2.26.13 Heading South – Chipley, FL & 2.27.13 Orange Beach, AL

A few months ago Diane and I were sitting around and decided we wanted to take a trip to New Orleans. Neither one of us had ever been there.

When looking into plane tickets and hotels when we decided to drive instead of paying $800 to fly. I love to drive anyways, so I pushed this way of travel whenever possible.  This also allowed us to do a couple things. My Mom has a friend in Chipley, Florida, so we decided to see if she wanted to ride down with us and stay with her friend for a few days and then we could pick her up on the way back. She was very excited and so it was, she was coming with us.

We could also stop at Orange Beach, Alabama, and see a friend and former teacher of mine, Gej Jones, and his wife, Sally. Gej and I are having a Photography Gallery show together June 8th at the REO Art Alley in Lansing MI.

So day 1 we took off at 6am Tuesday February 26th. It’s about a 14-hour drive from East Lansing to Chipley, FL. The drive was uneventful; we took turns driving and made pretty good time. The last 2 hours of the drive was the worst. You have to drive a 4 lane state highway, which has about 200 lights over 140 miles. So it’s a lot of stop and go. When we finally arrived in Chipley we spent about a half hour talking to my Mom’s friend Elaine before Diane and I crashed for the night.

The next morning Diane and I took off about 8am, it’s a 2.5-hour drive if you go straight to Gej and Sally’s place, but we decided to take the more scenic ride along the coast so it took us about 4 hours.

When we arrived in Alabama we pulled into their place, took our bags in and spent some time talking with Gej and Sally. After about an hour they wanted to take us to lunch at one of their favorite places with the fancy name of EAT. When you walk in, there are about 10 tables. Its kind of a cafeteria-style service. You walk along the counter and tell them what you want. They are mainly a caterer for their main business and supplement their income with the (Open for Lunch Only) restaurant. Each day they have a different menu. On this day it was Cajun, which is right up my alley! We had a great meal, a little Gumbo, Catfish, Jambalaya and Red Beans and Rice.  After that we headed back to their place to regroup.

A couple hours later we went to Fort Morgan to do some shooting. Gej had been there many times, and he wanted to take me there to take some photos, and I’m glad he did. The place was amazing, I didn’t catch much information about the history of the place, I was too busy shooting to ask. We spent about 2 hours going around shooting, while Diane and Sally talked the whole time about god knows what, they seemed like they had been friends for years.

When we returned from Fort Morgan, Gej and I edited our photos for a couple hours.

Then it was dinnertime. They had bought a couple pounds of shrimp, so we sat around and peeled and ate them. 

Then we sat up for several hours talking and solving all the worlds’ problems! We had a wonderful time with them, it was so nice for Diane to meet Gej and for both of us to get to know Sally; they are two of the nicest people you could spend time with. 

The next morning we were off to New Orleans…

Bringing Savannah Home

As Diane and myself moved into our new place last August we talked about the logistics of having a dog. We both are dog lovers, but we kind of came to the conclusion that we should probably wait a year or so until we get into a house. Then for the first several months we would bring it up every once in a while, but we continued to come up with the same conclusion, but both of us were still fighting the urge to get one. Every time a commercial would come on with a cute puppy we would both look at each other, or we would see someone walking their dog and both think, man it would be nice to have a dog around.

Well then came December 21st when this post all of the sudden pops up on Diane’s faceBook page “Against all my better judgement and intuition saying nonononono, I REALLY want a puppy for Christmas!”

That was all it took. Now we were in full Puppy hunt. I responded to the post with “Is that’s what we are doing this weekend? Let’s do it” and Jasmine (Diane’s daughter) was home from Eastern Michigan and said “Me tooJ!”

When Diane got home from work that’s all that we could talk about, so we discussed it again and decided we would start looking. We had a lot of plans for the holidays so we decided that when we got back from my work trip to Milwaukee (Diane was able to come with me because she was off work for a couple weeks) I know what you are thinking (Lucky for her, and that I take her to all the exotic places hahaha) that then would be a good time.

After that trip we took a ride over to the Capital Area Human Society to see if any stuck out to us. Diane and Jasmine each had their favorites and I had mine, but we didn't agree on any of them, and none of us just fell for a dog, so we didn't try to talk each other into one. Then on the way back we stopped at Petco to see if they were having any dogs brought in anytime soon. They said they were that weekend. Diane and I both really wanted to rescue a dog rather than get one at a store, so we decided we should look around and that would be our last option. We ended up going to the Ingham County Shelter on that Saturday.

We walked in, signed in and started looking around. I had decided I didn't want a Pit Bull, I have known a lot of them and have found that they (In general) are very kind to humans but sometimes can be mean to other dogs. Like I said in general, I know there are plenty of Pit Bulls that are fantastic dogs, and it really is the way you raise them in most cases. Other than that, I didn't have any idea of what kind I wanted. As we started to look, Jasmine went straight to the Pit Bulls and I think she really wanted one of the two brother and sister’s that were in the first pen, and to be honest they were pretty damn cute. Diane was still looking at them when I can up on the last pen in the first room and saw “Molly”. She was this cute little 9 month old Beagle that was in the corner of her pen, she was shaking and had really sad eyes. I knew instantly I wanted to get her out of there. She needed a home. Diane came walking up next and saw her, and said AWWWWW, look at you shaking, she walked in and picked her up. We then walked through the rest of the place and looked at the others. I kept just thinking of “Molly”.

We came back to her and grabbed the leash and took her outside. She was very shy and got scared very easy. She wouldn’t look us straight in the eye, but then when we got over to a bench and Diane picked her up, and Jasmine sat next to her, “Molly” started to warm up just a bit. I then sat down and grabbed her and she smelled my face and ears. Then we took her back to the pen. We talked about it for a minute and decided we would like to take her home.

Of course we picked the one dog there that had not been spayed  so they told us we could put a hold on her, but could not pick her up until Wednesday between Noon and 3. They did a little screening interview with us, and then we were on our way.

So we waited the long 4 days until we could get her and unfortunately Jasmine had to go back to school that Sunday, so she hasn't been able to spend any time with her.  Wednesday at 12:01 I picked her up. I did some paperwork and paid for her, and then Savannah and myself were on our way. We had decided during the 4 days that we would name her Savannah. We had taken a fantastic trip down south last summer and stayed in Savannah a few days, and had a blast so it seemed fitting.

As soon as I walked outside with Savannah she took right off (I had her on a leash) but I think she knew she was free. This was the first time I saw her really happy. She did her business and then we got in the car, I took her straight to Diane’s work, so Diane and the other ladies in the office could see her. I then brought her home. She was very shy when she got home, and very nervous. Every day she has gotten better and we are seeing more and more of her personality every day. She was a cute little angel the first few days, but now she is really coming into her own. Like every new animal we have a lot of work to do with her, but she has been a fantastic joy so far. It’s nice to see her enjoying herself, and she is getting spoiled around here.

2012 Travel and year in review

Here is my annual travel/year in review.

In 2012 I traveled to Boston (3 weeks), Kentucky Derby (18^th year in a row), Smokey Mountains, Savannah, Myrtle Beach, D.C., NYC, Higgins Lake, Midland (for you Nicole, I missed this last year) and countless times to Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, U.P., and most of all this year my home away from home was lovely Green Bay! I missed not going out west and to Key West. I have plans to do both in 2013 plus my first trip to New Orleans.

The best times of 2012 were with my fantastic family and friends. I’m lucky enough to have Diane and Jasmine in my life. I had my first photography Gallery show, which was amazing, THANKS everyone that came out and supported me, it was one of the best nights of my life and I hope to see you all at my 2^nd show June 8^th, 2013

All of this is only possible because I was sober for another Calendar year (As long as I make it the next 14 hours!)

So here is to 2013, let’s see what it brings! 

Right to Work Protest

I haven’t really been anywhere I don’t go all the time lately so I haven’t had a blog entry in a while. I worked in Green Bay and Milwaukee in the last couple weeks, so of course I stopped in Chicago and captured a few shots.

Tuesday I decided to head downtown Lansing to the Capitol to capture some of the Right To Work Bill protest. I arrived around 8am and stayed until 10am. When I arrived people were just getting to the Capitol. There were probably a couple hundred people at the time.

I started walking around to see what I could find. This was one of the first people I saw. She was standing silent, alone on the Capital steps, and it really stuck out to me.

About 20 minutes later the crowd started to get bigger by the minute. I would say by 8:30 there were a couple thousand people outside and from what I heard there were a few thousand inside as well.

Most of the people I saw seemed to be UAW members, but I know there were a lot of teachers there as well.  As the crowd got bigger they started yelling, “Who’s house – our house” over and over amongst other chants. There was a guy in the middle of the Capitol steps with a red megaphone with a lot of UAW members surrounding him.

I then noticed a few people that were for the bill (I will call them Pro-Bill) at the bottom of the steps. I saw them walk up to the UAW members and start yelling, then the Union members started yelling back calling them scabs and a lot worse. This exchange went on for about ten minutes until the Pro-Bill people finally walked away. I saw this same scene play out several times in the time I was there. You could tell it was going to get a lot more heated as the day continued, and from all reports it sure did.

I then decided to walk around and capture some faces in the crowd.

After about two hours I had enough. I decided I would head home and edit some photos. I then uploaded them to CNN.com and did a couple IReports (One currently has over 17,000 views and the other has 4,000+) which started some heated discussions online.  As soon as I uploaded them, one of the producers called me to vet the story; then, about a half hour later, another producer called me from CNN’s sister company, HLN. She asked if I would like to be on the show “Making It in America”. I said sure. She said it would be a phone interview with the host, Susan. They called me about 3:55 and I was on the air at 4. The whole story lasted about two minutes and I was probably on the air for 30-45 seconds. I prefer to be behind the camera or in this case behind the scene, but it was an experience, and I was glad I did it.

It ended up being a lot busier day than what I expected when I woke up!

NYC Day 1 - Diane's Birthday

For the past couple months I have been wondering what I was going to do for Diane’s 50^th birthday. I had mentioned going to New York to her a few months back and she liked the idea but then we backed off after our trip through the south at the end of July. Then about 3 weeks before her birthday she texted me and said," How about going to NYC for my birthday?" I said, “That’s a great idea, let me look into flights”. I had already been looking at them about once a week just in case. I found some reasonable flights and booked them. I also had priority points built up from working in Green Bay, so I used those for 2 free nights at the Holiday Inn Wall St.

We flew out from Detroit, Saturday at 6 a.m. and arrived at LaGuardia about 7:30 a.m.. When we got to the airport exit we bought MTA (Subway and Bus) tickets. We bought the 7 day unlimited pass for $29. Even though we would only be there for 2.5 days, it would still work out if we used them a lot (and we did). We hopped on the M60 bus and transferred to the downtown N train. I had my camera bag, Diane had a big bag, plus we had one carry-on. We probably could have gotten away without the carry-on, but we decided to just go ahead and take it this time. We got off one stop too early (Canal St.) but should have gotten off at Wall St. When I looked at the map it seemed like our hotel was closer to the Canal stop, but I was wrong (it happens ever once in a while haha). So we had a little bit of a walk. It wouldn't have been that bad if we didn't have the carry-on, but we made it.

We couldn't check in until 3 p.m., so we dropped off the bags and decided to head to the Staten Island Ferry. I had been on it a couple years ago, so I knew it gives you a great view of the city and Statue of Liberty for free. Neither one of us cared about going to the Statue, plus I don’t think you can go inside right now, I've heard it’s closed for repair.

It’s a half hour ride each way. We got lucky and caught the ferry back to Manhattan as soon as we arrived in Staten Island (the last time I was there we had to wait a half hour for the next one).

Once back in Manhattan we decided we were both hungry so we took the 1 train to Times Square and get a couple slices of pizza at Ray’s and relaxed for a bit.

After lunch we walked around Times Square, took some photos, and did some people watching. By this time we were able to check into our hotel, so we headed back downtown and got checked in.

We originally planned on going to Maze (Gordon Ramsey) restaurant. I had made 5:15 reservations, but once we both took our shoes off and hit the bed it was very apparent neither one of us wanted to jump in the shower, get ready to just head straight back uptown. We decided to rest for a little while and then go to Central Park for sunset.

We took the train to 86th Street. As we walked the couple blocks to the park, we crossed Park Ave when two cars almost hit each other at the corner. One guy got out of the car and started yelling at the other car (Cab) and then started to kick the door. It was pretty entertaining.

We entered the park at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir, and strolled the south end of the water. That took us across the park, and then we continued through most of the park heading towards 59^th street, stopping at various points to take in the sights.

Then we walked the 10 blocks to Times Square, got a quick bite and got Diane a piece of Strawberry Cheesecake for her birthday, before spending some more time in Times Square people watching. There really is nothing like seeing it at night, especially on a Saturday night.

After that long day that started at 2:30 a.m. driving to Detroit to catch the flight, we decided to call it a night. We got a Town Car to drive us downtown back to our hotel and got those shoes off again! 

Autumn in Michigan 10.1.12

Here we go again, I’m back in Green Bay (GB) this week. As it looks (as of now) this is the only week I will be here this month, so I can handle that.

I have been fighting off a cold the last couple weeks and wasn’t feeling that great Monday, but I knew if I wanted to capture some of the Autumn colors I better head through the UP on my way to GB. I’m glad I did. The trees are just about at full peak. I would say in about a week they will be at full peak.

I started the day early. I woke up about 6:45 jumped in the shower and was out the door about 7:15. As I headed up 127 the sun started to rise. I drive by these trees all the time around St Johns that lean towards the north. As I approached them the sun just started to peak up over the horizon. I pulled over and decided to capture a panoramic shot. The clouds were nice and the sun rising behind the trees created a nice silhouette for the trees.

I then continued north, wondering if the clouds would cooperate with me in the UP. As I got closer to the Bridge I saw a line of clouds forming. When I came around the curve that opens up to the Bridge I saw they were running right along the Bridge skyline. I stopped on the Mackinaw City side and captured this Panoramic.

After that I started my trek west on Highway 2. The sun was high in the sky, so I couldn’t really get any shots to the south (Lake Michigan) because the sky would have just been washed out. So I decided to hit a few back roads and see what I could capture.

After that I decided I wanted to start making some better time. I wasn’t feeling great, so I powered through the next 4 hours and made it to GB about 5:30, got checked into my room and relaxed.  

MSU vs. ND & Tigers vs. Sox

It’s been nice to be back in Michigan for the past few weeks. That’s coming to an end again. I will be in Green Bay this upcoming week and Milwaukee the following two weeks. It won’t be too bad though. The first week in Milwaukee is only going to be a couple days; the following week will be a full week.

I had a great weekend. Diane and I had our friends Andy and Nicole down from Midland. They had not been to our new place yet and I got sideline press passes to take photos of the MSU vs. Notre Dame game.

They arrived in town a little after 5 and we went to Jersey Giant for dinner before the game. We stopped by my parents' house and my Mom drove us on campus and dropped us off. We went to our friends' Woody and Mandi’s tailgate. Andy and Nicole stayed there for the first half and Diane and I went into the game.

We had a great time on the sidelines and I got some nice panoramic shots of the stadium. State wasn’t playing very well, and the game was kind of uneventful. Nicole joined me for the 3rd quarter and Andy for the fourth.

Even though the Spartans didn’t win and really looked pretty bad all around, it is always a good time on the sidelines, and being able to capture the game is always great.

After the game we came back to our place, ordered some pizza and just took it easy.

Today I was just sitting around after dinner and a friend of mine texted me (who I was going to meet for lunch tomorrow in Chicago) and invited me to the Tiger vs. Sox game in Chicago. It’s a makeup game for a rain out a few days ago. I’m always up for a game and haven’t seen the Sox in Cellular Field in a long time. I have been to Wrigley a few times the last couple years, but I don’t spend much time on the Southside.

It’s a good start to the week, it works out perfectly that I will be driving though Chicago right when the game will start and it’s only a 3.5 hour drive from there to Green Bay, so I will still get into town at a decent hour, to start work the following day.