Tag Archives: florida

Musings

Gulf Coast Surfing

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Rejected

Luke grabbed this shot of me yesterday out at “The Street” in AMI. I like it for the perspective and because it shows how beautiful the water and waves around Tampa Bay can be. Normally, I would be riding a shortboard in conditions like this, but with mine in the shop, I decided to give the longboard a try. It can be pretty exciting trying to maneuver a longboard in steep, shallow waves.  I got worked a few times, but I also managed to pull into some hollow barrels. I’ve said it already, but what a great season of surfing on the Gulf this winter/spring. Now to get rid of some junk in the trunk…

Gulf_Coast_Longboarding

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North Captiva Island

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Just a few hours south of Tampa, Florida is North Captiva Island.


View North Captiva in a larger map

It gets the name from both its captive beauty, and the fact that it served as a prison for female “captives” held for ransom by pirates.

North Captiva

Accessible only by boat or private plan, this half-mile wide island offers roughly 5 miles of pristine white sand beaches to explore, two-thirds of which border a 700-acre state land preserve. Pay to park your car at Pine Island Marina and get ready to leave it all behind.

There is phenomenal tarpon, redfish, snook, and trout fishing in the waters surrounding the island, and there are several charter fishing operations to serve your needs. The abundance of seafood served the Calusa Indians long before it supported a thriving fishing operation, which made use of fish houses to ice down their catch. Those that have fallen out of family ownership now belong to the state of Florida and are considered historical buildings.

Fish House 

A couple of restaurants do serve food, but it is recommended that your bring a sufficient load of supplies. Because there are no cars allowed, golf carts serve as the primary source of transportation.

North Captiva Golf Cart

Of course, a good old rusty bike will do the trick, and there are plenty of other activities including sea kayaking. If you go early in the morning the likelihood of seeing manatees and dolphins are very high.

North Captiva Biking North Captiva Kayaking

Whatever you do, just make sure to find some time to discover your subtle side. Captivity awaits!

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Tampa Bay Rays

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I’ve lived in Tampa for nearly two years now, and I must confess that during that time I’ve never taken the initiative to go to a Tampa Bay Rays game. So, when I got the invite from a friend it was the only push I needed. It was a good game, and the Rays walloped the Angels 11-1.

Tampa-Bay-Rays

I’m always envious of the sports photographers with their huge and expensive lenses. I can’t compete on that level, so instead I took a low res photo from my point-and-shoot and had some fun with it (see below).

To do this yourself with, for instance, a landscape of a city or a mountain range, all you have to do is the following:

How to Create Spheres in Photoshop:

  1. Start off with a wide panorama such as the above. If you can use one that is full 360 degrees that is even better.
  2. Under Image Size, uncheck Constrain Proportions, and match the Height with the Width.
  3. Rotate the image 180 degrees.
  4. Under Filter, choose Distort, Polar Coordinates, and in the resulting dialogue box choose the “Rectangular Polar Setting.”
  5. Use the Clone Stamp and/or Burn tool to clean up the line where the two sides join.
  6. In the case of this example, I also used the Marquee tool to select the area of the sphere I wanted, then did Select – Inverse to get rid of the exterior part of the image. Remember, you’ll need to Unlock the Layer to get a Transparent Layer.
  7. As you can see, I also added an additional Layer of baseball threads.

Tampa Bay Rays

Comment on this post if you ever end up doing something fun with these simple Photoshop tricks.

Go Rays!

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City of Tampa

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If you look carefully at this mural (click to enlarge) that is painted on the side of a building in downtown Tampa, you can see that it embodies much of the personality of the city. I hope the artist does not mind that I took a picture of it and posted it here.

Tampa

Within the lettering you will see the Sulphur Springs Tower, Gasparilla Festival, Henry B. Plant Museum, Ybor City, and representation of the natural environment and countless springs, rivers, and bays that surround the City. Since I moved to Tampa, I have done my best to try and encapsulate the diversity of the area with the Sea Kayaking Tampa, Florida post bringing in a surprising amount of traffic to my website. Of course, there is much more.

My assumption is that very few people outside of Florida think not only about the agricultural production in the State, but also the ranching and equestrianism that goes along with it. Starting with the Spanish, horses have played an integral role in the development of Florida. Not far from where I live, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders camped for several days in preparation for the Spanish American War. The City of Tampa has not forgotten, for you will find horses featured at the Tampa Bay History Center. Likewise, this statue is just down the street from me on Bayshore.

Tampa Horses

Horses are iconic symbols that have played a role in my professional life, and in the past two states I have lived in – Nevada and Florida. In my work with Twelve Horses, I have been fortunate to learn more about the history of horses in America, and the challenges they face. It is a fascinating story that is still being written.