I took a quick weekend trip to Key West a few weeks back. Like most of my Keys trips, I rode a bike the whole time. Biking always allows me to take in the most amount of scenery in short amount of time. I definitely feel bikes are the best way to get around Key West. When I get there, I just toss my car keys in a bag and forget about driving for a few days. I get to go all over the island –  quickly – and never worry about parking hassles because I simply tie up to the nearest palm tree.

And it’s a great way to see the sights. I can turn down any side street in a pinch, even when it’s one way (hehe), and see endless rows of beautiful victorians and tropical bungalows. This is the much less touristy wayto go, and I like connecting with the locals this way.

Here are some pix I took at the beach at Fort Jefferson State Park and Key West Bight. My two favorite pictures aren’t heavy on action, but they do have great energy.

The man reading under the trees by the beach looks like a contestant in the Hemingway look-alike contest in Key West (he probably is – he gets my vote!).

My favorite is the image of the tarpon coming out of the water. It looks like a watercolor painting, like it can’t be real. His face is so expressive. I had no idea exactly how the water would look when I took this, so it was an unexpected treat.

This guy was tooling around with a school of tarpon and snook. They hang out in the marinas en masse, because they know people will feed them. They’re like massive, wild, domesticated fish pets. They must sense people won’t hurt them. And people can’t, because the marina is a sanctuary and fishing isn’t allowed.

On the fish photo, I really like the water bubble effect. When I took the picture, I thought I had a great shot when the fish’s head came out of the water and I captured it. But I had no idea that the water would freeze quite that way, so it was a great surprise. That’s one of the things I love about photography. You can capture moments in time in unique ways, and share them forever.

The other photos are just some shots I took the same day, to give you an idea of the different things I saw in just a short few hours in Key West.

I’ve taken so many trips to Key West, and the images are dramatically different based on what I did and who I was with on that trip. I’ll share some different scenes in a future post.

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