Easter in Red Bank

Jukebox Reflection

A typical diner scene featuring: a woman eating, some people working and a guy reading who is looking for someone.

Happy Easter from The Broadway Diner - one of two restaurants on the same street who use "Broadway" in their names though the actual street is Monmouth Ave.

Lit-Up like a Christmas Tree

Retro Indoor Gardening

My husband was less than pleased with my solution to our unseasonably bad weather and late frosts.  I assured him it wouldn't be more than a week. 

As we sat in our living room last night relaxing I couldn't help but laugh.  The room, normally a little on the dark side owing to no overhead light, was lit up brighter than Times Square! 

I replaced the two living room lamp bulbs for "Daylight" CFL's.  It's a little ridiculous, but it has been so cold I can't leave my plants outside and everyone is starting to get a little leggy and cramped.  Hopefully the weather evens out and we don't get anymore snow.

The Neighbors Moon

My final shot is one of the hazy moon and my neighbors house.  I experimented with multiple lenses outside and ended up with the 16-24mm which had the widest angle - the only one wide enough to get the moon and the houses in the same frame.

A Car Drives By

My next mission was to do some nighttime tripod work.  Unfortunately it was overcast and there were no stars or distinct moon to work with.  Some lucky timing produced a car and a light trail in one shot.

The Angel and Bamboo

I was surprised at how difficult this shot was to take.  The biggest challenge I faced with this assignment was making time to shoot.  With a toddler it's difficult to find time to "go out" and shoot.  I realized that my mission had to be to make my immediate surroundings look interesting to other people.  

The fish, oh the fish.  I have several in the tank but was plagued by inexperience with the camera - it's my husband's Canon, I shot only with a Nikon, there's a difference!  I couldn't change the focus field, I couldn't set the aperture priority - I was totally lost.  I shot more than 100 pictures of the tank with a 10% success rate in terms of composition and focus.  FOCUS - fish move - a lot.  This was the very last shot I took.  It was what I was looking for the entire time.

The Wok Brush

I've been having difficulty finding time to shoot.  My daughter is at an age where she wants to be involved with everything and can't be left alone for a second.  Not the most productive environment.  So, this morning I decided to experiment with different items found within my house.  This is my wok brush.

Jerry the Bearded Dragon

Yesterday we got our daughter a baby Bearded Dragon.  I knew that I wanted to photograph him so I decided to use a recently completed solar system puzzle on my kitchen table next to the widow for some needed light, color and texture.  I wanted to capture the detail of his scales and also play on the idea of scale and size.  The curve of the sun in the puzzle mirrors the curve of the lizards back which added to the overall composition.  I chose my 24-70mm lens at f2.8 for a very shallow depth of field to make the lizard pop.  I enhanced the image using the Quick Selection tool, Levels and the Unsharp Mask in Photoshop.  I didn't crop the image, which I was happy about.  I try not to crop unless absolutely necessary - a personal preference.