We got up at 6 AM and drove from Daytona Beach to Sawgrass Park in the Everglades. That was my favorite part of the entire trip. A woman chatting with a peacock at the park`s visitors center. 
A soft-shell turtle swam up to the airboat 
The gator was so close to the boat that I could extend my arm and touch it. 
Month / December 2008
Working hard
Today was the last day of work before the Christmas break, so we cut out a bit early and decided to play the Wii. My co-workers decided that the default characters weren`t good enough, so Peter and Michael decided to make a Wii Dmitriy. 
Looks just like me, doesn`t it:) 
An early Christmas present:)
Last night my early Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year`s present arrived – a brand-new Canon 50D. Today I did what I always do when I get a new camera – I follow my wife and my cat and snap photos until one or both threaten to kill me. The neat thing about this image is that it was taken at ISO6400, and even though the noise is clearly visible, it`s not obtrusive and does not detract from the image. 
My wife politely asking me to stop taking photos. 
After about 50th flash photo, my cat gave me a look that clearly stated that she`s planning on killing me. 
Florida, Day 2 – Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse
Ponce Inlet Lighthouse is a pretty neat place to visit. I`ve never been to a lighthouse before, and barring climbing over 200 steps to get to the top and realizing how pathetically out of shape I really am, it was an interesting experience. If you are ever in Daytona Beach area, I highly recommend visiting Ponce Inlet (www.ponceinlet.org). 
Florida, Day 2 – Kennedy Space Center
By day 3 I managed to successfully hurt my shoulder (I`ve no idea how or when or even where). Carrying a DSLR became somewhat of a chore, so most photographs at the Kennedy Space Center were taken with a Canon SD1000 point-and-shoot. 
We managed to find our way into an actual NASA facility… 
This camera was blown apart by the shock waves generated by a shuttle launch 
When we finally made it back to our hotel, we went for a walk on the beach. And of course, who could possibly resist a cool jumping shot… 
Mike and Erin`s Day
I photographed Erin and Mike`s wedding on the last weekend of November. I was amazed by how cool, laid back and adventurous they were – we did outdoor photographs when it was 30 degrees outside. The wedding went off without a hitch – it was beautiful, emotional, perfect. 
Florida, Day 1 – Daytona Beach
Initially my wife and I wanted to go on a road trip – drive from Pittsburgh to New York, Boston, Bar Harbor, Nova Scotia, etc. Basically, cover most of the northern East Coast. But, the weather in Pittsburgh has been really miserable for the past month or so, and we decided to skip the road trip and go somewhere warm. The flight from Pittsburgh to Daytona Beach exposed us to all the wonders that are today`s air travel. The flight from Pittsburgh to Atlanta was over an hour late and we missed a connecting flight to Daytona Beach. Then we had to stand in line for an hour to get on another flight and sit for another two hours at the airport waiting for the next flight to Daytona. However, when we arrived to the hotel, all the troubles were immediately forgotten. The hotel staff was incredibly nice and helpful, they upgraded us to a room with the view of the ocean and the best part is that I got to take my first nap in at least 6 months. 
Florida, Day 2 – Daytona International Speedway
I woke up at 7 in the morning to a spectacular sunrise 
After breakfast we decided to check out the famous Daytona International Speedway. I`m not particularly interested in cars or car racing, but it was still a neat experience. Even though we did not see an actual race, we got to check out an antique car show. 
Website saga continues
After more than a week of phone calls, threats, emails and a consultation with an attorney, I finally got US2.net to admit that they screwed up. Somehow their billing department thought that I hadn`t paid my invoices in months (which they admitted was a mistake on their part due to a new billing system). So, without letting me know and without giving me a chance to backup my data, they deleted all of my websites and databases. Today I managed to get in touch with their Windows support manager and he told me that they found my website in their backups, but not my database and promised to do everything he can to get my site up and running today. Given their track record, I have my doubts, but I`ll keep my fingers crossed just in case. If I don`t get a copy of my database so that I could restore it to this new site, I`ll most likely take US2 to court. Meanwhile, I am going to move on and try to at least re-post photographs that used to be in my blog. Also, I lost all the client feedback/testimonials from the last 5 years. I am going to try to contact my clients and ask them to re-submit their feedback. So, if you are or at some point were my client, I would really really appreciate if you could go the the “Testimonals” section of this website (About -> Testimonials or click here) and submit your feedback. Thank you for everyone`s patience.
Website downtime
My website has been down since Wednesday, December 3rd and it seems like my hosting company does not really know what`s going on. When I originally created the first version of this website, it was hosted by Stargate Inc, a local Pittsburgh company. About a year ago, Stargate sold its shared web hosting to a British company, UK2 (US2 in the United States). Ever since US2 took over, I`ve had one problem after another, but this one takes the cake. Apparently, my domain name has expired and no one bothered to notify me of that fact. I renewed the domain name on Friday, December 5th and called US2 to let them know. They said that the site will be back up in 2-4 hours. 6 hours later I called again and the tech support person did not know what was going on, so they escalated my support ticket. A few hours later I got an email from US2 saying that they cannot even find a record of my website on any of their servers. I am currently in the process of migrating my website to a new hosting company (GoDaddy.com) and to a new domain (www.wideopenlens.com). Until migration is complete, the blog on this site will not be active and none of the database-driven functions (photograph descriptions, client testimonials, etc…) will be working. I apologize for any inconvenience and will try to get everything working ASAP. Thank you for your patience, Dmitriy
Dmitriy B. 