Category Archives: Photography

A Walk on the Beach

There were fewer pelicans on the beach this morning than I had hoped for but I managed to get some great shots of other critters roaming the sands…

Falcon 9 Launch of an IntelSat Payload

Before the launch actually happened, we were looking for the launch site across the water. In the end, the actual launch site wasn’t visible from here, but I’ve included a couple of shots of things that we initially thought might be the launch site.

A drone was hovering over the bay. Not sure whether that was in any way connected to the launch itself, but I’ve shared some pics here anyway.

It was interesting to see that the pictures get more dramatic as the falcon 9 gets higher. Lower pressures outside of the nozzle and thus much greater expansion of the plume I’d guess.

 

Pigeons of Cocoa Beach

As we headed onto the beach this afternoon we saw two pigeons picking through the soft sand and various gulls that seemed perplexed by these two city-folk poking around their beach.

Two pigeons about town, looking for dinner in the sand.
Does anyone know what these pigeons are doing here?
Surrounded and confused.
…and then this guy was trying to be a sand piper…
…and a real sandpiper for comparison purposes…

That last shot came out surprisingly crisp so I had to share…

Saw the Disney Fantasy Coming In

We went out to walk the beach and saw the fantasy coming into port. It just finished a short yard period and we’re heading out on her for a two castaway key short cruise later in the week.

Disney Fantasy coming into Cocoa Beach

When we got back to the room, Lorna mentioned that she had heard people talking about a launch from the space center at 5:30 or so. I checked and it was an Inmarsat on a falcon 5 being launched so I found my way up to the deck where people were looking on and took some shots with my new lens. I’ll post those as soon as my earlier beach expedition finishes importing…stay tuned.

Morning Excitement at Cocoa Beach…

We went swimming and as we were heading in to the shore the pair of pelicans that had landed thirty feet further out from us took off into the air. A short bit after that something rather large went past us. It looked dark brown with lighter brown spots and rather large (though surprise can magnify things). I only saw it for a moment looking like a curved edge like a manatee’s tail (but clearly not as they don’t move that fast. No idea what it really was…I expect it was looking for a pelican snack and after missing them it cruised past us and decided we didn’t look interesting…

Floatin’…
Pelicans inbound

Later in the day Lorna heard that there had been manatees seen around the pier down the beach. Scary when it happened, but it now looks like we had a close encounter with a manatee.

Cocoa Beach…

Now for a couple of days at The Inn at Cocoa Beach to relax after the usual whirlwind of activity at Disney.

The Inn at Cocoa Beach
Very nice view out there

…and breakfast…

Dining area in the morning sun
Slept in a bit this morning
Enjoyed the complementary breakfast…at least I did as it was a quiche with broccoli and some sort of cheese in it 🙂
Morning View out to Sea
Oh and a red nose for charity…

Soon we head out and frolic in the waves 🙂

Last day of the first part of vacation

Checked out of the wilderness Lodge and waiting to grab breakfast at the Kona Cafe at the Polynesian. Somehow, my mind is automatically in ‘end of vacation’ mode even though I know we’ll be on the Disney Fantasy in a couple of days and back here at Boardwalk for a final weekend.

The great ceremonial room at the Polynesian resort.
Kona Cafe, home of amazing breakfasts (might have great lunches too but we’ve never made it to one)…

Cell phone shots as the computer is stored ?.

Fully post processed images will have to wait a couple of weeks.

 

 

Star wars

Got pics with Chewbacca and Kylo Ren followed by the dessert party. Had a nice chat with Eddie from the Dakota’s about engineering and vampire robots.  Definitely need to get photos post processed and up here as soon as I get home. Reminds me that the site needs to be loaded up in advance.

Just a few shots from this trip.

I wasn’t sold on the whole dark side thing…
I generally find pictures of this fountain to be spectacular.
A sand hill crane, low and slow…
Vulture coming in for a landing.
End of show, very cool owl (and not moving fast so less of a challenge 🙂 )
Before the star wars fireworks.
Waiting for the fireworks to start in front of the theater.