a hamster named tampa

Robert La Follette is your neighbor. He recently reminded us of why you left Cleveland.

Meet the Blogger, episode one.

NAME: Robert La Follette
BLOG NAME: Robert La Follette | Photography
URL: http://blog.robertlafollette.com

The bold highlights are mine:

My wife and I moved to the Tampa Bay area in July 2005 to advance my career in Photography, and to escape the harsh winters of our hometown of Cleveland, Ohio, where I was born and raised (my wife was born in Long Beach, California, but was raised in Cleveland). We have been together for 18 years, and have a cat named Lucky Paws and a hamster named Tampa.

We took a second honeymoon to the Florida Keys in October of 2000 (our first ever trip to Florida, and my first time of ever seeing an ocean), and ever since then, we always talked about someday moving to Florida, for we were hooked. Five years later, I attended a photography workshop in Tampa, and fell in love with the area. Not soon after I returned home, my wife and I talked about moving, and three months later we sold our home and moved to the Tampa Bay area. This area, in our opinion, is one of the most beautiful areas we have ever visited, and of all the places we have visited, it felt like home. It has just about everything we could ask for, from the beaches, the ocean, large city, arts, baseball, hockey, small towns, nature, wildlife, and most importantly, a future.

We settled in Northern Pinellas County, right on the perimeter of Brooker Creek Preserve in Palm Harbor, and love it. It is such a beautiful area, and it is so awesome to walk out our door, and within five minutes be totally surrounded and immersed in nature.

The best thing about our neighborhood is the diverse and large amounts of nature that can be found. Everything from birds such as Herons, Opsrey, Ducks, Hawks, Ibis’, Turkeys, Vultures, to animals such as Alligators, Deer, Rabbits, Turtles. We also have areas that are still in pristine condition and really enjoy exploring the vast amounts of swamps and forests that we find, all right outside our front door. The worst thing about our neighborhood is the traffic, for can be a scary proposition sometimes to say the least.

The best thing about Tampa Bay without a doubt in my opinion is the nature and wildlife. There isn’t a day that goes by since we moved here that I am amazed at the vast numbers and beauty that this area has to offer, and from a photography standpoint, is a dream come true. Combine that with beautiful weather and temperatures all year your, this is a shooters paradise. The worst thing about Tampa Bay is the housing situation, which includes the much higher cost of living and insurance costs then where we came from, but honestly, the positives far outweigh the negatives 100-to-1.

I started my blog to share our experiences through my photos and stories of what we find when we moved to Florida with our friends and family back home in Cleveland, since at first, I would email everyone, but that quickly became too much of a chore. So I got the idea of starting a blog so they, and anyone else for that matter, can see what we experience on their own time and schedule.

“Is the blog a success?” That is hard to answer, for how one measures success is purely subjective. Is it the amount of traffic it gets? Is it that people email that they enjoy the photos and stories I post? I guess I consider it a success on some levels, for it has given myself an outlet of my photography that in the past would of gone unnoticed, so it has allowed me to share some of that work and stories that many would of maybe never of known. I know I have spoken to many people here in the Tampa Bay area who read my blog, and they are amazed at the amount of places we visit, but also never realized just how much beauty is around them, and because of my blog, they are sometimes discovering or re-discovering Tampa Bay.

I guess [the most important part of blogging is] presenting the information as correct as I can, especially when I post photos of birds, and I make sure I identify them correctly. It can be a real challenge to do so, and at first was extremely hard, since all of this was new to me. It has gotten easier over the months, but still is my number one priority.

The hardest part is resizing the photos, for I sometimes will add ten or more photos per entry, so that can be a chore. But when everything is done, it’s all worth it, for if just one person enjoys the photos I take, then I feel good about contributing to the community through my photography.

And my final question: What is the coolest thing you have ever done?

It’s kinda hard to say what was the coolest, for I have experienced many things in my life up to this point that has been exciting, from marrying the love of life, and all the beautiful times we have spent together over the past 18 years. But one event that we shared together that sticks out in my mind was on our vacation to the Florida Keys last July, we spent a day snorkeling in Bahia Honda State Park, we had the unique opportunity to swim in a huge bait ball just offshore of thousands of Silverside fish. It was the most heart-pounding experience we have had since moving to Florida, for during the entire time we both thought in the back of our mind was “I wonder if a Shark is just on the other side of this?!?!?”

Please visit your neighbor and enjoy his excellent photography:
Robert La Follette | Photography
http://blog.robertlafollette.com