"A Warm Place in Winter" Blanchard Park, Orlando FL, in December

A "warm" thanks to Doug Hammer for giving me permission to use his song "A Warm Place in Winter" for this video. You can find out more about him at: http://www.doughammer.net/ .
I shot the photos in this video at Blanchard Park, Orlando Florida in mid-December. Sadly, the Econ River that gently glides through this park, and one of the main characters in this video, became the focus of public interest when Leonard Padilla had a team of divers search here for little Caylee Anthony just a month ago. In the wake of her tragic discovery, I wanted to revisit this park and the beauty that survives even during wintertime here. Maybe in some way, this is a tribute to life and a reminder of the beauty that lives on in the wake of tragedy and loss, thinking most of little Caylee and the life taken away from her way too soon. Bless her.

All photos were shot using a QUANTARAY 70-300mm, 1:4-5.8 LD TELE-MACRO [1:2] lens (attached to a Nikon D70 digital SLR camera). Some notes on the flora and fauna in this film: I snapped the alligator photo from across the river and then cropped the image to bring it even closer. He looked to be about ten feet long. The turtles napping with him are river cooters. The water birds featured here: Great Blue Heron, Little Blue Heron (cover photo), Great Egret (the white bird), Florida Sandhill Cranes, White Ibis, Hooded Mergansers (female and male), Mallards (male and female), Common Moorhen (adult (red beak) and immature), Black Vultures. Most of the field flowers are quite small, only a few millimeters across. Like with the alligator, I further cropped the images to enlarge them. At :40, you can see budding Florida (Bald) Cypress "knees" which are the young trees forming. They must initially be completely submerged in flood waters to form, thus the natural need for floods in Florida. The orange shot of cypress branches in the beginning of the film (:16) is from a young cypress that was completely submerged under the flood waters of tropical storm Faye this past summer. The moss clinging to the underside of the Dean Road overpass (:36) is Spanish Moss, an epiphyte in the pineapple family. This moss is famous for giving many large, branching trees in the Southeast, USA a spooky, aged appearance.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• alligator
• birds
• Blanchard
• cooters
• D70
• dam
• Doug
• ducks
• Econolockahatchee
• egret
• great
• Hammer
• heron
• Hooded_Merganser
• mallard
• Orlando
• photography
• piano
• river
• soundscapes
• water

[dmagicianninja]

Very nice video, Bev! I really enjoyed it! Right up my alley ^_^ Calming sounds and pictures to go with them. Keep it up!

[bevscorner]

Thank you!  :-D Your comments are very encouraging. xxoo

[iselalicious]

Beautiful photography, I wish I had the talent to take nice photos. I really enjoyed this video. :)

[bevscorner]

Thank you so much, iselalicious! :-D

[Howard892]

I work at Jay Blanchard park and these pictures are extremely great. I see these exact wildlife every single day I work in real life. If you get a chance come to my park and enjoy these real life views for yourself!!!!! Thank you Bevscorner for your awesome photos really shows what our work and our great wildlife presents to the public. Howard D. Park Spec JBP.

[bevscorner]

Thank you so much, Howard! You all do a wonderful job of preserving nature's beauty there. :-D

[jorj119]

very nice,thanks

[bevscorner]

Thank you so much, Grandma Mary. :-)

[Fr3derick]

So beautiful music to go with those beautiful pictures, Bev. Thanks for posting.

Grandma Mary

[bevscorner]

And to you too, dear Stewart.  xxoo