Ghost Town on the Tamiami Trail

Old Pinecrest Gas Station, Old Tamiami Trail

© 2010 by Michael A. Pancier

About a mile west of what is now Shark Valley lies the entrance to the Loop Road. A 30 mile drive into a pothole laden dirt road through Big Cypress National Preserve. The road used to be part of the original Tamiami Trail.  If you drive it now, besides gators, birds, rednecks and bugs, you'll run into the Pinecrest Ghostown.  In the 1920's Pinecrest was a kind of boom town with the opening of the Trail. Pioneers were gator hunters, loggers, farmers, bootleggers, and some just trying to get away from the law. The nearest law was at the county seat in Key West. Pinecrest, just across the county line from Dade county, was a perfect place for Al Capone's home, hotel, and brothel. When the Depression hit it had a devastating affect on Pinecrest. The hurricanes finished the rest off. Gone are many of the homes, school, and the Gator Hook Lodge (The lodge was located at the S curve on Loop Road.) The Gator Hook was a local watering hole and dance club that featured local celebrity Ervin Rouse. Rouse is famous for the musical hit "The Orange Blossom Special". The area was featured along with pictures in the August 1976 issue of National Geographic. 

 © 2010 Michael A. Pancier

Welcome to Hialeah - Pretty Prairie?

The city's name is most commonly attributed to Muskogee origin, "Haiyakpo" (prairie) and "hili" (pretty) combining in "Hialeah" to mean "pretty prairie".  There isn't much of a prairie left in the City, as nearly every inch has been developed.  It is an interesting place to photograph though.

I took this image this afternoon in infrared.  If you are coming from the east along Okeechobee Road,  you will be greeted with this arch as you enter the pretty prairie. It is kind of an oasis in a sense between the residences of the City and the scrap yards and factories.  Frankly, this City offers so much to photograph if you take the time to explore.

Bald Eagle Video

First Day of Spring 2010

Bald Eagle Airborne - Western Broward County, Florida

© 2010 by Michael Pancier Photography

"A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky."   -- Crazy Horse, Sioux Chief

www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Images of Arches & Canyonlands National Parks

It's been over a year, but I finally got around to editing my video from my 2009 trip to Moab, Utah.  This video is a 10 minute montage of video, photographs, and Native American sounds, (well not all the sounds, but most of it).

I would like to thank local Moab photographer and guide Bret Edge for taking me out to some of these locations.  Some of them were only accessible by 4x4, and it's scary driving down some of these steep canyons.

Enjoy the views of this surreal world.

If you wish to view the video in wide screen, click here.

Some of the images here are available at:

www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Birds of Florida - Video by Michael Pancier

Video of some of Florida's birds shot in the Everglades, Big Cypress, Wakodahatchee Wetlands, and Gatorland.

Photography and video © 2010 by Michael A. Pancier

An Evening with the Parrotheads

The Eagle & The Hawk

I am the eagle, I live in high country
In rocky cathedrals that reach to the sky
I am the hawk and there's blood on my feathers
But time is still turning they soon will be dry
And all of those who see me, all who believe in me
Share in the freedom I feel when I fly

Come dance with the west wind and touch on the mountain tops
Sail oer the canyons and up to the stars
And reach for the heavens and hope for the future
And all that we can be and not what we are
-- John Denver

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Words from the Wise

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." -- Albert Einstein

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Happy Valentine's Day - 2010

"Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties."
-- Jules Renard

More Words to Live By

Zion National Park © 2007 by Michael A. Pancier

“Don't Take Anything Personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.”

-- Don Miguel Ruiz, author of "The Four Agreements"

Driving Along the Trail

Some images across the Tamiami Trail as I headed home from an afternoon shooting in the Everglades.

Coopertown, Florida - Population 8

It is located about 20 miles west of Miami on US-41. Coopertown is famous for being the original air boat tour operators, beginning in the 1940s when tourists along the Tamiami Trail requested rides on airboats. Famous for serving Gator meat and frog legs.

Fresh or Frozen Froggie. Kermit would be appalled.

Another Tour Boat Stand Along the Way

All Images © 2010 by Michael Pancier Photography
All Rights Reserved

Where Does Discontent Start?

Image © 2003 by Michael A. Pancier, All Rights Reserved

"Where does discontent start? You are warm enough, but you shiver. You are fed, yet hunger gnaws you. You have been loved, but your yearning wanders in new fields. And to prod all these there's time, the Bastard Time." -- John Steinbeck

Waves of Stone

The Wave - Coyote Buttes - Arizona
© 2008 by Michael A. Pancier

"Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”

-- Saint Augustine

Hope & Focus

© 2008 by Michael A. Pancier

"I find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest. I do not judge the universe."
-- Dalai Lama

Images available at my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Destiny is not a Matter of Chance

Image of Egmont Island Lighthouse © 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

"Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice; it is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved."
-- William Jennings Bryan

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Happiness Is a Butterfly

© 2009 Michael Pancier Photography

"Happiness is a butterfly, which when pursued, is always just beyond your grasp, but which, if you will sit down quietly, may alight upon you."

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

2010 is an exciting new year where all the negative energies and forces which had surrounded me have been exorcised. Fill your heart with nothing but love for those around you and happiness you will find. It will come to you like the butterfly. I said that.

Images available at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

The Spirit in the Sky

Red Shouldered Hawk © 2010 by Michael Pancier Photography

"It is the general belief of the Indians that after a man dies his spirit is somewhere on the earth or in the sky, we do not know exactly where, but we are sure that his spirit still lives. . . . So it is with WakanTanka. We believe that he is everywhere, yet he is to us as the spirits of our friends, whose voices we can not hear."

-- Chased-by-Bears, Santee-Yanktonai Sioux

The Open Road

Sunshine Skyway Bridge 12/31/09 - East Beach - Fort de Soto
© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier

"That is the road we all have to take - over the Bridge of Sighs into eternity."
-- Soren Kierkegaard

Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com

Happy New Year - Welcome 2010

© 2009 by Michael A. Pancier
Please visit my website at www.michaelpancierphotography.com