I spent a nice weekend away from Gainesville on Anna Maria Island with relatives. I only broke the camera out for one evening of bocce ball, but it was great getting the colors of a full sunset that you just don’t get with all the tree cover in Gainesville.

This afternoon I got downtown a little early to meet a friend at Volta Coffee and decided to wander around until he showed. Down the street, workers are making quick progress on the building that housed Jack’s Bar and Grill, which was condemned this spring. I was pretty surprised to see the little excavator up on the second floor of a 130-year-old building that was supposed to be unstable. There may have been supports underneath that I could not see from the street. The owner’s plans for a beer garden could be a cool addition to downtown, there isn’t much outdoor activity at night.

At in the Sun Center, I caught up with a friend who is working on a game called Dungeon Defenders with Trendy Entertainment. I’ve had a peek at it and looks like a promising release.

That’s all for a day that I ended watching the sun set on a pool raft with a dog on my lap. Perhaps I’ll do a self-portrait of that tomorrow.

I got a great surprise on Saturday when a friend who I haven’t seen since early high school posted on facebook that his band was performing in Gainesville. So I caught up with Matt, who is now the singer for the band Paranoia Dance Party. It was cool to randomly catch up with him and it really didn’t feel like much time had passed since we last met. I guess that’s how it works with old friends. I shot his set for fun at 1982, so here are a few more.

Tea Party members held a rally in Gainesville on April 15 joining in with the national movement on Tax Day. It was my first experience with the movement in person. The Gainesville chapter has some leadership, while the national organization thrives on living without it. The members of the group who I spoke with were nice people, just angry over policies in the current government. Many did not want to talk with the media and I did have run-ins with two people who were not official members of the group. When two Sept. 11 truth protesters entered the plaza and began to cause a stir, I began to film them. As I was doing so, a man approached me from the crowd and accused me of wanting to skew the event coverage. I told him he didn’t know me and as he continued, I did the only thing you can do when someone is verbally accosting you. Just tell them to have a nice day politely and turn away. After having to repeat that several times, he finally gave up and moved on.

The protest was peaceful and there was only a slight shouting match between a Tea Party member and one of the Sept. 11 protesters. Tea party members called the police over and the situation returned to normal conversation. It was a bit amusing to watch an older woman with the Tea Party follow one of the protesters around the plaza with a sign reading “Infiltrator, he is not with us.” after they first arrived.

Eventually soundtrack of songs with the word America in them died down, the group of protesters along the street thinned out and the plaza was returned to the homeless who inhabit it.

Bicyclists look out over Paynes Prairie Preserve from a secluded viewing point off the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail.

Friday afternoon I grabbed my camera and my bike and started riding East in Gainesville. I hit the trail head for the Gainesville-Hawthorne Trail and decided to head down it. I had only made it a mile or so down the trail in the past, so I wanted to push down it a little further this time. While at one of the prairie overlooks, I noticed a small ammunition container tucked under a bench. It happened to be a geocache. I left something in the cache, but didn’t take anything.

Alligators sun themselves along the shore of the Alachua Sink inside Paynes Prairie Preserve on a Friday evening.

On my way back up the trail I stopped off at the La Chua trail and hoofed it out on the prairie. There was a $2 entry fee for going down the trail, but it was worth it for the tons of alligators hanging out on the shoes of the Alachua Sink. I hadn’t been to this area of the preserve before and I definitely plan on going back with long glass to shoot some alligator video.

Reid McCullough, a UF student and member of Students for a Democratic Society, shouts a chant to other protesters as they approach Tigert Hall during a march protesting the shooting of UF student Kofi Adu-Brempong Tuesday afternoon.

Today I was riding my bike home from campus and heard a megaphone, so I checked it out.  Locals and UF students were gathered to protest the shooting of Kofi Adu-Brempong by UF police. I shot stills at the first protest a few weeks ago, and today the Sun had staffers on scene. That didn’t keep me from breaking out my camera. The protesters presented their demands to UF, as they did at the last protest. It is not known when reports on the shooting will be completed.

David Kratzer, associate vice president for student affairs at UF, speaks to protesters after receiving their demands and petetion for charges to be dropped against UF student Kofi Adu-Brempong.

Reid McCullough, a UF student and member of Students for a Democratic Society, shouts a chant to other protesters as they approach Tigert Hall during a march protesting the shooting of UF student Kofi Adu-Brempong Tuesday afternoon.

UF strong safety Will hill protests as offensive lineman Carl Johnson carries an official away from the goal line during a scrimmage in the first spring practice with full pads on Saturday, March 20, 2010.

I shot video of the first practice for the Sun, it was the first time trying out my new shotgun microphone and I really enjoyed the audio from it. It’s also interesting shooting sports with the 5D. Just like stills, having the big, fast glass helps tremendously. I shot the next practice with a 200mm on a 1.4x teleconverter, but I really missed the 400mm I  had borrowed from the Sun.

On Sunday afternoon I was invited out to a small quidditch tournament as part of a day of Harry Potter at the UF honors dorms. I shot video of a quidditch practice soon after the club started, but this was the first time I saw a real match being played. I photographed half of it and since I was out there for fun, I jumped in on the second half of the match. It’s a lot more physical sport than some would think and a lot more fun without the brooms. I played keeper for the green team and was trucked more than once as players tried to score in one of three ring goals.

A player has the ball stripped from him as he tumbled while playing Quidditch in a tournament at the University of Florida on Sunday.

A player has the ball stripped as he rushes towards the goal. The players with kickballs are the beaters, who can throw the ball at a player and force them to run back to their own goal.

A seeker chases down a player taking the part of the snitch during the quidditch match. In this version, the snitch is only worth 30 points but still ends the game immediately.

Links for Saturday’s football practice if you’re a gatorbait.net or Rivals member:

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I took an evening walk on the Cones Dike Trail last night just before sunset out on Paynes Prairie Preserve. It was my first time on the trail and I know next time I need to bring my bike to hit past mile 3 before sunset and get back to the gate before close. I only made it to mile 2 on foot before having to turn around. And I still was the last one out with a gentle scolding from a park ranger. I didn’t see the open range animals, but I did come across the critters in the video.

It was my first time shooting video of wildlife and it was pretty fun. One of the lessons I learned is to leave the camera rolling as I prepare to move. When I stood up, I startled the dozen baby alligators and they went splashing into the water. I hope to go back out there again and find some of the bigger critters. Some cyclists that made the full trail while I was out there saw some of the bison and many more gators.

Paynes Prairie at dusk from Andrew Stanfill on Vimeo.

I’m not sure if there is a more interesting group in the state. I arrived late on a Friday night for last year’s Olustee battle and wandered from camp to camp looking for the 28th Georgia. All I really had to do was follow the sound of guitars and laughter amidst the hundreds of sleeping re-enactors. I hope this gives some insight into their spirit and why they dress up for several weekends a year. A fellow Gainesville Sun intern, Caitlin Healy, caught up with them at this year’s Olustee re-enactment and they’re definitely still at it.

Here are two of my recent ones on UF quidditch and a zombie invasion.

Wednesday I ventured out to the UF quidditch club’s practice. The team sport invented by J.K. Rowling in her Harry Potter universe is actually catching on around the country at college campuses. While they still don’t have many of the things to make it look like the real deal(brooms for instance), they’re trying to get things together. At the scrimmage I covered, they played without brooms, and used one hand to simulate holding a broom. They also only had one goal at each end, instead of the usual three, so goaltending was a bit easier.

A few weeks ago, UF’s Theatre Strike Force improv group improvised a zombie invasion in honor of UF’s zombie awareness plan(Which I suggest reading if you’ve never seen it.). The group chased a member acting as a surviving human student across UF, from the Reitz Union to Library West. It was a pretty entertaining way for them to promote a new show. It even prompted a student working at the Hub information booth to defend it with a toy lightsaber without knowing what was going on. His interview was 3 minutes of intense zombie discussion, but only the most relevant bit made it into the final video.