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Every week for the Vero Beach 32963 newspaper I shoot for Arts, People, Health and Real Estate sections in addition to the bevy of news stories at the front of the paper. Each of those sections gets it's own magazine-style cover that runs as a full-page, vertical photo. At every assignment I shoot I've always got it in the back of my mind to make sure that I get a "cover" shot to run. It's got to be something that will look good and sharp at 12 x 15 inches (which is a pretty big photo) with room to fit text. Shooting a vertical real estate photo every week poses unique issues (I've always got my fingers crossed for high ceilings) and sometimes the health story for the week really doesn't lend itself to obvious art, but that hole is always there to fill. The upside is that I get lots of practice turning my camera on its side. Here are some of the "covers" from the last few months. Some of the photos may look familiar. If anybody has been paying really close attention to the blog (ha) and ever thought "it's odd that he seems to shoot so many vertical real estate photos" well, here is the reason.

Haunted Children's Theatre

Last year at about this time I decided to put together something special for the Halloween issue of the paper.  The Riverside Children's Theatre here in Vero puts on a haunted house every year and I arranged to get inside access to the whole process from the try outs and construction at the beginning straight through to opening weekend.  It was a lot of fun and I came away with a ton of photos and audio. In addition to a nice spread in the paper, I put together this audio slideshow, which ran on http://www.veronews.com/.  For some reason I never posted it on the blog. So, I figure that now is as good a time as any to revisit the haunting. (Also, this blog should now be compatible with all of your iDroidpad devices. Exciting developments.)

Some More Summer

Nothing says summer like Fourth of July sparklers and fireworks. This summer I also shot a fishing event with lots of children gathering to catch tons of (mostly small) fish.  Of course, sprinkled throughout were the regular selection of local artists, a group of late night turtle watchers, a few different golf tournaments and a mad scientists event at the Vero Beach Book Center.  The last slide here is a composite image I made to illustrate the shortcomings of an attempt to regulate an intersection in town.  This shot is made up of all 15 vehicles that, in a 30-minute period, ignored the new "no left turn" sign and decided to turn left anyway.  I lucked out that one car happened to have a dog sitting up in the front seat.

Two Years in Vero Beach

This month marks two years since I moved to Vero Beach and began shooting for the Vero Beach 32963 newspaper and it's sister site VeroNews.com. This slideshow starts out with a photo that turned out to be very expensive. Beach goers are trying to help a beached pygmy sperm whale while I'm behind the lens successfully ruining my camera (with help from an unexpected wave). This set of photos is just a sampling of what I've shot over the last month. The slideshow ends with some photos from Hurricane Irene's offshore passage at the end of August, which made for some great, nasty surf for  a few days. I've got a pretty serious backlog of photos so hopefully I'll post again soon.

Summertime Already?

I disappeared for a bit there. It's summer now. The sun is high, the surf is mostly flat (hurricane season is on its way), and the snow birds have all flown back north. Here's a little sample of what's been going on in Vero over the last couple of weeks. A roller blading banker, retirement community activities, high school graduations and a literary, rock collector; things keep chugging along here on the Treasure Coast.

More Vero Springtime shots

This post's got a little bit of everything: reptiles, a school musical, real estate photos, food shots, at least one dog, art galleries, a mascot boot camp at the Vero Beach Sports Village (formerly Dodgertown), and I threw in shot of the Cardinals' Albert Pujols, not because it's the greatest baseball shot ever, but because it's spring training time down here in Florida and the post just wouldn't be complete with out it. <<< just one sentence.

Season Happens

The sun is out, the days are warmer, and the beaches are filling back up. Spring draws near and I'm staying busy here in Vero Beach. Below are a bunch of photos from the last few months. Beach shots, food, sports, a car show, a sport clay shoot. The last two photos show the crowds that came out to the beach to try to catch a glimpse of the space shuttle Discovery's last lift-off. We love the shuttle around here. Unfortunately, there were some hazy clouds in the sky so the launch wasn't visible. It was still a nice day to be at the beach, though.