May 20, 2012
May 21, 2012
May 09, 2012
Chillin' with wild horses
I just realized I haven't updated this blog in a long time!
So today Alex Catalano and I went to Paynes Prairie, Gainesville, Fla., to find some bison. We decided that if we stuck to the pathways, we would only end up where other people had already been. And how much fun is that, really? So instead, we battled our way through miles and miles of torturous shrubs and hallowed-out tree debris. (I realize the photos don't make it look so horrible, but that's because these were all taken on the trip there and are mainly of the more pleasant moments).
For the first couple hours we only came across a turtle and some turkeys, birds and a snake. But nothing too exciting. No bison. But then we came across a herd of wild horses, and, thinking like hunters rather than photographers, circled the herd and approached cautiously. This spooked them, and they ran.
However, having learned from our mistake and more determined than ever to get a little closer, Alex and I approached a second herd drinking from a stream nearby. Rather than circling the horses and making them feel trapped, we stayed together this time and kept our distance, creeping inches at a time. The horses didn't seem to be too frightened - they sort of looked pretty curious - but soon walked off a little farther from where we stood. This time we walked together around some shrubs to face them, and lo and behold, they approached us cautiously and began poking and sniffing. And although they weren't bison, this made the journey there worth it ... or so we thought.
After the photo session with wild horses, we began our long and arduous trek back. Long story short, we got lost (kinda), came out onto the highway three miles down from the entrance to Paynes Prairie (which is still two miles from where we parked the car), ran out of water, knocked on an old woman's door, asked for water, she seemed very sketched out by us, but water was becoming an issue and we had no choice, she gave us water, we thanked her, began walking, realized we still had miles to go in the blistering sun, tried hitchhiking but weren't successful, finally went to a store where some men were drinking beer, asked them for a ride, they were friendly, one gave us a ride back to the entrance of the park, we jumped from his truck bed, thanked him, begged the park ranger to take us the final two-mile trip back to the car, hopped in the back of his truck, got a ride, arrived 20 feet from the car, walked 20 feet, finally drove home, and then spent half an hour scraping dirt off my feet in the shower.
And I don't regret a single minute of it!
February 16, 2012
January 29, 2012
January 28, 2012
29
Today I spent the majority of the afternoon in High Springs at fire station 29, where Pearson has worked for 14 months. The station is independent from Gainesville Fire Department and is the only fire station in all of High Springs. Consequently, the firemen there serve the entire city, as well as a 5-mile strip on I-75. Here are a few of the more interesting shots from the day.
January 27, 2012
lightvsdark
I hate to pull stuff from the dusty web-filled corners of my hard drive, but I was revisiting some things and found this photo I took at New Smyrna Beach a few years back. I didn't think much of it at the time, but at the moment I would give anything to be that man on the bike. In fact, I've been staring at this image long enough now that I can even hear the waves break and smell the salty air. The other image caught my eye too, so even though it has nothing to do with bicycles and beaches, I thought i'd go ahead and include it anyway. So here's to a little envy, nostalgia and boredom.
January 25, 2012
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the Kage
I'm currently working on a photography story for my Advanced Photo II class about Kevin "Kage" Pearson, a professional MMA fighter and full-time firefighter. When Pearson isn't training or teaching at F2 Arena & Darkside Athletics in Gainesville, Fla., he works as a firefighter in High Springs. I've only spent one afternoon with Pearson so far, but this will be a five-week-long project. So stay tuned.
January 21, 2012
33rd annual Collectors Day
I've been extremely busy lately on various projects and haven't posted anything in a while, so here you go.
Once a year collectors from all over Florida bring everything from Beatles memorabilia to chess boards to samples of sand to show off at Collectors Day held at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. I stopped by with Alex to shoot a multimedia piece for our new website, Get2KnowGainesville.com (in progress). Unfortunately, the mic apparently wasn't working properly as all the audio in the interviews turned out horrible. But besides that and the fact that Alex and I were babysat by PR all day, it was still fun to meet all the nice people and see their unique collections.
At first this event made me want to start some sort of a collection. But then I realized I do collect something: I collect moments! They're the best thing to collect, really.
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