You can drive south from Jacksonville/Ponte Vedra Beach area towards Marineland to reach an exceedingly diverse area with tremendous opportunities for great photographs. It is fifty minute drive from my home. In this area you can find the Matanzas River Inlet; the Marineland – you can swim with the dolphins here; and The River to Sea Preserve. Flagler County and Marineland town own this preserve. A1A traverses it and divides it into an eastern side – ocean view and a boardwalk; and a western side – the preserve with trails. This preserve consists of ninety acres of land and is part of the 73,000 acres of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Early morning parking is easy; later in the day, especially on the weekends, it gets full quickly.

On one end of the Boardwalk – the northern end, you can see a cool cafe: the Ragga Surf Cafe. There are stairs that descend to the beach.

From the boardwalk, you can enjoy the sweeping view of the Atlantic ocean. The beach itself is very clean, often not very crowded and in the early morning, I often see a photoshoot taking place here. You can almost always see birds lounging on the rocks, dog-walkers, walkers, runners and fishermen and fisherwomen.

You can see the railroad-vine which is also called beach-morning-glory, bayhops, or even goat’s foot. because it’s leaves that are succulent and round in shape with a notched tip that makes these leaves look like a hoof. No wonder it’s botanical name is pe caprae – Latin for goat’s-foot. Complete name is Ipomoea pes-caprae subsp. brasiliensis. It has pretty pinkish-purple flowers that attract butterflies and other insects. These delicate flowers open early in the morning and only last a day. However, the plant blooms regularly and is quite prolific.

TIP: If you get stung by a jellyfish, you can use its sap as a treatment.