St. Augustine’s Birding & Photo Fest… fun at night!

We had beautiful weather last week in St. Augustine for Florida’s Birding & Fest. Lots of opportunities to photograph birds, landscapes, and cityscapes at twilight like the ones we did for my two night photography workshops. We worked through some rain issues the first night, however everything turned out great! Special thanks to my wingman Lewis Kemper who helped with both night workshops. This gave our Canon and our Nikon attendees, equal attention! We hope to do nighttime workshops again next year, and we have some great ideas for even more creative fun!

Nothing too fancy here, just the view outside my hotel window at dawn. It was a treat to be able to watch the sky change by the minute. I actually saw three meteors in St. Augustine during the festival, I think that means good luck for me! Do I have three wishes pending? Or do I have to make them right away…

A fisheye view from inside Flagler College at night. A Sigma 8mm circular fisheye on a full frame Nikon D3s camera creates a perfectly round version of the subject looking straight up. Lots of fascinating detail throughout the buildings, magnificent to take in. I like this kaleidoscope effect! One of the workshop attendees has the same lens, and came away his own version of this elegant architecture. This is also an HDR image, which I covered in my HDR presentation at the festival, along with presentations on infrared photography, and another on creativity with your camera and Photoshop.  

It was great to catch up with everyone at the event, and meet new people, lots of fun! The keynote speaker was Arthur Morris who gave a stunning presentation on birds and his travels throughout the years, so very inspiring! There was a fantastic group of presenters with a wide variety of topics covered, it’s not just birds! Hope to see you at Florida’s Birding & Photo Fest next year! ~ Deb