Everglades National Park | Lee Smith Photography

The Pink Flowers

Thistle flowers of Florida’s Everglades National Park

An Everglades Sunrise – the mist shrouded lake glowed as the sun rose.
It was 4:30am, as I left my house with my friend Ivan, traveling south to Everglades National Park. We arrive at 5:50am, at the Long Pine Key Lake, where it was so dark we could see the Milky Way. For some strange reason someone left three bright lights on at the south side of the lake. As we got out of the car, we felt the coolness of the morning – it was 57 degrees in APRIL! We thought that the mosquitoes would not bother us, but we were very wrong. Fortunately I packet my screening for my hat and quickly put that on as we stood by the lake. The mosquitoes were intense. I can feel the itchy bites on my fingers as I write this. After shooting for about an hour, the sun finally started to rise above the horizon, creating this wonderful rays of light through the fog around the Island. I shot many photos trying to get this image. I was so happy to capture this moment – it made my day!

Everglades National Park – Landscape Photography

Photos by Lee Smith

Traveled to Everglades National Park to find locations to photograph. I traveled from Long Pine Key, down to Flamingo. The area is still a beautiful area and offering loads of photographic opportunities.

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Everglades National Park, Florida

Photos by Lee Smith

We got up at 5am to travel down to Flamingo in the Everglades. The roads were clear and the temperature just turned a little cooler. We traveled first location – Long Pine Key to capture the sunrise. As soon as we got out of the car, the mosquitoes attacked. We sprayed the Lemon Eucalyptus repellent, but it really did not work. I had to pull a screen protection for my head, but I was bit before I even got it on.

Anyway, we braved through the swarms of skeeters and captured the sunrise. After the sun began to rise, we raced back to the car to head down to Flamingo and explore for more locations to photograph. It was a great day , but the mosquitoes were not fun. Definitely going to wait till it gets cooler to visit the Everglades!

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Winding Walkway, Everglades National Park

Photo by Lee Smith
The winding walkway above the alligators and swamp is a quiet setting when the birds stop chirping & screeching. The waters are filled with alligators and herons.

As the Sun Rises

The sun’s appearance turned the sky an almost red glow as it rose from behind the clouds and horizon. The landscape of pine trees and cypress with the tall grasses seemed to look like it did hundreds of years ago in the Everglades National Park in Homestead, FL. It was a cool morning in the 50’s, the wind was barely moving with clouds being seen only on the horizon .