Need Clearwater Fla photo suggestions

VigilanteFoto · Dec 28, 2014

in late January we have a short trip to Clearwater (2full days). Looking for sites to photograph within 1-2 hour drive. Love street art or unusual sites (not touristy sights, no museums). Please make suggestions as Stuck On Earth only seems to have beach scenes,

dennybeall · Dec 30, 2014

Just a couple things from north of Tampa. Bock Tower, Crystal River, Floral City, Ellie Schiller Wildlife Park, manatees, and once you get a short distance north of Clearwater the coast goes from beaches to tidal grass flats and lots and lots of kayak territory.

VigilanteFoto · Dec 31, 2014

Thanks DennyBeall. I googled these places, and not sure we will make it across to Bock Tower and Garden, but may try to daytrip up to Crystal River and Floral City and then see the Manatees at Homasassa Springs /Schiller. We're not kayakers.... just window shoppers from the car or short hikes. Is Homasassa Springs our best bet for photos of Florida wildlife/waterfowl? Any kind of funky street art around (ie, in Seattle we have the Aurora Bridge Troll and the Pikes Market gum wall)? I was not planning to bring a zoom, but sounds like my 70-300mm might be warranted. I checked out the Meetup.com sites for Clearwater/Tampa Bay area for photos, but there was not much information on sites that that group frequents. Thanks for your insight. Happy New Year.

dennybeall · Dec 31, 2014

Yes, The Wildlife Park has many things including birds, reptiles, alligators, manatee, deer, bear, red wolf, and an underwater room with big glass windows down in a big spring so there are fish and manatees swimming right in front of you. (Even have a hippo that was made an honorary Florida resident so he could be in the park.). If you go to the entrance on US19 you can take the electric boat down a nice creek where there are also many birds and such.
If you happen to get to the north end of Crystal River to the little mall on US19 there is a store in there where the guy has a big printer and prints some beautiful Florida photos on canvas, some as big as 5 feet or more on a side. They are HDR and a tad overdone but very pretty and interesting to see the technology.

JoeW · Dec 31, 2014

VigilanteFoto said:
in late January we have a short trip to Clearwater (2full days). Looking for sites to photograph within 1-2 hour drive. Love street art or unusual sites (not touristy sights, no museums). Please make suggestions as Stuck On Earth only seems to have beach scenes,

Oh my--you've got a ton of things to shoot...especially if you say a 1-2 hour drive. I'm in Clearwater 1-2 times a year. Here's a list of some of my favorite things that are in Clearwater or close to it:

--Honeymoon State Park/Caladesi: beautiful beach. I know, you said no beaches but Honeymoon is a lovely beach. Find a way to get there before sunrise.
--Ft. DeSoto (south of St. Pete). A bit of everything...birds, surf, beaches, tidal pools, mangroves, people, old fort with artillery, people fishing. Last time I was there, I got some shots of a wedding.
--Further south (it took us a little over an hour to drive there from Clearwater to Sarasota) is "The Ringling." Ca' D' Zan (House of John...see attached photos), lovely garden and grounds, magnificent art gallery with a replica of Michaelangelo's David (see attached photo) and the Reuben tapestry and a courtyard that is just spectacular (attached photo). I know you said "no museums" so just go there to shoot the courtyard between the galleries.
--Get to the beaches early and shoot dolphins coming in close to feed and then show off for the people.
--Sunshine Skyway Bridge (best place to shoot it is from the north headed south, get off at the fishing pier, otherwise the passenger shoots while someone else drives).
--Tarpon Springs is north of Clearwater. I'm not a big fan but a lot of people love the manatees, sponge divers, boats, and people on the main drive.
--Ybor City: lovely old buildings.
--Dali Museum: yeah, I know, you said no museums. Ignore the art if you must (right now they've got a Picasso exhibit). Just shoot the building (see the attached photo).
--in Clearwater you'll find William Dean Chocolates. Very beautiful and ornate--they were featured in the "Hunger Games." Not a great place to shoot them (lighting and setup sucks) but definitely worth buying about a dozen different types and then shooting them in a setting of your choice (or heck, just eat the suckers!).
--St. Pete Botanical Gardens. Not extraordinary but definitely nice, I've shot their holiday lights show.
--Circus: check out the Ringling Brothers B&B Circus at their winter location.
--Baseball: Spring training starts up March 1st (don't know if you'll be in Clearwater that long). Teams in or close to Clearwater are NY Yankees, Phillies and I think the Blue Jays.
--Soccer: MLS teams start up in January and a bunch of them train in Florida. Bradenton is a popular location for training and exhibition games.
--Bradenton Sports Academy. It started with the IMG Academy. But the USSF has youth teams (usually in residence) at IMG in Bradenton. There are a host of youth sports training or in residence there (like tennis). If you want to shoot athletes--really serious athletes--that's a great place to go.
--Sarasota is home to a bunch of commercial orchid farms. I remember wandering into one that was a series of 8-10 giant quonset huts (with translucent ceilings), about 3 of them had nothing but Vandas...just amazing.
--In St. Pete you've got the Warehouse Arts District. I haven't been there or shot it in any of my stays but it has a nice rep and sounds like something you might want to check out.
--Also in St. Pete is the Chihuly Museum. I know you said no museum but the Chilhuly work with glass is really more like giant installations and it's less of a museum and more of a gallery. I like his work--shot some of it at the Borgata in Atlantic City--very cool visual stuff to play with.
--a quaint old beach town (almost no hotels but lots of small bungalows, shops, etc.) is Passagrille.
--the Don CeSar (a grand old hotel on the beach). Okay, you're not wild about shooting beaches. But if you shoot distinctive architecture, the Don CeSar absolutely qualifies...I doubt you've ever seen a hotel that looks like it.

JoeW · Jan 1, 2015

Also, I forgot to add that there may still be a Wildbird Rescue sanctuary near Clearwater on one of the beaches. I'd heard that he (the owner) had tax problems locally and might lose the space. But for a photographer it's an amazing resource. Definitely worth checking out to see if it's still there. I last shot there in Dec. 2013.