3 October 13

The 19th and 20th

That is the Hereford Inlet  Lighthouse in Angelsea or North Wildwood NJ.  The event will be the NJ  Lighthouse Challenge.  The first one was held in 2001, I think.  According to the Lighthouse Digest at least.  It was a big deal back then and still is today.  I have been there for each one so this year makes this year my hum, er, aah 13 years.  Jeez, had to use both hands and a part of a foot for that one.  Hereford looked a little different back then.

Different paint job and different time as this was taken in the winter in the late 90's.  I enjoy going there because of the people who run the place and just gathering with other lighthouse freaks.  This is an article I wrote for their news letter a few years back which kinda sums up my ties to them.

"The Making of a Fine Image"

"I met the Hereford Inlet lighthouse in February of 1995 when I was photographing the lighthouses in New Jersey for a poster which was subsequently published later in that year.  Unknown to me at the time, I should have done the photography later in the spring when the Victorian gardens were in full bloom.  I am a professional photographer of some modest renown specializing in lighthouses and other beach and maritime studies.  The original photos I made in 1995 had nothing to do with the “Image” of this light. 

Lighthouses and the history of them, their locations, keepers, legends and or myths have become a favorite topic of not only my vocation but my avocation as well.  There is a sense of history and drama associated each light not found in other historic structures.  I guess the aura of the ocean and the mariners lost at sea lend a mystique to lighthouses.  Each light has its own romance and local devotees eager to work long hours to maintain them. The original Keepers, for the most part, were paid less than $500 per year to keep and maintain their light.  Current “Keepers”, for the most part, are unpaid in dollars but reap much more in the satisfaction of promulgating the legends.

When most ships were powered by wind and sail, sailors were necessarily limited to hugging the coastlines.  Lighthouses were the only sure marker of one’s location and served to warned ships to stay away. Modern shipping is conducted with GPS, radar, and other marvels of the electronic age.  Lighthouses hence have become more of a destination rather than beacons warning of potential disaster. 

North Wildwood is blessed with an historic beacon carrying on the history and mystery of an age long gone.  Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is truly a destination in itself.  Yes, for the lighthouse aficionados there is that.  The Victorian house, the tower, the light, the memorabilia are all there for the lighthouse buff.  But this treasure also affords one of the most unique Victorian gardens on the east coast.  Steve Murray is the Superintendent of Parks for North Wildwood and is responsible for the spectacular plantings surrounding the lighthouse front and back.  With 25 plus years of experience in seashore gardening, Steve has created the setting for the crown jewel of North Wildwood.

I have witnessed and documented, over the last ten years, a total exterior renovation of the physical structure, bringing it back to the way it was when the place was built in 1874.  But the infrastructure, gardens, and location are merely the shell.  A shell held together by the folks who put in many long hours of dedication and pure work.   This is truly a place where people afford other people an opportunity is see, visit, learn, and contemplate.  Steve also serves as the head of the organization.  Betty Mugnier is the unofficial modern day “Keeper” and runs the place with the help of Jane and Marie.  Sam and Ronnie Black run the food concessions when there is an event at the light and Ralph Feindt sells lighthouse caps and other memorabilia to help raise funds.

It is ironic that a place which was originally intended as a signal for mariners to avoid has become a place for folks to gather.  But it seems that lighthouses are just that today, a place for good folks to gather.  And, Hereford Inlet Lighthouse is one of the finest places to gather on the east coast and is truly the crown jewel of North Wildwood.  And that is the image I see."

So in the next week or two I will be busy loading the camels and donkeys for yet another trip north on the Blue Hair Highway.  Pictures will have been framed, matted, and packed.  Posters will be ready to lay out on tables and business cards will have been printed.  I look forward to seeing some of the old regulars that attend each challenge.  Like the Christian motor cycle club that seems to make it each year.  You can hear them coming from miles away.....Harley's you know.  Families with small children in tow.  Historians or just plain the interested.  Sure I'll make some money (pass that on to the IRS please NSA), but the comraderie means more than cash ever will. 

 So, enough drivel...I gotta get to what some would call work!

Great day everyone!

Two Oct 13

You know it's fall when----

It's sixty degrees here in the south at seven in the morning.  But still going to mid 80's later.  

But elsewhere pumpkins are in the air and every drug store is selling Marigolds.  Used to be you went to a drug store to get what .....wait for it......drugs.  Now they're supermarkets.  Oh well it's progress.

  I often wonder what our founders would say if they just had a chance to ride in a car to a mall.  Even old Ben Franklin would be amazed.  And he almost became a crispy critter when he flew that kite.  He didn't listen to his Mom either.  "Ben don't go outside....it's raining!" "And put your boots on."  "Don't stand under any trees....there's lightning!" Kids, they never listen.

I love fall or autumn.  But then again at my age I love any season change.  But fall kinda gets the old juices flowing.  Lower temperatures.  Less humidity.  Great sunsets.  Prospects of going out in the woods as a hunter gatherer (hunting, that is for you of public educations, with a weapon...gasp).  Sneaking into the woods, simulating a bushel of apples, in search of a deer to harvest.  Now it's with a camera and not a weapon.  Watching a flock of wild turkeys feeding on acorns.  Over zealous home owners decorating for Halloween.  I used to love that holiday, till I got arrested on mischief night.  Well not really, but probably should have been.  AND, that's another story for another time and another place.

 A couple of additions to the "The Galleries".  Please note a new gallery called Country Roads.  Some images have been added and there will be more as we move on.  Please note the links in the blog upon which you can click upon for a crass commercial moment.

Chow! (little European lingo there) and enjoy the day.

  Mike, Mike, Mike what day is it?

FIRST OCTOBER 2013

COUNTRY ROADS

Travelling this past week enabled me to not only capture some interesting photos but to also do some rather deep thinking.  Now bear in mind I had just come off a weekend of frivolity with a bunch of seventy something "Seasoned" citizens and hence "Deep" may have less of a meaning that what one would normally associate with basic intelligence.

I saw kids going to school in big yellow buses.  Amish folks working with what our grand children would call primitive tools.  A society labeled by some in the media as primitive.  

I saw farmers cutting corn with big green or yellow machinery that cost them over a hundred thousand dollars per unit.

  I saw children in high school driving machinery that cost in some cases over thirty thousand per unit provided by loving or perhaps guilty parents.  Or fixed up antiques and hot rods. 

I saw folks who worked from three am till two pm catching seafood for the rest of us.

I saw once proud ways of life abandoned by folks who had perhaps passed on.  Or who just couldn't make it work.  Estates where inheriting families had to sell or parcel out just to pay usury death taxes.  Or just plain second or third generations that just had no stomach for the hard work and dedication it would take to keep going.

I saw gas pumps where the last sale was under a dollar a gallon.

I saw "Americana".

  No split screen news casts produced by agenda driven ideologues who want their point of view to become America.  I saw no biased, self aggrandizing professional politicians who huff and puff and refuse to do the work we hired them to do.  They think us ignorant and unable to care for ourselves. 

 I see they shut the government down this morning at 12:01.  I was asleep at the time.  Interesting and infuriating that these pompous rectums that run our politics will still get paid for not doing their job despite a payroll shutdown for everyone else.

I saw parents working hard to make a go of it.  I saw parents taking care of their children so that they would live in a better place than they themselves.  I saw children being taught the ABC's by caring parents.  But, I also saw a Parent/Teacher meeting where out of 24 students only four parents had the care or interest to attend.  I saw parents work all day only to take their children to riding lessons or hockey lessons at night and then get only five hours sleep before starting it all over again.

I saw Americana on the Country Roads.  

It was all inspiring, but yet melancholy and sad as well!

30 SEPT 13

Home again, home again! Jigity Jig

A.) I have survived the fifty five years after High School Graduation and 2.) the fifty fifth gathering of the students of the same.  The HS reunion was held in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey where the Westfield High School class of 1958 celebrated each other.  

I had fun!

  And apparently so did the rest.  It was truly fun getting to renew with  some new old folks and hanging with some very old friends.  It is just amazing the love generated by people who when in high school would not even talk to each other.  But now we're survivors and let the love roll.  Yes, I took a couple of photos but I won't embarrass anyone.

One really cogent comment was made by a life long friend, Tom Davies, on Saturday morning as we walked the boardwalk for our exercise.

  "For the first time in thirty years, I have absolutely nothing to do"! Says he.

"What are we going to do?" Says he.

Perplexing,  as I had no idea other than to do the walk and eat breakfast.

  Then who knows!

The amazing thing was, we just hung out and talked to folks, relaxed, and didn't even take a nap!

No to do list!

Chatted with Rico and his wife.  Carol and Jim.  Tom held court in the baseball hat.

And the hot girls beached it.

Others did the same in small groups all over town.

It was the invasion of the "Seasoned" people!

As you can see the weather was superior, but I don't think  anyone made it into the ocean.  Maybe, but don't think so.

Fellow HS athlete, friend and all around good guy gave everyone a four CD package of "The Tunes of our Time".  A collection of all the songs we listened to, danced to and made out to.  One hundred fourteen songs of the mid to late 1950's.  What a job he did!  What a thoughtful gift of his time and talent! 

Like I said, all around good guy!

I would be remiss without making note of all those who were instrumental in putting the party together.  So Thanks David, Carol and Drude.....and anyone I miss due to my own ignorance.  

 Ya-all done good!

I was great seeing Anita, a blog buddy.  John and his camera.  Michael, Tom, Dave, Pinky, David, Steve, Carol, Meg, Karyl, Lynn, Pam and a ton of others ...... you guys are the best!  I know I have left some out and for that I apologize but the memory button is a little rusty after 73 years. 

 You all rejuvenate me!

I got to talk with my friend Pam and even stop in at Hereford Inlet lighthouse on our way to the ferry across the Delaware Bay when it was all over on Monday.

There will be some new images posted to the website in the coming days as the party kicked off a week of free wheeling photography that included NJ, DE, MD and PA.  

I did get some interesting images, but the most important one is of all my old friends "Just hanging"!

19 September 2013

I am looking forward to being on the road again tomorrow.  Will be driving eleven hours to my son's home in Maryland and will get the chance to spend Friday night with two of the grands and then on to the high school reunion in Point Pleasant, New Jersey.  

No, I won't be driving my fantasy car.  Only wish.  But if you see a gold color Ford Explorer broken down along the Blue Hair Highway, stop and give a fella a lift.  After the partying of the seasoned, past, students from a school called Westfield High, it's then back to Maryland to hang with the kids at night and out free-style photographing during the day.

I have no idea how long I will be away!  Probably till the money runs out.  I do want to make some new images and will probably head into Pennsylvania and New Jersey again.  I am sure that you will find some of the new stuff make it on to the web site.

I will also want to make a stop to meet with an old friend of the New Hampshire fishing crowd that I have written about in the past.  My friend Bill still lives in Jersey and has a spare bedroom for lost souls like me and I just might take him up on his hospitality. 

It will be about a month too early to start looking for the change in season colors.  That will come in October and another trip north.  That one to Hereford Inlet Lighthouse for the NJ Lighthouse Challenge.  A great two day show which will be the only show this year for me.  Good friends there and always a productive showing of the art.  I think that it will also be too early by a month for the massing of the Monarch butterflies in Cape May.  Again maybe in October.  I am told that they gather along the point of Cape May waiting for favorable winds to carry them across the Delaware Bay.  It's supposed to be quite the sight, but never have hit it right for photographs.  Maybe this year.

So stay safe my friends and to the NJ buds, see you on Saturday......God willing and a good tail wind!

16 September 2013

Moving right along!

A week end spent basically in front of the computer, editing and posting.  Sorta like publish or perish!

I did finally get a triptych created with some of the Modern Fossils I made a year or so ago.  When they were finishing the River Walk and they poured concrete in the fall.  Easier time to work, but I don't think anyone thought about falling leaves and wet concrete.  Hence what I call Modern Fossils.

I also get a small program from the Apple store called Dynamic Light which enables me to do some approximation to HD processing.  Small and inexpensive program that does well on certain photographs and gives a whole nother look at old images processed the old way.  I kinda like the process for a look which I have called a fantasy image.  Have gotten a few decent comments quickly, but the acid test of course is does it sell in Peoria.  Or anywhere for that matter.  

Block Island Fantasy,

And----

Hereford Inlet Fantasy!

14 September 2013

OK, so there's fantasy football!  543 shades of grey! All kinds of other porn regardless of shade other than red for embarrassment!

So now there is Lighthouse Fantasy!

I'm kidding right?

Nah!

Actually these images, which are in "The Galleries",  are simply dressed up to look a little HD.  But they also look a little dreamy or fantasy like.

  Hey I never promised you a rose garden....I think they look a little fantasy like.  But then again I am old and am not sure what fantasy is anymore.

  The Block Island image above has garnered a number of positive comments so far.  Two others are equally weird, but I like them.

The first is Pemaquid Point in Maine!

And the last is the Plum Island light in Massachusetts.

If any of these sell, you'll probably see many more of the Fantasy series.  I have edited some other images in this same manner, but they won't be scored as Fantasy shots.  I particularly like this one of a mountain cabin I took in the Smokies in Tennessee.

You will note that I have provided links to each of these, just in case you fall insanely in love with any of them and want to buy one or all.  Yup another fantasy on my part!

Hey, it's all a fantasy.  So is life.  So live it!

Call it a thousand shades of fun and no Mommy porn here!