Early Light on South Lido Park
March 31, 2013
Drove out to South Lido Park this morning in time for the sunrise. I love the early morning light but usually don’t inflict my sunrise and sunset photos on people. I’m sneaking this one in, though. . . . The red mangrove is one of my favorite trees, as you know if you’ve been looking at my photographs for very long. Red mangroves and early sun, now there’s a combination. . . . For years I’ve wondered what these plants (see third photo) are, and today I finally did some research. I remembered a similar-looking northern plant that my biologist husband says is a portulaca. So Googling Florida portulaca I see that this one is sea purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum). While the colorful stems are what interest me, the leaves are edible. One web site says the plant has been used to treat scurvy. . . . Sometimes when the sun hits ripples in water, it seems to create a lens. Do you agree? Do you know why that might be so?
Romancing Reality 
What an imaginative set. The fourth one down has a wonderful texture to the water and the sluggish ripples – almost oily.
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April 1, 2013 at 5:56 PM
Thanks, Andy. Did you look at the metadata on that fourth one? I shot it at 1/160th of a second and ƒ16. That’s a faster shutter speed and smaller aperture than I usually shoot. Will have to try that again. The ripples in that one are actually ripples in the sand. The larger blobby shapes are the water ripples.
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April 1, 2013 at 8:43 PM
I don’t know the science behind it, but water acts as a lens because light is bent by defraction when it enters – that’s why when you put a stick in the water at an angle it appears disjointed. Or something like that.
Nice series!
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April 2, 2013 at 10:33 PM
Well, you’ve gotten us a bit closer, haven’t you? Thanks for writing, John!
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April 3, 2013 at 10:36 AM
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