Lake Louisa State Park in Florida

During our recent Florida trip, we visited Lake Louisa State Park, which was just a short drive west from the Disney area, to check out some of the natural scenery found there.

As with our visit to Wekiwa Springs State Park, we enjoyed seeing all of the beauty of nature, including the lake for which the park is named and the elegant live oak trees, such as the one in the above photo shading the boardwalk area. This area serves as a gateway for those arriving at the park by boat. We had arrived by car, of course, since we did not think to bring a boat with us to Florida. And like Wekiwa Springs, this park also had a small admission fee, which was $5 per car for Lake Louisa. For those arriving by boat, the fee was slightly less, and there was a deposit box for those boaters to use to pay. Nice to see that the honor system is still in effect in some places. I just hope that no one abuses it.

We did not have a big agenda on our visit to Lake Louisa. We were just looking for some things to do to pass some time while we were in the area, and we decided to check out a few of the local state parks. We thought we might check out some nature and walk sometrails, and Lake Louisa was a good place for that.

There were some clouds out that day, as you can see here:

Okay, so it actually was not quite that bad. There were clouds, but they were not moving quite so quickly as that would make it seem. Being that this was Central Florida, even with the clouds there was some heat and humidity. Fortunately, a good rain shower had come through the area while we were on our way to the park, and that helped to cool things down a little bit.

Here is the still version of the scene pictured above. Interestingly, even though the park is named for the lake, the park does not encompass the entire lake. That isn’t a problem, of course. It is just interesting to look out at the distant shores of the lake and see houses built along the edge of the water. Just a slight reminder of the real, modern-day world, I suppose.

Interestingly, a few years back when the water level was low, the remains of a crashed World War II fighter plane were found, because parts of the plane could be seen sticking out of the water. The plane had crashed in 1944 during a training exercise. Also, a canoe carved by ancient people of the area was also found. Pretty cool!

We enjoyed our afternoon at Lake Louisa, as you can see here. We did a little more than just look at the lake, however. There were several trails through the park area, and we took some time to walk on those, keeping an eye on the clouds above just in case more rain came through. But more about the trails some other time!

For the Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him. The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. - Psalm 95:3-5

About the photos:

I have posted a couple of the motion photos similar to the one above on social media recently, and there have been a few questions about how it was done. So here is the answer: That was created using Plotagraph, which allows you to add motion to still images. No time-lapse photography or other techniques involved. I had looked at Plotagraph some time ago when it was first announced, but it was too pricey for what I would want to do with it.

However, they recently released a Plotagraph app for iPhone, and it was half price because it was new. So I still process the photos on my computer as I always have, and then I transfer them to my phone and load them into the app to add motion. It takes a little time, but the end result is pretty cool! After all, good things don’t just happen instantly. You have to put in a little effort sometimes.

Photo: Each photo is a single Raw exposure, processed in Photoshop. Read more about photography tips, photo software, camera gear, and more at Steve’s Photography Tips.
Camera: Olympus OM-D E-M10
Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye Lens
Date: July 18, 2017
Location: Lake Louisa State Park, Clermont, Florida