If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
-Dalai Lama
Being an aspiring Travel Photographer while stuck at home during the “Pandemic Shutdown” was an interesting situation. I picked up new hobbies: I learned how to “woodwork”, I’ve gone fishing more in a couple months than I’d ever gone in ten years, and I re-edited a ton of old photographs.
As an adult with ADHD, these new hobbies kept me going for a few days at a time, but then I would be hit with the odd “existential crisis day” in between.
So, when travel started opening up in late May, my girlfriend and I got out of dodge. Since I’m still bartending, we only had a few open days available; so, we drove down to Florida to camp out at St. Andrews State Park which is right near Panama City Beach. We both have been to PCB many times in the past; but we’ve never camped there, or in Florida for that matter. In my head I’m thinking, “I’ve got plenty of gear, I’ve got plenty of bug spray, and I’m from the south so I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp on the mosquito.” I was wrong. Oh God, was I wrong.
We decided to leave early so we could get down there and have a few hours on the beach before we set up camp. Everything goes smoothly and we arrive at the park before we could check in. I’ve only been to St. Andrews a time or two during family vacations in the past, and it was always during the day in early July; so I remember this little overcrowded park, with crying children, and too far of a walk to get to where you want to go. Not my style. Now I don’t know if it was the time we went, or the fact that nobody was really traveling yet, but this trip was AWESOME. We had a campsite right on the bay where we could walk out and find hermit crabs. There was hardly anyone on the beaches at the time when I needed to take some photos, the wildlife came out after most of the people left, AND it wasn't that hot.
The only bad thing I have to say about our St. Andrews trip was our own fault. Apparently, I had not done my proper research on bugs in Florida. We used bug spray, we used thermacells, and we used candles. I still have bug bites. HOWEVER, the sunrises and sunsets more than made up for our itchiness. Luckily, the only bad weather we ran into was during the day while we were out driving around. But storms during the day turned into amazing sunsets.
St. Andrews is on the edge of a bay on the eastern side of PCB.
It has a long fishing pier and large stone jetties, which paired nicely
with the long exposure shots that I was trying to take. I love the kind of
locations where you can make violent waves turn into a calm fog. High
tide at the jetties is a perfect time to get this shot. Most of the time on
trips to popular locations (or parks especially), you will run into crowds
of people. The crowd then translates into a lot of time in photoshop
removing the family that just refused to move. But since St. Andrews
is closed at certain times, if you’re camping, you only have to deal with
the stray camper or park ranger walking on the beach.
All in all, we were itchy and sticky from the humidity; but with a
little better planning, I think our next trip to St. Andrews State Park (or
any park on the coast) would be a greater success. The park was
beautiful, the rangers were helpful, and I think the photos turned out
awesome!
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