We’ve only been back home from vacation for just over a week and we miss Florida already! This is one of the images I captured on 31st August, just after our attempt to see the space shuttle Endeavor land at the Kennedy Space Center. The photograph was taken looking north-east across the Banana river on Merritt Island while visiting some wonderful friends of ours. The bridge in the distance is highway 520, leading east into Cocoa Beach. The Banana “river” is actually part of the ocean and is home to a large amount of wildlife, including the occasional alligator. We didn’t see any that day, but had a great time relaxing by the water.

We just returned from a wonderful two-week vacation in New Smyrna Beach, FL. It’s a long drive from Memphis to New Smyrna, but totally worth the effort for the great beaches, hot weather and, of course, the Atlantic Ocean. The photograph above is the view from the condo looking out over the pool and the beach. While we there, we had the opportunity to tour the St. John’s river by boat with friends, as well as catch up with family. Another highlight was being able to “hear” the space shuttle Endeavor as it landed at the Kennedy Space Center. Even though we were only a few miles from the landing site, at Merritt Island, the shuttle was still about 30,000ft high and travelling at supersonic speed. The double sonic boom we heard as it passed overhead was loud to say the least!

The weather was wonderful most days and, of course, we were treated to thunderstorm most evenings – another great opportunity to capture some great sky images and photographs of lightning.

Here is a photograph I took in New York, on our recent trip to see Tim play at Carnegie Hall with the Christian Brothers High School Band.

This was taken on Easter Sunday, and I thought it was amazing to see people ice skating outdoors in April. I also remember this scene from many movies that have been shot in the city over the years.

Who can name the all the movies that have included this place? If you know the answers – leave a comment!

On Memorial Day, 2009, we took a late afternoon trip to Big Hill Pond State Park, near Pocahontas, TN. Although the weather called for intermittent thunderstorms and showers, we were very lucky and managed to avoid most of the rain.

This was our first visit to the park and we loved it there, so definitely a place for us to go back to again. The visitor center was closed when we arrived so we decided to take one of the trails to see where it went. After meandering through the wooded hillsides for a while, the trail came to a long boardwak through the oddly-named Dismal Swamp. There were a lot of bugs out at this time of day, so I would advise bringing plenty of bug spray, and to especially watch out for ticks, which seemed to be in abundance!

After returning to the car, we took a short drive down to the lake side and we spent some time creating some fun photographs of Wendy and Amy, who seemed to be having a good time:

All in all, we had a great time and I can certainly recommend Big Hill Pond State Park for a family day out, camping, fishing, hiking and a host of other activities.

Over Easter 2009, we had the privilege of taking a trip to New York city for a week to see my stepson Tim play with the Christian Brothers High School band at Carnegie Hall and The Lincoln Center.

What a wonderful experience and New York is a truly amazing place!

As I go through the photographs we took that week, I’ll post some of them here, this one being the first - a view of the Chrysler Building from street level, taken from a point near to the New York City library.

I think this must be one of the prettiest buildings in the city, with its elegant top, flanked by the eight gargoyles.

This was taken on Easter Sunday afternoon – a beautiful, if chilly, day with a perfect blue sky.

Well, vacation time is over and it’s back to reality again after a good rest. This year we took the kids to New Smyrna Beach for our two-week vacation. The weather was great, and it was a treat to see the fireworks of July 4th lighting up the beach from Daytona all the way down to Cape Canaveral!

We caught up with old friends, played at the beach and relaxed by the pool. We also took a couple of trips to see St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US.

Rested and rejuvenated, I’m ready to get back to work on wedding books, producing portraits and preparing for the remainder of the busy wedding season.