Sebastian Inlet April 2025

Introduction

Welcome to my latest photography adventure! This time we're visiting Sebastian Inlet State Park in Melbourne Beach, Florida. What a great place! I've been here a couple times previously (check out my previous Sebastian Inlet adventure from February 2024 and my Cocoa Beach adventure from February 2022), and it never disappoints.

The park sits on a barrier island between the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River Lagoon, and is one of North America’s most biodiverse estuaries. It features a mix of beaches, tidal marshes, mangrove forests, and maritime hammocks. Ok, you caught me. I didn't actually write those last two sentences--I got them off the internet. Nobody knows what an estuary is and nobody knows what a maritime hammock is. So to get all of us up to speed, an estuary is a place where freshwater from rivers or streams mixes with saltwater from the ocean. That one makes sense. When it comes to maritime hammocks, I figured that's what the old time sailors slept on back in the day when they first went to Tahiti. But now I realize that "maritime" reflects its proximity to the sea and "hammock", which comes from a Native American word, means a shaded, fertile area generally shaped by harsh coastal conditions like salt air, storm surges, and sandy, nutrient-poor soils. And yet with all that they support a surprising diversity of life in and out of the water. So if all that's the case, now I'm wondering what those things were that the sailors slept on in Tahiti.

Let's get to some pictures!

Sometimes it's OK to Just Watch

One of the most fun parts of photographing at Sebastian Inlet is when you're lucky enough to capture an osprey snatching a fish out of the water and take it back to it's nest. Well, it's fun when you actually get the shot. But some great shots can be made even if they miss the fish.

Here's what the experience is like. Watch and wait. Watch and wait. Watch and wait. It could be 15 minutes or it could be 2 hours. I guess it could be never, but I'm not that unlucky. Then all of a sudden an osprey appears up and slightly to the right, circling into the area. "Hey, two o'clock" announces one of the photographers in our small group huddled along the shoreline. Everyone has nice equipment. Canon and Nikon and Sony. Big honko lenses. Some use tripods but that's crazy for the action we're capturing here. Maybe they just aren't strong enough to hold their big heavy lens up all day. But wait, it's time to focus. On queue, all that expensive camera equipment moves in unison toward the approaching bird like ballerina's in Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Dance of the Cygnets.

Everyone pre-focuses for the right distance, double checks the shutter speed, aperture, ISO, exposure compensation, and battery level. Um, it's too late to check the battery level. You've done that 10 times since you saw the last osprey anyway. Then all cameras are down as quickly as they went up so we can watch for the trigger. There it is--the circling has stopped and the bird hovers for a second or two with it's eyes locked in on a fish in the water below. All cameras back up. Then the dive starts. Followed by the rapid clicking of shutters until the osprey either succeeds or fails in its mission. Our mission is intertwined with his. Takes about five seconds and you either got it or you didn't. The next five minutes consists of all the photographers checking the images in their cameras and either bragging about getting it or blaming their camera for losing focus.

Taking the picture is fun. But just being there is even better. And sometimes it's OK to just watch. Here are a few of my favorite osprey shots from the trip.

Other Favorites

"It must be bad if I'm shooting a gull"

You can't only focus on the ospreys at Sebastian Inlet because there are so many other opportunities for great shots. But not everybody is interested in those. One afternoon while shooting with John from Connecticut we were experiencing a particularly slow day of activity. The wind was an issue and the tides were a little low and it was pretty quiet. So when a gull landed on the ground a few feet away from us John took some pictures and commented "it must be bad if I'm shooting a gull." Well, taking a picture of a gull on the sand in the middle of the afternoon typically doesn't compare to the awesome osprey fishing shots, but I loved the quote so I promised John I would put it in my adventure story. He laughed. And I'm sure he's honored.

Here are some of my favorite "other shots".

Another Great Adventure!

Thanks for following along on my latest adventure! I hope you enjoyed it. If you missed any of my other photography adventure summaries you can find them here. If you want to see more of my images you can check out my photography Portfolio Page or follow me on Instagram, Facebook or X. See you next time!