South Florida - Blue Skies at First Light
I came to South Florida from New York in 1970 to attend college. And stayed there. Little did I know that I would fall in love – first with the land, then with the person who’s been my spouse and best friend for almost fifty years, and last with the art and craft of photography. Over the years, my collection of photographs from this bioregion grew exponentially and the thought of selecting my favorites for an online gallery and then a book seemed a daunting task. Time and again, I put this project off “for later when I have more time”.
Then, just after I had retired, the COVID-19 pandemic Summer “Safer at Home” directive gave me the chance to cherish every moment, and to reflect on my life as well as this project. As an elder, albeit a healthy one, I recognized that I was at an elevated risk for infection and needed to stay at home for a while. Feeling my mortality a bit but being grateful for decades of time spent outdoors making photographs, I heeded one of my teacher’s instructions to make new discoveries, to make good use of this time, and to do so with creativity. So I dove into this project with enthusiasm. Once I became immersed in going over thousands of images, any negative thoughts I had about the scope of the work disappeared, and everything moved along very smoothly. I found images I’d long forgotten; I saw recent images in a new light; and time flew as I worked a few hours each day – alternating time with garden projects and even a few photo shoots once natural areas opened up bit by bit. I was in “The Zone” and I was keenly aware of this great blessing. These galleries and the accompanying
Gallery descriptions follow. Photos from this gallery along with some of my poetry appear in my coffee table book of the same name.
The Chain O' Lakes: Where It All Begins
The Everglades watershed's bioregion begins in Osceola County of Central Florida where water flows south from East Lake Tohopekaliga, passing through Lake Tohopekaliga, Lake Cypress, Lake Hatchineha into Lake Kissimmee. The Kissimmee River empties into Lake Okeechobee which in turn loses outflow to the Caloosahatchee River (flowing west into the Gulf of Mexico near Sanibel Island) and the St. Lucie River (flowing into the Atlantic Ocean at Port St. Lucie). Historically, when Lake Okeechobee overflowed in the wet season (June October), sheet flow (a 50 mile wide shallow band of water) moved south and eventually southwest to feed the southern Everglades ecosystem. Since the early 1900s’, this southerly flow of water has been heavily altered by human activity of diking, drainage, and development. Large scale engineering efforts to “repipe” the system have been ongoing since the 1990’s in the hope of restoring some of the natural water flow, maintaining an adequate freshwater supply for a growing human population during the dry season (November-May), and managing water levels to prevent interior urban areas from flooding in wet seasons and during tropical cyclone events. This is a very rural area with few accommodations near the best photographic locations. Except for our first trip to the area, my companions and I always stayed a couple of nights in Kissimmee-St. Cloud and then drove almost an hour before ever taking the cameras out.
Photographs in this Gallery were made at Canoe Creek Road and Joe Overstreet Landing, Kenansville; Lake Kissimmee State Park; and at Lake Jackson in Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area.
Green Grass, Golden Light
When most Floridians think of the Everglades, the first thing that comes to mind is the wildlife of its freshwater marshes (seasonally flooded grasslands) and prairies (seasonally flooded shallow grasslands). Visitors want to see alligators and the wading birds but the landscapes are equally fascinating to me. I’ve spent countless hours at every time of the day in every kind of weather during every month of the year making images that convey the sense of awe and wonder that I experience in person. There’s nothing like a foggy sunrise backlighting spider webs, a fiery sunset that turns the land to amber waves of sawgrass, or a summer thunderstorm to make me ooh and ahh over Nature’s beauty and power.
Photographs in this Gallery were made in Water Conservation Area 3; Cutler Bay Wetlands; Everglades National Park: Anhinga Trail, Ficus Pond, around Mahogany Hammock, Pahayokee, Shark Valley, and Taylor Slough; Grassy Waters Preserve, West Palm Beach; Green Cay Wetlands, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, and Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Boynton Beach; Peaceful Waters Sanctuary, Wellington; and along the Tamiami Trail (US 41) between Miami and Naples.
Domes, Dwarfs, Sloughs & Strands
A South Florida cypress swamp is a seasonally flooded forest dominated by cypress trees – conifers that prior to WWII reached over 100 feet tall in SW Florida. Their lightweight, rot resistant wood made them essential for the War’s PT boat industry so that few giant trees remain today. Hurricanes from the 1960s to the present day knocked down many of the remaining giants so it will be another hundred years or so before the current generation of trees may begin to scrape the skies again. The dwarf cypress forests are stands of small cypress trees that live in potholes in the limestone rock – their height effectively limited by the lack of space for root development and nutrient uptake. The inverted soup bowl shape of a cypress dome is also due to soil depth. The center of the dome has deeper soil because the limestone bedrock has been dissolved away by thousands of years of organic acid action from decomposed plant material. Deep soil over a deep solution hole enables trees to be larger and usually means there is water in the center of the dome for more months than the surrounding dwarf forests or grassy prairies. This water supports fish, turtles, wading birds, and even alligators who may feed easily because the food is so concentrated as the dry season progresses. Cypress strands are elongated cypress swamps; the center usually has deep water that remains even in the driest of seasons. In the well-drained sandy soils of the western sections of the Big Cypress Swamp, dwarf cypress grades into slash pine flatwoods. Loxahatchee Slough between Lake Okeechobee and West Palm Beach contains remnants of cypress swamp.Fortunately, it’s relatively easy to walk into the cypress forests on boardwalk trails.
But the real fun for me has been the “swamp slog / swamp tromps” that I’ve done off trail. There’s nothing like wading waist deep cool water - slowly and silently walking with like-minded companions deep into the swamp. No trails, just compass directions and landmarks to guide you. Because the cypress, red maples, pop ash, and pond apples that make up most of the forest canopy are deciduous, and water levels of the swamp vary dramatically from wet to dry season, I enjoy photographing the same location multiple times each year because of the differences in light and landscape. I’ve been lost only once (in the Fakahatchee Strand but we found our way back to the road almost a mile away from our vehicle as light was fading), and have learned to limit the distance of my forays in order to focus on the photographs rather than the area covered. I’ve only been close to alligators a couple of times but each time I knew where they were and adjusted my path accordingly so as not to be a threat to them.
Photographs in this Gallery were made from the air in a Cessna 172 piloted by Nick Hernandez-Hendrix; in the Big Cypress National Preserve: Dade-Collier Transition & Training Airport; Kirby Storter Roadside Park; along the Loop Road (Hwy 94) and at Sweetwater Strand, Gator Hook Strand, Pace’s Dike and Gum Slough; along the Turner River Road (Hwy 839) and at Bear Island Unit; in Collier Seminole State Park; in Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and the Corkscrew Regional Ecosystem Watershed (CREW) Marsh, Naples; in Dinner Island Ranch Wildlife Management Area, Clewiston; in Everglades National Park in the dwarf cypress forest between Pahayokee and Mahogany Hammock roads, in “Double Dome”, and “Movie Dome”; in Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Copeland; in Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge, Immokalee; and on the East Coast in the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Boynton Beach; Tall Cypress Natural Area, Coral Springs, and in Grassy Waters Preserve, West Palm Beach.
On Highest Ground
The pine rocklands are South Florida's most endangered plant community. Historically occupying the highest ground (up to 20' elevation) on a relatively narrow Coastal Ridge of limestone rock from the Miami-Dade / Broward County line south following US Highway 1 to Florida City then arcing west through the Redlands and finally following the main road in Everglades National Park to Mahogany Hammock. Because this land did not flood, it quickly became settled and farmed. The wood of the dominant plant species, Dade County Slash Pine, was so hard that it was insect resistant - thus adding to its demise from overharvesting. The understory of saw palmetto and hundreds of herbaceous plants represents the most biologically diverse community anywhere south of the Florida Panhandle. Today, only 2% of pine rocklands remain but almost all them are in Miami-Dade County Parks/Preserves or in Everglades National Park. Despite this protection, pinelands face the threat of a lowered water table due to climate change (longer, warmer, drier dry seasons) and increased demands for pumping water out of the aquifer to meet the demands of a growing human population. These changes in hydroperiod seem to reducing populations of some of the more endangered plant species. Although the remaining pine rocklands are well protected, unless they burned on a 3-5 year wet season cycle, ecological succession results in the establishment of hardwood hammock species to the detriment of pineland species.I enjoy making photographs here because this community is rich in textures, patterns, shapes and colors. Pineland landscapes also offer dramatic sunrise and offer dramatic sunrise and sunset subjects.
Photographs in this Gallery were made in Everglades National Park: Long Pine Key and around Mahogany Hammock and in Larry & Penny Thompson Park, Miami.
Touching the Tropics
South Florida's tropical hardwood hammock community has always been small in area. Occupying high ground on the Coastal Ridge that never floods, hammocks are dominated by trees and shrubs also found in the Caribbean, Central America and even northern South America. This forest's high humidity excludes fires that might sweep the surrounding pine rockland or freshwater marshes. Today, most hardwood hammocks are included in National, State or County preserves but have become increasingly isolated from one another by urbanization. Since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, a succession of storms have removed much of the high canopy, opening the hammock floor to light and the resulting rapid growth of understory herbs, ferns, shrubs, and tree seedlings. It will take decades without such storms to rebuild the forest architecture again. Walking into a hammock, I'm always struck by how cool and humid the air is. It's a pleasure (particularly in the dry season when the mosquitos are less abundant) to sit silently on the forest floor with my back to a tree and just be present.
Photographs in this Gallery were made in Everglades National Park at Royal Palm Hammock, Mahogany Hammock, Mosier Hammock, Bear Lake Trail hammocks;in Bill Sadowski Park, Palmetto Bay; in Castellow Hammock Park and Camp Owaissa Bauer, Homestead; Green Cay Nature Center, Boynton Beach; Tall Cypress Natural Area, Coral Springs; and Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park.
Salt in the Earth, Trees in the Sea
Almost all of South Florida's coastline from the northern part of Biscayne Bay south to Florida Bay and Gulf side of the Florida Keys, and then northwest to Sanibel Island was historically ringed by mangrove forest grading to other salt-tolerant herbs, grasses, and buttonwood forests on the landward edge. Urbanization has removed some of those mangroves, particularly along Biscayne Bay and the Florida Keys, but one of the world's largest mangrove forests remains in the Ten Thousand Islands of Everglades National Park. Mangroves provide significant ecological benefits as nurseries for invertebrates, fish, and birds and reduce wave impacts from tropical storm systems. Unfortunately, in 2017, Hurricane Irma damaged 60% of the mangroves in Everglades National Park removing 40% of the total canopy. A 2m storm surge carrying mud and water from Florida Bay devastated the black and white mangrove forest between Rowdy Bend and Flamingo. The mud deposits created an anoxic soil condition that killed the roots of almost all of the trees. It will take decades for this part of the forest to regenerate. Mangrove forests and the coastal prairies can seem intimidating at first glance, but with adequate mosquito protection, patience for moving slowly, and an adventurous spirit, this community hosts a bevy of rare and interesting plants and opportunities for stunning landscapes.
Photographs in this section were made from the air in a Cessna 172; in Ten Thousand Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Goodland; Everglades National Park: Bear Lake Trail, Coot Bay Hammock; Coot Bay Pond, Christian Point Trail, Eco Pond, Flamingo, Mahogany Hammock; Mrazek Pond, Snake Bight Trail, West Lake; Crane Point Hammock, Marathon; Long Key State Park, Islamorada; Matheson Hammock Park, Coral Gables; Ludovici Park, Palmetto Bay; Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Sanibel Island and at a remnant Indian midden on Chokoloskee Island near Everglades City.
Sun, Sand, Sea & Sky
Much of South Florida's coastlines that were not occupied by mangrove forests were urbanized long ago. Some remnants remain as County or State parks and it's in these places that one can get a sense of what it was like before the early Twentieth Century. It was the beaches of Southwest Florida that called to my family for regular Summer visits beginning in 1961 and culminating in their retirement relocation in 1973. I cut my Florida teeth under the sun and on the sands of Florida - shell collecting bucket in hand. And then many years later belly-crawling, camera in hand, to photograph the myriads of shorebirds ("peeps") whose hyperactive behavior fascinated me.
Photographs in this Gallery were made at Crandon Park and Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park, Key Biscayne; Big Pine Key; the Charles Deering Estate, Palmetto Bay; Flamingo, Everglades National Park; Ft. Myers Beach; Lignumvitae Key State Park, and Sanibel Island.
Nature's Treasures' Coast
The Southeastern coast of Florida due east of Lake Okeechobee and centered on the St. Lucie River is a beautiful area of pine flatwoods, freshwater marshes, scrub, and miles of sandy beaches. Home to Burrowing Owls, Gopher Tortoises, and the nesting beaches for sea turtles. I would like to spend additional time here to savor its flavors more fully.
Photographs here were made in Hugh Taylor Birch State Park, Ft. Lauderdale; Blowing Rocks Reserve, Jupiter; Jensen Beach; Jonathan Dickinson State Park, Hobe Sound; Savannas Preserve State Park, Port St. Lucie; and Walton Scrub Preserve, Jensen Beach.
Light Around the Edges
I've always thought of the Florida Keys as the edge of Florida. Separated from the mainland, this string of islands (with few inexpensive places to stay overnight) has always fascinated me but it was never an easy thing to just load the gear and jump into the truck with the call of "let's go to the Keys". So, my trips afield have been short and infrequent but invariably I say to myself that I've got to do this more often. Sadly, urbanization and the impacts of four hurricanes since Andrew in 1992) have taken a toll on the natural systems. Many endangered plants such as the Florida Keys Tree Cactus and the Semaphore Cactus teeter on the brink of extinction because (we think) of sea level rise and probably other micro-environmental changes that have upset the delicate equilibrium of the Keys ecosystem.
Photographs were made at Bahia Honda State Park and Crane Point Hammock, Marathon; over Biscayne National Park by air in a Cessna 172 Skyhawk seaplane; National Key Deer Wildlife Refuge, Big Pine and No Name Keys; Dagny Johnson Key Largo Hammock Botanical State Park, Key Largo; and Windley Key Fossil Reef Geological State Park, Islamorada.
As Above, So Below
Making photographs at night in our bioregion is complicated by the fact that light pollution from the urbanized East Coast requires at least a ninety minute drive into Big Cypress National Preserve or Everglades National Park in order to have a chance at reasonably dark skies. Another challenge is the fact that Florida's humidity reduces the chances for clear skies - particularly from May to September when the Milky Way is highest in the sky. An eye to the weather forecasts, insect gear, flexibility, and patience are key to successful night shoots.
The Milky Way photographs here were made at sites in Big Cypress National Preserve and at Long Pine Key, Everglades National Park. The photo of the August 2017 solar eclipse was made from Everglades National Park and the one of Comet Neowise was made from the Tamiami Trail.