In August of 2009, just before my sophomore year of college, my family took a trip down to Arizona. There we stayed in Sedona for a few nights, before shifting to Scottsdale for the remaining nights of the vacation. Along the way we saw Sedona’s beautiful inner canyon of red rocks, and the Grand Canyon’s vastness.

There was a view everywhere – even out our hotel window. The image of the rock formations to the left of this passage is the view out of our hotel window at night. This trip spawned a plethora of panoramas – all of the panoramas are at the bottom of the gallery below. Have a look at them! Each one offers a different, but equally spectacular, view of Arizona’s beautiful environment.

There’s nothing like star gazing in Sedona. Just to take more photos like these, I’d go again. But to see the Big Dipper one more time, I’d fly back down tomorrow. You don’t get these kinds of wonderful nights, living in New Jersey. It would be nice, though.

Soup Shoppe is a local eatery in my hometown very well known for its upscale food creations. The owner, Brian Moscetti, makes and serves nearly sixty different types of soup, six per day, on rotation throughout the year. In a world where Panera is right next door, Soup Shoppe needed an extra push to give it an edge – which was when they realized that Soup Shoppe had no website.

I was approached with the task of creating a usable, clean website for Soup Shoppe in order to showcase their foods and present their menus to potential customers. The website would be a portal for ordering via phone and fax, as well as a place to request catering estimates and start conversations with Brian and the rest of the Soup Shoppe staff.

Needless to say, that goal was accomplished – and then some. I even went in one morning and spent two hours doing a photo shoot of the restaurant and its food. Its delicious, delicious food. The result? A delicious, delicious website.

When I was hired to create Soup Shoppe’s website, I decided I’d do an extra favor not included in the original invoice. Lacking photos of their own, I knew the owners of Soup Shoppe would be disappointed to receive a site about their food but without photos of said food. That, and a restaurant’s website without food photography is just plain silly.

So, one bright and hot summer morning, I ran into the little restaurant, camera gear in hand(s), and began shooting. At the end of it all, I had taken a set of photos that the Soup Shoppe website now incorporates as a start to its eventually vast repertoire of foods and food photos.

As for me, I found this to be a great learning experience with macro photography – I’d just received my new MICRO-NIKKOR 105mm macro lens that I had been dreaming about for two years, and needless to say that it took me some time to get adjusted to the style of shooting that real macro photography requires. I’m happy with my first foray into that style, and I hope I have more opportunities to improve in the future.

I traveled with family to New York City during July 4th weekend not just to see the fireworks, but to celebrate the life of my father, who passed away from this Earth on July 4th, 2006. I watch the fireworks, now, both to celebrate my freedom as an American citizen and to honor my father. 2009 was a special treat, because I had never before seen the fireworks in New York City. As this was to be the first year Macy’s would launch them over the Hudson River, it was especially imperative that 2009 was to be the year I finally saw them. Armed with my trusty Nikon D80, I watched one of the most brilliant fireworks shows I’ve ever seen.My father would have been 54 this year. I hope these photos show how much I miss him.

Between May 6th and 15th, the Lehigh University Choir and Choral Union took a wonderful trip abroad – to Portugal! Needless to say, I was there looking like the paparazzi with my Nikon DSLR, catching all the shots I could find. Although many of the photos shown below were selected because I feel they are the most artistically sound shots I took, I’ve also included a good amount of more “fun” shots – the candid and interesting shots of the choir I took over the course of the trip, as well as the non-artistic shots that display Portugal’s landmarks.

The shot to the left – with the rainbow and the boat – was one of the most spectacular moments of the entire trip. Those shots are actually collaborations between myself and my good friend Will Frece, who himself is quite a skilled photographer – mostly likely much moreso than myself. We were both absolutely thrilled to find that rainbow!