Part 2

I will post a real piece of journalism soon, but I couldn't resist. I was driving home from a bull sale (welcome to Redding) and saw this on the way. Mt. Shasta just sat there illuminated and I had to pull over. Holy, moly..........

And then there was Northern California........

I am finally here, sitting in the living room of my new apartment in Redding, CA having completed my first day at work. I still have Florida in my bones and can't seem to warm up, but also feel right at home and can't wait to explore all that is this place.

Some very important people in my life helped me move up to Redding over the weekend and then we all spent the weekend before my first day exploring the mountains north of the city. This waterfall flows into the headwaters of the Sacramento river and was one of the most spectacular places I've seen in a while.

Thank you Bessma, Eli and Abby for an incredible weekend..... You don't know how much it meant to me.

Asleep...............

Been hanging in New Mexico with la familia y la novia and relaxing......and getting ready to move back to Cali. The quick update is I start work out in Redding on Jan. 21, J.O.B. That's right, full-time.....

Bought a new car in NM, been eating green chile when my stomach permits and enjoying my home. There's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home, there's no place like home...........

Abrazos para todos and more to come soon.......

Well Florida.............

This should be my last post from Naples as I move onto the next thing. Which, if you haven't heard, is a jobby job in Redding, CA. I drive out of Florida on Monday, will spend a couple weeks in New Mexico and then start in Redding on Jan. 21.

There is too much to say in some lousy blog post, but I still want to say something................

I guess what stands out most is all I've learned since I've been here, all I've learned about myself, about photography, about a part of the world I never thought I would get to know like I have. I've missed home like crazy, and I'm excited to go to California, but Florida will always be in my heart. I tell the story about flying in over the gulf one day and looking down at the ocean, the mangroves, and feeling at home. Who would have through some kid from the mountains of Northern New Mexico could feel at home in SWFL, but it happened. I'll never forger what it feels like to be out in the swamp, or float on my back in the ocean.............

And a lot of why I felt so at home here was of course the people. You know who you are, but I can never thank you enough for taking me in and making me feel at home. I can never thank you enough for helping me to grow professionally and as a person. I look back at the work I've done here and I'm really, really proud. I've learned so much as a photographer and I finally, finally feel like I can stand on my own two feet behind the camera. I have so much to learn, but the experiences and skill I've gained here have set the path for me. And don't ya'll think you're off the hook so easy. I am going to bug you for edits from now until my fingers can't press the shutter button any more.

Here's to SWFL, here's to my people..........

This is only see you later.........

Hasta Pronto,

Jakobo

I shot the 50th anniversary of the local greyhound dog track last night and was able to get right up on the track during warm-ups. Elvis and his back-ups were performing at the edge of the field as part of the celebration. Elvis and greyhounds, love it.

I drive past the local IHOP restaurant every day on my way to work. For the past couple of weeks their sign has advertised that they will be open 24 hours on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

I've never been much of a holiday person, and it just made me that much more depressed to think about the people who have to work at 2 a.m. on Christmas Eve. So I showed up last night to shoot a photo column and meet the people who were up working while the rest of the world was asleep waiting for the big day.

Come to find out, the place had a really warm feeling to it. All the employees were resigned to the fact that they had to work and made the most of it. Wifes or husbands came by in the middle of the night to say hi to their spouses at work. The line cook was going to get off by 5 a.m. so he would be there by the time his kids got up to unwrap their presents.

And Jackie, one of the servers, brought her eight month old daughter to work for a while until her husband could come pick her up. She said she wasn't happy about working on Christmas Eve, but she needs the money. And she felt okay because her daughter is not old enough to be disappointed.

I wasn't supposed to take this picture because the manager was not happy about the baby being there. But Jackie said it was alright.

It's funny, I have some news that I will probably be announcing in the next couple of days, good news, but anyone who reads this thing probably already knows :) My circle is small.......

Anyway, stay tuned.

This photo is from the Fall high school player of the year portrait series we just did. Let me just say, I learned a lot. We had to get 11 portraits done in about a week and I decided to do all of them on or around the beach, which meant hauling a generator and all the lighting equipment to the beach several times. My back still hurts......

It would not have been possible without Mr. Greg Kahn (correct spelling), who got up at 7 a.m. the day after covering the Naples High football state championship game to come meet me on the beach and help. He is also the one who thought up this shot and the one who chased the birds. So Greg, this is an electronic shout-out and big old thank you for your help.

Long overdue.........

I was in New Mexico all last week for a memorial we held for my grandfather. The whole trip was amazing to say the least. And it was so, so, so, so, good to see Casey, my family and be back home. I can't even explain.

The pictures of Casey just had to be made. Two different times we managed to be in the car when the sun gods smiled on us and the New Mexico light peaked through the clouds. The first one is on the way to Santa Fe. It had been overcast all day but for about 54 seconds that golden monkey light hit the side of the hill and I insisted we pull over. Casey obliged by being my model.

The second picture is the Sandia mountains that sit right above Albuquerque. Again, the light. Casey held the wheel while I pressed the gas and tried to take a picture.

And the third picture happened right outside Casey's parents house before dinner. Her blue eyes and the light.....

I miss home....

Te quiero Casey, te quiero Nuevo Mexico..........

Waiting

Floating trees

About three times a week Marlene Simecek, 66, and Nancy Fleischman, 57, leave their small trailer on Holly Avenue and head into town in their electric wheelchairs. Side by side they roll down Bayshore Drive, over to East Naples Community Park through Sugden Regional Park and on to U.S. 41.

The first stop is usually Goodwill.

“We’re addicted to Goodwill,” Simecek admits. Just last week she found a purple and gray raincoat that covers her and the wheelchair. Price: $4. Around the same time, Fleischman found a crockpot for $5.99. It’s one of the nice oval ones, she said.

If they feel up to it, they might head to another “junk shop” and then onto the pet store to buy food for Fleischman’s rabbit, “PT,” and Simecek’s cats and dog. The final stop is the grocery store, either Alberton’s or Publix.

Usually it’s the basics, like milk. The only thing they have to stay away from is ice cream, because it will melt before they can get home.

“If we want ice cream, we have to eat it there,” Simecek said.

The pair have known each other for years but have been living together only since February. Fleischman fell on hard times after an accident in her wheelchair, so Simecek let her move into her trailer. Both women can still walk, but suffer from health problems that prevent them from getting to the grocery store without their wheelchairs.

“I’m lucky to walk to the mailbox and back,” Simecek said.

Simecek still has her old driver’s license but hasn’t owned a car since 1972. Fleischman hasn’t driven since the early 1980s. A car is just too expensive for either one.

That means they’re out in the elements — sun, rain or shine. This time of year it’s pleasant, but in the summer, they dread the trip.

“During summer, it’s like someone put us in the crockpot,” Fleischman said.

About two weeks ago it rained hard while they were shopping. When they got out, the streets were flooded. The only way they could travel was to roll down the middle of the street where there was less water.

“The chairs about turned into airboats,” Simecek said, laughing.

The pair also has to deal with the occasional inconsiderate or dangerous driver.

“Man, you should see Nancy,” Simecek said. “She almost stands up in the chair when she yells at them.”

Nonetheless, both Simecek and Fleischman are happy they are mobile and can get out. They enjoy each other’s company and feel fortunate to have the wheelchairs.

“It’s definitely the thrill in our lives,” Fleischman said.

Hats in the Garden. A big fundraiser for the botanical garden where the who's who of Naples showed up with their hats.

A food festival and Veterans Day.

From the archives. Pajarito Mesa, a community outside Albuquerque that has no running water and no electricity.

Demolition Derby. Fun, but I got dust all up in my grill......

Halloween

The girl was only 11, but damn she could dance!

He is 72 and was diagnosed with Alheimer's seven years ago. He loves to fish, but has been unable to go out because of the disease. That was until last Wednesday, when his care facility got a guided fishing trip donated that took him all out day. It was amazing for him, but also for me. Seeing his passion was amazing, and riding through the mangroves on a fishing boat is unmatched. Florida can be so amazingly beautiful........

I feel you little man.

I'll do anything for bad traffic pictures...... Stand in a cabbage palm, lie on the road, and listen to angry morning drivers.

Florida.

Is there a picture here? Maybe........

A few recent dailies. Things that might not belong together on a page, but pictures that mean something. The one is of a rabbi blessing his son before the start of the Yom Kippur services. The other is of PETA protesters in Naples protesting fur products being sold by Burberry, an event that might not turn many heads in Berkeley, but one that drew it's fare share in Naples.

The sermons in Rabbi Chezi Zionce’s temple Beth Tikvah almost always start with a joke.

“Have you heard the one the about the girl who brings home the boyfriend studying at the yeshiva?”

He’s got a folder full of them on his computer that he’s passed on to other rabbis.

“Shofar so good.” (Shofar is a ram’s horn sounded at temple services on High Holy Days.)

It’s a style of Judaism that the rabbi thinks is overdue.

“For far too long religion has subjected people to sitting in a serene, morose place, but I want to make Judaism fun,” Zionce said.

“I’m trying to instill life.”

Ordained as an Orthodox rabbi, there is also a serious side to Zionce. He follows a fairly strict style of Judaism — always wearing a yarmulka and never driving on the sabbath.

“I believe there are many ways to observe God, and all are equal, but personally, I am a traditionalist.”

But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy yourself, he says.

“God doesn’t want people to be sad,” he said.

Over the years while working in Canada, South Carolina and now Naples, Zionce has figured out ways to mix his two styles into one that provides both “tradition and modernity.” The message, the history and the purpose are still the same. But the delivery might occasionally be a little different.

The joke goes that in an Orthodox synagogue, where women and men sit separately, they sleep separately while the Rabbi talks. In other temples where the congregation sits together, they sleep together. In Beth Tikvah, women and men sit together.

“But nobody sleeps in my synagogue,” Zionce said. “I want the people up singing and praying with gusto.”

Last week, as part of the Jewish New Year celebration at Beth Tikvah, Rabbi Zionce lead his congregation down to a bridge over the canal along Airport Pulling Road for a Rosh Hashanah tradition called Tashlich. Dressed in a pressed suit and Stetson fedora but wearing a pair of black Crocs sandals, he and others threw bread crumbs into the water to symbolize a casting away of last year’s sins.

It’s a tradition Zionce enjoys and thinks is good for the congregation. In 91 degree weather no one is going to fall asleep. And the fish get fed to boot, he says.

Afterwards he joined hands with some of the children and started dancing. A few of the congregants pulled him aside to make sure cars could pass over the bridge.

“I want them to be comfortable, I want them to see that I’m one of them,” he said. “And I like making people happy.”

LOVE park and the Rocky Steps at the Philladelphia Art Museum. Probably one of the best views in any city I've ever been in. Absolutely beautiful.

My trip to Philly to see my brother Max who is a freshman at UPenn.

Durrell Tisdale from Virginia, waiting in the Atlanta airport on his way home after a year in Falluja with the Marines. As I walked up on him, he was cradling his head in his hands. I asked him what was wrong. "It's just hard to be back."

My brother and downtown Philly at dusk.

Waiting to clean the gym at the end of a Naples High School v. Gulf Coast volleyball game.

Ricky Hutton, 13, Golden Gate Estates, FL