Multicolored Beets

Baskets O Plenty

Throughout the summer we try to grab dinner at the Wednesday night market and hang out in the park. It’s a good way to break up the week and relax with the kids.

Bundles of Carrots

Jar of Cherry Tomatoes

Eventually berries turn to peaches and then to squash and then it’s October and the farmer’s market is no more and I wait through the winter for it to return.

Veins Of Green

Red and Green Tomatoes

Road Trip

“You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit”

While we may not have enjoyed the end of summer heat, the spiders seemed to love it. The Golden Orb-Web spider was busy putting up webs that were between 4-8 feet in diameter. The female of the species would hang out in the center of these webs and was as big as my fist.

Looking At You

Golden Glow

Towards the end of my trip we took a drive into Tampa and visited the Florida Aquarium. What is unique about this aquarium is that it devotes a significant amount of it’s space to showing off and explaining the local ecology.

Alligator Friendship

Many people feel strongly about photographing animals in captivity. I understand both sides if the argument and really only have a problem with people misrepresenting where they took the photograph. I really like when you can find a way to include the enclosure into a good photograph. This was my take on a classic example of this.

Tank Silhouette

Eel Watching

After a week it was finally time for me to head back home. Every time I visit Florida I am amazed ( and a bit saddened ) at how people took a swamp and jungle and turned it into a state with the fourth highest population. If you take the time to venture out there are some very unique things to find.

Looking At You

In May I was able to get up early two mornings in a row and go to Myakka River State Park and go to a site my dad showed me to photograph alligators and other wildlife. The alligators did not disappoint and I was able to photograph them as well as some blue herons.

Dinosaurs and Dragonflies

Ripple on the Throat

The next day my dad came with me and he showed me another place in Myakka River State Park to shoot where I was able to get the sunrise photo that I opened this post with. While the alligators were not so cooperative on this morning, the birds were more than happy to pose.

Morning Break On The Dam

Blocking The Light

Myakka River State Park was a really neat place to see a lot of the wildlife and habitat that is native in a state that is more well known for their large cities and voting faux pas. Our family also visited Busch Gardens on that trip but I left the camera home that day, choosing instead to enjoy the thrill of the roller coasters. Heather and I had a blast riding Sheikra with it’s 2 90 degree drops. ( Video not shot by me, contains cussing, jump to 1:00 to start the ride. )

In the next post I’ll talk about the photos I was able to take in September.

We drove through the night, going to that weird place that people go to when spending 8 hours in a car together and finding our way back again. Eventually we arrived at Miller Motorsports Park just outside of Salt Lake City and I got my first taste of what was to come. Ford GTs, Ferraris, and Porsches lined the pits along side nameless prototype cars. Jeremy was kind enough to spend the morning explaining most of what was going on since I am not a race car enthusiast but I did think it was pretty neat. After lunch Jeremy went to go help in the pits and I photographed some of the final event: the Utah Grand Prix, a 200+ lap race that included all sorts of amazing cars.

Fast Flying Lizard

Speed down the Boardwalk

Jet Black

Chaser

We drove home after the race was done, driving through the night again and arriving back home just over 24 hours after we left. Knowing amazing people leads to amazing things.

So I photographed it.

Filled with beer cans, beans, apples, corn, plastic bottles; this fire was still hot to the touch long after people had left.

Hillside covered in trash. I used the large black bag at the bottom to clean up camp.

Organic matter littered the site. Just the thing that attracts and eventually kills animals like bears and coyotes.

Cucumbers

Apples

Apple eaten by animal(s).

Fish carcass found 4 feet from our tent.

And then I cleaned it up and hauled a bag of trash larger than what my family puts on the curb each week home.

To the people who do this: The words I have for you are not fit for print but I would be happy to say them to your face. There is a comment box below and while I will remove expletives I will not remove your comment, please explain to me why you think this is ok.

Oh yea ….

Not everything burned.

Last month I got my portrait taken by the amazing Penny Ozinga which was kind of a big deal since the last time I had that done was ten years ago for my engagement photo and the time before that was my senior photo. For some reason being in front of the lens makes me uncomfortable. Not that squeal and make a big deal out it uncomfortable, but i will quietly walk out of frame if I notice the lens pointed in my direction.

So why did I put myself in the path of the lens this time? I chose to do this because I wanted a nice photograph to go on the new J Squared Consulting site to represent me. The few I did have of myself didn’t represent the image was trying to convey so it came down to photographing myself or asking one of my photographer friends if they would shoot me.

Penny and I have known each other for a long time and I frequently help her shoot weddings. She was having computer issues and I need a portrait so we traded. We both felt like we got the better end of the deal which is the best kind of trade.

Penny is amazing at what she does, you should go check out her other work at ozingaarts.com and if you are looking for someone to do some portrait work, give her a call.

First stop was to see some old friends in Boston and Rochester. It was great to spend some time visiting them and catching up on their lives. In both cities I was able to take advantage of the spring weather and do some shooting, click the photo to see the rest.

Blue Fade, one of the images from the northeast.

Just a few short days after getting back I packed up the photo gear, added in some camping gear, and jetted off to Death Valley and Antelope Valley with my new friend, Jen Yu. I cannot thank Jen enough for inviting me on this trip. I had never been to either place and that, combined with a fun companion, made for a great trip.

Desert Gold, one of the images from Death Valley

And finally, last week I was back on a plane to New York. This time it was working with a client and the week flew by but I was still able to get some photos taken.

8:30 at the Shake Shack, one of the photos from New York.

I’m now home again, at least for the next 12 days, and am looking forward to catching up with people here as well as doing some photography locally.

In addition to Stepan and Oleg, who came with me last year, Jennifer Yu came with me to Monte Vista and proved herself to be an great traveling companion. I have heard that she is an excellent chef and seen the results in her equally excellent food and landscape photography. I met Stepan and his dad, Oleg, last year and was so happy they could come again. Stepan does some awesome development at Room 214 when he is not out climbing and shooting.

Like last year, ProPhotoRental.com was kind enough to let us use some of their professional gear including 500mm lenses for both the Canon and Nikon shooters. Without these long lenses getting close up shots of the birds would have been impossible. To be a bit more dynamic they also let me use a Nikon D700 and I’ve got to say that this is an amazing camera that I wouldn’t normally get to use unless I started selling prints. I only tried out the Nikon gear and being able to see the birds up close using the 500mm f/4 without scaring them off was great. As great as the 500mm is there are times when that much zoom was too much, which is why we also had a 200-400mm f/4 and a 70-200mm f/2.8 to give us a huge range both of which were also amazing lenses. If your shooting wildlife or sports or that guy you’re stalking that lives 3 blocks over I can’t say enough good things about these lenses and you can use them for less than 5% of the cost with a rental service like ProPhotoRental.com. Stepan, while waiting on the birds to do something took this great shot of the Canon 400mm f2.8 that ProPhotoRental.com let him use.

Reflect by Stepan Mazurov

I had two concrete goals with going to the San Luis valley this year; photographing the sandhill cranes and photographing the Great Sand Dunes National Park. I also had a couple of extra maybe goals of some sort of night shot and possibly going down to Colorado’s oldest mission south of Monte Vista but between all day shooting and getting over a cold I was too exhausted to do either of the maybe goals. Jen and I stopped at the dunes Friday afternoon on our way to Monte Vista and shot in the park and then drove out to the outer edge to shoot the dunes and Mount Herald at sunset. Jen has an amazing shot on her blog of this. Saturday morning all four of us, bleary eyed and caffeine deprived, drove out to the Monte Vista Wildlife Refuge and began a great day of shooting. Unlike last year, where we were snowed on at sunrise, we were treated to a great sunrise and plenty of sunshine all day. Our good luck lasted all through Saturday while we shot at a couple of sites and explored around for others and on Sunday while we all went out to shoot again.

Stepan, Oleg, and Jen all had to head back to Boulder on Sunday but I stuck around until Monday and, when it wasn’t snowing, I spent more time shooting the cranes. Monday morning I woke up to a bit of snow covering the San Luis valley and decided to head back out to the Sand Dunes did some shooting at the snow covered dunes. I love finding these little slices in time where something like this happens unexpectedly.

I had a great time with everyone and think I’ll be doing it again next year, hopefully bringing along old friends and finding new ones to join us. You can check out Jennifer Yu’s work at userealbutter.com and jenyuphotography.com. Stepan posts his work on flickr and his dad, Oleg can be found writing about electronics and micro controller firmware design at circuitsathome.com.

As I look through the almost 4000 shots I took this weekend I’ll be publishing one almost every day. You can find these here on the site as well as on my flickr page.

Sandhill Sunset by Jason Janelle