Road to Pahayokee

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The Road to Pahayokee

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Everglades National Park is one of the most endangered areas of our National Park system. As a native of Miami, I have personally witnessed the highly publicized demise of great flocks of birds, cypress and wetlands in South Florida. This demise has been attributed to urban sprawl and runoff pollution from farmlands. Birds have moved on, wildlife and plant life have decreased, and yet the serenity and unique beauty of these flat wetlands live on, precariously!

Let’s explore a small part of the National Park as it is today – a unique wilderness of sawgrass, limestone, tree islands, and mystery. The "River of Grass", a term coined by Marjory Stoneman Douglas in the 1940’s, comes alive when you slow down, relax, and let things happen around you.

The main road inside the Park stretches 38 miles to Flamingo, a tiny community built from the remnants of a 1900’s fishing village. Along the way are vast expanses of sawgrass, cypress, hardwoods and mangroves, with side roads to marked attractions, old abandoned roads, and many hiking, boating and canoe trails.

A main attraction inside the Park is the "Pahayokee Overlook", an elevated boardwalk from which you can see the vastness of the Everglades. Access is gained via a seemingly non-descript road that meanders from the main road. Passing through sawgrass, cypress and hardwood trees, the road to Pahayokee becomes a jewel in the early morning if you just slow down, look around and listen.

To enjoy the full experience of early morning on the road to Pahayokee, arrive half an hour before sunrise to let the land and surroundings settle in around you. You’ll see and hear the Everglades come to life – birds awakening, reflections in the water, pre-dawn sky, and wildlife sounds of the swamp. If you stop just 100 – 200 yards from the main road you’ll find a myriad of spots from which to experience or photograph pre-dawn and sunrise.

Pre-dawn colors can be magnificent, and when the sun’s globe breaks the horizon, a new excitement begins. Things happen quickly. Colors and effects change instantly. Fog, smoke, clouds and other atmospheric conditions will determine what’s going to happen and for how long. If you are photographing, your role is to adapt to what’s happening and catch the fleeting moments, however short.

To shoot the rising sun, take a meter reading off a portion of the open sky (no clouds) at least 4 or 5 sun globes away from the sun. Shoot at that exposure and then bracket up to one stop each way. Although it is usually recommended to open up ½ to 1 stop, I bracket in this situation because there are so many variables - the focal length of the lens, the brightness of the sky, and the spot you meter on can all affect the final image.

Experiment as a photographer. It is sometimes difficult to create a non-cliché sunrise image, so be sure to keep the creative juices flowing. Look around, find foreground subjects to add impact, use silhouettes, and make the morning explode! This is limited only by your imagination and creativity.

Once the sun is up, focus your attention to the landscape. Relax, take your time, look behind and around you, and take advantage of the golden light on the scenery and trees. If you are photographing, be sure your polarizing filter is in place; the sky, clouds and water will have greater impact through this filter. Polarizers are also useful to reduce glare from water or dew.

You'll see the world awaken. Depending on the time of year, you’ll find birds resting in trees and the sawgrass, reflections in the water, swamp lilies and other flowers in bloom, spider webs, and cypress trees in various stages ("bald" in the winter and green in the spring and summer). These make a great study of the seasons in South Florida.

Look for fields of spider webs - the sawgrass is always covered with webs, and they are most noticeable in early morning when backlit by the sun, especially on a dewy morning. The road to Pahayokee is filled with webs, but one of the best locations in the National Park to shoot spider webs is on the eastern side of the main road just a couple hundred yards south of the Pahayokee road. Backlit by the early morning sun on a dewy morning, the field magically comes alive with thousands of spider webs stretched among the sawgrass. It’s a fabulous sight to see and photograph.

You can photograph the webs as an entire field, or focus on individual webs using macro techniques. If you don’t have a macro lens, you can use extension tubes to enlarge the subject. Be sure you are using a sturdy tripod and that movement of the subject and camera are minimized; otherwise you could end up with blurred images.

The number of subjects and compositions along the road to Pahayokee are limited only by your imagination and creativity. Let yourself and your mind be free, and relax. Scope the area before unpacking your gear. Let the surroundings grow around you. The longer you remain in one area the more you will "see" and the more your creative juices will flow.

"Seeing" is to recognize an appealing and potentially successful combination of subject, pattern, color and mood or emotion. It can be the difference between an ordinary shot and a stunning shot. Reams of paper have been used in discussing and describing the art and philosophy of ‘seeing’. It requires acceptance of all that is around you. Let yourself assimilate to the surroundings. Subjects begin appearing and the art of photography kicks in. Sometimes this can occur in a split moment, other times it may take quite a while.

While composing, ask yourself ‘what is the subject’. Focus your attention and your lens on that subject. Simplify, narrow the field of focus, and zero in on what originally caught your attention. It might be the way a branch looks, or a tiny fungus on the bark. By narrowing in on a subject, your final image will still have the look and feel of the Everglades, but in a more specific and focused manner.

An early morning along the road to Pahayokee is time well invested. There is an extensive wealth of mental and photographic images in this very small area of the Everglades National Park. Enjoy the area, tread lightly, and "pack it in, pack it out" – don’t litter and don’t damage anything. Leave the area as it was when you arrived, and you’ll find the road to Pahayokee an even more memorable and rewarding experience.