KEY BISCAYNE BAY 4 © 1997

Homestead, FL

Spending time out on the turquoise waters of Biscayne Bay looking for photographic opportunities is an ideal way to spend a day, but getting in the bay is even better. The shallowness of the bay made it easy for me to hop out of the boat to set up my tripod. I have been in all kinds of mud and wet sand while photographing Florida, but this was different; it was like jumping into wet concrete. I almost got stuck so many times that I finally figured out the secret to getting unstuck – turn like a corkscrew and it allows water into the hole and loosens the mud. Biscayne Bay Where a fringe of mangroves meet the northern keys and a portion of the third-largest coral reef in the world lies sheltered, there is a protected shallow estuary where clear waters allow lush seagrass meadows to flourish. Key Biscayne Bay occupies a limestone depression just off southeast Florida mainland and is a productive ecosystem where plants, sun, and translucent waters combine with nutrient-rich freshwater runoff to produce food and shelter for over 600 native fish, 20 threatened and endangered species, and a myriad of neo-tropical water birds. Here, the calm, clear warm waters of this vast bay give one a sense of what conditions might have been like just before the Florida platform emerged from its marine birthplace to become the Greater Everglades as we know it today. Key Biscayne Bay 4 was taken with a Deardorff 8×10 camera on T-Max 100 film. This photograph is hand-printed in Clyde’s darkroom on fiber-based paper, selenium toned, then mounted and matted to current archival standards. The photograph is a limited edition and signed by Clyde. Camera settings:  f/45 | 75mm Nikkor SW lens | orange filter | 1 second Disclaimer – Cropping, contrast, and image density may vary. To learn more about the darkroom printing process, click here.