When I see vultures, far from feeling revulsion (the stereotype for these particular carrion-eaters and the rest of their ilk), I feel awe. Like Shelly addressing the skylark, I feel like saying, "Be thou me".

Yes, this is still the Silver River! The progenitors of these clowns went walkabout back when they were doing the Tarzan movies here. Another Florida "exotic" on the loose along with invasive water hyacinth, pythons under someone's porch, and an African frog that might just try and eat your cat! They are fun to watch, but if you get too close, the bolder males won't hesitate to come abord and carry out a search and seizure operation.

Here's a guy I met on the way back to the canoe ramp. I was getting pretty hungry, so I hooked up to some deadfall for drink of water and a sandwich and after a couple minutes up came my friend. He was a handsome alligator; about nine feet long, I would guess. I think he was just interested in warming up from the 72 degree water, but who can say he wasn't enjoying my company... see his smile?

Little Green Heron fluffing up his feathers. I shot this from about six feet, while trying to keep from drifting past him. I kept having to shift the canoe... as quietly as possible. He stayed around for at least five minutes, sometimes looking at me curiously, sometimes oblivious.

I spend a lot of time in a canoe with my camera on the Silver River, located in Silver Springs, actually part of Ocala, FL. For those who don't know, the river is fed by a famous, first magnitude spring, reputed to be one of the largest on the planet, with a gush of somewhere around 550 million gallons per day! There are also many other springs at the head of the river that add to the flow.
The water at the main spring head is crystal clear; it clouds more, as you move downstream, but still stays amazingly luminous, until you get down toward the power boat launching area, and finally, somewhere on the way to Moss Bluff, it loses much of it's magic and becomes just an ordinary river again.
Years ago, I travelled this river underwater (both SCUBA and snorkeling) with my youngest son. That was before I knew just how big, the alligators get here! and before I had one swim over and check me out on another spring-fed river, but, as they say, that's a different story...This gorgeous little guy, this post's visual story, is a Little Green Heron. He just happened to be curious and stayed around long enough to pose for me. Sometimes you get lucky.

I won't be as loquacious in subsequent posts, but since this is the first one, here's a brief self sketch. When I hear the plunk of my canoe paddle parting water or the crunch of powder, compacting beneath my skis, I’m a happy man. I take a camera everywhere I go. If you don’t, you’re guaranteed to miss that one amazing shot. In recent years this has gotten to be much less of chore than it used to be! I’m NOT a purist. I say, “Long live the digital age!” I‘m glad I‘ve endured long enough to enjoy it. It compensates for waning muscle power!
I’ve spent lots of quality time in the “wild”, but this is my first foray into the wilds of the Internet. I just finished transferring six odd gigs of images, to the laptop that I use down here in Florida. I got them from a pile of CDs that I brought from our farm in upstate New York. I love both places and I think that will show in my postings. There will also be material from other places, perhaps some from friends and family. My sister, also an avid photographer, just moved to Thailand.
However, with my present stock alone, I could upload photos from now until rapture… and I keep taking more! I admit it. I’m insane. It’s an obsession, with which, so far, I have only inundated friends and family. My fondest wish would be for this blog to make a few others feel the intensity of my madness! I’ve been wanting to share more widely for a while now. I hope that others may find in these images, some of the joy that I felt taking them. Whatever their merit or lack thereof, know that they are the product of passion. And isn’t that what makes life worth living? So here goes. I hope you find something here to feel strongly about.