I try to visit my hometown of Long Beach, Mississippi every few years, just to see how it’s doing. I was only there from first through seventh grades, but I have fond memories of living on the coast. After Hurricane Katrina obliterated the Mississippi Gulf Coast I made it a point to return while I lived in the area. I took a day trip over to the Coast with a friend in February 2007. In an ironic twist, shortly after we returned to New Orleans a tornado ripped through our neighborhoods, narrowly missing our homes.

At Bandelier National Monument northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico | November 2008

My day at Bandelier was mostly spent looking at and photographing the Native American cliff dwellings. After the half-mile hike with a friendly Canadian couple, I skipped the back half of the main route for the nature trail leading to my car. About two minutes in I spotted about six or seven deer; they weren’t the least interested in me or anybody else, and acted as perfect models for me. It was a pretty magnificent moment.

[Left]: A beggar squirrel at the Botanic Gardens in Fort Worth, Texas | September 2008
[Right]: A seagull lands on a post with its bread at Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, Louisiana | Fall 2007

The squirrel to the left followed my friends and I around for a few minutes, even blocking our way up the stairs while begging for some fish food. Concerned that we might reenact a scene from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, albeit outdoors, we allowed the little fella to push us backward. He finally ended up almost directly below me, which is when I took this photo.

The seagull above and below grabbed some bread from the park on Lake Pontchartrain. Before I arrived someone dumped bread along the shoreline; seagulls and crows were fighting over it. I watched as this particular seagull grabbed a piece and took off, only to land on a post a few yards out in the water.