Gallery 1
Nature, Landscape & Other Photos
In the fall of 2005 I was walking in the woods with my dog Spunky when I stopped to take notice of just how nice the day was. The temperature was around 70 degrees, with bright blue skies and just a few puffy white clouds. What could be better I thought. So, I got my camera and filled the frame with as much sky as my 16 mm lens would allow. I probably shot about a dozen frames, before I settled on this one as the keeper. I especially like the way the trees come into the shot from every corner of the frame.
The photo on the right was taken in October of 2004 across from Allaire State Park in Howell, near the old Brisbane Child Treatment Center. Before shooting this image I had passed by this spot several times and kept eyeballing the progress of the fall colors. This photo and perhaps a dozen more, were taken just off Allaire road looking North. A few days later, a storm came through the area and nearly all the trees had lost their leaves.
The photo below, was taken on the same day and it is a continuation of the lake scene only shot from the left side. The image below is not as saturated as the one above, but I like it just as well. In both frames the light is coming from the left side of the camera. So, the trees which appear on the left side of the bottom photo are in shade, while the trees in the top photo are bathed in light.
Just as much fun as photographing new images, is resurrecting old ones from the archive that were long ago forgotten for one reason or another. I call this photo "Bait".
Nearly at the end of the Manasquan River and just before the river meets the Atlantic Ocean at the southern end of Monmouth County, you will find Fisherman's Cove. Just after a late season snow fall, in April of 1991, Bonnie and I were wandering around looking for photo opportunities when we came upon this image. Well, actually, this is probably what I pictured in my mind's eye when I first viewed the scene, but the original setting was somewhat different from what you see here.
After shooting nearly an entire roll of film from every angle, I went away from this shoot disappointed. Something was wrong with the setting, but I couldn't put my finger on it. When the prints came back from the lab, I looked at the shots and finally discovered what I didn't like about the photo. For one, the Cove building sported a modern day Television antenna on the roof. Along with that, near the right side of the frame was a bright red, very modern, Coca-Cola machine. Sadly, the photo was tucked back into the envelope and all but forgotten until last year.
In 2005, "Bait" was discovered again and now, thanks to the magic of Photo Shop, it looks like the image I had imagined long ago. The Coke machine was removed, so the lower branches of the tree to the right of the Ford had to be recreated along with parts of the fence and the building. The color of the modern day New Jersey license plate was also changed to something more in keeping with the mood of the scene, but the red rims and Fisherman's Cove sign were actually painted that color when I shot the photo.
When Bonnie saw the image she said it might look better in Black and White, so I changed it one last time. In the end, I think I like both versions of this image, now that some of the modern day "eyesores" have been removed. Thanks to digital technology, a once long forgotten photograph has been given new life. Now, there is nothing in this shot to give away the actual year of it's capture. This scene could have just as easily been shot in 1931 instead of 1991.
No Photo shop was necessary for this Model A image. On an all too short visit to Indianapolis, Indiana Bonnie and I spent some time at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As luck would have it, a group of 5 - 600 Model A Ford enthusiasts were also visiting the track at the time. Everywhere you looked there were restored Model A's driving around the grounds. I shot about 200 frames while we were there at the track and thought that this image looked pretty neat.
I had seen the red Ford coming up the circular driveway, but then it stopped just short of the building. The driver was chatting with someone by the sidewalk for what seemed like an eternity. But luckily, that delay gave me just enough time to visualize the image and position myself so the flag poles would not obstruct the wording on the Hall of Fame building. As the car drove by the front of the building, I fired about 6 or 7 frames. This one was the keeper.
Always good advice - Indianapolis, Indiana - July 2005
On a trip to Las Vegas in 2003, Bonnie and I visited the Valley of Fire on two occasions. I had been there before, but Bonnie never had. You can drive around for hours throughout the area and see scenes like the one above. Great rock formations and a great color.
Just south of Atlantic City is the town of Margate, New Jersey. Margate is the home of Lucy the Elephant. Back in 1881, a young real estate developer named James V. Lafferty built Lucy in an effort to attract buyers to the New Jersey Shore. Lafferty was also an engineer and built Lucy entirely out of wood and other natural material. At 65 feet tall and an estimated 90 tons, constructing Lucy was quite an engineering feat and in 1882 the United States Patent Office granted Lafferty a patent for Lucy's design. On September 8, 1971, Lucy was officially listed on the National Register of Historic Places and now proudly stands only several hundred feet away from the Atlantic Ocean.
For more information about Lucy look for the Lucy link on the Links page.
If you live in the Northeastern, United States, you've undoubtedly heard of the Philadelphia's Mummer's Parade. It's been an annual tradition dating back to the 1800s.
As the story goes, at the start of each New Year, Mummer's, who were almost always men, dressed up in brightly colored costumes and made loud noises to scare away the evil spirits. Eventually, this tradition evolved into the Mummer's parade of today. Naturally, the parade is held on January 1 of each year and has become a Philly tradition.
Thanks in part to a friend of my wife Bonnie who plays in a String Marching Band, several years ago I was lucky enough to secure a press pass for the event. That allowed me to walk around Market Street and photograph many of the interesting people who march in the parade.
The Mummer's parade is a difficult event to shoot if it's a bright sunny day. The parade route begins in South Philly, travels North along Market Street, and ends near City Hall. As a result, all of the street people are strongly backlit by the sun with their faces shadowed by large hats and costumes. A fill flash helps, but to get really candid shots, you're often too far away from your subject for the flash to have much of an affect. So, getting accurate exposures can be tricky.
Having the warmth of bright sunshine, is great on a cold January morning, but I'd like the chance to photograph this parade again sometime under different lighting conditions.
A nice cloudy day should make for even better photos. As they say... "Be careful what you wish for." My luck, the next time we set out for the Mummer's Parade, it will be overcast, and freezing cold.
One
day in 2005, I said to Bonnie, "Hey, you want to go shoot the bull?" This
photo was the result.
As densely populated as New Jersey is, you can still find some of the old farm lands around. But they seem to be going away at a rapid rate.
Shooting "wildlife" is fun, but you have to be quick. Most animals, even ones on farms, usually don't stand still for very long. This big guy was very friendly and calm, and for a while, he seemed to be just as interested in us, as we were in him. But when he finally realized that we didn't have anything good to eat, he just moved away to the other side of the field.
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