“There it goes…”  His voice punctuates the near blackness of night.  While one of my guests on the Moonlight on the Prairie nature photography workshop is merely feet away from me, he and the rest of the participants are nearly invisible.  It’s so dark out here.

Across the vast tan-hued dunes, wind-carved lines undulate.  The side lighting accentuates the patterns of light and dark across the sides of each hill.  Looking out across the dunes towards the Grapevine Mountains, the same light patterns play over the countless dunes that stretch to the basin’s edges.

As soon as the Everglades nature photography workshop concluded, some of the guests opted to continue the adventure with the manatee extension.  A four-hour drive up Florida’s West Coast took us to the central coast town of Crystal River.