A Little History

I am a tree hugging nature lover, and have been since I first set foot outside as an infant in the Florida panhandle. This was back before air conditioning was common place, so we were in intimate contact with the outdoors via open windows and large floor fans. We played outdoors, all manner of neighborhood games, sail boating in Lake Worth, Lake Conway and in the Keys at John Penny Camp. We vacationed outdoors, camping trips to the Smokey Mountains, Yellowstone, Fundy Bay, Fish Eating Creek and many of the state parks in Florida. We went to school with open windows, ( I can still remember the heat rash), which was sheer torture in May and September.

My first two years of junior college, I spent as a Fine Arts major. I continued to go to school thru my twenties and thirties, in between three children, taking courses in the sciences; biology, botany, zoology, chemistry, math, etc., until I finally decided to get serious about earning a living and graduated with an Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Florida.

Flash forward fifteen years, thru another child and an engineering career, to my first digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix, a whole 4 mega pixels and proceeding with flash forward thru a Nikon D60, D90 with a Nikon 70-300 VR lens, thru a D7000, a D7100 and a f4 300mm prime lens usually coupled with a Nikon 1.4 teleconverter, to my Nikon D500 and 200-500 mm zoom.

I really got serious about photography with the D90 and learned to shoot in manual on a Manfrotto carbon fiber tripod. A year of unemployment also helped with the learning curve and I spent many hours at Circle Bar B Preserve photographing birds, reptiles, insects and plants.

The Present

I am still a tree hugging nature lover and have become an avid birder and amateur photographer. Central Florida is a great place for birding and photography. I can go east to Merritt Island / Viera Wetlands or west to Fort Desoto / Honeymoon Island or stay in Lakeland and go to Circle B. North to Brooksville is great for Swallow Tail Kites and then of course the Florida Everglades to the south are fantastic.

Favorite Places

Circle Bar B Preserve

Merritt Island NWR

Viera Wetlands

Ft Desoto County Park

Honeymoon Island State Park

Gatorland in Orlando

Everglades and 10,000 Islands

Sebastian Inlet and Pelican Island

Cockroach Bay

Kissimmee State Park

Matanzas Inlet

Guana River WMA

Orlando Wetlands

Lake Apopka

Any of Florida State Parks, Wildlife Management Areas, Environmental Lands, Preserves, etc.

Software

Adobe CC, Photoshop and Lightroom

Topaz Adjust, Clarity and Details (just got it, lots of fun)

The Future

Continue to grow as a photographer, learn new techniques (landscape and macro), acquire new equipment (of course, Nikon 105mm, 16-24 mm), and go new places with my camera and add to my lifer list (of course again, (I'm up to 218)).

Please say hello if you see me. I’m a short lady, usually in a ball cap with a Manfrotto tripod and Nikon gear and am sometimes pulling a yellow Wheel EEZ beach cart.