North Captiva Lightning

This Fourth of July found me on North Captiva Island again. It was my third visit to this secluded private island getaway. I had hoped that there would be professional fireworks close enough to see--and photograph--either over the island or the ocean. While the conventional fireworks never materialized, those from God provided plenty to shoot. Within a hour of sundown, a thunderstorm crossed out of the Everglades out and over the Gulf of Mexico.

Photographing lightning during the day is a matter of skill, reflexes, and largely luck. Using a few easy techniques for night photography elinimates a lot of the need for luck, leaving only a little skill.
To take great night lighting photos, you'll need the following:

1. A good thunderstorm (Hey, a little luck will always be needed)
2. A tripod
3. A shutter release cable
4. A DSLR/SLR with a "bulb" shutter speed setting.

By using the bulb setting and the right combination of aperture and focal length, you can set up a reasonably well focused composition where varied distances of lighting strikes will be reasonable sharp. If you really want to get technical when selecting a focal length, spend some time studying "hyperfocal distance". Unfortunately, reading the settings on the barrel of  a lens and making fine adjustments in the dark is not easy, if not impossible. For me, a little dead reckoning, some trail and error, and a little dumb luck paid off.

My greatest challenge in capturing this image was the full moon over my left shoulder. With a fairly long time between strikes as the storm dissipated out over the ocean, my shutter was open for a pretty long time.This particular shot was 65 seconds at f5. While the distance of the lightning called for a fairly wide open apeture, the moonlight on the clouds caused a very overexposed image. Again, a bit of trail and error fixed the problem. And as an added bonus, the moonlight helped make a nice composition out of the foliage near the beach in the foreground.

This technique works best with minimal light polution, so the shooting location on an isolated island was ideal. If all else fails, it's an excellent excuse to seek a secluded location while waiting for the right thunderstorm to come your way.

The Real Florida

I just returned from one of the most unique vacations of my life. I have always sought solitude. Disney World is neat, but for me, real magic is an afternoon on a beach where I can't see another soul in any direction. While spending a week on North Captiva Island, Florida, I found two such places… the Florida State Park on the southern end of North Captiva Island and the island of Cayo Costa.

To get to either of these locations, you need a boat. We rented a house on North Captiva Island and had to take a ferry from Pine Island to get there. There are no cars on North Captiva. Everyone, from renters and residents to staff members, drives golf carts on sandy paths that connect the homes and few businesses. To get to the "geopark" on North Captiva, a golf cart will only get you close, as a hike of roughly a mile is required along a sandy path through the typical Florida scrub. But unlike so much of Florida, this pristine area is perfectly undeveloped. In the place of condos and hi-rise developments are seagrapes, palm trees, and over a mile of beach covered inches thick in seashells.

A few miles north of North Captiva Island is Cayo Costa. We reached this beauty by rented boat. The Florida DNR maintains a free dock for tour vessels and private boats in a sheltered cove on the intercoastal waterway side of the island. The park rangers also provide a shuttle from the dock to the Gulf of Mexico side of the island. There are primitive cottages and campsites on Cayo Costa, but there is no electricity, no paved roads, and no air conditioning. Instead, there are nine miles of undeveloped beached.

A twenty minute hike from where the shuttle dropped us off, we reached a finger of sand stretching out into the Gulf of Mexico. There were gulls and terns lining the shore. Oystercatchers picked at the freshly beached sea urchins that littered the shore. Several small sharks swam within a few feet of the surf. And lying everywhere in the one to two feet of water were all manner of seashells and sanddollars.

Cayo Costa has an interesting history. In the 1700s, the Cayo Costa was supposedly home to the legendary pirate Gasparilla. Much of his treasure was never found. Two hundred years ago the island served as a naval outpost, a Cuban fishing village and later as a quarantine station for immigrants entering Florida through Boca Grand Pass. Around this time, Cayo Costa was also home to a sizeable brothel. I guess fishermen and sailors alike needed entertainment, too.

Florida bills Cayo Costa as "the real Florida." Certainly, the state's legislature is to be commended for protecting these pristine areas. While so much of Florida is covered with high-rise developments and concrete, to me, the treasure here is the opportunity to walk these beaches isolated from the world.

Capturing Lightning

It's amazing how a vacation designed to be all about relaxing and doing nothing has such little free time. And there has been very little time for photography. But late afternoon thunderstorms that appeared across the Everglades slowly worked their way out to sea last night, creating a great opportunity to attempt to capture lightning out over the ocean. Having never really tried to catch lighting bolts, I was apprehensive and unsure of a technique. While I got lucky with a couple of great captures, I was dissappointed to find out that my focus was ever-so-slightly off.



This shot was taken on a tripod at f3.5. I triggered the shot with a shutter release and the shutter was open for 3:55. If you look closely, you will notice several tiny streaks in the top righthand corner of the frame. Those are stars revealed by the retreating storms that blurred with the long shutter. A near miss at best, it leaves me with another lesson learned and another opportunity to wonder "what if". But with luck, Mother Nature will give me another chance or two while I am here.

A Somewhat Different Place

So it’s vacation time. On Saturday, we piled in the car and drove eight hours to Pineland, Florida. From there, we climbed onto a boat for a twenty minute ride to North Captiva Island. It’s an amazing place, different in so many aspects from anywhere I’ve ever been. There are no cars, but there are phones and lights. And thankfully, air-conditioning as it is very hot and humid.

For the last two days, I’ve spent most of my time lying on the beach cooking in the hot sun, reading, and listening to my iPod. The water is flat and calm here. The shore is covered with seashells. There are sea otter, dolphin, and some really large tortoise. And the only place to buy anything has $4 cans of Pringles, $40 pies, beer, and not much else.

I haven’t had much time for photography. At dusk both nights, I’ve snapped a few photos of the sea oats and setting sun. A tripod, the right combination of clouds and sunset, and a graduated neutral density filter can do wonders for slamdunk brilliant colors. Unfortunately, my attempt at capturing lightning last night during the apparently obligatory thunderstorm didn’t work out so well. Chances are, I will get another opportunity.

For some reason, I’ve been struggling to concentrate on reading today. Smeared in sunscreen lying next to the Gulf of Mexico is a great place for thinking deep thoughts. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. I found myself listening to a lot of blues and dissecting some intricate stuff like the Dave Matthews Band that I can only wish I could play. Dave Matthew’s music is oddly timed, intricate, and sometimes difficult to understand. Fitting music, I suppose.

There’s an island nearby called Cabbage Key. A restaurant there claims to be the source of Jimmy Buffet’s Cheeseburger in Paradise. True Parrotheads and even people like me with Google know that the idea for Buffet’s song about “lettuce, tomato, Heinz 57, and French Fried potatos” was birthed in the Tortolas, not southwest Florida. Nonetheless, it reminds me of my favorite Buffet song, A Pirate Looks at Forty. Considering I have a month and a half until I reach the big “four-oh”, it’s hard to image that there’s ever been a better written song about introspection, mistakes and “what if”.

It’s hard to believe it’s been a year since I swam in the Gulf of Mexico. So much has changed. And so much is still the same. There’s another afternoon storm blowing in from across the Everglades. I think I’ll go make a margarita and watch it come across the island while I listen to Jimmy Buffet's simple but oh so accurate words.