Bart Smith and Sandra Friend

Nearly seven years ago, I met Seattle photographer Bart Smith at an FTA Annual Conference, where he’d come looking for me. He wanted to collaborate on a coffee table book about the Florida Trail, and I was all for it. The result of our partnership was Along the Florida Trail. Bart thru-hiked, keeping me posted on what he was seeing along the way, and I went out and did section hikes with friends. We met up in a few places, like the Big O Hike, to hike together.

I found out this spring from Bart’s wife, Bridgie, that Bart had almost met his goal of hiking ALL of the National Scenic Trails. What a feat! Today Bart met his goal: all trails complete! He wrapped up his hike of the CDT in Yellowstone.  Here’s the story.

His website’s gorgeous, with slide shows from every National Scenic Trail. I contributed the written content about the trails.  Bart’s website: Walking Down A Dream.

…Christmas in Florida! Okay, there’s no snow, but twinkling lights on saw palmetto are what you’ll see on a trip to Rainbow Springs State Park, a family favorite near Dunnellon.

Digital cameras have done wonders for capturing the weirdness of Christmas lights. The above shot was taken with flash, and yet the lights still appear to be radiating from their heat source … as they do, and the naked eye can’t tell. But the camera can!

Thanks to photographer Donnelle Oxley, who I met on my SATW journey to Chile, I’ve discovered Smugmug.com: a classy photo gallery site with plenty of punch for photographers of every stripe. While my equipment is pro-am, I think my composition is pretty darn good and I’ve certainly sold a lot of images, so how could I pass up this opportunity? Besides allowing me to take those massive files off my own web space, my new galleries on SmugMug enable me to offer you prints small and large, downloads for personal and professional use, and some fun products like jigsaw puzzles and mugs. Check it out!