Lake and Sumter County Coffee Table Book

The In Focus Photography Club was approached by the Lake Sumter CC Development office to provide photos for a hard cover coffee table book that will be out this October. I learned that one of my shots will be included early in the book as a full page (sweet!). These are the photos I submitted for use.

Dave and Pam at Rock Springs, Apopka, FL

Kelly Park in Apopka, FL, is a beautiful spot. Come and see it for yourself! The day we were there, that and the light were perfect. The temperatures were very pleasant and almost no insects whatsoever. We enjoyed a picnic in the park, and we'll be coming back, sharing the park's beauty with visiting friends and relatives.

Turtles were the only critters in evidence that day. I spoke with one of the park's attendants who said that river otters live there too. The animals come out around noon and swim up and down the spring's flow for a couple of hours. We hung around, hoping to see the cute little critters, but there are areas along the springs that are accessible only by inner tube or kayak.

There were people tubing in the spring, but I'm not into torture. I want to come back this summer - that 68-72 degree water will be refreshing then.

You can see how lovely and lush this place is. I know I'll be drawn back again and again.

Sunsets

We get a lot of really nice sunsets during the dry season. It comes not only from the indigenous dust that the dry season creates, but it is also a side effect of brushfires that seasonally plague Florida until the arrival of the rainy season at the end of May.

Pictures of Florida Wildlife and Parks

We've been able to visit a couple of parks and wildlife refuges over the last month or so, and were able to get some pretty amazing shots of different animals and birds. Check them out! For more pictures, check out this link

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=169407&id=1060654732#/album.php?aid=169404&id=1060654732&ref=mf

On the Dora Canal...

This heron got lucky and nailed himself a fish almost too large for him to swallow. We watched him make a sudden jump into the canal and spear the fish. Subsequently the heron took it to shore and speared it several times with its beak to make sure it was dead. Traffic on the canal kept us from watching him go through the process of eating it.

This guy I think is a Cooper's hawk.
It sat on its branch watching us as we
clicked away with our cameras. It
was a real treat for us to be able to
capture these pictures.

I've never seen a heron hunker down in the water like this before.

Lake Woodruff Wildlife Refuge

Blue Heron

Tri-colored heron

A barred owl - this guy was very cooperative.

Too bad I didn't have a tripod.

This is an immature green heron. Yep,
I know, because I looked it up!

Spending Time with Geocaching and with Photo Club

One of the hobbies we enjoy spending our time on is geocaching.

It takes us to a lot of interesting places. Floridian towns have at least one mural and some have quite a few more.

Deland has many and they're very impressive.

We were in Palatka, near the St. Johns River, and a marina's wall features a very elaborate one indeed. I'll post it when I get the pictures uploaded.

Shay Fox (WOFL FOX 35 reporter on March 10, 2009) - Beautiful murals outline city walls in DeLand. Mural artist, Courtney Canova, said they were created to honor the history of the city. Yet, they have been repeatedly defaced by vandals.

"It's a storyline and there's a story behind the mural and everything else, and when it starts getting tagged, it distracts. Just seeing it was very disappointing," said Canova.
About seven years ago, Canova and local students painted one of the vandalized murals, to honor the men and women of color who lived and worked in the city in the late 1800s and early 1900s.