Lovely Lunar

The full moon lunar eclipse on the morning of the winter solstice...

Peace. Love. Happiness.

-rso-

"Percolator"

I photographed the 12th Annual Awards Celebration for the Sarasota County Arts Council a few nights back for work and had a lot of fun doing so. The Sarasota Ballet performed a popular piece, choreographed by Kate Walsh Honea, and I got some really neat shots of the coffee shop themed ballet (and I love coffee shops!). I could not get many straight on shots since there were tons of people who would have smacked me upside the head for being in their way, but I did manage to manuver myself in such a way that I did get shots i'm pretty proud of. I love to shoot live theater and performances, especially ones that are filled with colorful costumes, bright lights and amazing talent. Here are a bunch of the shots I took of "Percolator".

Peace. Love. Happiness.

-rso-

Home, Temp, Home...

So here are some pictures of my temporary home. It is larger than what I will have permanently, but it is a great place to start here in Sarasota. It is an apartment above my landlord wife's pre-school so I am woken up every week day by happy children which is pretty funny to hear. Anyway, I know some of you have been waiting to see it so here are some basic pix I took the other morning before work. WELCOME!

Peace. Love. Happiness.

-rso-

The Trip (including cell phone photos for documentation!)

So as many of you know I have recently moved to Sarasota, FL for my first job! I am working for the Observer Newspapers (http://www.yourobserver.com/) and my first day is actually today! But in order to get to this point I had to DRIVE hours and hours from Cleveland to Sarasota in good old Millie Malibu (yes my car is named, don't judge). Many people know I despise long drives. Three hours to OU would about drive me bonkers. However, now I am the queen of the road! Well, sort of. I made it is the main point.

The drive down was not a one day straight shot kind of deal. I made a road trip out of it by stopping along the way to see good friends and go to new places. I visited one of my best friends Laurel Roether and one of my OU pals Victor Rasgaitis in Cincinnati, OH. This was a great two days of good food and funny adventures all around the Cincy area.

Next up was my long drive to Matthews, NC where I visited with my old baby sitter, Erin Amelung. Erin is hysterical and someone I have not seen in ages so I was so happy that I was able to stop and see her along the way. She still has her dog, Maggie, that she got while she was baby sitting Patrick and I one weekend back in February of 2000. Erin's aunt and uncle, Ellen and Buddy came over for dinner (they live RIGHT down the street) and we all sat around and discussed all sorts of topics. It was great to catch up with Erin and see all her cute stuff she has been making (http://www.eladesign.net/).

Another early morning with a quick breakfast with Erin and then I was off to Panama City, FL to see my intern pal from CCT, Kiersten Schmidt. Kiersten got a design job at a paper in Panama City after her internship was over and she has been living there for about a month now. We had lots of fun going out for drinks with her co-workers and eating lots of yummy food... oh and of course beaching and shopping. We also attended an October Fest street festival in downtown Sarasota.

Once again I got up bright and early (partially due to P.C. being in the CENTRAL TIME ZONE, a great distress on my drive there) and headed towards the 1st Annual Tampa Bay Veg Fest for an hour of veggie fun. It was a great turn out and a very pretty day for it and I hope they will do it again.

After an hour or so there, I hopped in my car and drove an hour to my new (temporary) home in Laurel Park. It is on the property of my landlord wife's pre-school and is a beautiful place with a gorgeous deck.

My first night there I ate at a great restaurant called Mediterrano and sat at the bar and chatted up the workers and people sitting around me. The food was delicious... especially the tiramisu!

Last night my boss, Lisa Walsh, invited me to go out to dinner on Longboat Key with her and one of my co-workers Maria. We had amazing food at P&G and saw a very pretty sunset while we ate. It was fun to have something SOCIAL to do and not be sitting alone at "home".

This morning I was greeted by lots of tiny tots as I headed off to work. Oh the perks of living on the campus of a pre-school! :-)

I am now sitting at my desk after taking a tour of LBK and will soon be off to my first assignment. I cannot believe this has all happened in just ONE week!

So wish me luck on all of this and I will try to keep everyone up to date with the wild world of Sarasota. :-)

Peace. Love. Happiness.

-rso-

Williams Family

So one of my last photos sessions I did while on the Cape included some family portraits of Jude and Mike with their grandkids and their daughter (son-in-law is a hard working fire fighter and was unable to be be apart of the fun). I wanted to do something nice for Jude and Mike and I knew they did not have any group pictures of the whole gang together. It was a great hour of shooting and everyone looked adorable in navy and white. Here are some of the photos from the shoot. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

Peace. Love. Happiness.

-rso-

Gaff Gathering

Cat boats are a big deal on the Cape. I got to photograph a cat boat sailing event. It was a gorgeous day out and all the cat boats and sails looked amazing against the blue sky and water. I took a lot of photos and cropped a few of them down to long strips with a bit of sky, boats and some water. My editor encouraged me to crop more than I'm used to. Hope you guys enjoy.

Peace. Love. Happiness.

-rso-