Stormy Weather...

Stormy weather provides wonderful opportunities for the photographer. You can capture dramatic cloud formations and fantastic lightning! This scene was photographed from the top deck of the St. Petersburg Pier during a lightning storm. It was beautiful to watch from afar.

Want to try to photograph lightning this summer? You'll need a safe location, tripod, cable release and the bulb setting on your camera. Manual focus, (so the camera isn't trying to autofocus for each shot). You can also use a Lightning Trigger, which works great for this purpose. At that moment, my Lightning Trigger was over the bridge and in my car, near that bolt of lightning. I decided to do it the old fashioned way, by using the bulb setting to expose for the length of time needed. I used a 24-70mm lens, allowing about 60 seconds for the sky paint the picture. Exposure times vary depending on light conditions. Experiment with a few settings to see what works best. Be safe and have fun shooting!

Pier Bait House (and how to catch a pelican)...

The Pier Bait House in St. Peterburg, FL is a great place to photograph! You can get Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream here, which you'll need for a hot day. Fishing gear, bait, cold drinks, you name it... it's all at the bait house.

There are pelicans everywhere, waiting for a handout such as the wishful thinking pelican below who was keeping a close eye on me. He let me come close enough to get a birds eye view of his world. I rested my camera on the ground, used a 12-24mm wide angle lens to get this beak-to-lens shot.

I couldn't resist using a little interesting texture for a painterly look in this image. Hope to see you down at the pier one evening! Summer clouds are building and there are many great photo opportunities! 

I hope to see you in online at BetterPhoto.com this Wednesday too! Photoshop Enhancing Images & Creating Works of Art starts for the month of June. One of the many things we'll cover will be ways to use creatively use texture in your photos. Make great pictures! ~ Deb