There’s one picture in my galleries that I get more responses then any other photo and that’s my downtown Louisville skyline picture. The tragedy is that after a hard drive crash a couple years ago I lost the original and was left with only a low resolution copy from my website; a resolution too low to make quality prints. Well, after yet another request for a print of the image I decided last night to head to the riverfront and recreate the photo.

Bound and determined I grabbed my gear and got in my car. A bite to eat for some energy and I made my way to the river. But a disaster awaited me upon my arrival, the trees on the edge of the river had grown out and now completely obstructed the view of the water. NO! I couldn’t recreate the image without a view of the water! So I did what any good (and maybe somewhat insane) photographer would do… I got in the car and headed to Wal-Mart to buy a hacksaw. And, before you ask why, it’s because Home Depot was closed. (Cause I KNOW you were going to ask). But Wal-Mart was great ’cause I got to watch a fist fight break out between two older ladies. Oh, the fun at Walley World.

My girlfriend acted as my lookout as I braved my way down through the brush and thorn bushes, hacksaw in hand, to find and destroy, pulverize, demolish, and/or obliterate the trees that stood in my way from the perfect shot. Yeah, ok, maybe I’m being a little dramatic but you have to understand my determination here! The sight had to have been somewhat humorous to the people in their cars up on the hill. A grown man in flip-flops, standing in the water, cutting down a tree with a Wal-Mart hacksaw.

I got my shot! ..Just to let you know.

(You can check out larger version in our nature gallery here.)

And here is the original that I was trying to recreate;

My first post to the blog and I thought I would start things off with a fun trip to the zoo. It was a wonderful day; warm, sunny and a light breeze, so my girlfriend and I headed out to the Louisville Zoo to catch some shots of the animals.

I hauled my large camera bag out and we had a nice walk around the park.. well, that is until I pulled my back. Word of warning to other photographers; get a ROLLING bag if you are hardheaded like me and insist on hauling your entire arsenal of gadgets with you on a 4 hour walk. I won’t complain, however, because the time I’ve spent out-of-commission the last couple days gave me some time to set up this blog :).

The photos turned out alright. I didn’t get everything I wanted because the animals were lazy and, apparently, didn’t realize I was coming for their photo shoot. I could have gotten a nice close-up of the orangutans but some middle-aged lady thought the zoo was her personal exhibit and spent 30 minutes with her face pressed to the glass giving them kisses (I guess no one told her how disgusting it is to have your face pressed against the glass at a monkey cage).

Anyway, I’m posting a few of my favorites here. You can check them out in our nature gallery.