Reflex

Coddington Benefit Concert, Aug 23

2009-07-11T10:36:00.003-04:00

Mark your calendars for a special music and raffle extravaganza Sunday Aug. 23 at Skipper's Smokehouse from 4-11pm to raise money for Stephen Coddington and his family.

For those of you guided here by Lara Cerri's email, these are the photos from Marian's trip to Chicago, and here are the ones of her return home. Lara's been the driving force behind this event, and I know she's arranged a party you're not going to want to miss.

Hope to see you there!

Schedule of Performers:
4:00-4:30 Lara Cerri and Dan DeGregory w/ special guests Carol Blair and Amy Wimmer Schwarb

4:40-5:10 Wendy and Don Morris w/special guest

5:25-5:45 The ReKorders (w/ Demorris Lee)

6:00- 6:30 September Penn

6:45-7:25 Uncle John's Band

7:40-8:20 Ocean Road (w/ Dave Scheiber)

8:30-9:10 The Deadliners (w/ Eric Deggans & Kerry O'Reilly)

9:25-9:45 Car Bomb Driver (w/Dave Reeder)

9:55-10:15 Super Secret Best Friends (Stephanie Hayes, Emily Nipps, Alex Zayas)

10:25-10:55 The Unitards (Rob Farley, Chris Tisch, Ron Matus and Edmund Fountain)

Emcee is the wonderful WMNF DJ Ed Lehmann, host of the Saturday Morning Folk Show

Rewind

2009-07-09T22:48:00.012-04:00

I've been slack about updating the blog, though I really haven't been a *total* slacker at work. In fact, the opposite is part of why I haven't been around here for a while.

So I thought I'd share some photographs from the last couple of months, and maybe push a little web traffic to tampabay.com (c'mon people, those clicks might actually put a few cents in my paycheck). No particular order or anything, just however I stumbled across it.

Check out the story and slideshow about Spyder, a blueberry protecting Barbary falcon.

Some of you saw my graduation stuff on my Sportsshooter page, but here is more of what I shot at graduation. I shot 3 of the 4 graduations in the county, so my boss' pics are in the show, too.

Sunflower maze in Masaryktown.

Learning to swim.

A brushfire that was sparked by a lightning strike near Bayport that ended up consuming about 1,200 acres of swampland.

Fourth of July Machine Gun Shoot at the Hernando Sportsman's Club. I love automatic weapons on Independence Day...smells like victory.

Superkids Triathlon. Gotta love the light at 8:30 a.m.

Thanks for looking!

Christmas in July

2009-07-07T20:58:00.007-04:00

It's been way too long since I've dropped any fresh frames on here.

This weekend I had two opportunities to shoot fireworks, I definitely had the better vantage point in St. Pete from atop the Bayfront Tower.

Then today my new 5D Mark II showed up. I unpacked it, charged the battery, then did what any of you would do with a $2700 piece of electronic brilliance... I got it wet.

Marian Returns

2009-04-11T14:36:00.009-04:00

Marian returned home last night. She hadn't been home in just over a year, having had her first aneurism last April.

From Ron's email:

She has been in Northwestern Hospital in Chicago since December. But will now stay at home and receive outpatient therapy to continue her recovery. Steve has applied to medicare for home health care but will have to stay home with her until it is approved. Hopefully that will not take long. As wonderful as this is, it may also be some of the hardest time they will endure.

But no matter what happens, the Coddington family is back together under one roof and that has to be good.

Aside from a little confusion with the taxi service on getting Marian home from the airport, their trip was smooth. Steve, Grant, and Chloe took turns cutting the hospital bracelets from Marian's wrist, and everyone got a kiss goodnight.

Steve asked me to meet him at the airport and to be there when the kids finally got to see mom again. Here is a bit of what I witnessed.

A fun assignment

2009-02-09T13:14:00.003-05:00

I had a good time covering the 5th annual Hernando County Parks and Recreation Department's Father Daughter dance. In this first photo, Todd Klukowski, 34, dances with his daughter, Kaitlyn, 7, at St. Anthony's Catholic Church in Brooksville Friday night. Klukowski said that this is his third time at the dance, he has four daughters so each year he brings a different one. "Every year they get to pick the color of their dress and a shirt of matching color so I never know what I'm wearing," Klukowski said, "Last year I was in purple, and the year before I was in pink." I heard a lot of good stories like that during the evening. They might not be portfolio pieces, but I really enjoyed making these pictures.

Sometimes it gets cold in Florida...

2009-02-06T16:59:00.006-05:00

...and that usually means I'm out of bed before 5 a.m. and out the door by 6, scrambling to make a picture of frost on something before the sun comes out and it melts away.

This time I headed for a U-pick blueberry farm where the proprietors had spent all night sleeping in 2 hour shifts and making sure their sprinklers were running to ice their bushes. The temperature bottomed out around 22 degrees, though the thermometer I photographed was in the path of a sprinkler and got stuck just under 30.

I know it's been forever since I've updated this, I'll be making an effort to be better about it.

Veteran's Day

2008-11-12T09:49:00.001-05:00

Some fresh frames

2008-11-11T13:11:00.003-05:00

(11/07/2008 Spring Hill) Rachel Benes, 4, plays with a parachute at the teddy bear picnic at the West Hernando/Staffordene T. Foggia Branch Library in Spring Hill Friday morning. The teddy bear picnic is an annual event sponsored by the Friends of the Library of Hernando County. The event drew a crowd of over 100 parents and children aged 2-5.

(11/05/2008 Brooksville) Elbert Elliott, 68, of Brooksville, talks about his reactions to the election in front of S.O.S. Famous Barbecue on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in Brooksville Wednesday afternoon. Elliott talked about how inspiring it was to see Obama win after living through segregation and watching the civil rights movement unfold.

(11/03/2008 Spring Hill) Elizabeth Townsend, community relations coordinator for the Hernando County Supervisor of Elections, carries a voting machine to a precinct coordinator's vehicle Monday morning behind the Westside Government Center on Forest Oaks Blvd. in Spring Hill.

(11/05/2008 Brooksville) Chuck Benjamen, with the Hernando County Hazmat Team, supervises firefighters during a training exercise in south Brooksville Wednesday. The exercise put more than 100 hours of classroom training to the test, and was one of the firefighters last requirements to complete before taking the state test to be certified as HAZMAT technicians and be on the Hernando County team. The team is comprised of firefighters from Hernando County Fire Rescue, Spring Hill Fire Rescue, and the Brooksville Fire Department.

(10/29/2008 Brooksville) David Murdock and his girlfriend, Jordan Rolph, comfort each other while Hernando County firefighters work to put out a fire in Murdock's home on Terrace Way in Brooksville Wednesday morning. "It sounded like firecrackers going off in the middle bedroom," Nick Shillinger, Murdock's roommate, said, "We tried to put the fire out, but it just spread after we opened the door."

If it was all work, I wouldn't do this.

2008-10-28T16:09:00.004-04:00

Just felt like putting up some photos. The election is almost here, and I'm beyond ready for Nov. 5. No, that wasn't a typo.

More from the Biden event on my Sportsshooter page, so check it out if you like.

Sunday was my one day off this last week, so I spent it relaxing with the pup and my lovely wife.

Indiana

2008-10-22T15:21:00.005-04:00

I took a whirlwind trip through Indiana this past weekend, my excuse was to photograph Ryan (aka Pops) Miller's wedding. I managed to make it a mini-vacation, got to see the family, and an awful lot of the western half of Indiana...mostly on 2-lane country highways. Luckily, Indiana is a pretty state in the fall.

Ever the host, Marko serves up some pizza rolls after my flight.

Ryan and Ziena after the rehearsal dinner.

Something I liked from the ceremony.

Dave, J, and Ryan.

Early morning, somewhere between Evansville and Bloomington.

A little closer to Bloomington, less early in the morning. If you've ever tried to travel North to South (or vice versa) on the west side of Indiana, you'll know that this is the kind of road you'll spend hours on.

Kristina and Mom in Kristina's dorm room.

Couldn't resist.

Moving Marian to Chicago

2008-10-09T11:48:00.000-04:00

The inaugural post for this blog. I've been meaning to get on the blogging bandwagon for quite some time, mostly to have an outlet for sharing pictures with family, friends, anyone interested in taking a peek. What finally got me moving on this was that I needed a place to share an important set of pictures.

Most of you know the backstory here. I travelled with Steve and Marian to Chicago to take Marian to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the premier rehabilitation facility in the country. Along the way I tried to make a few pictures to show what that journey was like for the Coddingtons. Here are some of those photos.

This last photo is Steve's first meal in Chicago...actually, his first real meal since before
I caught up with him at his house around midnight before we started the trip. He's on the phone with Chloe and Grant, telling them goodnight and saying their evening prayers with them.