Way back in 2002 I was living in Los Angeles and decided I wanted to move back East. My roommate Laura and I gave up our awesome Echo Park house and the kicking pool. She found a great little guest house in another part of the city and I was planning on heading back east. Then a strange thing happened, I got busy, really busy. My last month in LA I worked like 12 jobs! My great friend Jason lived in Phoenix, about 3 hours from LA, and he offered for me to stay with him and see if the rush would continue. The plan was to stay in Phoenix, working in LA whenever a gig came up, and then if the work continued, move back to LA full time. If the work didn’t continue, I was gonna head east right before the holidays. The work kept up a little and then slowed down.

Then a wrinkle was added. Jason heard from some photographer friends of his about a unique opening at the newspaper, the Arizona Republic. They were getting ready to start a new, bold, daring, weekly stand alone, 24 page, fashion magazine. They were looking for a studio photographer who could handle doing all the  in studio shots of make-up, housewares, clothes and the occasional portrait. I applied for the gig and got it. My plan was to stay for a while, maybe a year, and save up some money to get back east. Well, we all know what happens to  plans………

The job was great! I had a studio basically to myself, 3 days a week, to shoot a pile of stuff and pretty much no limits on what we could do - all ideas were welcomed. The staff on the magazine, called YES, were all super talented. We all were very motivated and super excited to be a part of this product. We held weekly meetings and everyone was involved with coming up with ideas. The newspaper staff photogs started out shooting the fashion spreads, but after December I was pretty much the main photog, shooting the whole section most weeks. The magazine was well received by the community. It become an instant success! Yes has been copied many times and we even trained some of the other newspapers staff! Our staff was very close, we all went out and socialized together, held dinner parties, and worked very hard. We all became good friends. Our work and the magazine became very well known, we were often recognized and we could have almost any location we wanted to shoot in. We used models from the local modeling agencies and real people. We had real people in every issue. The whole experience was a blast. I ended up staying 2.5 years.

It was a good 2.5 years. I not only was working on the YES magazine, but, I was doing a TON of freelance work. I worked on local magazines, for ad agencies and on TV shows. I taught an advanced photojournalism course at Arizona State University. I was very busy, but I knew I didn’t want to stay and make my life in AZ. So, I made a decision to leave. It wasn’t easy, but I  knew I’d be happier back east. I decided to head to NYC. So I packed up, sold my cars and headed east. That, my friends, is another story…

Here are some photos from that time in my career.

So this year has been a bit slow fishing wise. Last year I was between Augusta projects and had quite a bit of free time to fish. This year, not so much, much busier shooting, doing promotions and schlepping my book around. I have managed to get out a few times, maybe 10 days total. I have a few trips planned over the summer and am very excited. There are a couple of small mouth trips coming up and there is a trip to Montana in Aug. I’m guessing a trip or two to Miami.

So far this year I have been bass fishing, trout fishing, redfish fishing and shad fishing. The red fish and shad trips were busts. Meaning no fish caught, but still a great day on the water. Had some great trout days, some great sun fish days and the bass are starting to wake up.

I’ve started doing some urban fishing, searching for hidden ponds ( if you know of any, please tell me ) and seeing if there are any fish in them. So far, I’ve found a few.

I’ve updated the fish count page for the year and included a little description about the way I think about fishing by popular request. So take a look and let’s hope those numbers rise soon! In the meantime here are a few photos from trips so far this year:

This is the Beaver Dam Creek, in TN.

Part of my urban exploration. I call it UBE or Urban Bass Exploration. Yes, I know this is a sunny, but I have caught bass too.

See, here is a 3-4 lb bass taken out of a dirty pond hidden away in a sub-division in S. Charlotte! This pond is full of em!

The Savannah River was beautiful, but the shad were just not there that day.

A nice sized Shellcracker.

A wonderful private secret pond I was privileged to fish.

About the size of my luck this year!

Checking out a small cove.

End of the day on Mountain Island Lake.

My friend Jeff dabbling a little in the Beaver Dam.

Slab of a crappie out of a farm pond.

This is what trout eat. V1.1

This is what trout eat. V1.2

Brown trout!

Another Brownie.

Fat Rainbow trout from the Nantanhala River.

20 – support a local CSA

check, done, in the process.

Lesley and I signed up for a CSA earlier this year. We did a farm visit and loved the place and after talking to the owner took one of the few open spots. The farm is the Poplar Ridge Farm in Waxhaw, NC. They  are a certified organic farm by the USDA. We wanted to do this for a few reasons. We both believe in supporting local businesses and local farmers, we both thought we should be eating better and instead of going to the farmers market every week and forgetting some weeks, we opted to have the boxes delivered right to the front door. We believe in trying to eat locally and cutting some of the petroleum out of our diet, meaning less shipping costs. Also we think the seasons are there for a reason, so why not eat with them. Of course we will stray and eat from the super market in the winter, but we are really trying to eat what is in season, when it is in season. 

So this is the 3d week of deliveries. We have had a huge box each week filled with vegetables, both new and familiar. Some we know by sight, others we are thankful for Google. Others we just don’t know.  We are getting carrots that are so good. Radishes were a new one to me…well of course, I’ve heard of radishes, but I am new to eating them. Purple Kohlrabi, Pak Choi, both of the cabbage family. Greens like you wouldn’t believe - Bright Lights Swiss Chard, Red Giant Mustards, Red Russian Kale, Encore Lettuce, Bilko Cabbage, Flash Collards, Beet Greens, etc,etc. Also some Renegade Spinach, Arugula, mesclun mix, micro greens (baby shoots of different vegetables that are intense in flavor and nutrients in tiny packages of goodness), and Nevada Head Lettuce. Some leeks, some spring onions, and some regular onions. Seriously. This stuff is all so good. We have tried to eat it all and have tried quite a few new recipes, like Chard and Prosciutto Risotto and Scrambled Pasta with Spring Greens. We have frozen some carrots and sautéed some kale.

The farm partners up with some other like-minded farms and also offers as add-ons organic free range pork and chicken, all harvested the week of delivery, eggs, bread, other produce that they are not growing and flowers. This week we ordered a flower order, and it is just amazing…$15 bux and has to be a 10 inch bundle. And this will go on for 23 more weeks! We can’t wait.

When the first box came, I decided to lay everything out and take a photo This of course led me to start looking at the rest of the veggies individually, and then I took photos of them by themselves. I did it again for week 2 and then again today. I am going to try and do this every week, just to keep a record and to keep me shooting and to help build a stock of vegetable photos. I will post here sporadically, but am trying to post to Facebook every week.

So here are some pix………

week one full delivery.

week 2 full delivery.

week 3 full delivery.

Carrots.

Purple Kohlrabi.

Micro Greens.

Spring Onions, Scallions.

Easter Egg Radishes.

Leeks.

Nevada Head Lettuce.

Pak Choi.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard.

Beets.

Flowers.

Flowers.

Flowers.

Green Leafy Lettuce.

White Onions.

Peas.

No idea. If you know, please tell us!

Again, no idea. If you know, please tell us!

So a couple of weeks ago I was feeling upset that I hadn’t been able to find the time to shoot my dogwood photos for the year and it was getting warm already and the ones I was finding were already dropping petals and getting spots on the remaining ones, just looking like the end of their cycle. I try to shoot dogwoods every year, I think it is the prettiest flower and a wonderful tree. Last year I was able to shoot them on my parents property and you can see them here . This year I drove by them all over the place and just never had the time or the inspiration to stop and do the shots. It was really starting to bug me. Then I was doing a quick shoot for Rodale Publishing in a park here in Charlotte and as I was leaving decided to drive thru the park and came across this awesome dogwood tree, one of the biggest I have seen with more blooms than I could even hope for. Many of the blooms were starting to turn, but I found more than a few that were perfect, or at least perfect for me.

So here they are for 2009, the dogwoods…..