Grassy Waters Preserve

Grassy Waters Preserve is a wetland nature preserve and a water supply of the city of West Palm Beach. I was initially going to integrate my photos from my trips there into a photo essay, but the images I created were more on the artistic side. Here are my favorites from the second visit. You can also see the first. 

Grassy Waters

I am exploring the possibility of putting together a photojournalism project on green initiatives in South Florida. On a friends suggestion, I headed up to the Grassy Waters Preserve area in North Palm Beach. It is a the water catchment area for West Palm Beach. Unfortunately by the time I arrived around 4:30 the main preserve location with boardwalks was closing. I ended up walking around some nature trails in the area by the Solid Waste Authority. Overall the trip was lackluster with the trails I traveled not as promising as the main Grassy Waters Preserve. Here is a composite I put together. When I photographed the original photo with the birds swarming I got the feeling of what the composite is.

My Original

The sky that I added

The Nuclear Silo that I added

Old film texture overlay

I really wanted to get a great sunset image of the everglades, but there just wasn't a good view in the area. Here are some more artistic images I took while walking around. They are not in the direction of the subject of "Green Initiatives" at all. It's back to the drawing board.

An Afternoon Stroll

Here are some photos I took on my afternoon stroll along the boardwalk at the beach. These continue my recent direction of photographing abstract things and textures. Symmetry at work if I say so myself.

Those that live by the beach often take it for granted, but looking at these images of the sand and water makes me think of going to the beach and just relaxing with the enjoyment of the sand beneath your feet and the slight ambiance of the waves.

My friend had this book that attempted to connect a taste to an image. Each image had dissolving sheets of flavor similar to the Listerine sheets. The one I tried was an image of a sunny side up egg. Apparently the book was old and the flavor was that of melted plastic. Needless to say the idea of connecting the human senses to an image has stuck in my head. So imagine the sand in between your toes.......

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Santa Cruz and Wilder Ranch State Park

On our way to Santa Cruz we stopped at one of the many lighthouses along the coastal highway.


 
In Santa Cruz we checked out the pier and beach side theme park. The area was really touristy and is in full bloom in the summer. It was cool to stand from the pier and watch the seals wrestle and bark below.



On our way back from Santa Cruz, I suggested to my aunt Cathy that we stop at one of the parks or beaches along the coast. We luckily ended up making a good choice and stopped at Wilder Ranch State Park. The park has trails along the water and up the hills. The coast is sheer cliff with a few alcove beaches. A great spot.

Golden Gate

On my way back from Muir Woods, I really wanted to have a picture from high up of the Golden Gate. As with every other day I was in the San Francisco area, it got foggy towards the evening. There goes that idea. Here are some photos from a lighthouse lookout point close to the bridge and also a look up while driving through.

Cathy and Dan

During my trip to the San Francisco area I stayed at my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Dan's place in Pescadero. They live on top of a hill and are the first to grow olive trees in the area. The first image is a view from their backyard. I got some great shots of them around the house and also set up a portrait with them amidst their olive trees. My dad actually requested that I got a picture of Cathy in her weed whacker outfit.



Dan is very eco conscious and told me about the various flowers as I wandered around the yard.  They were both great hosts through out the trip.

Muir Woods

In my recent trip to the San Francisco area, I got the chance to go to Muir Woods with my aunt Cathy. The state park is just north of downtown San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. The  park has different trails through the redwood forest. It's a bit disorienting to look straight up to the tall canopy of the redwood trees.  The forest was a completely different environment then I am used to in South Florida. I would love to put on a gallery showing of a lot of these images printed huge. Prints are available

I encourage you to look at them full screen