Of course if you’re a local it must be a bitch getting into town from either direction especially on the weekends because the Flatlanders [as tourists are referred to in New Hampshire] are all over the place.  I don’t know what the solution is to the traffic problem, and apparently, neither do the town folks but I sure would hate to see Red’s moved and as the state DOT spokesperson says, all of the traffic congestion can’t be just because of Red’s [no matter HOW good the lobsta rolls are!].  Personally, I think the Times did a good job of covering the issue but I’ve got to say in all humility that I think my shot from 8 years ago is better!  [Of course, I could take all the time I wanted to do it where the NYT shooter probably had to get in and out pretty quickly and the paper wouldn't want to "waste" all of that paper to get the sky because they weren't going to run it in color anyway on an inside page ... ]

Have to say, though that just reading the story started to make my mouth water … [have you ever noticed that lobster and artichokes seem to taste the same?  think it might have something to do with the butter ...? ]

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

dog with bubushk

We got Roxie when she was a pup and she’s going to be 8 this Fall.  She’s always been a complete pushover!  [she'll do anything for us to pet her and/or give her food!  Alex refers to her as a "food whore' and it's probably rather apt.]  Our other dog is a rescue Golden who has to suffer the indignation of having a “sister” who has absolutely no pride!

We were just playing around with the dogs after dinner tonight out on the patio [had storms pass through this afternoon bringing a new front with less humid weather ] and Audrey tied her napkin around Roxie’s head in a bubushka [she is Hungarian on her mother's side after all].  OK, so it’s a really cheap shot ” emotionally …

I was raised in a household with two dogs and except for my time in the service, back in college and the first few years  as a beginning photojournalist, I’ve always had dogs.  Within the first three years on staff at my first newspaper, I was working on a story on the 4-H kids who raise Seeing Eye puppies [The Seeing Eye] and thought it might be a good way to see if I could handle having a dog in my single lifestyle.  So, as long as I was willing to go to the 4-H meetings I worked out an arrangement with The Seeing Eye and I believe I was the only photojournalist in New Jersey [maybe in the whole country!] who had his own Seeing Eye dog.

Audrey did not grow up with dogs constantly around so it took me about 22 years of marriage to convince her that it was easier to have two dogs rather than one [but then I am patient man as previously discussed].  They really are an important part of my life … so now Alex and I are beginning to work on Audrey about getting a third dog [in puppy form] … [don't hold your breath ]

From somewhere in rural Jersey

Hibiscus tea

We had dinner on Saturday with some good friends we don’t see enough and had a wonderful time!  Great conversation, excellent food [the wife is Mexican and makes  "to die for" salsa and guacamole] and just a most relaxing evening!  When we first got there, they asked us if we’d like some chilled hibiscus tea and we were both blown away by the color of it!  They, apparently, have it all the time both up here and when they visit in Mexico.  A small handful of dried hibiscus blossoms boiled for afew minutes in about 4 cups of water and then some sugar added to sweeten it up [apparently pretty bitter without the sugar].  Mara gave Audrey a small bag of the dehydrated hibiscus blossoms [Mara's only been able to find them at the Farmers Market in Trenton] and Audrey made some of the tea last night [but with agave instead of sugar, no "white death" in our household!].  It was a marvelous color that I simply had to shot right away [like before the sun went down ].  Of course the tea was still quite warm so there was condensation around the top of the glass from the steam coming off the tea and, obviously, we didn’t have any fine crystal to put it in … now I remember why I’m not a studio shooter!!  I simply don’t have the patience to do that sort of work where you fuss for hours over the tiny details of the object you’re shooting!  But I simply couldn’t NOT shot it because of the color!  Looking forward to many more evenings of this nectar

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

Nat

But salads are supposed to be GREEN [primarily Iceberg lettuce] with a smattering of red [tomatoes, red bell peppers and maybe some radishes] with maybe a splash of orange [sliced, not julienned carrots].  I’ve learned over these 28 years that there are other types of lettuce [ some quite tasty compared to Iceberg!] but I came to dinner tonight [it was a really splendid day weather-wise and warm enough to eat out on the patio, TG!] and there was BLUE in my salad!  Not ONLY was there blue, but Audrey had picked the violets from our own “lawn” [no we don't use a chemical lawn service to keep it looking Suburban Green so there are no pesticides or Agent Orange hangin' out, although there may be some "natural fertilizer" because we do have two large dogs who roam freely around the yard].  My sense of the universe was beginning to flip flop and spin outta control, but it did look pretty good, so what the hell …

[Let me tell you at another time about the famous family story of the chocolate chip cookies ... !]

Nat

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

East Millstone, NJ

Big fist pump!

[ Like all the way from way above my head down to mid chest. ]

I think I’ve been suffering from SAD [Seasonal Affective Disorder].  Either that or that last

storm and all those days of rain and overcast really hit me.

I had the chance just to sit outside in the sun for about 45 minutes yesterday and it made all the difference!

Gotta love being self employed!

East Millstone, NJ

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

So, as I’m sure most of you have heard by now, we here in the Northeast have just gotten through another Nor’ester that dumped inordinate amounts of water on us here in the NY metro area and reminded me of one of the first things I learned when I started in photojournalism in Central New Jersey all those many years ago.  My former boss used to say,”Ya get mor ‘n four people spittin’ at the same time here, you’re gonna get floodin”.  I learned pretty quickly where to go to get photos of folks dealing with flooding, pictures of cars abandoned/stranded on flooded roadways, images of MVA’s where cars had hydroplaned out of control because of poor drainage, etc., etc. .

Canal Road, East Millstone, NJ

I really believe that shooting all of those situations, especially the MVA’s, made me a much better and more cautious driver and I also began to wonder ’bout the common sense of some of the folks around me on the road.  Now that was really scary!

The municipal police departments know all of the same places that I do.  And they usually are way ahead of us commonfolk when it comes to knowing what’s going on in an area MUCH larger then our visual spheres.  So they tend to get right to those roads that do flood when a’couple a folks expectorate simultaneously and they barricade them before they do flood.  “Hey, but I’m immortal, so that barricade isn’t for me …”  I am always amazed at the predictability of human nature over the decades that I’ve been observing it .

River Road at the Griggstown Causeway

The driver of this car told authorities that he didn’t know how deep the water was [he had to go around the barrels to get this far!] until his headlights started to dim [ duh!? ].  Now I don’t know if the utility lines were down at that point or if they came down later, or even if he could have seen that far ahead if it was nighttime and his headlights were “dim” …

River Road at the Griggstown Causeway

But why not think that the barrels and barricades might actually be up for a reason?   Then he said that he couldn’t open the driver’s door because of the water pressure holding it closed  …

Canal Road in East Millstone

With all the rain, the ground was super saturated and then when the wind picked up Saturday night/Sunday morning there was very little holding the trees to the earth.  Wires down, cars and houses damaged, many roads blocked and flooded.  A day of browns.  Please keep in mind that these are NOT news images, they were taken at least a day after the waters had crested.  [ For the newsie stuff see my buddy Matt Rainey's coverage ]

Did make an interesting observation today, though.  The drops of oil that you see on the roads and in parking lots really does wash away pretty quickly …  MTC

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

Audrey is such a wonderful partner!  After everyone had left tonight after the Flashes of Hope reception, I just sat looking over the images thinking about how much grace I have in my life.  I have a wonderful wife, a wonderful work space, very compassionate and extremely diverse friends and clients, and I have the opportunity to photograph wonderful people.  Audrey is all in favor of my taking the time to ruminate on these sorts of things so that’s exactly what I did as I decompressed from the days leading up to this reception.

I just walked around the room looking at each of  the photos, both mine an the other shooters’ work thinking about how much each of the kids in the photos had taught me and would teach me.  I just found myself falling farther and farther into the pristine clarity of their eyes and I was simply transported back to that place of complete humility in what I could learn from each of these children and young adults.  They really are some pretty remarkable people and they have blessed me with some of their time and shared a very small piece of their soul with me and the others who have worked with them and spent time with them.

I may not have alot of “stuff” but I certainly do have joy in my life!

Nat

From Somewhere in rural New jersey

Still catching up …

Last Tuesday was the shooting day for The New Brunswick Chapter of Flashes of Hope for the month of September and we were going to be shooting in The Cancer Institute of New Jersey [CINJ] where the a Pediatric Outpatient Clinic is located.  Once each quarter we set up at CINJ for a shoot while the other two months of the quarter we do our shoots in the Bristol Myers Squibb Children’s Hospital at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.  I was in a jam in August when the photographer who was scheduled to do the FOH shoot got a paying gig at the last minute and had to bail [and that's one of the conditions I'm very clear about with all the shooters!  If a paying job comes in, they should take it and I'll deal with getting someone else for the FOH shoot.  It is, after all, a volunteer shoot!].  So I asked the photographer who was already scheduled for the shoot in September to come in and do the August shoot.  So I took the shoot last week.

I have the sense that most people have no idea what an incredible joy it can be for a photographer to be able to do one of these shoots!  I guess most people think that volunteer work is something you do because you’re supposed to do it and that it’s not supposed to provide any joy.  I figure it just clarifies the idea that I’ve had for years that photographers and other artists are cut from a VERY different cloth.  I LOVE doing these shoots and come off of every single one of them with such an unbelievable high that I can just float over/under/around/through [DAMN, that just brought back an old Lucky Strikes commercial! - why can't I let go of some of this foolishness that I have hanging out in my brain so that I'd have more space for important things!] the next several days!  When I see these kids and thier families light up and brighten up right in front of me, there’s just nothing that compares!

The first little boy we shot was a 10,000 watt kleig light.  As soon as I picked up the camera and pointed it at him, the entire lobby at CINJ was blindingly bright.  I’d lower the camera and he was just another happy kid, then I’d point it at him and I’d have to put on my sunglasses again!  For some reason, I kept thinking of a totally sober WC Fields, he just had that kind of attitude!

Then there was the little girl who quite simply had all of us wrapped around her little finger.  Mom and Grandmom kept saying that she didn’t like to have her picture taken but she had them totally fooled!  She was just playing along with that idea but loved having us all under her thumb … after about twenty minutes of coaxing her to come over to the “studio” space, she finally went with her mom and then just hid in her mom’s arms.  But every once in awhile, I’d see this little face with these really clear eyes looking out at me and I could see what she was thinking …

I have got to be the luckiest guy in the world to be able to spend time with these kids!!

Nat

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

Been a bit busy over the last week or two so I’m running behind.  Last weekend the was a “big” parade in Millstone Borough just across the D&R Canal and the Millstone River from us in EAST Millstone.  Our next door neighbors, who are the parents of Corinna, called to see if we would like to go to the W3R parade and celebration over there [ I was trying to figure out what the W3R meant, at first I thought it had to do with the fact that Washington's and Rochambeau's armies passed through Millstone three ( 3 ) times during the American Revolution.  There's so much Revolutionary history all through Central New Jersey that after a bit you can recite it from memory ].  Audrey had a group of friends coming over to the barn but I was available so I went along.

This was absolutely an event for the kids in the Boro which was great!  There was a demonstration of Dutch dancing [ don't know who else would try to dance in wooden clogs! ]

Then the parade started out and traveled the three blocks from the Reformed Church up Main Street to the Boro Hall.  I just slipped back into the ol’ ways of the PJ gettin in really tight on folks [ I'm sure the fellow at the top of this entry thought I was out of my mind to be walking backwards about four inches from the tip of his campaign banner, but he was cool and didn't break character]. I guess the muscle memory just kicked in and the back steppin’ was fine …

Girl Scouts, Brownies, Cub Scouts, you name an organization for kids and they were there [ 4H? ].

After the parade there was a reenactment by a storyteller told from the perspective of a slave that was really quit good the games and face painting for kids and hot dogs and hamburgers soda and homemade sallads for everyone.  Corinna met her first enactor [ notice King George hanging in effigy in the background ] and she really had a great time!

Don’ try to tell me that you’re going to find something as small as this in any city!  This is what I love about this being out here,   God is great, beer is good and people are crazy .

Nat

Somewhere in rural New Jersey

Damn!  Did we have a great night last night!

Five or six years ago when I was traveling through the southeast on a shoot for one of my clients, I ended the trip staying a few days with a close friend of mine from my high school days who now lives in Beaufort, SC.  The first night I stayed, he and his wife took me to one of the “Plantations” [ very high end gated communities ] that was just completed where we had a very nice dinner in the Clubhouse and then after dinner, there was a folksinger/songwriter [ Jack Williams ] who was from the area who did a performance for a group of about 30-40 of us in the Library or the Gallery of the Clubhouse.  He had a wonderfully expressive face with very soft, gentle eyes, so after he finished his performance I chatted with him and told him I’d really like to photograph him.  I have been know to engage my mouth before engaging my brain, and I believe that was just such an occasion.  He just sort of nodded and said something like “Well, that’s interesting …”  and I could see in his eyes that he was having a serious internal debate about my sanity and whether or not I might be dangerous.  I really enjoyed the evening and ended up buying two of his CD’s.

Because I put my name on his mailing list when I bought the CD’s, I heard from him whenever he came up to the New Jersey area usually far to the north of where we live.  He must spend ten months of every year on the road [literally!] driving from one performance to another with his wife in a commercial van [I found out later].  This past spring he was doing a “House Concert” in a private home in Montclair, NJ so Audrey and I attended and it was really quite a nice afternoon.  We spent some time talking to him after the concert because we had never heard of or been to a “House Concert” before.  Apparently they are fairly common in the folk singing community.  Then, on the drive home later that day, it occured to me pretty much out of the blue [ it was one of those moments when the exclaimation piont appeared in the speech bubble over my head ] that maybe we should consider having him come to our barn to do a performance for a group of our friends.

Well, many emails back and forth between us and Jack, and he and his wife drove up our driveway around 4 pm yesterday.  They had a real barn concert Friday night outside of Albany, NY and then tonight [ Sunday ] they were having a house concert in Plymouth, MA so they figured they could squeeze us in between those two [ hey, we're only about 300 miles out of the way! ].  Talk about a small intimate concert!  It was wonderful and Jack was at peek performance!  His playing was impeccable, his songs were filled with his own honest emotions that, at many times, brought several of us [that I know of] to lumpy throats or moist eyes, his stories between the songs were wonderful and really brought us into his life experiences with the telling and his “messages” were absolutely in synch with our ideas about living life well!  It was just a night of magic!

Jack and Judy, THANK YOU SO MUCH for coming into our lives and sharing yourselves with us and our friends!

Nat

Somewhere in rural New Jersey