A Day in The Life

Posted on February 26, 2017February 26, 2017 by Dusty Roads | 2 Comments

It’s Saturday! One of the two days a week I get to find local adventures. Not only that but it’s another super warm day and its still February. The snow has melted and I’m itching to go. But wait, it’s also tax season and although I already took my paperwork to my tax guy, I just got 2 new items needed for this year’s taxes.

First stop the gas station. Boy there sure is a lot of traffic today. Finally with a full tank I make it to Stoughton MA where I drop off the new paperwork. It’s way later than I expected.

I dash out of his office with minimal chit chat. Back in the car I’m headed to Hanover/Norwell MA to get a passport photo taken and pick up some prints of my whale and also of a photo I sold recently.

Baby Whale Breach

Yup I’ve been a published photographer for awhile now but never been paid. (I’m not bragging, just thrilled)

Miami Dade Sun Sentinel

Boston Globe

Boston Globe

Back in January I was contacted by a marketing firm to purchase the rights to one of my photos. I was thrilled and even happier when they agreed to pay me for it. I happened to think that I should print a copy for my portfolio. Since I signed the rights away I’m not sure I can show it here. A bank in Seattle is planning to enlarge it to wall size to decorate their lobby…or so they say. I am supposed to be notified once it’s done. I think there may be a trip back to Seattle in my future.

On the way Joe called. He’s just moved back to the north country from Sunny Florida. He wasn’t having any better luck than I was getting out of the house. We’d loosely planned to get together for a photo shoot. We decided it just wasn’t meant to be. Another day, another time.

When I arrived at the photo processing lab the owner who takes all of the passport photos was tied up so I picked up my prints and ran down the street to a photo store to ask about filters.

That took about an hour but was very educational. By this time lunch was way over due. I made a quick stop at Wendy’s and returned for the passport mug shot…I mean photo. I guess you aren’t allowed to smile any more. I was smiling in my old photo but they told me no smiling this time.

That’s very hard because I know these guys and they always make me laugh. I ended up looking like I had just sucked a lemon but no smile!

scan0032

I still had to do some grocery shopping and I had not taken 1 picture. Where did the day go?

So now you know why I never seem to have any time except when I go on vacation. Maybe tomorrow will be the day for the next local adventure. I hope so or you may be bored with another post like this.

Gator Boys Memorial to J-Mart

Posted on September 30, 2013September 30, 2013 by Dusty Roads

Just a brief update.

At the end of last night’s episode (Big Croc Rescue) of Gator Boys, a short video clip, very short (10 seconds?) was played in Memory of their friend, John Martinez. The video was nice but short. I really thought they would do more. But maybe they just didn’t have time.

There were no still photos used so my pictures were not included but you can see those at www.dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com.

Rest in Peace, John.

The Good and the Bad

Posted on September 13, 2013September 13, 2013 by Dusty Roads

The ying and yang, alpha and omega, black and white….life and death.

Always a balance. When something bad happens something good needs to come along for balance. I’m not a philosopher but I know that many people much smarter than I am have spent many hours contemplating this very idea.

Why am I bringing this up? Because I am caught in a BAD/GOOD situation.

The Bad first because without that I wouldn’t have the good.

The Bad is that a very funny, gentle, kind man, a former marine who served his country, has passed away at the very young age of 30. I had the pleasure of meeting him. He was a celebrity of sorts as he was involved with the Gator Boys show on Animal Planet. On the show he went by the name of J-Mart and I saw him do his alligator wrestling show at Holiday Park . I even wrote a post about seeing the show and shared some of my photos.

I now know his name is John Martinez. From the comments and the emails I’ve receive as a result of my blog I know my impressions of him were right. The loss of such a gentle soul makes me very sad.

http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/pulp/2013/09/gator_boys_alligator_wrestler_dies_john_carlos_martinez.php

Now the good, for me anyway. Because I wrote the post and because I included photos that were at least half way decent, I was contacted by the Broward New Times, Florida for permission to use my pictures. In return they linked to my blog. They even took some of my comments from the blog and used them in their obituary. That is wonderful promotion for my blog and for my pictures. What’s the saying… there’s no such thing as bad publicity? I get really excited that my blog got found and is , in a sense, being promoted by a publication like the Broward New Times, and then I remember that someone has died and I wonder if I should be so happy. 🙁

I also got an email from the Story Producer from Animal Planet. He too asked about using some photos. I don’t know what, if anything will come of that but it’s all so exciting until I remember why my photos are in such demand. And then I get sad again.

The whole set of photos taken at Holiday Park on that trip are on my pro website: www.dustyroadsphotos.zenfolio.com I moved them to the opening slideshow as a tribute to J-Mart.

As much as I love the attention my photos and blog are getting, I would gladly skip the excitement if J-Mart was still with us. For those who knew him as a friend, his family and to his fans, I am very, very sorry for your loss.

Holiday Park, Everglades, Fort Lauderdale Florida

Posted on February 18, 2013February 18, 2013 by Dusty Roads

There’s nothing like getting back on land after a sea voyage..don’t believe me? just ask the passengers on the Carnival ship Triumph. Sorry I couldn’t resist throwing that in. If we’d gone to Cozumel out of Texas instead of Miami we could have been on board that ship.

But now our cruise was over, Joe was on his way back to Orlando and I was on my way to find the Ramada Inn in Fort Lauderdale. Road construction is the bane of GPS navigation. That “oh so proper ” british voice saying turn right or turn left where instead of a road you find a Jersey Barrier! I am expecting a bill from the Florida Turnpike any day. I can’t tell you how many times following the “Keep Left” or Keep right” instruction put me in the “Easy Pass lane” with no place to pay the toll and no place to turn around! In spite of the mishaps I eventually found my way to the correct Ramada Inn where I was sent packing…in the nicest, politest way. Check-in wasn’t until 3pm. I’m so sorry but there’s no available room yet.

That’s ok it was almost lunch time and oh happy days…there’s a Golden Corral nearby. Weekday lunches must not be too busy as there was no line and lots of tables. Even at an all your can eat buffet eventually you need to leave and it still wasn’t 3pm.

At that point I did what any self-respecting TV fan would do. I went looking for Holiday Park in the Everglades.

Holiday Park is “Home of the Gator Boys” but if you have followed that reality show you know that at the end of last season the park was taken over by the county and the Gator Boys took their show to Mississippi.

Well I’ve hung in there through this season but I don’t like the Mississippi episodes as much as Florida so I wanted to see if anyone knew if they were going to be coming back to Holiday Park.

I found Holiday Park with less trouble than I had finding the hotel and began exploring. There isn’t a lot to see, the airboats, a souvenir shop, a little store that sells snacks and a fence with a sign advertising gator wrestling.

When you take a ride on an airboat the cost of the gator wrestling show is included in the ticket price. As I stood in line to buy my ticket I thought I recognized one of the other people in line to check out. But why would one of the Gator Boy characters (are the people in reality shows actors?) be in line to pay for snacks? I decided I must be wrong , took my ticket and wandered down to the airboat dock snapping pictures as I went and enjoying the fact that I was really at Holiday Park.

It was a beautiful afternoon for an airboat ride, not too hot, sunny…just perfect. I found I was really looking forward to getting out on the sea of grass again. I’d been on an airboat ride about 10 years ago and again about 3 years ago. One Floridian said “why?” you’ve seen it once. But each ride is different. A lot depends on your guide and there’s so much to see in the Everglades.