George L Smith St Park

George L Smith St Park was exactly what I hoped it would be. I have seen pictures from there for some time. The idea of kayaking in a cypress tree filled swamp was exactly what I wanted as a kayaker. So, on a beautiful spring day, well beautiful minus the wicked high winds, I loaded up the Canon and Kayak and headed off. I was, of course, very aware of the winds that day, I mean I don't mean to brag but I am fairly perceptive, I mean what with feeling the wind on my face. 😀 But, I figured in the middle of forrest surely the winds would be blocked. In short, I was wrong. If you are like me, ironic since I write so much, and do not like to read you can just check out the quick video I recorded...

I realized after being at the park that I am use to taking landscape pictures, I am use to wide open spaces. Even when I kayak I am on relatively open water. The pond was not open, there were times I could barely squeeze my kayak through.

Long story short is I could not figure out how to take pictures of what I was seeing.

To add to my frustration, everything look alike. I could not get a bearing in the pond. All this combine just really threw me off my game, so to speak.

At one point I ended up under dozens of nesting herons and egrets. It was so close and so cool but I could not get a picture. It was at that point I thought, "stop you are on this gorgeous lake in this gorgeous setting and you are very aggravated".

I thought, "what you are doing is not working so do something different." "If you cannot take pictures they way you normally do then figure out something else. If you cannot get a good picture taking pictures the way you do take them a different way." Yes, I talk to myself a lot.

I thought, "what I am seeing that I like?" How do I capture that? I know it all sounds very zen but I stopped and let the swamp come to me. It was one of those moments where I couldn't see the trees because I was looking at the forest. So, again, I just stopped and took in one element at a time and thought, "why do I like that?" "How do I capture that?"

For instance, I liked the depth, the light and shadows...

So I focused on a far off tree and decreased the depth of field.

And then as I mentioned the pictures came to me...

I will not post all the pictures here but once I got out of my own way. I really enjoyed the trip and I enjoyed learning something new and increasing my skills as a photographer.

If you have never been I really recommend going to George L Smith St. Park.

If you are interested you can check out the full gallery at the link embedded in this picture

Assuming someone made it this far. ☺️ Thanks.

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