We had the opportunity to photograph the Chinese New Year Celebration here in J’ville this past weekend. The annual event was held down at the World Golf Village this year by the First Coast Families with Children From China and was truly a site to behold. There were so many adorable children… here’s a few of my favorite pics from the night.

Its the Year of the Pig so they had these little stuffed pigs on all the tables.

I was chasing this little girl most of the day trying to get a shot of her shoes. She would only stand still a fraction of a second and always facing away from me. I was finally able to grab this shot before the night ended. She was so cute…

The entertainment of the evening were traditional performances prepared by many of the children such as the Ribbon Dance.

The the Lion Dance was truly amazing and an Art form I had not previously experienced… the fluidity of movement and personality brought to life by these dancers was awesome.

It was also a little scary for some.. (like me).. I just made sure to stay behind the kids.

I tend to look at everything with a bit of a discerning eye.. analyzing interesting shapes, light patterns, reflections, people.. you know.. life.. and I usually feel somewhat aware of my surroundings.. but then things like this happen and it totally puts things into perspective..

I’ve passed by this statue probably a couple hundred times over the course of my somewhat daily walk to Starbucks.. Never noticed it.. sure I’ve seen it.. the way you “see” anything stationary in front of you which you have to walk around. It wasn’t until I was looking around for a unique or interesting way to capture the San Marco Square for a personal project a few days ago that I really saw it.

Come to find out this amazing sculpture was installed around 5 years or so as a symbol of the spirit of childhood. I wonder how many other things I interact with on a daily basis but never “see”.

Here’s a few pics from the latest album I’ve been working on. Its for Tausha and Matt who were married in Pensacola last year.

Their reception was nestled in a cool little strip which resembles New Orleans.

Today I asked gossette to give me a topic to blog about and he said, “no.. call e”.

So I’ve decided now is the perfect opportunity to introduce you to Eddie Eaton.

E is the antithesis to all that is gossette and for some reason I call them both friend.

Among other things, E knows the capital of every state and and remembers everything we’ve ever talked about…

…ever…

…and it just so happens.. the only photo of e I could find on my computer is from an old scanned in newspaper clipping from either high school or college.

I want to give a big thanks to Chris and Drew and the rest of the team over at uplinkearth.com for straightening out my linking problem on the blog. I’ve been using them for my web hosting company for several years now and have always done a kick ass job. I’ve never had any problems with their service and highly recommend them to anyone wanting a straight forward web solution that consistently works.

Thanks again guys.

hello blog readers. I’m currently going through “my blog is jacked up” syndrome. Every link on this page resolves right back where you are.

Sorry for any inconvenience.. I’m really not even sure this message will post correctly.  Hopefully it will be a somewhat straightforward solution come Monday.

We returned this week from our latest trip up to see my kids, Tyler and Mason, in, what the locals refer to as, the frozen wasteland of the North. Being a Florida native, Michigan has a winter weather scenario that I’m not at all used to driving in, especially in a little two wheel drive cracker box rental car. But despite 16 degree temperatures and two feet of snow in three days, we’re home.. safe and sound.

With each visit to see the boys, I’m always faced with the ultimate photographers dilemma.. live the moments or capture the moments. I try to balance it as best I can but its nonetheless a challenging compromise. If I’m photographing them I can’t truly focus on our time together and if I’m immersed in the moment I can’t step back and sufficiently photograph what’s going on.

Such is life.. but of all the challenges to work through.. this is a good one to have. Sort of like having too much money.. I’ve heard that’s also a good one. (I’ll verify it when I find out)

Here are a few pics from the trip.

We inevitably go to Chucky Cheese and this time they doubled up on the Jet Ski ride.

Our hotel also has an indoor pool which is rather convenient on days when a Toyota Corolla can’t make it through the snow in the parking lot.