumbnail.  Oh, and there is a limit... things over 800 pixels wide are auto sized down I think... so no sense in going over that.  So when I open in the gallery, I will use that.

[trygon]

Thanks again, disregard the email I just sent you.  I didn't realize the image had to be opened, you're correct I was selecting the thumbnails.

[Isaac Szabo]

Fantastic photos, Bryce! Love that underwater cormorant!

[trygon]

Thanks Isaac, your sunnies are off the chart.

[rc6750]

Nice video rc6750. I have not snorkeled the Ginnie springs complex yet, but I plan to next time I'm in the area. If I had known that another NANFA member lived nearby, I would have invited you to join us for some snorkeling.

I like your sticker, Casper. I'll be sending you an envelope.

That's a great manatee shot, Michael. It really shows their personality.

 

Definitely - let me know next time you are in the area. Thanks 

[don212]

Nice video rc6750. I have not snorkeled the Ginnie springs complex yet, but I plan to next time I'm in the area. If I had known that another NANFA member lived nearby, I would have invited you to join us for some snorkeling.

I like your sticker, Casper. I'll be sending you an envelope.

That's a great manatee shot, Michael. It really shows their personality.

call me i have not been in the run, though i took a cave dive course there. remember we need to check for brown outs in that area

[Josh Blaylock]

NANFA is truly blessed to have such great photographers associated with us.  Thanks for sharing guys, awesome pics.

[mikez]

I get where you're coming from, and I probably agree with the notion of saving back some content for the AC article. However, the AC article will probably only have space for something like 15-20 photos. Between all of us, we could probably have 50-100 or more interesting photos/videos to share. I also think it's important to breathe life into the forum when we can. With the rise of social media, most internet forums are dying. The NANFA forum isn't doing as bad as most, but it certainly will if we all don't keep participating and adding content.

Absolutely! Posts like this is what I come here for. Keep 'em comin' and I'll keep lookin'!

[Kanus]

I have gotten around to working on very few of my photos, but I'll post a few that I did manage to get to...

 

Least Livebearer, Heterandria formosa, that was hanging out at the surface of the water in thick vegetation well away (20 yards) from the shore. I was surprised to see these guys anywhere except hugging the bank.

 

One of the shockingly few nonnatives I saw, though it sounds like had we headed south at all it quickly would've changed that.

 

Bluefin Killifish (yellow-finned variety) Lucania goodei, These were incredibly abundant in the Rainbow River, and it was rather fascinating to look closely and see males with yellow anal fins, along with variations of blue, red and blue, red, orange, or clear/blue, all in the same place. I had no idea there were more than reds and blues in these guys.

 

Pteronotropis colei (is it offically called that yet?). These were possibly my favorite fish of the trip. I was absolutely blown away by the colors, especially considering that while we collected many of these (more than enough for Mike Lucas and I, if that tells you anything), we didn't capture a single adult. And yet even the ones that were half an inch long had reflective metallic sides and bright orange fins. This one is a roughly half-grown individual. I've never seen a fish that was so colorful before adulthood. Incredible. Also worth noting: The Prez gets all the credit for this shot, as it was his photo tank setup and expert positioning of the fish (and foresight to bring clear water) that allowed me to sneak my camera in and catch this shot. I parasitized it, I'll admit it. I am the Tennessee Shiner to his River Chub nest!

 

After Mike and I spent a day away from the rest of the group in search of Leptolucania ommata we arrived back at the house to hear stories of manatee bellyrubs, and I was initially jealous and a little sad I'd missed the trip to Chassahowitzka, especially considering we never found our target fish that day. I was pleased later in the week to have a brief encounter with an antisocial manatee at Manatee Springs, but was especially glad to find the sleeping girl at Silver Glen who was easy to photograph and too lazy to swim away from near constant annoyance by one particular spring-goer. An incredibly gentle and awesome animal. If I'm reincarnated as one of these, I'd be a-ok with that.

 

 

 

Thank you to everyone that came and made it such an amazing week, especially Mike Lucas for carpooling with me and spending an extra day collecting in the Panhandle on the way down so I could see some really cool "lifer" species, to Isaac for setting the whole thing up for us, and to everyone talented enough to volunteer cooking duties. The food was delicious and much needed after tiring days of being hard at play. The local knowledge and hospitality from Don and Doug Dame was awesome, and Mike and I greatly appreciated the help of Doug and Ken Normandin who were able to finally put us on some ommata on the way home. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend time with and observe the other photographers in their natural habitat and learning about how they get all the fantastic shots. I definitely feel like I may have gotten the benefit of "knowledge osmosis" while there.

Edited by Kanus, 05 March 2015 - 04:19 PM.

[gerald]

Last I checked ( a year ago) the Ocala variety (your photo) and Alafia variety (farther south, Tampa Bay basin) of the "Metallic Shiner" were not yet described species.  Brady Porter was working on those but I dont know the current status of the description papers.  Spectacular fish for sure -- I hope they do well in captivity for you.

[Isaac Szabo]

Great photos Derek! That manatee shot is beautiful. I like the pattern of light ripples and reflection as well as the color of the background water. Man, those colei are just awesome!

[Casper]

Awesome pics... what a great bunch of views.

I saw Bryce's Gator the other day but now they are "whited out" with a tiny red x in the corner.

?

Very nice Derek.  Those Metallic Shiners are always sweet and make great aquarium fish.

Your blue green color on the Grass Carp is a pretty unreal enhancement.

I sure wish we would have chanced going downstream and swimming with the 50 plus Gar.  I bet if we would have asked the authorities they would have made an exception for us.

When i got out of the water i had one thing only on my mind... where are the hot showers!

It was amazing how close we came to big birds... in particular Buzzards, Comorants and Blue Herons.  Oddly you could get right up on these birds while submerged with only your head halfway up, and "feel" their many textures with your eyes.  Feathers, scaly legs, glassy eyes.  I had my thumb and forefinger nearly encircling a comorant's leg and thought twice when i saw that snaggle tooth sharpie coming off the tip of his beak.  I had protective eye gear on but potential bloodied mangled digit nubs were worrisome.

Hopefully another return will be made.  I have organized several Tates Hell trips but unsure when i can do another as they require intensive planning and prepping.  The state of Florida offers many wonders indeed.  I do plan on taking the family to Ocala this Summer and raid the monkey lair for camera gear.

 

 

 

As for a few more photos before Rudy wraps up his word play, i thought this was an interesting portrait.  Like a parchment sepiatone.  We hit a little creek dipnetting and caught a great variety of species.  Michael had his photo tank set up for viewing but no clear water.  I guess he was not keen on the BSA motto.  At the Springs we would find very ellusive Pygmy Sunfish.  I came across one jet black with tracing of iridescent blue guarding his special spot among the Cypress roots.  When i finally was able to flush him out and move my camera close his blue washed away to this...

 

[Kanus]

Great Elassoma photos Casper!

Unfortunately that grass carp photo was taken from quite far away, so that's the best I could manage at color correction, but it was my sharpest shot of them. Life is rough when you don't have RAW files. I may start over with the original image and see if I can do better.

I was pretty amazed by how tolerant the birds were as well. It was either like they didn't know gators eat birds, or that (and I can't believe this!) they knew we weren't gators. I think we were every bit as stealthy and graceful in the water!

Also, I'm skeptical of how willing those park rangers would've been to let us go downstream, seeing as how they seemed to pull rules out of thin air when it came to how close we were allowed to approach the manatees. I was a bit irritated that they were yelling at people for not being fast enough to get 50 feet away from an animal that is a very adept swimmer. If they'd seen that manatee swim directly under me, NANFA would probably have been permanently banned!