Urban Nature

[Mark Fuge]

This image was taken last weekend (12-1) when we ventured to Venice to attend the Clyde Butcher open house and book signing. Well worth the visit to his darkroom studio and gallery.

The image shows the Venice Rookery environs as we found them on that date, with a Great Blue in flight. The image was shot on a bright sunny day about noon, as that was when we were there. Not the best lighting, but what we had to deal with. We saw four great blues and an anhinga during our short stay for lunch and a few shots. The season is not yet, but there was a pair of blues building a nest, though there was a lot of clutter branches blocking the view. Soon however, the rookery will again be in full action and we will return. But wanted to show the area, since they cut down all the brush a few years ago.

Modification included CS4, Topaz Simplify and Lens Effects as well as the new Redfield Final Touch plug-in.

Enjoy!

[Cheryl Slechta]

Mark, thanks for the update on the rookery. I bet the Clyde Butcher open house was neat!

[Anita Bower]

Unfortunately, the beautiful Heron does not stand out against the busy background.

[denise ippolito]

Mark, the scene seems a little busy for me. Thanks for the info on the Rookery and I do like the new filter by Redfield even though it is very basic.

[Mark Fuge]

Thanks all for viewing and comments. Appreciate it.

I purposely showed it full frame, or near so with some cropping of the bottom, rather than cropping the GB to make it more identifiable. The intent was to show the "distruction" caused by good intensions. The loss of vegitation turned this highly regarded rookery into an urban wasteland. At least until nature restores it, which will take years even in the Florida jungle. No restoration followed the "destruction" of this once jewel of nature sites, so it will be left to nature to restore it if the "do gooders" will leave it to be left alone.

Busy is what you get, when man tries to make things better. Often the effort fails at what was intended.

Close ups of the island rookery is all that will be photogenic for a few years. Flight shots will be next to impossible. Normally flight shots in the area shown would render birds with a vegitation background and no mobile homes and power poles. That is however gone for now.