Florida Expo and Photoshoots 2004

Our booth at the Florida Wildlife Exposition.

We often paint on location in our booth during shows to get a little more work done. Bonnie is finishing a falcon painting (pictured seated on the right)

A number of new canvas gicl'ee prints were released to debute at the expo.

After the show we traveled to Tarpon Springs to see the MASF International Miniature Art Show and Rebecca's miniature painting.

We met many of the officers and members of the MASF Society for the first time at the Leepa-Rattner Museum and at the FL Wildlife Expo. They were all very nice. If you are able to, be sure to visit this exceptional annual exhibition. www.miniature-art.com

Bonnie photographing some of the beautiful birds in Florida. Taking reference shots and experiencing the wildlife we paint is our favorite part of traveling. We were very fortunate the entire trip to have perfect weather for photography.

Sometimes the locals are a little too friendly.

During the Expo we were invited by the director of the Fl Audubon Raptor Center to photograph their resident injured birds and participate in some fundraising for them.

We toured their beautiful facility. (Pictured on the left are some of the aviary sections of the center.)

This is the 'bird garden'. You can see several raptors tethered out on their perches to enjoy the afternoon.

We were able to photograph & study the birds up close and personal thanks to Gerri from the Center. (Gerri is holding a red shouldered hawk.)

We traveled to near the national seashore for more references and to visit with friends. This is a picture from where we stayed.

This is a preserve of sand dunes and other habitats.

The boardwalk trail into the preserve. (a few of us are pictured on the left)

Ted walking along the boardwalk.

As we neared the beach, there were more mangrove trees to photograph.

The tide had washed many things up on the beach which were attracting wildlife to the area. Snowy and great egrets, gr. blue heron, turnstones, pelicans, cormorants, and other birds visited us during our shoot on the beach.

This is one of our reference photos of a brown pelican.

A starfish that the tide had washed to shore.

Our friends Judie & Steve.

Throughout our trips we paint and sketch new and existing pieces. This is a sketch of a willet from our beach photoshoot.

Bonnie posing with friends.

Ted sharing a snack with a hyacinth macaw.

You can see a great egret flying over the ocean in this shot. We photographed more references at a bird rehabilitation center in the keys as well as many other wild birds and habitats.

(An alligator is pictured along the bank in this photo.) We were amazed at the number of egrets and herons as well as the variety of species along this canal in the Everglades. There were also many turtles, alligators, and hawks.

We visited and shot more reference at the Audubon Corkscrew Sanctuary.

Bronze sculpture of wood storks nesting at the entrance of the sanctuary.

A landscape scene from the sanctuary. Because of the water level, there weren't quite as many wading birds at the sanctuary, but we did see a lot of beautiful habitats.

A shadowy barred owl is pictured in the upper left. During our shoot we also saw limpkin nesting, little blue heron, and other birds. We also were able to see an early blooming swamp lily and other flowers.

Our last shoot was at the Naples Zoo. We took over 9,000 reference photos during our 10 day shoot as well as some video to capture animal behaviour and sounds. We weren't too anxious to return to the snow and 10 degree highs in Minnesota.

Florida Wildlife Exposition 2004

Our booth at the Florida Wildlife Exposition.