Neptune Beach | Peaceful waves, Pelicans, and a Paddle Surfer

Travel Photography: Scenes from Greater Phoenix, Arizona

On my Phoenix trip last month I met a bighorn sheep, chilled in a wonderful donut shop, and didn't cry over spilt milk.

Puss & Boots

Just an odd picture I liked from my friend's kitchen before a night out back when it was still boots weather. (From left) Mr. Loggerfeld, Whitney and Meghan.

Foreclosure Art in Gainesville

I felt a small sense of triumph when I read this story last week about a Florida couple foreclosing on a bank. It reminded me of a Florida foreclosure story I worked on last year but never blogged. It's always inspiring to see folks take back power and make a statement after being foreclosed upon.

Last year, writer Matt Shaer and I met a local artist and professor named Jack Stenner who turned his foreclosed house into an interactive public art project. Matt's story, Open house: Foreclosure art meets the whims of the web, describes our visit to the house and includes encounters with squatters, Mormon missionaries, stray cats, and a spider 'the size of a child's palm'. Definitely not my typical CSM assignment, and well worth the read.

The Cutest Boston Terrier In The World

I puppy-sat for Cassie last weekend. I'm in love.

Islam in Northeast Florida: Women on Eid

These portraits are part of a personal project I started last year about Islam in Northeast Florida. After spending much of last summer in the Islamic(/secular) countries of Turkey and Bosnia, I was shocked to return to my hometown and learn that an angry evangelical pastor was threatening to burn the Koran right in our backyard. I thought back to the one Muslim girl I knew in high school, and to the rhetoric she had to endure as we discussed the War on Terror in our US History class shortly after 9/11. Although I'm unfamiliar with Islam, I am all-too-familiar with feelings of alienation and religious discrimination. I decided to shift my focus away from the controversy and anger in Gainesville. Instead I spend some time with Muslims in Jacksonville during their annual Eid festival (which is delightfully redundant), marking the end of Ramadan. The celebrations were full of color, joy, gossip, and family. Here are pictures of some of the girls and women I met. I'm not sure what's in store for this project after this post, but it was time to start sharing these images.

Nature Photography - Beautiful Trees of Sedona, Arizona

I did some hiking in Arizona's Sedona desert earlier this year, and I couldn't get enough of the wildlife. Sedona is remarkably green for a desert, and so full of life. I was also really inspired by the quality of desert light. Anyway, here are some pictures of trees. Some were alive, some looked pretty dead, and some of them had bark peeling off of them in fascinating patterns that were either symptomatic of disease or simply part of their life cycle. I was hiking, not reporting.