Walking the Trails at Lake Louisa State Park in Florida
During our visit to Lake Louisa State Park in Florida, we took some time to walk some of the trails near the lake for which the park is named, enjoying some of the beautiful natural scenery.
The main trail that we explored ran near the edge of Lake Louisa, but not right up at the edge of the lake. The path was usually separated from the lake by an area of natural growth. Here, some tall, slender trees grow at the edge of the water, forming a natural barrier to keep us on the path. Not that we needed much of a reminder to stay on the path. There could be alligators in that water, after all. No sense taking a chance running into one of those guys if we can help it.
Also, I suppose it must be some sort of regional thing that causes them to name all of their lakes Lake Whatever instead of Whatever Lake as we would do here where we live. No big deal, I just want to make sure that I know the right lake nomenclature for where I happen to be. The English language can be so confusing sometimes.
At this location, the water from the lake came up closer to the path. I enjoyed this view because of how the water was reflecting the sky. The sky was actually full of clouds, and we could hear thunder coming from across the lake. But we kept on going because the rain was actually not all that close to where we were. I knew that from checking the radar on my phone. That was one clue that we were not actually in some remote area many miles away from civilization - we could still get cell phone service. In some ways it was like the best of both worlds. A little bit of nature, and still a little bit of technology on the side. But not too much technology, because we spent most of our time looking at nature around us instead of looking at the screens of our phones.
At a few places, we came across wooden boardwalks such as this one. I love a good boardwalk, and I think they always create some interesting photo opportunities. See for example this photo at Cocoa Beach, this photo from Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, this photo from Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort, this one in black and white, this one from Pinson Mounds, this one at Cocoa Beach, and this one at Shingle Creek. That last one is one of my all-time favorite photos, by the way. I guess maybe I have an occasional underlying theme going on around here. Who knew?
Anyway, it is fun to be out walking around and to come upon one of these boardwalks, because that usually means there is some interesting natural something to see down below that they do not want you to be walking on, too.
The natural scenery also provides a nice backdrop for portrait photography. We did not come all dressed up for a portrait session, but it would be a good place for such a thing. Still, I did manage to get a couple of portraits of Laura while we were there, even though she protested that she was not ready for such a thing, since we had gotten a bit hot from the heat and humidity. I am still happy with the results, though.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives. - Proverbs 11:30
About the photos:
These photos feature processing techniques similar to what I have been doing lately, and you can read about some of those techniques in some of the other recent posts, so there is really no need to go back over all of it again here.
However, for the portrait of Laura I did switch to a 25mm f/1.8 prime lens to increase the depth of field, instead of having everything wide and in focus throughout the frame as with the other fisheye photos.
Photos: 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 and Olympus M.Zukio 25mm f1.8
Date: July 18, 2017
Location: Lake Louisa State Park, Florida
