With a 100-mile canoe paddle coming up in less than three weeks, I need to be on the water practicing what will be my life for 10 straight days. For the last two weekends I managed to make it to the coast, which emulates the conditions I will endure on my trip. My plan to travel back to the coast this past weekend fell through. But to make sure I stay on track practicing, I spent mornings and evenings paddling and photographing the Santa Fe River near my home. Tranquil, quiet and dappled with strokes of subtle autumn color, the Santa Fe River, and the forest that grows within and along its borders, is spectacular. Light golds, rustic reds and faded greens accentuated neutral grays and browns as light danced between. Silence dominated the air except for the swoosh of water parting for a moving paddle, the rustling of leaves, and the wing-beat of buzzards landing in the bald cypress canopy overhead. 

A giant bald cypress ...

 A great egret next to a sentinel ..

 Moss-draped oak limbs enveloped in polar fog ...

Great blue heron veiled in polar fog ...

These limpkins dined on mussels and snails for nearly the entire 45 minutes I photographed them.

My favorite place on the Santa Fe – a cypress bayou.

A curious otter investigates my presence in the bayou ...

A touch of fall in the interior forest near the river.

A mirror reflection under crisp blue sky ...

Lifting polar fog near the River Rise ...

The cypress goes on forever ...

Light and dark magic in the bayou ...

Back in May of 2008 I started my most ambitious conservation photography project yet – document Florida's Nature Coast and distribute the images to media outlets and conservation organizations in an effort to promote the protection of this rare and exquisite landscape. 

Life on the Edge: The Story of Florida's Nature Coast was born.

After months of foundation building, Life on the Edge is starting to kick into high gear. I have already amassed several images from this 230-mile stretch of endangered coastline. You can see some of those images in the Life on the Edge link under "Conservation" in the main menu of this Web site. Now that the milder temperatures have returned to Florida, it's time to head back out and capture more moments. 

That effort started with a recent weekend trip the Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge and a day trip to Shired Island on Thanksgiving weekend. I present those image here. Please stay tuned as there is much more to come with Life on the Edge.

A single leaning palm reaches into a blue void. 

Twilight burns in resistance to an ever encroaching night sky, like embers in a dying fire.

The same palm trees as the above image only the next morning. The air was crisp and cold; the sun bright and the sky clear blue. 

Hoards of fiddler crabs race away from what they see as my gargantuan figure.

Fishbone Creek heads toward the Gulf of Mexico. This, the estuary, must be preserved for life in the ocean to exist. 

 Agitated by my presence, a green heron displays ruffled feathers.

 Endangered wood storks duel over a palm perch.

Sunrise over tidal marsh pool.