ASSATEAGUE ISLAND

After only a week back in Michigan, I headed to the east coast for my cousin Pete's wedding.  After the wedding, my family went camping on Assateague Island in Maryland.  Although I think the images look peaceful and calm, they don't do justice to the ridiculous heat we dealt with during our time there!  The heat was so intense and overpowering.  My toenail polish actually began to melt.  I LOVE camping, but even I was getting a little exhausted by our shade-less site.  To distract us from the heat, and because my dad and Uncle Ron need to go fishing everywhere we go, we also learned how to fish for blue crabs using chicken necks.  It ended up being a highlight of the trip, we had a blast.  Thankfully we are all looking back on everything with laughter now... and I am happy that I came away from the experience with pictures I am truly happy with.

AUSABLE RIVER CANOE MARATHON

After my adventures in Florida were over, I headed back up to Michigan to spend time with family and work on some new projects.  I made it up to Grayling in time for the 2011 Ausable River Canoe Marathon.  The canoe marathon is a true summer tradition for the area, and it is an incredible athletic feat.  The paddlers begin the race at 9:00pm and the winning team usually finishes sometime around 10:30am the next morning.  And that is just the winning team.  Many spectators stay up all night following the race.  I had just finished driving up from Florida, so I opted to sleep and wake up early the next morning to take these pictures around 8:00am.

FLORIDA KEYS

I was able to cap off my great experience in Florida with a trip to the Keys.  We had a blast diving the Vandenberg, diving Looe Key, visiting the History of Diving Museum, eating Key Lime Pie, checking out Earnest Hemingway's old hangouts, and of course taking photos. 

BLUE SPRING STATE PARK

While working in Winter Park, FL. this summer in the Sport Diver and Scuba Diving Magazine offices I was able to work with ScubaLab to complete dive computer testing.  The first round took place at Blue Grotto Springs and the second round took place at Blue Spring State Park.  After the testing, I walked around the park with Katy Danca Galli, the photo editor of Scuba Diving Magazine, taking scenic shots.

BLUE GROTTO

I have been unbelievably bad at blogging!  But I am going to try to summarize my crazy traveling summer through these blog posts! 

Early in the summer went on assignment with Scuba Diving Magazine's ScubaLab in order to document dive computer testing, which took place at Blue Grotto Springs.  I shot the above water images for the day and two of my images will be published.  I hope to share the print article with you on this blog soon!