Barnegat Lighthouse

it rained for the last 4 days. Except on sunday. sunday there was a brief moment of sunshine and blue skies. i was at the lightouse, and got some pics.

The Barnegat Lighthouse

It's on the northern tip of Long Beach Island. Whenever i go to visit my Grandma, i always make a trip to the lighthouse. it brings back memories of my childhood summers spent at the shore. It's also happens to be a peaceful quiet place to soak in the sun and the salt air and to get a that nautical feeling i often times find myself missing.

i tweaked the colors a bit, nothing major... did do some major distortion correction... i hope you like it. well, actually i really don't care with this one cause i like it, and well... y'know.

the only thing i couldn't figure out is if i liked it better in color or B&W... what do you think?

It's Raining... FOREVER!

The weathermen and women... said it was going to rain, last friday until this thursday cause of a stalled front... or something. so far they are right. I went down to the Jersey Shore, Long Beach Island (actually Manahawkin, to be exact) this passed weekend to visit my grandmother. It rained saturday, and half of sunday.


I took some pics in the rain. Stood out in the yard with my camera on a tripod and an umbrella in one arm. Got some cool shots. so far only worked with three of them. But i have a lot more to go through still.

Once the rain finally stopped i took my grandmother to the Lighthouse for a walk along the beach. it was nice, and i think she liked getting out... if only for a short time.

The Results

The results are in, and i'm pretty happy with what i got from my recording studio shoot. Let me know what you think... if you think. ;-) I took a bunch of photots, a crap load to be exact... nearly 1,000 to be vague. Most of them came out ok, some blurry backgrounds, some had blurry subjects, but some were good enough to use. about 10 so far. i havne't finished going through them all yet, but y'know... don't ya?

The picture above is of Pat, the guitar player, playing "air bass" while laying down some vocal tracks. below is Gavin at the microphone, doing the vocals for another song. And the other is Pat during "play time"... or during a break. I guess he caught me... i like to get candid shots, but this one just looked so good... Like i said before there are a ton more pics, but I'll only post the ones that i like if there are anymore.

The Challenge

Here's what I've been upto this week... My neck in photographic challenges... well not really... but really. My brother runs a recording studio, and a friend of his flew in from Oregon to record a few songs... or an entire album, whatever they can get done in 7 days.

in the mean time I volunteered to photograph them. They can use the pics however they want, if they want. And I get a chance to practice taking pics in low light, and a different setting the my usual outdoors setting. So I thought, gee this will be cool.

Well don't get me wrong, it is cool... but it's difficult... very very. I had to pull out all the tricks I knew, and then get more tricks from some experts I've met. either "online" or "inreal" (as in - in real life). Using those extra tips and hints I managed to get a few good shots.

This one is probably the best so far. but there are still 4 more nights of opportunities. I'll post more when I get them edited...

In Black & White

against better judgement, i've been thinking.
Sometimes life is too Saturated.
and Sometimes its too Desaturated.
And Sometimes,
well... Sometimes, its just right.

Thunder & Lightning

The Other Day... Thursday Night to be exact... I think...
there was a super-duper-ultra-crazy lightning show, courtesy of Zeus...
I say lightning storm, cause there was hardly any rain... it was wet, but not a torrential down pour...

Most of the lightning was off to the left of my building, but I did manage to catch about 7 strikes near Manhattan.

I tooled around in Photoshop for awhile on all the shots to make them look their best... I even tried merging them ALL into one shot... but the lightning wasn't as clear as the single shots...

I just love lightning... I find I love a lot of things that scare the crap out of me. Must be something bout the power behind lightning... I mean it just appears and in a flash its gone. And there's nothing like hearing that Crackling-sizzling-Pop when it hits something nearby... I love it... and fear it... and respect it...

ESB - Empire State Building

Over the memorial day weekend i took a day trip to New York City. Walked around the Battery Park area, and then taxi'd it to Midtown were a friend and I had lunch and a few beers in a pricey midtown bar...

From there we headed for The Empire State Building. When we got there we noticed a sign that said, "2 hour wait for Observation Deck" We walked in to the shop area and snuck to the top in under 30 mins... I'd give you the details, but then "they" would know how we did it and they'd stop us next time... sorry.

So we get to the top and there are like a bajillion people there... and it was next to impossible to get a spot near the railing so i could jump... er... i mean take some nice tourist free pictures. But eventually I got up to the railing and took a few ok shots and even fewer good shots. By that time the sun was setting and camera shake was a major factor... it was fun. but a little annoying, seeing as i don't really like crowds.

"looking down"