The 25th Post

I guess the 25th post is a milestone, considering that after my third or fourth post several months back, I wasn't sure if I would continue blogging. But here I am, 25 posts in.
Yesterday I was sent to Putnam County to work on a story about a proposed 2,000 acre development called Mariposa.
I like working on stories like this because I'm free to make any picture I want. Basically, if it looks cool to me or shows what life is like in town, it's fair game.

Shaggin' Balls

The last two days have been rather uneventful. Tuesday afternoon, however, I got the chance to hang out on top of the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

One of the Lifestyle reporters was at a minor-league Suns game last weekend and wondered how the fly balls are recovered from the roof. It's quite simple: team employees climb on top of the stadium after every home stand and collect the balls. This week they tallied 131 balls and a leftover t-shirt from the ACC Tournament. (It was shot from a cannon.)
He's going to write a story about people who have to occasionally work at significant heights to do their jobs. Sign me up for the next assignment.

Pastor Dan

Back in March, Pastor Dan's church was destroyed by arson. Church members began the long process of clean-up and rebuilding a week ago. I stopped by earlier several days back to take some shots of Pastor Dan in the church.

This moment happened during a portrait shoot, when he leaned down to take a break from posing. The vertical was what I pictured going in, and the horizontal was the hidden gem that came near the end.

With The Birds

A few weeks ago Vincent Laforet had an aerial sports photography project published by The New York Times, which inspired me to try it. Unlike Laforet, I used a normal telephoto instead of a tilt/shift lens.

My 10 favorite images can be viewed on my SportsShooter member page: http://www.sportsshooter.com/jbake.

Eddie

Today I was accepted to Barnstorm XX, also known as The Eddie Adams Workshop 2007. To view all the winners, click here: http://www.eddieadamsworkshop.com/alumni/2007. I should add thatUF student Kristin Nichols and alum Andrea Morales will be attending as well.

I'm really excited that I was accepted. There are so many talented shooters who will be attending. But that's not the most humbling part. To think that Stephanie Sinclair, Melissa Lyttle, Vincent Laforet, Amy Vitale and many notable others are Barnstorm Alumni is amazing.

Already I have questions ... What team will I be on? What flight will I take? What will my assignment be? Who will I meet? How many new friends will I make?

Stay tuned.

Dive Locker

I'm working on a story for this weekend about real-life Johnny Depps. That is to say, a story about archaeologists and treasure hunters. Meet Chuck, one of the good guys. He's an underwater archaeologist in St. Augustine.

Miss New Berlin

I saw the Miss New Berlin last night when I was driving home from the beach. She was moored in the salt marsh, and she was begging for me to take her picture. My longest lens was a 200 mm, and the misses was about 1/4 mile away. So I returned today. With a 600mm.

I'm a Canon shooter, but at the T-U, everything is Nikon. On Wednesday, while shooting Jaguars off-season practice, I went through four partially charged Nikon batteries in one D1X. Surely, with a charged battery, I could shoot the Miss New Berlin.

Twenty shots into the self-assignment, the battery died. That's Nikon for you. But I can't complain too much, because I'm really happy with the pictures.