The popular image of Ft. Lauderdale used to be spring break: wall-to-wall college kids swilling beer and gyrating girls in wet T-shirts. Some may recall spring break with a touch of nostalgia, but the city fathers were glad to say goodbye to these boisterous collegians when they moved their celebration farther north, primarily to Daytona Beach.
Ft. Lauderdale has matured into a far more appealing but equally lively destination. The ever-present Florida sunshine and a host of attractions makes this city a great subject for photography.
We were enticed onto the beach across the street from our ocean-front hotel by a young woman in a bikini tossing crusts of bread to sea gulls. Literally hundreds of hungry birds were whirling over her head as she dispersed her leftover breakfast toast.
An eager photographer is naturally inclined to move in close with a wide angle lens to capture the action in such a scene, but we got our best results with a telephoto zoom (100-300 mm) from a distance. We cropped the picture to include mostly sea and sky as the uncluttered background. The sea gulls were frozen in midair by a shutter speed of 1/500th of a second. The young woman was caught with one arm raised to her airborne brunch guests.
Greater Ft. Lauderdale enjoys 23 miles of white sand beach and is interlaced with more than 300 miles of navigable inland waterways. The local water taxi service is an ideal way to see and photograph the palatial estates and attractive waterfront homes as well as the downtown and parks along New River. The open-air taxis allow for easy shooting, but once again, a zoom lens is essential.
We recommend two zooms for shooting from a moving boat: 28-85 mm and 70-210 mm. Water taxis pick up and disembark passengers at most waterfront hotels and marinas.
A river adventure can be enjoyed aboard the Jungle Queen, which can carry up to 550 passengers and makes a stop at a Seminole Indian Village on the edge of the Everglades. Here you can photograph birds and see the Indians wrestle alligators. The cost of the Jungle Queen excursion is $7.50 for adults and $4.95 for children.
A visit to the International Swimming Hall of Fame near the beach is a must for photographers who want to capture some high-diving action.
We were fortunate to see some Olympic hopefuls perform off the boards. We got our best results by setting our manual focus to a point near and just in front of the end of the diving board and setting our shutter speed at 1/500th of a second.
The beach itself-and Ft. Lauderdale has one of the best in Florida-is an ideal setting for taking pictures. Long-legged beauties in bright bikinis stroll along the water`s edge, seemingly for the benefit of photographers.
Visitors should not assume that all the picture action in Ft. Lauderdale is on or near the beach. One of the most interesting photo attractions is Butterfly World in Tradewinds Park, west of the city.
Thousands of colorful butterflies fly free within a special enclosure designed to provide a natural, open air environment for these delicate creatures. This is a perfect setting for macro or closeup photography.
Probably one of the most spectacular photo opportunities in Ft. Lauderdale is the Swap Shop, a huge flea market, where you can find just about anything but fleas. This shopping and entertainment complex is set in 80 acres of what once was palmetto scrub land on the far western end of Sunrise Boulevard. The facility includes an international food court, a giant video arcade, a circus ring, a concert stage, amusement rides and a large drive-in theater. More than 2,000 vendors sell new and used merchandise at the Swap Shop.
The trick here is to isolate strong pictures from a busy, visually confusing environment. There are several ways: First, eliminate the cluttered background by cropping the subject in your viewfinder. Move in or zoom to include only what you want to appear in your picture. Another approach is to shoot your subject from a low angle so the background is a clear sky. A third method is to open the lens to a wide aperture, a technique that throws the background out-of-focus.
