It took a cool minute but Ocean County summer open and ready for business. And you know what? So am I. It’s a hazy, hot, and humid Sunday in the six-oh-nine, and I am glad I got my run and walk in early. It’s been a lounge around kind of afternoon vibing to the beat of rain drops on the windows and Stick Figure on the aux. Sure there’s yard work to be done, but there is also the perils of heat stroke to consider . . .
Anyway, I digress. Here’s a motion blur photograph I captured on 10 June, executed with the usual left to right panning motion to create the horizontal motion blur flowing across the frame. A coal fired sunset, a burning heart, and the power to change the world. A muse unmatched—within and without. Thankful and blessed does not even begin to tell this story.
Photo details
Photographed: 10 June 2025
Lighting: Sunet
Weather: Partly cloudy
Location: Cedar Run, New Jersey
Time: ~2030
Tripod: No
Exposure: One at 1/25 of a second panning left to right
Let’s hear it for petunias and flower baskets in need of a good hook.
I’d like to say three weeks later these beauties are thriving. Alas I cannot. I suspect a mix of two much water and not enough sun has wrought havoc on my latest C02 splitting machines. In lieu of their recent suffering, I am glad I made a bunch of photographs when I had the chance.
In the meantime, let’s see if I can nurse these two back to life.
Heart of Rebellion — 100mm | f/3.5 | ISO 100 | EXP 1/200
4 May 2025. May the Fourth. Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you. Etc. Etc. Etc.
Chat, anyone out there watching Andor season two? Two arcs deep—six episodes in total—and this political thriller keeps me on edge. Unsettling in the best way possible, it’s a welcome, if not uncomfortable, treat to be dropped into the early world of the rebellion olds like me grew up on with a story centered around—and explicitly intended for—olds like me. Andor picks at the raw under belly of the nascent rebellion’s leadership, exploring the insidious loss of humanity that corrodes slow and sure in the darkest corners of dying souls. A cause may be righteous; its effect on its people is not. And yet some fights must be fought—irrespective of the costs.
Riffing on the theme of the day, the thing that was hiding in the bleeding heart’s shape slapped me right in the face. The Rebel Alliance starbird is made to fit tattooed onto this flower. Brain gears begin to churn—let me see what ChatGPT can do. My suggestions proceeded as follows:
Me: Yo chat, happy Sunday. If I send you a jpg of a bleeding heart can you embed the Star Wars rebellion logo inside the heart-shaped flower?
ChatGPT: Yo! Happy Sunday to you too. (Smiling sun emoji.) Yeah absolutely — send over the JPG of the bleeding heart flower, and I’ll embed the Star Wars rebellion logo.
Me:Uploads above photo
ChatGPT: Shares first image
Me: Now try it with the logo inverted
ChatGPT:Second image, which is the same as the first image
Me:Abandoning the inverted starbird idea: Create the logo in the street art style of Sabine Wren
ChatGPT:Third image
Me: Nice job recreating the goated Sabine Wren. Now, can you have the spray paint logo follow the contours of the flower?
I am overwhelmed. I struggle to keep up. It is hard to keep faith. If I had a towel I would surely throw it in. Signs of a well executed plan. Flood the zone. Drain the brain. Laugh whenever plebeians complain.
I am done laughing.I can no longer maintain.
Photo details
Photographed: 23 February 2025
Lighting: Sunset
Weather: Partly cloudy
Location: Cedar Run Dock Road
Time: ~1735
Tripod: No
Exposure: One at 1/13 seconds panned left to right
Place pastels upon your palette and cue the music the sunset show is begun. Grab a big old dry brush and move your paints across your canvas with speed. Be confident in your motion; haste, but don’t waste. It’s your heart and mind funneling down the arm and into your hand summoning magic unto the page. You are an artist, and you’re doing great.
For You — 14mm | F/8 | ISO 100 | 7 Bracketed Exposures
My evening gift for you all to chase away the Sunday scaries—a Dock Road sunset from just over a week ago. A high quality winter burn. Enough of the deck painted up in pastel hues to really crank up the glow highlighting the sedge. For but five minutes time suspends as though weightless and the dormant brown super charges in a pink infusion. As if Goku himself were powering up. Palpable vibes.
Like the good keyboard warrior I have tried not to be, I came to the came to the computer tonight ready to pop off on our accelerating societal decline. Then I remembered I am a photographer, not a writer, and this photograph reflects the sad state of affairs far better than my forced words.
All day disqueit asking what can I do? I have little clue, but I am grown disgusted the cowards stance I’ve limply taken that’s long been thinly covered in silence. A passivity that can be seen as at best, aloof and neutral, but at worst complicit. What I will do is pledge further introspection into my own blindspots, weaknesses, limitations, and fear to speak out on the things I find righteously wrong. This self-improvement is solely in my control. I can also lend my photographs and my words to advocate for love, respect, and the personal dignity of all people and do my best to model that behavior. Lead from the front otherwise get out of the way.
And now if you’ll excuse me I will be busy regrowing my spine. Thanks for reading, and go give somebody a hug and ask yourself, what can I do? Let’s lift each other up. Let’s be better together.
Interested in buying? Purchase and ship direct through SmugMug.
The ice returns and is that some inspo sliding in on it? Ever since I was a kid winter has owned my curiosity. Forever my favorite weather, the cold and snow continue to demand my attention. It’s like the first time, every time.
So it should come as no surprise that when the salt marsh turns frozen the urge to get outside explodes. To my camera and the marsh I go. Only this time a proper stop further.
For the first time since December 2020 (five years!) I am publishing a photo from Great Bay Boulevard. Once part of a steady rotation it’s been a casualty of a stalled hobby. For the first time in years, thoughts of making photos land upon my brain. It’s happening several times per week, easy, and usually in the shower. Where once there was desert, there are no motes of water, frozen as it may be. As for GBB, it was awesome to be back, and I am starting to feel I may be back.
Interested in buying? Purchase and ship direct through SmugMug.
