Eureka Springs Park - Again!

Yeah, I know. I keep shooting at this place, even though there's not a ton to shoot there. But it's fairly close to me, as opposed to the 55 minute ride to the much more expansive Florida Botanical Gardens in Largo. This day I found even less to shoot than usual, and only got seven shots worth sharing.

Tampa Bay Downs

I went to Tampa Bay Downs, the thoroughbred horse racing track in Oldsmar with my dad. He makes $2 show bets and I take pictures. These are my favorites of more than 200 photos. Horses, as elegant as they look with our eyes, often look awkward and clumsy in photographs unless you catch them when all four of their hooves are off the ground.

Tampa Horse Show

The Bob Thomas Equestrian Center at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa frequently hosts horse shows and jumping competitions. The one this past Saturday was a low-level event, I think.

The course was also muddy, and I wore some of it home as a companion souvenir to the horse manure I — of course — stepped in.

A Walk Among the Tombstones

Not an original title, I'm sure, but that's what I was doing on a cloudy Saturday this past weekend. Tampa's Oaklawn Cemetery dates back to at least the mid-19th century. Tampa's first mayor is buried there as well as several Florida Supreme Court justices and many of the people who first settled the city.

Today it is a neglected patch that sits next to the bus station downtown. Many of the tombstones are cracked and broken, a reminder that nothing is eternal.

Alafia River State Park Photo Shoot

This was another shoot with the Riverview Digital Photography Meetup Group. We went to the Alafia River State Park on County Road 39 in southeastern Hillsborough County. The park doesn't open until 8 a.m. so some of the best light is lost waiting outside the gate.

The park is known for its biking trails. I hoped to get some action shots along with the usual nature shots you'd expect to see in a park. Patches of high sunlight made capturing shots of the riders more difficult. Many bikers treaded carefully down the hills. That limited our ability to get shots where they appear frozen against a blurry backdrop.

The park was converted from abandoned phosphate pits. That accounts for the hilly terrain not often found in this part of Florida. The former pits now hold standing water. So we had mosquitoes that are often found in this part of Florida. I am so glad that I thought to bring bug spray. It is an absolute must if you're going out into any woods in Florida.

Oh, you've noticed that it's taking a while to get to the pictures, have you? I wish I could promise that they'd be worth the wait but I have to confess: They were a disappointing lot.