On December 14, 2011, my daughter, JulieAnne and her partner, Ivor, gave me a “guided tour” of Lake Wauburg. Visiting the lake at sunset is becoming a tradition that I love. We did it in December last year. As before, they let me ride up front with my camera and gear, shooting photos as the setting sun’s golden light illuminated the trees and wildlife.

Lake Wauburg is located south of Gainesville and adjacent to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. The lake is mostly undeveloped and, therefore, unspoiled. It has some amazingly gorgeous sunsets and a lot of wildlife. This year’s trip did not disappoint.

All of the images in this article were from my sunset “cruise” on Lake Wauburg.

Before the sun went down, its golden light transformed the dull winter greens of the above shoreline into an awesome glowing dreamscape. It was an unusual sight, unless you visit the lake often. It is easy to see why JulieAnne and Ivor take me here.

Above a Wood Stork was working the shoreline for food in the golden light.

You can see why I could not take my eyes off the horizon. As I watched and photographed, the colors were changing and intensifying. Above, while JulieAnne and Ivor were readying the ganoe for leaving from the boat ramp on Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, I kept shooting.

Just before leaving the lake, we heard and spotted a couple of Great Horned Owls. It was too dark to photograph them from the ganoe, but I was able to get their profiles against the evening sky, as they looked curiously at us.

I am back home and beginning to review and process the many photographs I made from the Panhandle to the Everglades. As I make progress, I will upload them to my Website and post additional articles to my blog.