New York State of Mind in the Park

52nd Street Band in action

  I’ve been trying to expand lately.  I like to take pictures of places, usually parks and rural settings.  That’s how my interest in photography got started in the first place.  There were places I liked to go and tell people about, but obviously, I can’t take everybody everywhere I go.  So I figured if I can’t take the people to those places, photography is a way of bring the places to the people.  I started taking pictures with disposable cameras, and then brought a point-and-shoot film camera.  Over the next few years, I received another point-and-shoot film camera, and later a point-and-shoot digital.  A few years ago, my brothers pooled together and got me a Canon A-590 Power Shot Digital.  I still don’t have an SLR, but I like the Canon I have now, and I still want to master it before I buy an SLR.

    Having taken plenty of pictures of places, I haven’t taken many pictures of people yet.  That’s where I’m trying to expand.  I started with taking some pictures of my small nephews, and I’ll eventually try to get some pictures of concerts and sporting events.  I had an opportunity last week at the park, when the 52^nd Street Band played the Wednesday Night concert series.  As the name would suggest, they are a Billy Joel tribute band.  I caught only a few songs, but found a fairly decent spot to take pictures, and continue the learning process by trial and error.

  It was getting dark, so that presented another area I could expand into with my photography.  I had to play around with the modes, and then adjust the digital settings to find what would be the best kind of picture I could get.  I found one I could really use, and the others turned out too dark to really do anything with.  The process continues.  About the band, I’m not a huge Billy Joel fan, but in general I like his songs, and liked the way the 52^nd Street Band played them.  To check them out, their official site is 52ndstreetband.com, and they can be found on Myspace and Facebook.

Lake Caroline

Lake Caroline, Fairless Hills, PA

 

  I had been driving past Lake Caroline all my life, but until last week, but had never stopped there.  We passed by it all the time.  It was on the way to relative’s houses, or to places we would shop, but I don’t remember stopping there.  It seemed to be just that lake, which I think is a dammed up section of the Queen Anne Creek.  There is some park space around it, but other than that, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of recreation.  Across Oxford Valley Road is a public golf course, which I think is part of the park property. 

  Since the weather was sunny and pleasant, I decided to stop and get some pictures.  The park is adjacent to the Lower Bucks County Chamber of Commerce, and I went through their parking lot.  Since it’s a small park, and most of it is just open grassy space, there weren’t a whole lot of people.  There were a few families fishing, so I guess the lake is stocked.   Since there weren’t any trees except around the lake and the perimeter of the park, the only thing people could do on the grass is bake in the sun.

  I’ll be making my back to a lot of these places soon.  Fall is coming, and I plan on getting some foliage shots in the parks around my area.

Deer in the Camera Light

I saw this in Core Creek Park on Saturday, and right away knew that I had a very limited window of time to get a picture of that deer.  I was walking from a trail in the woods that led out into the cornfield, and there it was.  I tried to play around as much as I could, frantically adjusting the settings with my limited technical photography skills.  A natural canopy was formed by the trees and the corn, as well as the shadow on the ground to effectively form a large black tunnel.  The open field looked like a small box on a black wall, and the deer stood near the center of it, and now it was looking dead at the camera.  This isn’t something that happens every day, so I wanted to get a picture.  It wasn’t going to win a Pulitzer Prize, but it was something different.  There are lots of deer around, but they don’t just pop out and look right in my direction when I have my camera on me.

  I just did the best I could in those few seconds, with the equipment and whatever skills I had .  What’s seen in this picture is the furthest the zoom could extend.  I played around quickly with the ISO and shutter speed, to get the best light.  As far as composition, I think the result follows the general rules, but obviously a deer can move faster than I can move or adjust the camera.  In the end, though, I was able to snap the picture while he/she was still looking in my direction.

This was once an Amusement Park

Burlington Island from the Bristol waterfront

  I remember going to the waterfront in Bristol when I was a child.  My parents would sometimes take us to look at the boats that went up and down the river.  The waterfront park we watched from sits across the river from Burlington Island, which I later learned was once the site of an amusement park.  There was a lake contained within the island, and several rides, including a roller coaster, Ferris wheel, and a carousel.  But by the time I was a child and visited the waterfront, any visible semblance of an amusement park was long gone.  There are some old ruins that can be seen by the boaters who stop on the island, but nothing that can be seen from the Pennsylvania shore.

  To learn more about the island’s history, I did a quick online search and found out there was more to it than just the amusement park.  At one time the island was inhabited and it is in fact the site of the first European settlement in what would become New Jersey.  It had held a fort and a trading post at different times.  Around 1900 it became a recreational park, and soon the rides were built.  It lasted until 1928, when a fire destroyed most of the rides, and another fire in 1934 finished off what was left of the amusement park.  Later it was owned by Penn Warner Cement Company, although I don’t know if the island itself had a specific use for them.  It is now managed by the City of Burlington.

  During its amusement park heyday, Burlington Island obviously could only be reached by boat from Bristol, so people got to the island by ferry.  On the Burlington side, the channel is fairly narrow, so there may have been foot bridges connecting the island to the land.  If there were foot bridges, they are gone now.  Any ferries across the river, of course, are long gone as well, but the island is still accessible to boaters.  From the pictures I have seen, there is a trail there, and some relics from the old amusement park. The boaters who visit the island use it for fishing, and some adventurous activities like diving into the lake. 

A View of Pemberton Lake

  As I made my way back from Long Beach Island two weeks ago, I was looking for a place to take a few pictures.  I wanted to get pictures somewhere in the interior of New Jersey, along the way between there and here.  Since a good part of the drive is through the vast Pine Barrens, I wanted to get some shots there, along Route 72.  I could have pulled over, but I felt safer if I could find a place to park and leave the car for a few minutes, so I passed through the 20 miles of pinelands.  As I went from 72 to Magnolia Road at the Four Mile Circle, I remembered the large lake along Magnolia Road, and I thought that would be a good place to get some pictures of a natural area.

  As usual, the weather was hot and sticky on the way home.  Once I got out of the car and made my way to the small clearing to take the pictures, I was reminded that the insects are abundant at this time of year, especially near lakes and rivers.  I heard the mosquitoes, and felt one or two ants on me as I tried to shoot the pictures.  It was best to just get in and get out.  So I was back in my car and on my way in about three minutes, and not long after that was over the bridge and back in Pennsylvania.

  I’m not very familiar with the town of Pemberton itself.  The route I take to the shore bypasses it.  It sits on the edge of the Pine Barrens, and also near Fort Dix, which together with Maguire Air Force Base and the Lakehurst Naval Base occupy a good stretch of Burlington and Ocean Counties.  Although this area has seen its share of development, there is still a good amount of farm land nearby, and along with it several roadside farm markets.

    With its proximity to the Pine Barrens, the Pemberton Lake area has some of that region’s folklore attached to it.  A few miles down Magnolia Road, toward the Four Mile Circle, it merges with Ong’s Hat Road.  Supposedly, a man named Jacob Ong threw his hat in the air, and it landed hanging on a pine tree branch, somewhere in the vicinity of where that road now sits.  For a general idea of the people and folklore of the Pine Barrens, I would recommend The Pine Barrens by John McPhee.  Just keep in mind that this book was published in 1968, and the culture of the people there may have changed drastically since then, although the region has remained mostly rural.    

  I hope to get back to that area sometime, because I do want to take some more pictures of the Pine Barrens.  My goal would be to take them from the top of Apple Pie Hill, the highest point in the Pine Barrens, with the vast forest of pines below.  Right now, I’m glad I have these pictures to post here.

LBI Pics for This Year

The beach in the evening

Veteran's Bicentennial Park

Bay Village, showing the ship

Bistro 14 in Bay Village

Country Kettle Fudge Store

    I made my annual trip to Long Beach Island last week.  My family rents a house there for a week at the end of July, and I usually join them toward the end of that week.  I love the island, and spending time there, but I find a few days there are enough for me.  I don’t participate much in the water sports or spend much time on the beach, at least not during the midday hours.  I spend most of that time inside, usually reading or listening to the radio and checking the Jersey Shore radio stations.  Sometimes I’ll venture out for a brief period and get some pictures, like the ones I have posted here. 

  The main attraction to the island is, of course, its natural setting, along the ocean and the bay. There is plenty to do in those two places. But there are also plenty of man-made attractions that help people spend their money, and can in and of themselves bring people to the island during the off season.   It lies in Ocean County, which is blessed with an abundance of beachfront and Pine Barrens land.  Tourism is probably its main industry.  LBI itself occupies 18 miles of shoreline, and most of the Barnegat Bay lies within the county boundaries.  And I can’t forget to mention that Seaside Heights and Island Beach State Park are in Ocean County too.  That town, of course, is host to a popular reality show that, if nothing else, has created its own media sensation and made 15 minute stars of its cast.  I don’t know what direct effect that show has had on tourism for Ocean County, but for the past few years it has been featured weekly to a nationwide audience.

    Long Beach Island probably got its name because it is long and narrow, running 18 miles from top to bottom, and never more than a few blocks wide from the ocean to the bay.  This is typical of the barrier islands that line the east coast from New England to Florida.  There is one bridge/causeway to take traffic on and off the island, near the geographical center at Ship Bottom.  At Ron Jon’s Surf Shop, the causeway ends as it runs into the main boulevard of the island, where most of the shops and restaurants are located.  In each of the towns, water towers bearing the town names are visible from the boulevard, letting travelers know where they’re at.  Since we stay in Beach Haven, near the bottom of the island, I make a right and go south along the boulevard.  Going left would lead toward the lighthouse, and through the more affluent communities of Harvey Cedars and Loveladies, where those who can afford it are yearlong residents with beachfront and bayfront houses. 

  I go through several of the beach towns as I make my way down the boulevard toward Beach Haven.  Each town is marked by its own water tower, which also serves to let the vacationers know where they’re at.  There are many other visual cues that let me know that I ‘m nearing my destination.  There are also many favorite places I try to visit each time I travel to LBI, most of which within walking distance of where I stay in Beach Haven.  I have plenty of pictures from past years that I may post later.  Right now, I here is what I have for this year, posted above.