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Chin Family Reunion: Lake Apopka - Day 1 and 2 (click once on any
photo to display full image) |
Newton Park Revisited
On the last day we decided to
go back to Newton Park again because we enjoyed it so much the first time and
it was close by - other places that we hadn’t been to yet would be an hour or
more away. In addition to taking photographs, Wei-Shen also enjoys teaching
photography to others (capturing birds in flight is not as easy as you might
think), so on this visit, after a short tutorial on some tips of the trade, he
let Li loose with a DSLR camera to give it a go for himself.
Turns out Li
is also quite the photographer. Here are some of his best shots of the day; a
great blue heron bathed in the morning sunlight, a female grackle perched on a
water lily, a male grackle with a catch in his mouth, and a silhouette of an anhinga
drying out his wings after a swim. Not bad for a first timer!
Luck also
plays a part as demonstated in these photos below. Li skillfully managed to
capture an opsrey nabbing his prey, but unfortunately it was a “bum” shot
because it was flying away from Li rather than towards him. Li’s shot of this egret and even
Wei-Shen’s shot of this whistling duck aren’t very attention grabbing without a
colorful bokeh background and without the birds doing something interesting.
Timing is also everything - as
we were walking off the pier we saw a purple gallinule
in the reeds along the bank but we had just packed up the cameras and Wei-Shen
already had shots of this bird from previous outings (photo on right below) so
Li just snapped this quickly with his iPhone instead.
Despite Li’s best efforts, not
surprisingly, Wei-Shen still walked away with the best shot of the day capturing
this grackle in flight with his food morsel and a perfectly positioned background
shaft of yellow to highlight his face.
Winter Garden Farmers Market
After our photo session we
walked around the Farmers Market in Winter Garden that takes place every
Saturday morning. The amount of fresh food there was quite impressive – not
just a huge selection of fruits and vegetables, but also other delectables such
as cheese, breads, pastries, and fresh seafood, as well as other booths
featuring various artisan crafts.
Evening Entertainment
Chauffeur Wei-Shen drove us
around to all the reunion events in his Honda Odyssey minvan. Tonight we were
heading to the Disney theater to see the amazing Cirque du Soleil show Drawn to
Life where we had great seats just a few rows from the stage. Afterwards it was
a quick supper at Four Rivers Smokehouse so that we could all get to bed early
the night before having to get up at 4 AM for our 7 AM flight departures. ☹
