Site Maintenance

I'm going to be going through the site the next few days and improving it, so things may not work that used to.

Thanks for your patience.

New Photos: Ocean Grove on Easter Sunday

The Founder and his Church

On Easter, I was able to escape family duties for a bit to take some shots in Ocean Grove, NJ. It was founded on the Jersey Shore 1869, when Methodist ministers (include Stokes up there) camped there for the summer and decided to found a permanent Christian camp meeting there. This grew from its prime location on the shore between New York and Philadelphia and is now the longest active camp meeting site in the US.



Side of the Great Auditorium

In the previous picture and this one is the Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove built in 1894. It is where the church services are held but also concerts during the summer. It also holds one of the largest pipe organs in the world.


Tents Around the Auditorium

These tents are a remanent from Ocean Groves camp days and surround the Great Auditorium on three sides. These can be rented during the summer but apparently have a very long waiting list


In the Park After Church

Here are some children who are running around the park on the side of the Auditorium in their Easter clothes.


After Church Stroll

These ladys are heading toward the beach and the boardwalk after leaving the Auditorium behind them.


Tree in Bloom

Trees were all in bloom during this late April Easter all over NJ, including Ocean Grove.

If you want to see more photos from this day click here

and as always, feed back is appreciated!

New Photos: Spring on Cook Campus

I was at school the other week and noticed all the trees were all blooming around the campus. It was too good a day to resist grabbing my camera after class and taking some pictures. They were mostly taken near the Cook-Douglass Lecture hall near where my class was let out. Here are some of the results.



I like how the flowers completely fill the frame, but your focus is still drawn to the flower in the lower right, because of the depth of field and how the branches lead your eye to it.




I was looking for a way to get a shot of the inside of one of the flowers. I came across this flower that had half of it's peddles fall off already, giving it what looks like a cross section of a flower.




I like how this little blossom seems to be looking on to all the fully bloomed flowers on the tree in the background, almost like a little kid looking up at the older kids on the playground.

So if you want to see more from that day, you can click here.

Also, so you know, I've turned the tumblr I used as my photo of the day into more of a regular tumblr that will be used more like a tumblr, with reblogs of cool photos and things that inspire mine, as well as photos from me. You can check that out at

New Photos: A Day in Philly

Light on the Wall

The other day I went to Philadelphia to pick up my brother from Drexel and it was a nice day so we decided go out and take some photos. The above photos is from the interior of 30th Street Station, which was built by the Pennsylvania railroad in the 1930s along with Suburban Station in the downtown area. I really love how the sunlight comes through the windows there, it kind of reminds me of a shot in Hoboken Terminal I took a little while ago.


Statue of George Washington

I really liked the way the light was hitting this statue in Philly that day, really dramatic.


America's Ship

This rusty boat was once the fastest ship in the world, the S.S. United States, and still holds the record for a westbound crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. It could go 44 knots or about 50 mph. It was built in 1952 with the help of the US government with the promise it would be turned into a troop ship during a time of war. It has been out of service since 1969 and docked in Philly since 1996. Its future was uncertain until the SS United States Conservancy bought the ship and saved it from being scrapped. It isn't out of the woods yet, since they need to secure a redevelopment plan and restore the ship to its former glory and they are currently accepting donations.


Tied Down

This is the bow (front) of the ship, rusting away. This is the part where Dicaprio said "I'm the King of the World" in Titanic. The ship still has a feeling of strength and a sense of history even with it slowly rotting away.


Caged Beast

I really liked the symbolism of this one, its corny and cliche, but I like it.


Towering over the Transit

I just had to include this train photo because I thought it was pretty cool, even though I try to keep this blog more photography related than trains (railfanning is another hobby of mine). I really like the way the tower leads your eye to the trains and vice-verca. One train is heading into a tunnel that leads to Suburban Station in downtown Philly, the other is going onto a bridge that goes up to 30th Street Station.

If you want to see more photos from this day, click this link!


In blog related news, you probably noticed that I have stopped putting up Closer Look features every friday. I'm going to continue doing them but they will be less frequent. If anyone wants to hear a story behind a specific photo, feel free to comment or contact me in some other way with a link to the photo and I'll put up a story about it.

New Photos: Photo Shoot in Grand Central

Reunited Under the Clock

I did a photo shoot the other day with Emily Buck and Dan Garrison in Grand Central Terminal. You may remember Emily from before, she featured me on her blog, Travel and Toile. I had an idea for a shoot the other day, it actually is based on a story I've heard many times. My grandfather on my dad's side was in the British Navy during WWII, and his ship was getting repaired in Brooklyn.


Love in the Big Station

During this time he had met my great uncle at a mission in NY that he had wondered into while looking for a church. My great-uncle was speaking there at the time and saw the sailors and offered to house them down in Ocean Gate, NJ, while the ship was being repaired. There he met my grandmother and they fell in love.


Huddled in the Station

He had popped the question to my grandmother in 1942 but he had to go back to sea and couldn't afford a ring. He then was out at sea for two years, at one point he had been able to get back to scotland and buy a ring for my grand mother. He couldn't ship it over for fear of the ship sinking. So he wore it for the whole time they were at sea till he saw her again.


Kissing under the Clock

Then in 1944, he ship came back to the US and he called my grandmother told her to meet him at 1 o'clock in Grand Central Terminal, on February 14th. They met up under the clock in Grand Central Terminal, and he gave her the ring and kissed her in front of 800 british sailors who cheered (this number apparently started a lot lower when first told to him, and got bigger with each telling).


Under the Window

So this story inspired these photos, I only wish I could get 100 models in sailor costumes so I could get a really awesome photo. I really liked how these came out, and have gotten a few ideas for the future from it.

If you want to see more from this shoot, including some head shots I took and Dan and Emily click here

and thanks again to Dan and Emily for an awesome time!

Closer Look: Christmas Feet

Christmas Feet

I took this shot early last year on a trip to New Hope with Sophie, for the sole purpose of taking photos. There is an interesting store there called Love Saves the Day, which carries all kinds of weird, funky things, from old hats and clothing to shakespeare action figures to fake poop, as I said, its a really interesting, fun store. Sadly they don't allow photography inside, but outside they had a side yard filled with manikins, manikin parts and other stuff, but all had christmas lights around them.

I found these stockinged feet to be interesting, when I got back and loaded the photos onto the computer, I noticed this creepy manikin head looking at me from behind the feet, giving this an even more surreal look. That head still kinda scares me, because I always forget it is there till I blow the photo up!

Closer Look: At The Bar

At The Bar

This photo was taken on the River Walk in San Antonio Texas last year. I had been down there with my dad to photograph him at a conference in Austin, but we went to go see my dad's old friend who lived down in San Antonio. We had been there during the day but I felt that I could get some interesting night shots, with the water reflecting the lights and all.

I really like the mood of this shot, it seems so serene but you can also tell that there is something happening with all of the movement going on. What was actually happening were that this group of girls were trying to get into the bar, but the bouncer wasn't letting them in (I assume they were underage)