found.

i was cleaning out my camera bag and i found a CF card with lost photos from the road trip so far. i love it when that happens, it's almost better than finding an extra dollar in your jeans.

so here is my addendum to the road-trippin'. this leg includes bowling in tampa and exploring atlanta:
and special thanks to my gracious hostess, melissa lyttle, for offering up her home to me out here in florida. and also special thanks to her lovely dog emma for her wet-nose nuzzles.

atl.

the road trip continues...

some snapshots and polaroids from the atlanta photojournalism seminar a couple weeks ago. photo talk, seeing old friends and meeting new ones always makes for a good weekend.

quote.

i read this quote at the end of william albert allard's introduction to his book, "portraits of america," when i was in south dakota and i just can't shake it. it goes back to this post i made when i was in nyc a few months ago, and allard just says it so much better than i ever could. here goes.

"in truth, all these subjects were serious love affairs, first loves, some of them. you can have more than one of those in a photographic life. first loves tend to die hard. they may not -- and often don't -- last, but when they are over they leave something of themselves within you forever. and i have the photographs to prove it."

thank you, mr. allard.

the end...

...of an era.
i've spent the last year-and-a-half photographing for 209 Vibe, and online and print publication that sprung from the bowels of my old paper and from the minds of a handful of younger staff. we were dedicated to covering the local art, music and entertainment scene in the valley, which provided for some late nights and a lot of screamo/hip-hop shows and bar reviews. it was definitely a great opportunity for me to stretch my photography, both in regard to lighting and in general. i mean, when you have to shoot 3 bar reviews in a week, you have to learn to show things differently, right?

anyway, i was grateful for the opportunity to shoot for 209 Vibe while i was a staffer at the paper, as well as for the last 6 months as a freelancer when i was laid off. sometimes it was a challenge, but it was a challenge i wouldn't have given up. so i'm sad to say goodbye to the little publication with the staff that ran my photos huge, even if they were too "edgy" for the newspaper, who loved my story pitches and let me run with them, and who encouraged something different with every assignment. so here are probably more photos than you need to see, but some of my favorite shots and assignments from the last 18+ months.
if you're in the central valley of california, keep an eye out for our final issue in january.

happy birthday.

i still think about you every day.

shuffle.

florida is so much like california. it's almost scary to think i drove 3000 miles to end up in a place that's so much like home. i love it.
thanks to the lovely melissa lyttle for hosting me for this extended visit, and for pointing me in the direction of my first order of business.... shuffleboard! with my love of cable-knit cardigans, oversized sunglasses and knitting, it only made sense that while in florida, i should learn to play this awesome game. so i went to the friday night shuffle at the st. petersburg shuffleboard club, armed with a camera and no expectations. what i found were at least 30 people, young and old, playing numerous games of shuffleboard fairly late into the night. i talked to joyce, an older woman and a member of the league, and she invited me to play a game with some of the folks there. i have to say i abandoned my camera for some good old-fashioned fun! if you ever find yourself in st. petersburg with no plans on a friday night, it's a must-see event.hooray for florida.

water.

drove down to sarasota today to see a little more of florida, and have been almost non-stop drenched by some crazy rain. so much for sunny florida.

as i was killing some time and editing through photos from the trip so far, i realized that i rarely had the chance to see the sunset... and then i realized that so much of what i ended up photographing for the last couple days has only been the sunset. sunset and water. i guess that's what happens when you're so close to the water.

maybe it's too many photos, but i can't stop loving this open-water sunset weather. enjoy.