More of Historic Griggstown, NJ

I pass this spot everyday on my way home so I decided to take some photos for 20 mins on my way home.

I featured this area of Historic Griggstown, NJ back at the beginning of March in this blog entry and this time I decided to bracketed shots for HDR processing.

Below are my favorites of the day:


I love this one!!


I'm on the fence about these two. A LOT OF GREEN HERE!





While I was photographing one of the windows I snapped my reflection just to be silly:


To be even more strange I snapped a photo of my new hot pink shoes with the camera looking down my tripod. I love the shoes so I figured why not snap a shot? *LOL*

This is especially for *Bri* since I promised to show her them!



There are a number of others but this is all that I actually liked the results of. Sometimes HDR is hit or miss depending upon the lighting conditions.

Historic Griggstown, NJ - Windows and Doors to the Past

Griggstown, New Jersey is an unincorporated area and a historic district within Franklin Township, in Somerset County, New Jersey first settled around 1733.

It is a small, picturesque village that lies on the Delaware and Raritan Canal. This canal criss-crosses the state of New Jersey and in the 1800’s was a major means of transporting goods between Philadelphia and New York.

Canal Barges bearing goods have now been replaced by canoes and kayaks. One can still find remnants of “canal life” along the towpath and roads that traverse the village. This window belongs to a building that probably housed mill workers at one time. When it was modernized, asbestos was used in its restoration. Now this building is gutted and closed to the public.

I applied a few different Totally Rad Actions to these photos below and tweaked the layers to apply my own spin to them:











While I was reasearching Griggstown I found this interesting article about the local legend of the Griggstown Cow that I thought was interesting...especially since the place he wandered was where I was taking the photos.

Asbury Park Casino - Palace Amusements

This is the last of the Beach Series taken this past Sunday. As our day was ending we decided to ride along the shoreline to see where we'd end up. We hit the end of the line at the division between Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, NJ. Straight ahead of us was something I had never seen before and I told my sister to "Park here!!" I needed to see this place up close and I knew it was photography gold for me!

We parked, grabbed our gear, and got closer so we could explore. This large structure was labled "CASINO" on the front. I knew it wasn't an actual casino so I figured it was an "amusement park" on the beach of sorts and I would research the details until I got home.

It was a shame to see this abandoned place. There was a huge sign showing a "revitalization" of the location with an estimated date of 2006. So, I'm guessing the renovations stopped in the middle for some reason. It saddened me to see another wonderful New Jersey location abandoned like this...I'm a person who is big on memories and history and places like this need to be preserved.

I did a Google search and I don't know the full story behind the renovations that were planned but I hope that this Asbury Park Casino Amusement area can one day be saved and converted into something else. I found a lot of websites with photos of the place and it looks like they have already torn down so much of the place...so who knows what will happen....

SITE 1
SITE 2
SITE 3 (as seen from google earth)
SITE 4
SITE 5 (WeirdNJ.com)
SITE 6

I also discovered that the Asbury Park Casino and neighboring Palace Amusements was used as the setting for the movie "City by the Sea" starring Robert DeNiro. Asbury Park is used to portray a dilapidated Long Beach, NY.

"Many outside of amusement park or Bruce Springsteen circles (or perhaps Jersey itself) have never heard of this run-down town, which sits south of the wealthy community of Deal and above the quaint seaside burg of Ocean Grove. Unlike Coney Island it was never "the world," but to those who grew up watching the evening sun hang in the sky from the end of the Casino pier it was a warm & familiar place to spend a day having fun with the family or explore a taste of life with friends. While Coney has started its Renaissance the hopes and dreams for those who loved Asbury have never seen its second coming begin. It seems that we are left with more false starts, such as the skeleton of a building that stands next to Ocean Avenue, than substantive change. However, the hope remains that the Palace and Casino will be places that once again make memories instead of becoming memories themselves." Excerpt from HERE.

Here's my view of the Asbury Park Casino in HDR:















More of my HDR work can be seen in this gallery: http://jenweaverphotography.smugmug.com/gallery/3868580/1/252065249

Homemade Air Conditioning

These photos area also from my photo excursion from 10/28/07 from out trip to the Mulica River and the Pine Barrens.

On our way home we stopped to take the barn and silo from yesterday's post and I noticed this house on the farmland across the street. I might not have given it a 2nd glance until I notice the roof was completely missing on one side. I took this from across the street:



Then I decided I wanted to get closer we drove up the long driveway and I took some shots from my car (I always get worried about trespassing...how do I explain... "Oh sorry, I just like to photograph old abandoned things" LOL!)

I love this conversion!!











Some details on the house:

I love the fall leaves reflected in the window:





I always find it a shame when you see houses like this....so sad to see homes go to waste like this...

Out and About in Princeton

Today I had to run some errands and decided to bring the tripod camera. I headed towards Princeton, NJ and parked on the main street and decided to focus on one area of the campus with beautiful architecture.

I did everything with 3 exposures so I could create some HDRs in Photomatrix with the photos taken.

I spent about one hour on the campus and got what I think are some great shots but then my $1.25 for our hour on the parking meter was up and I had no more change so I had to leave or get a ticket!

Before I headed home I stopped back at 2 areas I wanted to revisit (both were on the same rocky road). One was an abandoned nursury/green houses of sorts that is huge and strangely is completely fenced in around it -- and the other was right down the rocky path which eventually turned into paved road -- a was a number of abandoned homes.

I photgraphed the abandoned nursery in the most pleasing way possible (due to the chain link fence around it) and I found a bit of higher ground in the field next to it where I could get a better look and some better photos that were all behind a fence.

When I was done there I explored the street with the abandoned houses although I wasn't sure if I'd find anything worthy of photographing. I make a turn and found that one of the houses had a huge barn that was somewhat falling apart - which is right up my alley (and oerfect for HDR photography)!

I photographed there as quick as I could because I'm sure these boarded up homes were "no trespassing!" The barn made some great photos along with a falling down clothesline that caught my interest.

After I edit them I will post away!

New Jersey Diners

After photographing an abandoned New Jersey Diner on Route 22 today I realized that I'd love to photograph more of them.

I googled New Jersey Diners and found 2 sites which highlight Central & North Jersey diners as well as a link highlighting a book all about New Jersey diners:

http://www.dinercity.com/njDiner/centralNJ.html
http://www.dinercity.com/njDiner/northNJ.html
http://www.njdiners.com/

Many of them are very retro & shiny looking and would make for great photography. Now I have another photo op to be on the look out for...LOL (like I needed another thing to be obsessed with hunting down for photography!!)

Here are a couple from today's shoot: