Jon-Mark Davey

Gator Tail

quakerville — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:14:57 +0000

Gator Tail, originally uploaded by QuakerVille.

Via Flickr:
The orange glow of the late afternoon sun offers a shadowed glimpse of a couple alligators just hanging around doing what they do most, absolutely nothing. Must be males. If they had a TV they would be watching Florida play Nebraska this fine Sunday afternoon.

Beauty and the Beast

quakerville — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 15:29:39 +0000

Beauty and the Beast, originally uploaded by QuakerVille.

Via Flickr:
Lurking just feet ahead of the beautiful American Egret swims a 12 foot long alligator waiting for some unsuspecting creature to become his afternoon snack. The American Alligator has probably been warming itself in the noon sun raising it’s temperature, preparing itself to eat. One of the main reasons Alligators warm in the sun is that when it’s too cold the Alligator can’t digest it’s food so it won’t eat.

As we watched this Egret we realized that the Egret was a formidable hunter as it jumped from one small island to another skimming fish from the water as it passed overhead.

Nature is a cool thing to watch, it an enormous visual symphony.

Beamer flash enhancer

quakerville — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:29:09 +0000

Beamer flash enhancer, originally uploaded by QuakerVille.

Via Flickr:
This is a shot in broad daylight in the Everglades using my Canon 580 with the Beamer. The Cypress trees are about 35-40 feet away and the lighted area is the result of the beamer kicking in to assist. Not only does it illuminate the Cypress trees but also adds to the reflection. Light works that way.

When people see my camera and flash rig they ask me whether the flash enhancer, the "Beamer" really does anything in the daylight. My answer is always, "yup". Here is an example of how well it actually works.

Check out this shot of the Alligator. He’s hiding deep within the Everglades Cypress trees. It’s dark and, even though light is streaming through the trees, I needed a little extra light 35-40 feet away. Enter the “Beamer” an extension on the face of your flash. It’s so cool and I never leave home with out it.

Filed under: Animals, Photos

Great White Heron

quakerville — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 03:04:47 +0000

Great White Heron, originally uploaded by QuakerVille.

Via Flickr:
What is unique about this picture? No, it’s not the two rather large alligators watching this bird as he fishes. He’s a Great White Heron, or "white morph" as some call it. When we first came up on him fishing today we just thought it was another American Egret, we saw quite a few today in the Everglades, but with a little closer inspection he looked sort of dirty, skinny and, "where are his beautiful mating feathers"?

Like a ton of bricks falling on my head I realized that we were observing a Great White Heron, often called the Great Blue Heron White Morph. WoW! How cool!

The two lazy alligators in the view just laid there for hours watching the birds and people from their slippery sloped water way. Other smaller ‘gators in the small water hole in the picture were busy feeding, one alligator was even jumping clear out of the water to impress someone. I had never seen that type of behavior in an alligator before. I tried for a couple hours to record the gator coming clear out of the water, an impressive sight to be sure, but I just could not tell when he was going to leap. The stupid alligator must have thought he was part flying fish that also lived in the adjacent Eco-system and would also occasionally jump clear out of the water. I’ll post a sequence of shots from this afternoon’s encounter with the Great White Heron of South Florida.

Check out my blog at jon-mark.com

Filed under: Animals, Photos