50 Cents

I took a drive north of Jacksonville last night, searching for landscape shots. I roamed around Huguenot Memorial Park for about an hour as the tide rolled in. It's been a while since I shot any scenics.
The folks back in Gainesville would say the art school called, but I enjoyed making pictures without any people in them. That doesn't happen very often.
The best part was, park admission was only 50 cents!

It's Hot

If you've been reading my blog from the beginning, you know I'm not used to the cold. And while I enjoy warm weather, I don't like when the mercury tops 90. That's not a good thing when you live in Florida ... and it's summertime.

After photographing the congressman on his tour, I headed north on A1A to look for beach-goers beating the heat. I thought Hannah, a 5-month-old yellow lab, represented the dog days of summer quite nicely.

Monday, Monday

Congressman Mica came to town today. In South Ponte Vedra Beach, backyards are eroding into the sea.

Residents wanted to know, could the politician help?

He brought along the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several members of the media for a look-see. The congressman will try to be of assistance.

Catching Up

I was going to post several times last week. It didn't happen. So here are a few pictures from my first five days in Jacksonville.

Last Monday was a slow day. Aside from filling out paperwork and going on a ride along, not much happened. Thankfully, I was very busy the rest of the week.

My favorite assignment was a boxing match on Friday night. The light was horrible; 3200 ASA, f/2.8, 1/500. Luckily there were some stage lights on one side of the ring. I had fun, but didn't think the sport would be so hard to photograph.

Rolling The Dice

Today was my second day at the Florida Times-Union, and it was my first day on the street. I shot two assignments in St. Augustine. The first was at a skate park for a story on boarders who raise money to help their city or county build them a park. I hung out for about an hour and a half and got some cool snaps. This shot didn't make the final edit, because the editors felt it wasn't the best way to illustrate the story, but I think it's a good sports shot.

What do you think? Do you like the horizontal or vertical better? Drop me a line ... jarrett.baker[at]gmail.com.
The second assignment of the day was at the St. Augustine airport, where a terminal is being constructed for the new low-cost airline Skybus. The building is made out of tubular steel and tensioned fabric, so it's kinda like a miniature old O'Dome. It's just not the same in there now; in the old days, whenever a person would walk into the O'Connell Center at UF, they were hit with a rush of air. (The roof was supported by air pressure)

There was a conveniently-placed lift near the site, so a man named Ryan took me up to get a better view.

The Pink House

Marguerite was tired of having a white house. So, more than a year ago, she painted it pink. Renters tried to destroy it back in the '70s, when Marguerite was traveling the country developing nursing programs. "If it hadn't been concrete block," she said, "it wouldn't have survived." But it did survive, and now it is pink. Really Pink. "It looks pinker to me every day," she said.

Horfy

I shot this image of Al Horford a few minutes after The Oh-Fours announced their intention to hire agents and enter the NBA Draft. It never ran in the paper, but I like how the shadows on the wall frame Horfy. And if you're wondering, he was training in Gainesville last week, but should be with his former teammates in Los Angeles now.