Another Floridian Christmas

Finally back in Gainesville after a wonderful week in Orlando and an equally wonderful week in Bradenton. My last semester at UF starts in four days (I know I keep thinking every semester is my last, but this time it is the truth. I promise) and I couldn't be more ready for an end to my academic career. Then who knows where life will take me?! But anyways, here are some shots from the Bradenton part of my break. I never liked Florida very much until I discovered Bradenton, but now I know there is at least one place in the Sunshine State with much more to offer than just humidity and thunderstorms. Enjoy!

Passenger seat

Herman Cain speaks at UF

JonJon

So I went to the skate park again today since I didn't really have anything else to do. I have been thinking about doing a photo essay for the paper about skate park culture and the people who frequent the local park. Today I met Jonathan Vaught (better known as JonJon), a local kid who was fun to photograph. Enjoy.

More Friday night lights

As you may already know, shooting friday night football is not anywhere close to my favorite assignment. However, it is a necessary part of working for a daily and I have found myself getting significantly better at anticipating the action and capturing the highlights. Here are a few shots from last night's game with the Buchholz High School Bobcats (a local Gainesville school) and the Columbia High School Tigers. Columbia beat Buchholz 55 to 14.

Reggie

Today I shot another dog for the "merchant mascot" features story being published either this Sunday or next. This time the mascot was Reggie, a two-year-old chihuahua-mix who hangs out at B&B Office Systems in Gainesville when his owner, Kattia Olsen, 11, shown below, is away at school. Olsen received Reggie as a birthday present after her previous and much larger dog, a great dane, died. Initially I got some shots of Reggie inside the office hanging out in the halls and standing on the tops of chairs and desks, as he usually does. But fortunately Kattia brought him outside to go to the bathroom because I was able to get some much more playful and fun photos (not of him actually going to the bathroom, of course) in my opinion. We'll see which ones actually make it into the paper though.

Sassy skating

Today I only had one assignment for The Sun - to shoot Sassy, a 13-year-old Maltese who acts as a "merchant mascot" at a stained glass gallery in Micanopy, Fla. She sits atop the counter and greets customers as they walk through the door. But while the assignment went well and I got to photograph a really cute dog, shooting dogs sitting atop counters isn't exactly the most exciting thing in the world. So afterward I headed to the skatepark where the real action was. I've been busy and haven't been able to go feature hunting on my own in a couple weeks now, so it was definitely refreshing. I ended up meeting three cool kids who visit the skatepark pretty much every day. They reminded me of me when I was 15 years old and when my life was also dominated by skateboarding. Also, I've really been in a black and white mood lately, so enjoy.

Play rehearsal

Paint a picture

Abby Wambach!

Annual Cane Boil at Morningside Nature Center in Gainesville, Fla.

November 26, 2011

This past Saturday was the annual Cane Boil and Fiddle Contest at Morningside Nature Center here in Gainesville. For my photography final, my classmate Alex and I were assigned to do a multimedia project of the event, including video, audio and stills combined and edited in Final Cut. (Below are some stills I took for the final project. I'll post that when it's done.)