L.A Photos

Every time I go down to Lilesville to spend time with Mom I'm constantly taking pictures of her crazy dogs... but then again it wouldn't be the same if I didn't. Just take a look at these goofy dog faces. They're irresistible!

Buster Junior looks as if he is squeezing something out!

Over the last few visits I've noticed this... what use to be a lake.. has dried up a little. Most people don't realize that water holes like this are about 80% of what Lilesville is. As long as I can remember the water went as far back as the trees in the back and started about 20 feet from where I'm standing. There were none of these islands that you see now... just water... very deep water. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these holes were around 100ft deep. Keep scrolling and you will see what I mean.

This side of the water hole is probably the deepest. My friends and I use to swim in this part too. We had a rope tied to a tree to pull ourselves back up out of the water and then we would run and jump off the edge again. It was always a little eire to me knowing that the bottom was so far down. We all knew how to swim pretty good so we never wore life jackets... which is a scary thought now that I think back on it. However, there have been reports of people drowning in some of these water holes. You see, once the draglines reach a certain distance of digging, the water that comes up is always a blue color instead of this greenish color. In fact this water is no where near the pretty blue color. It's almost like tropical waters after the draglines are through digging.

Here is the edge we always jumped off from.

See what I mean about these holes being so deep. You also have to add in the fact that normally where I'm standing should be covered with water. Just judging by looks I would say the water is down about 20 ft. So add that to however deep this part is. Click the photo to enlarge so you can get a better look. The edge is straight down. I have also been fishing in this same hole. Yes.. there are fish in these holes. You will probably think I'm lying to you but the water is very clear at 3 to 4 ft under. We use to watch the fish come right up to the jig in the water.

An old abandoned dragline.

Sadly, as I ventured back down to this ravine I noticed the creek was all dried up. I was a little disappointed because this really is a neat place especially when the creek was going strong. Once we discovered it became more of a hideout so to speak. You can see where the water rounded off this rock over the years into a mushroom look.

This spot has always been one the coolest places to check out. About 15 years ago my cousin
Sean and I camped out at the top of this hill. We were doing some hiking and the next morning this is what we found. Nothing but a bunch of huge boulders but it's just the way they were stacked and the fact that a big creek was flowing at the bottom made this place an icon for us. We hiked out here many of times to jump off some of these rocks.

Benjamin Segal

How many times in life do we pass by people we've never seen before... and you got this weird gut feeling that you need to say something to this person but because you don't know them... you kinda hate to bother. Or how many times do we just completely ignore any feelings what-so-ever and keep on going our way as if they have nothing to offer you and think that it's just a waste of time for you and them. Thank goodness I listened to my gut feelings and said something.

About a year ago I was at a motocross track with my new camera trying to polish up on my new found love of photography when all of a sudden, I see this guy come rolling up in his old pickup truck with no bike... but on this particular day there was a reason he didn't have a bike. This guy I'm telling you about goes by the name of Benjamin Segal. I'm here to take a few pictures... Benjamin said, with his air force glasses and a back pack about the size of something I use to carry around elementary school. I knew for sure this guy was up to something serious. He just had that look. At this stage in my life I had just got my camera and was still riding the majority of the day. So as a few hours passed, I noticed he was walking back to is truck and thought this was my time to pour out my guts and explain to him that photography was a new passion for me and just wanted to see if he would give me a minute for a few questions. So here we are in the moment of truth... which is the time when he can either give me a simple answer and walk away or explain what I was asking him. Hopefully by now you've figured out that since I'm writing this story about Benjamin, you know that he gave me his undivided attention and was more than happy to answer any questions that I had... he even gave me his business card before he left for any further questions that I might have. Like I said, thank goodness I listened to my gut feelings. As time went on I would occasionally send Benjamin an email with questions and he never missed a beat when replying back with answers. Over the next several months of getting to know Benjamin a little better, I felt that he was the type of person that was honest and enjoyed helping people, which is the type of person I call a friend. After swapping a few photos back and fourth I learned that Benjamin's whole life has been all about photography. He has lived in Miami and California as well as other states living the professional photographers life and is now pursuing his dream as editor and chief of an online motocross magazine called easterndirt.com . There are a million cool things about Benjamin and the help he has offered to me. So much that it would be difficult to remember but the one I'll never forget is the offer to take a few photos for his magazine. Even though school has taken almost every ounce of my time for shooting photos for his magazine he still calls every now and then to shoot the breeze... and that is just one more thing that says how willing he is to help. Before I close, I would like to mention a phrase I read a long time ago. It said... "Be who you are, say what you feel. People who mind don't matter and people who matter won't mind". Well Benjamin Segal is someone who matters. I would like to say to Benjamin... thanks so much for all your help and advise. It has really made difference in my life.

To see all of Benjamins work, go to http://www.benjaminsegal.com/

To see his online magazine go to http://www.easterndirt.com/ and while you're there go ahead and subscribe. It's free. Just for a little bit of bragging rights you may even run across a photo of mine that Benjamin used for one of his stories.

Once again, special thanks to Benjamin Segal.

A few photos from Charlotte

One of my classmates wanted to borrow my camcorder for her last school project and since she was headed uptown, I thought I'd tag along for some photos.

The making of my latest moto-video

I got the green light to do another motocross video for my last school project and as odd as this may sound, I ran into several roadblocks just like last quarters video... only this time they were a little different. I checked the weather for that weekend and it all looked to be sunny skies and even had a school camera locked in to rent over that weekend. My instructor always said the end of the quarters are kinda crazy with all the classes wanting to rent cameras. So Friday after work, I ran out to school to pick it up. Just before calling it a night, I thought I would check everything over and make sure the battery was at full charge. Nothing like going to film with a dead battery huh!! Well, my first stumbling block. There was NO BATTERY... and it was way to late. I called the school hoping they would have another battery for times like this... another dead end. Good thing I bought a small camcorder several years ago or else I would have been up the creek. So I had to film everything with my small camera which isn't bad but compared to the school cameras mine was almost a waste of time. Well once I got there and started to film, the track got a little dried out and it got pretty dusty there for a while and my camera was starting to flicker a little... with a note saying the heads need to be cleaned. I thought ... Oh great... I don't have enough footage yet... so I blew into the tape area and that seemed to make a difference. To top it off, my camera has the record button close to the hand grip and sometimes I have this habit of accidentally hitting record while I'm walking around. It just happened to be as I was going for an interview too, so once I got there and set the stage, I went to hit record and yes... I was actually turning it off. What a bummer. So I just tried to make the best out of what I had. Next thing you know, the more I played with the clips the more I started to like the way it was turning out and then once it was all said and done, I had a good video, or at least I thought. Now that you know what I went through to get this video completed... why don't you have a look for yourself... it is next in line. Enjoy... The adrenaline of motocross.

The adrenaline of motocross

Check out my new video for my school project.

A few photos from the land of... Pawleys Island

Once Shell-Bell and I got home from our long-awaited...very-much-so-needed vacation from the beach, I went straight to my computer to start loading my photos. After going through every single picture I started to narrow down the ones I wanted to keep. I winded up with 478 keepers. Here is just a hand full of some of my keepers. Hope you enjoy!

After discovering this tree with a thousand roots, I also discovered these ugly son-of-a-guns. I bet there were more than a hundred of these crabs running around. I'd hate to get stuck in the sand with all these jokers.