At the Renaissance Festival there are quite a few roving performers dressed in “period” costume and addressing the paying customers in character. These three lovely ladies sang a song clarifying their role as poo removers. Very charming in a disgusting sort of way. And very funny, too.

The original photo was brought into Corel Painter to remove the background annoyances and replace with a “painted” shim. The ladies were brought back into relief with another layer and the entire photo enhanced a bit with Color Efex Pro 4. No Photoshopping allowed.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Our photo buddies celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Florida Renaissance Festival by spending today enjoying the event and taking lots of pictures. Held in Deerfield Beach, Florida, the Festival tries to recreate life in the 16th century (but with a decided contemporary flare).

There are over 100 performers and lots of tents with medieval stuff to look at and buy. We saw dancers and singers, glass blowers and cannoneers. There was a horse show and a high wire act. And of course, plenty of food and drink available.

At least 20% of the paying guests were dressed up in period costumes with lots of busts and leather in display. So were pirates, steampunk, Celtic folk and vikings. The photo above is of a fellow working in an apothecary and was taken in his “shop”. The pirate looks a lot like a character out of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Click on the images to see larger versions.

All photos taken with my trusty Olympus OMD EM5 II and the 12-40 Pro lens.

I spent the morning yesterday at McKee Botanical Gardens in Vero Beach, FL with the guys. A great place for taking photos of their world famous waterlily collection. Nymphaeaceae, commonly called water lilies are flowering plants which grow in water. While their roots are in the soil below the water, their leaves and flowers float on the surface.

The Purple Tropical water lily pictured here is one of many blue and purple flowered versions. A straight from the camera image with a bit of gentle post-processing.

It was 5:30 am – a most ungodly hour – when a group of us took off for sunrise on the beach at Lake Worth Pier. I had my Olympus OMD EM5II, a light tripod and an assortment of lenses + a flashlight!

Light painting before dawn. You can see two examples on my Portfolio site (click on the Photo Galleries link on the masthead). And then the most interesting and spectacular light show of sunrise over the Atlantic. Great cloud formation made for great photos. A surfboarder was there to add a good foreground element. Plus people on the beach.

Then a nice breakfast with the gang at Benny’s on the Beach topped off a photo op that was well worth getting up so early.

See the entire set of photos at photokarl.smugmug.com

Heliconius Melpomene Rosina

The Heliconius Melpomene Rosina butterfly is similar to the Heliconius erato. There are many variations in Central and South America. It feeds on various species of Passiflora. 

Linnaeus original described this cutie in 1758. According to the Heliconius web site (yes, there is a web site devoted to nothing but this genus), “Pupae are brown with gold spots on the dorsum, the thorax is strongly bowed and have five pairs of black spines in the abdomen.”

These butterflies are also called “Postman” and are plentiful in Costa Rica where they particularly are fond of sunlight forests with lots of flowers. Both H. melpomene and H. erato are poisonous which tend to protect them from bird predators.

Eueides isabella

This is Eueides isabella which is generally found in Mexico, Brazil and the West Indies although they do fly into south Texas. They like rainforest environments These guys are mostly solitary and eat flower nectar.

The caterpillars feed on Passiflora edulis which is a vine of the “passion flower” native to South America. It is commonly called Passion Fruit. These larvae are white and black covered in long spines.

Heliconius erato

Heliconius erato is a common butterfly of South America and is one of about 40 species within Heliconius, and there are many different variations. The are native to the Andes Mountains.

The females are unusual in that they feed on pollen as well as nectar. The Heliconius are relatively long lived and can survive as adults up to nine months.

These butterflies use pheromones to locate their mates and are quite “amorous” in their mating behaviors. They are not endangered and thrive in the southern US and other subtropical environments. Helicons erato is also sometimes called the Common Longwing.