Photography in the Florida Keys - How we do it

Most photography in the Florida Keys is expected to have at least 3 things: blue skies, turquoise water and white puffy clouds. Recent weather conditions have made this requirement a bit more challenging than it usually is, but we are still shooting.  We just have to spend more time with edits and post processing.

The Challenges

Sometimes it is a rainy week with 100% cloud cover like we experienced last week.  We replace the skies when shooting on days like these, but most folks don’t know that we sometimes have to do that on a sunny day when we have no other option but to shoot directly into the sun. Today, the wind was blowing over twenty-five knots, which makes it a little sporty flying the drone and can cause motion blur on the water due to wave action or difficulty keeping the drone steady.  On top of that, the predatory birds were out hunting on every shoot today.  Fortunately, a little bit of patience and this technique mentioned in a previous post enabled me to complete each project. 

The Advantages

Shooting Florida Keys Photography on an overcast day is certainly possible and can sometimes yield unique images.  We call it  “Bloodline Style.”  Excessive cloud cover reduces the strength of the sun, which makes it easier for balancing light across the entire image or video and can enable us to show more detail in certain areas than we could if the sun were bearing down on us.  Sometimes the replaced sky or enhanced water could actually look better than when shooting on the prettiest day.  Here are 3 recent photos taken in the Florida Keys.  Can you tell which one was taken in between rain showers?

Conclusion

If the weather is not ideal, don’t despair.  We’re ready for that too and embrace the opportunity to bust out the blue jeans and rain coats.  Besides, if you’re in the Florida Keys and don’t like the weather, just wait 5 minutes and it will probably clear right up.<