Breathe

I made a video about being present, Alex and I went camping for the first time since 2019, and Zion turned one year old!

Florida Adventures, Video, LifeMatt BensonFebruary 8, 2021juniper prairie wilderness, florida, ocala national forest, camping, camp, woods, central florida, the real florida, adventure, travel, mamiya, rb67, 120, medium format, film, photography, video, videography, dji, mavic air 2, canon eos r, 15-35mm, 50mm, aerial, time, matt benson, opossum cake, blog, analog

A Guide to Primitive Camping in Juniper Prairie Wilderness

Everything you need to know to camp in the Juniper Prairie Wilderness area of the Ocala National Forest, including parking information and trailheads, camping locations and helpful resources.

Enter The Nikonos V

I recently purchased a Nikonos V and took it to the Juniper Prairie Wilderness to fill some gaps in my photography story.

The Blue Square

I have a love-hate relationship with light painting. It never goes as planned, and although my ideas are tactful, the execution is consistently inadequate. This past weekend I took to the woods to explore the role the physical process plays in art and how that affects our perception of it.

Moon Flower Blues

We drove to the Juniper Prairie Wilderness Friday evening with the goal of photographing white pond lilies beneath the glow of a rare “blue flower moon.”

Florida Adventures, PhotographyMatt BensonMay 21, 2019juniper prairie wilderness, ocala national forest, adventure, matt benson, nikon, d610, digital, photography, stars, moon, blue, water lily, lily, flower, 24mm f1.4, iphone XR, florida, the real florida, juniper, woods, LED, lighting, night, DJI Spark, drone, nemo, hornet, 1p

Gear Parade

Here is a list of my top ten favorite things to bring into the woods. Some are practical, others just fun. There is no particular order. It’s just ten things. That I like. Out of order. Here we go.

Gear ReviewsMatt BensonMay 13, 2019sea to summit, aeros, pillow, camping, gear, accessories, tarp, garmin, etrex, 10, gps, buff, tubular, headwear, gif, animated, review, sawyer, squeeze, water filter, trowek, trowel, backpacking, lightweiht, lightweight, patagonia, fanny pack, hip pack, mini, travel, hiking, equipment, petzl, headlamp, light, actik, pentax, digital, spotmeter, spot, meter, mamiya, 7ii, film, 120, medium format, camera, 80mm f/4, juniper prairie wilderness, ocala national forest, florida

Let There Be (F)light

There have been two trips that have definitively revolutionized our Juniper Prairie Wilderness project. The first was when we started bringing GPS devices to the woods. The second occurred this weekend.

Florida Adventures, PhotographyMatt BensonMay 5, 2019juniper prairie wilderness, DJI, Spark, drone, Nikon, D610, 50mm, photography, nature, ocala national forest, florida, matt benson, the real florida

The Woods is a Time Machine

This past weekend I did some time traveling. Not in the science fiction sense, where someone jumps into a DeLorean or a phone booth and leaps forward and backward in a dramatic attempt to rectify some injustice committed in an alternate timeline. No, my time travel was a little more tame than that.

The Things We Carried

They warn you about the bears. They warn you about the alligators. They warn you about the rattlesnakes and the water moccasins. But they never warn you about the two guys hauling an oversized bathroom mirror miles through the brush and the thicket into the wilderness. Probably best to stay clear of those two.

Tick Talk

It was the 4:15 a.m. alarm that finally succeeded in yanking me from the silence. I rolled out of bed and onto my feet.

Florida Adventures, PhotographyMatt BensonMarch 3, 2019mamiya, rz67, medium format, film, black and white, photography, analog, kodak, 400tx, pushed, tri-x, florida, wilderness, adventure, journal, documentary, explore, map, leica, m6, video, kayak, wilderness systems, river, fun, summer, juniper prairie wilderness, wilderness area, nature, woods, outdoors, matt benson, alex catalano, 6x7, 120, 120 love, 35mm, 110mm, f/2.8, grain, sunrise, sunset, pine trees, ocala, national forest, corn snake

Life and Death in The Prairie

I grew up in Florida. My family moved here from Cape Cod when I was seven. But I’ve always seen Florida as an unfortunate circumstance, a stain left in the carpet of my parents’ old dreams. This is the second post of my Contact Sheets series.

Florida Adventures, PhotographyMatt BensonJanuary 21, 2019photography, black and white, film, 120, kodak, 400tx, tri-x, 400, 120 love, juniper prairie wilderness, ocala national forest, the real florida, red filter, 110mm, f/2.8, 50mm, uld, mamiya, rz67, pro, II, wide angle, water, landscape, seascape, waterscape, feathers, bear, nature, wildlife, zine, analog, matt benson, 6x7, grain, florida, public land, home, contact sheet

Contact Sheets

One of my goals for 2019 is to create a zine about the Juniper Prairie Wilderness area of the Ocala National Forest. In conjunction with this zine, I’m creating a blog series called Contact Sheets, where I post the entire contact sheet for each roll of film I shoot for this project. I spent yesterday developing and scanning three rolls from a recent Juniper Prairie Wilderness trip, so what better day to kick off this project than January 1?

Florida Adventures, PhotographyMatt BensonJanuary 1, 2019juniper prairie wilderness, ocala national forest, florida, mamiya, rz67, pro, II, Kodak, 400TX, Tri-x, 400, black and white, landscape, red filter, #25, 50mm, uld, 110mm, matt benson, photography, photo, contact sheet, scans, grain, 120, film, medium format, 6x7, taking root

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