Landscape – James Leon Young

December 2, 2021December 2, 2021

Beautiful red Salicornia plants at St. Marks NWR

Next to the Lighthouse at St Marks NWR is an elevated observation deck that looks over the marshes to the southeast.

At high tide pools of water and marsh grasses are visible and at low tide large sections of sand are seen.

At certain times of the year, particularly in fall and winter, the sand appears to be red. I originally assumed it was red algae but I later discovered color is mostly from a salt loving succulent known as Salicornia (aka glasswort).

September 16, 2021September 18, 2021

Why I created a new web site

As a photographer I spend a lot of time improving my skills, both in capturing images and developing the raw images.

My two favorite raw developers are “Darktable” and “RawTherapee”. These programs are constantly being improved and are much better than the versions I used in the past.

Looking at my images on this site I often wish I could go back and change them using my improved skills and better software.

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020

Storm at St. Marks NWR

On 7/21/2020 I headed down to St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge to get some sunset pictures. I knew rain and storms were possible which sometimes can make sunsets more interesting.

As I was driving along lighthouse road near the “T-Dike” I saw to the east one of the yellow construction vehicles used to repair the levee sitting near a structure sometimes called the “bus stop”.

The sun was low in the west and illuminated the scene very nicely and there were some dark clouds forming in the east. I left my tripod in my white van (the Vana White) so I could walk faster.

October 29, 2019October 31, 2019

Planning for Milky Way photography

Capturing good pictures of the Milky Way in Florida can be quite a challenge. Rain, clouds, fog, insects, and bright moonlight are a part of life here. Did I mention snakes? Alligators? Lighthouse ghosts? “Area X”?

This year I had made several attempts to frame good shots with the bright galactic core near terrestrial objects, without much success. As the season progresses the Milky Way gradually moves to the west and the galactic core moves to the south. With the passing of the autumnal equinox in September, it looked like I would not get good images this year.
Continue reading “Planning for Milky Way photography”

October 7, 2019October 29, 2019

Beautiful Marsh Grasses

This year for National Public Lands day I did a photo shoot along St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge road 129 which is the levee separating Stoney Bayou 1 from Mounds pool 1. The view from the levee toward Lighthouse Road can be quite beautiful and I was very pleased with the day’s photos.

The marsh grasses at the refuge are particularly attractive this time of year, and a few clouds appeared to add a bit of drama to the scene.

The marshes were so beautiful I went back a few days later with my mountain bike to ride out to East Stoney Bayou pool which has some really great vistas. It is so remote, the lighthouse appears as a white dot in the distance. I think of this area as “the outback.”

Getting there is a bit of a challenge since some levee washouts from Hurricane Michael still remain, and a fallen tree blocks the alternate access from the primitive walking trail. Access is still possible on foot, horse, or with a sturdy bicycle.

If you can get there, it is well worth the journey!

These are my favorite images from the two visits:

September 21, 2019September 21, 2019

The lighthouse and Milky Way at moonrise.

When I photograph the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge lighthouse and the Milky Way I try to avoid using electronic flash or “light painting” with a flashlight to make the lighthouse and trees more visible.

I used a flashlight in my early Milky Way photos but once during post-processing I noticed there was an owl atop of the lighthouse and decided to quit using artificial lights at night. The last thing I want to do is blind or disturb the wildlife.

Continue reading “The lighthouse and Milky Way at moonrise.”

September 14, 2017September 15, 2017

Moonlight and lightning

The night is a wonderful time to take photographs. I particularly love to take shots of the Milky Way, lightning storms, and moonlit landscapes.

Moonlight is simply sunlight bounced off the gray moon and it has the same color balance as sunlight. Moonlight photographs look very much like daylight images except you can see stars and any source of artificial light appears to be very bright.
Continue reading “Moonlight and lightning”

July 6, 2016July 6, 2016

Clouds and patchy sunlight over a salt marsh at St. Marks NWR

A few days ago Chantal and I were at the St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge as some dark storm clouds passed to our west. The dark clouds formed a beautiful backdrop to the Cedar Point Trail salt marsh. The sun was low in the sky and illuminated parts of the marsh creating a great photo opportunity.

We were also treated to the sight of several sea squirts shooting impressive streams water into the air. Perhaps they were warming up for the 4th of July celebration the next day.

The image of the sea squirts was extracted from a video I shot so it is not the same quality as the images from my Pentax DSLR.

I hope you enjoy these images!

Jim

(Click to enlarge)

January 9, 2016

Stoney Bayou on a cool overcast winter afternoon

As my wife and I were heading out for some birding and photography on a cool overcast afternoon at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge we were greeted by a gentleman who commented that “There is nothing to see here today”. We knew better. There is always something to see if you know where (and how) to look.

We saw an alligator eat a huge blue crab in Mounds Pool 1 and a Great Blue heron swallow a flounder in Stoney Bayou. The sound of birds was everywhere and large numbers of migratory birds were settling down for the night on the sand islands.

My favorite image of the day was this late afternoon shot of Stoney Bayou pool #1 with an old tree stump in the foreground , a small rocky sand island in the background, and blocks of “sea” foam floating on the water.

It is very easy to overlook a photo subject like this, particularly if you are focused only on a single subject like wildlife. Keep an open mind and learn to “see” and don’t let a few clouds discourage you from going out in nature.

Stoney Bayou shoreline on a cool overcast winter day with an old tree stump in foreground. (1-8-2016) - St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge.

Thanks for visiting,

Jim

December 31, 2015December 9, 2016

Beautiful Winter sunsets 2015-2016

In a previous post I wrote of the beauty of Winter sunsets at St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge. It is now a year later and I want to share with you some of this season’s beautiful sunsets.

The images were taken mostly at St. Marks NWR and a few other Florida panhandle locations. I’ll update this post as I get more images.

The best time to go hunting for Winter sunsets is right after a weather front has passed and the air is still activated.

I hope you like them!