Weekend adventuring with the ladies

A girl and her bike

Sorra

Whale cake

Had a belated birthday celebration for my amazing girlfriend last night since I was in Milwaukee for her 24th birthday. I realized that whale cakes are always better late than never.

Morning bike ride

Today I woke up at 6:30 a.m. (on my day off!) and biked to Paynes Prairie for some photos. It's amazing how much easier it is to wake up early when I don't have to go to work. Anyhow, the weather was beautiful and it was a nice little vacation from life. Hope you enjoy!

GoPro skateboard test run

Guess who got a GoPro for his birthday? This guy did! :)

Remember

Today I helped out my friend, who is the photo editor at the Independent Alligator, and took some Memorial Day photos for the paper tomorrow. Each year, chapter 14 of the Gainesville Veterans for Peace sets up 6,660 paper tombstones in remembrance of the U.S. Department of Defense Iraq and Afghanistan casualties along a long stretch of NW 8th Street in Gainesville, Fla. So that's where I went! Enjoy.

Natural therapy

So as you may or may not have noticed, I haven't shot anything in a while. A couple months at least. And really there is no reason for it except that I just needed a break. But tonight a couple friends and I went to La Chua Trail at Paynes Prairie to do a little nature photography. I prefer taking pictures of people, which is why I got into photojournalism; but since I haven't shot anything in a couple months, I thought nature would be a stress-free and relaxing way to ease myself back into it. And as it turned out, I had a wonderful time. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day, and although it's not what I normally shoot, I found it almost therapeutic to shoot something for the fun of it for a change. Enjoy!

A dog day

Perfect day for the dog park. What more can I say?

Sssss

Futbol and football

Wow, it feels like I haven't updated this in forever, but I guess it's only been about a week. I've just been super busy lately at the Sun and really haven't had the time. Today was a day full of sports, as I had to shoot the UF women's soccer tournament in the afternoon and then Friday night football after that. So here are a few shots I thought were kinda neat. Enjoy!

Down down do your thing do your thing

Here's a photo I took of Lewis Clayton about a year ago that for some reason I never got around to posting. Cowboying isn't the only thing he enjoys doing.

"I love to dance ... I go out every Saturday night and dance, and it's good for the heart and it's good for the soul and it's good for the body and the mind," he said.

Gainesville cowboying

For those of you who do not know, Lewis Clayton is a local cowboy here in Gainesville. I did a multimedia project about him a year ago for my advanced I class, and recently decided that doing a little piece on him for The Sun would be interesting. So I pitched the idea to my editor, who said he is going to ask the features desk if they would like to write a story about him to go along with my photos. Hopefully it works out, but if nothing else, at least I will have a super sweet gallery to post on the Sun's website. Here are some photos I took of Clayton yesterday morning... Enjoy!