April 24, 2025
Synopsis
This paper includes an album containing galleries of scenes and events that I observed and photographed within my home state of Florida.
Behind the Scenes
The galleries that comprise the album included on this page were transferred from my cloud storage on Microsoft OneDrive. Since I felt I needed to provide more background on the photos included this album, it seemed more logical to present them on a page using one of the WordPress photo gallery plugins. I decided on using the 10Web Photo Gallery plugin since it seemed relatively straightforward to create photo galleries and the free version allowed galleries to be included in albums or gallery groups which I needed for this page.
There are photos in this album that were taken as far back as 2012, the year I purchased my Sony NEX-7 mirrorless camera. I think some of my early outdoor shots were fairly decent but I had some trouble with indoor shots as illustrated in the Nallasamy Wedding gallery. However, the photos presented here were re-edited in Photoshop Elements so they look much better than they did on my OneDrive.
As of the date of this writing, the majority of the photos were taken with the Sony NEX-7 and the Sony 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 OSS (Optical SteadyShot) lens. Since none of the photos were taken in manual mode, I’m not going to reference any of the photos’ aperture, shutter speed, or ISO settings. Since I’m primarily a travel photographer on highly organized tours, I shoot hand-held without having the luxury to fiddle around with camera settings. However, I will discuss these settings, if applicable, in the future where appropriate.
A final word on camera settings…I’ve watched many YouTube videos of photographers using expensive gear, such as Leica and Hasselblad, who describe their camera settings for street photography. It seems ironic, in a way, that many use fixed (manual) settings for aperture, shutter speed, and maybe ISO along with zone focusing. I get it! When you’re on the street you need to be ready on a moment’s notice or you’ll miss the shot. But nevertheless, I see this as converting possibly thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment into a functional point-and-shoot camera. Just saying… So far, my best examples of street photography are included in my Winter Park gallery.
After I decided to transfer my Florida photo gallery from OneDrive to my WordPress site, I initially considered not moving the Howey-in-the-Hills, Yalaha, Hard Rock Tampa, and Lakeridge Winery. However, after carefully viewing those galleries again, I reconsidered my earlier decision to remove them. The reasoning being that areas change especially after extended shutdowns and economic downturns, and from the effects of numerous storms and hurricanes that hit Florida over the years.
Many of the galleries I transferred with minimal or no edits such as Leu Gardens, Disney World, and Homosassa Springs. While others I re-edited from the originals such as Hard Rock Tampa and Pear Park. Even so, I either removed, added, or replaced select photos from many of the galleries presented on this page.
Going forward, I plan to expand the contents of this Florida Scenes album and page.
Florida Scenes Album
Notes
Photos WebsterMkt001 through WebsterMkt037 in the recently added Webster Market gallery were taken with my NEX-7 and the TTArtisan 27mm f/2.8 lens. I set the aperture on the lens to F8 and let the camera adjust the shutter speed and ISO. Since the lens doesn’t have built in optical stabilization, I was concerned about blurry photos, but it wasn’t a problem.
Photos TheVillages0001 through TheVillages0010 were taken with my Sony a6700 and the Viltrox rectilinear APS-C AF 9/2.8 E Auto Focus Prime lens.
2013-2026 Gerard Sczepura. All rights reserved.