Baskets

Hammonton, NJ

We went by train to Hammonton, NJ, several years ago. When we arrived we began to walk the streets. We walked several miles stopping along the way to take photographs. This area of Hammonton has lots of farms and fields. I saw a row of baskets waiting to be filled. The original image is a 35mm vertical showing a long line of baskets with a thick tree line in the back and blue sky above. After scanning it with our HP Photosmart s20, I decided to crop the trees out. With the help of Ulead, I pushed the contrast until I had the image above.

Chimes Towers

Longwood Gardens

Kennett Square, PA

There is nothing like walking around a garden. One of the best in Longwood Gardens. This photo is of the Chimes Tower. It stand above a pool of water and is a very quiet and comfortable place to be.

High Waves

Atlantic City, NJ

Another day with high waves as a hurricane sits off the coast of New Jersey.

Idols

Pine Hill, NJ

I thought that this looked like the idols or statues found on Easter Island. Maybe an African idol. Or is it some honorary diety from a long ago nation. When I was working on this picture of tree bark I saw "Idols".

Chairs

Atlantic City, NJ

Footsin' the beach. Bill sees three empty chairs and liked the scene they made.

Pine Barrens Water

Pine Barrens, NJ

Watching the water flow through the Pine Barrens is relaxing. The streams seem to move slowly in some areas and faster in others. This image of the slow moving water made an interesting abstract after I scanned the slide onto the computer. I lightened and darkened bringing out the green of the reflected pine trees and that made the water darker. The blue was a hint of the sky above. I like the color and texture I can get when I work an image on the computer.

Red Hat Mama

Atlantic City, NJ

We were doing our usual footsin' on the beach. Bill's eye caught this scene of a woman with her red hat over her face catching some sun. In the background are two young woman walking away.

Prickley Pear

Old Pine Farm

Deptford, NJ

What I like is when Bill and I discover these little bits of wildlife refuges. We'd seen an article in the local paper about just such a place. It was part of an old farm. The land juts out long the Big Timber Creek. It is quiet and I'd seen my first red-shouldered hawk here. One summer day I found that the pears had all these beautiful yellow flowers on them. I layed down on my space blanket and began photographing them. A week later a man came back with a lawn mower and the pears were gone until the next year.

Learning to Fly

Gloucester Township, NJ

In July, the goslings are still learning. The stand or strectch in the water and flap their tiny flipper like wings imitating the adults. In this photo Bill captured one gosling doing that as its brothers and sisters gather around the adults.

The Jazz King

Philadelphia, PA

Bill and I made a trip to Philadelphia and found ourselves walking around "Olde City". I was outside City Tavern on Second Street looking at the bark of a tree. I have no idea what the tree is called but I do like its bark patterns. Tourists must have thought I was a little strange taking closeups of the bark. This image is one from that bark.

Day Lilies and Watercolor

Pine Hill, NJ

Bill was reading about taking flowers and scanning the actual flower on the flatbed. This is one of his first attempts. Not bad. I love the way the petals overlap, there is lots of texture. If he continues i am going to put more on the blog.

Chairs

Ventnor, NJ

I like the way these chairs for a line on the beach, like a theater, where the play action is in front.

Eastern Pondhawk

New Brooklyn Park

Winslow Township, NJ

We were at New Brooklyn Park in Winslow Township, NJ. Bill would go off and find a place to take photographs and I would go to this little cove as I called it and watch for birds in the hope of getting a good shot of one perched in the trees. This old piece of pipe or scrap metal was at the edge of the stream that flowed nearby. A dragonfly landed and I grabbed a picture of an Eastern Pondhawk. I like the color of the rust against the blue of the dragonfly.

Sunrise Music Pier

Ocean City, NJ

While I was busy taking a sunrise behind Ocean City's Music Pier, Bill had walked around the the other side. He looked back and found this beautiful reflection in the pier's windows.

Pine Trees

Pine Barrens, NJ

As I go over more then 30,000 slides, as I search our database, as I locate and look at those images that I have taken, I realized that over the years I have made a habit of photographing trees. There is something strong in trees. They reach up to the sky for the sun. There are grays and browns. Earth colors. When I get to the computer I feel a freedom come over me, creating a new image out of the photograph. I add more earth tones, darken the contrast, brighten highlights until I find the image my mind is seeing. That's what I did with "Pine Trees".

A Day At the Beach

Ocean City, NJ

We were spending three days down the shore enjoying the beach. It's was a working vacation and Bill and I had to take photos as well. Bill liked the colorful towels on the back of the beach chairs.

Dog Pound

Pine Hill, NJ

In early June I had taken one of the newly photographed tree bark and created an image that looked like several dogs watching me. I call it simply "Dog Pound".

Catching Some Sun

Ventnor, NJ

We were walking along the boardwalk in Ventnor and Bill looked down to see a woman reading her paper on the beach in the early morning.

Water Lily

Pine Barrens, NJ

This water lily was taken in the pine barrens of south jersey 24 years ago. I scanned it in from the original slide today. I think the color has held up well from all those years ago. It's why I like slides. I don't paint well but I tried my hand a painting of this picture using acrylics. It's so-so. I like photography better.

Battle Scene

Monmouth Battlefield Park

Freehold, NJ

Bill loves to take Civil War reenactments. Although he has never gotten dressed as a period photographer as some have, pretending to be Matthew Brady after the battle some of his images have been great. This one with the union army advancing and the US flag flying the wounded in front is one of his favorite.

Chris-Craft

Sea Isle City, NJ

Walking around Sea Isle City 10 years ago we found this worn out derelict of a boat in one the yards. Bill liked the picture and snapped it. A nab walked up to ask what we were doing and we said taking photos around town. He told us this was a Chris-Craft from the 1930's that the owner was going to restore. I've wondered if he ever did.

The Trumpet Player's Solo

Pine Hill, NJ

I decided on this abstract to use a different image of the same cut tree that was used for "Catching the Baby". This image was slightly different but not by much. I flipped it over and cropped it closer until I saw what looked like a trumpet.

Independence Day

Haddonfield, NJ

Happy Fourth of July.

NJ Transit From Atlantic City, NJ

Egg Harbor City, NJ

Back in the early 1980's it was decided by that there would no longer be a train from Philadelphia to Atlantic City, NJ. As gambling became bigger and more popular, AMTRAK, decided to run what would become known as the "Gambler's Express". Some people were excited while others didn't want it running through their towns. Lucky for us the train won. New Stations were put in play, Cherry Hill, Lindenwold, Atco, Hammonton, Egg Harbor City, Absecon and Atlantic City all received stations. Along with AMTRAK, NJ Transit sent their trains from Philadelphia to AC. It was great for Bill and I. I love to leave the driving to others and always travel with my "Bird Watcher's Digest" or a nice paperback. For one hour I have a chance to relax and catch up on reading. We can now take NJ transit to Philadelphia as well. A few years ago we found ourselves taking the transit to 30th Street Station to pick up the AMTRAK's Keystone to Harrisburg where we spent a wonderful 3 day weekend to celebrate a wedding anniversary.

This photo was taken by me at the Egg Harbor City station. The train had arrived from Atlantic City. It was enroute to Philadelphia, PA. I shot the back end of the train as the conductor was making sure everyone was onboard. Going to Philadelphia, the train uses it's deisel engines. On the trip to Atlantic City, the deisels push the train down with the engineer controlling it from that last car.

Fishing Pier

Ocean City, NJ

Walking along Ocean City's boardwalk Bill, came across this picture waiting to be taken. The fence, shrubs and dune leading the viewer to the pier.

Day Lilies

Pine Hill, NJ

Some days I like to sit out back and watch the birds as they land on our bird feeders. The back garden has a birdbath. The people we bought the house from had planted these day lilies and we put the birdbath in the center of the garden. In the back Bill is cultivating a lovely fern garden. I liked the color I was seeing and the shade from the trees darkened the scene as the lilies popped out so red.