Strollo's

Strollo's ("hand made Italian Ice") is a popular place to get dessert, day or night!

ATTACK OF THE GIANT FRUITS

Here we see a gargantuan lemon on the Belmar boardwalk, innocently attracting absolutely no attention from passers-by.

(Clearly it's a scout for a race of giant space fruits that intend to dominate our planet. But that's neither here nor now.)

bridge 6

Shaaaark R'v'r Bridge is op'ning up, op'nin up, op'ning up
Shaaaark R'v'r Bridge is op'ning up,
My fair lady

(Okay, so you've already seen this drawbridge a few times.)

drawbridge!

Gahhhh. I took like twenty shots of Shark River's Route 71 drawbridge opening (in a fairly inappropriate setting, at great embarrassment to myself), and ALL of those shots are ATROCIOUSLY OVEREXPOSED. (Entirely my fault. I decided to shoot on manual and apparently didn't pay enough attention to the meter.)

I seem to recall that last year in my Photo I class, the teacher told us that it was better to overexpose film (resulting in a "dense" negative) than underexpose it (resulting in a "thin" negative) 'cos if you overexpose it, at least you have exposed the film to the information and the information's THERE somewhere.

I can't help thinking that the opposite rule applies to digital photography. I can always lighten a dark photo pretty easily, but once a photo's overexposed, the highlights get completely blown out. There's no hope for 'em--the information's just GONE.

Anyway.

I am (still) in North Carolina (or maybe Virginia or Maryland today--I should be back by tomorrow), so I will A) be relying on "automatic posting," B) will not update the archive until I return, and C) will be unavailable for comments.

meter & shadow

Here's a parking meter by the edge of the Belmar boardwalk. (You need only pay for parking until 7:00PM.)

I am (still) in North Carolina for a few days, so I will A) be relying on "automatic posting," B) will not update the archive until I return, and C) will be unavailable for comments.

doomed

OMG ALIENS ARE COMING TO PROBE ME!!!

...Either that or it's the underside of a Belmar streetlight.

until the end of time (sunset 9)

Awwwwwwwww.

Silver Lake, Belmar, NJ.

gull 2

This is not the first gull-on-a-lamppost that I've photographed... but at least the lamppost is prettier this time.

boardwalkin' and streetlampin'

(Click on any photo to view it larger.)

This past weekend, I took a walk/jog/leisurely photographic tour down part of the Jersey shore boardwalk, from south Asbury Park to north Belmar. It's about 2.7 miles, and I set foot in 5 different towns. (Shewd observers will note that I have no photograph of the fifth town, Bradley Beach, which is located right between Ocean Grove and Avon-by-the-Sea. Guess what? Its street lights look exactly like Ocean Grove's. The only thing different is the fancy red brick/stone boardwalk.)

The POINT here is to show the different streetlights you'd see as you cross from town to town. I just think it's kind of interesting. Oh- and if you want to know what town you're looking at, just hover your cursor over each photo. The title will tell you where you are.

These photographs, all of which look north, were taken between 9:23AM and 9:57AM; here is the route I took. (Unfortunately, if you click on that link, it will only appear as the furthest zoom possible ["Oh look, it's AN ENTIRE WORLD MAP"], so you need to drag the +/- slider up to about 4-5 notches from the top [as zoomed-in as possible].)

viewpoint

This bridge runs between Belmar and Avon-by-the-Sea. I featured it for the December Theme Day; when I did, I was unsure of its name. So when I once again found myself traversing the bridge on foot, since it was daytime and I could actually find the plaque, I photographed it. (I won't show the plaque because even in the daylight, it's very difficult to read.) I saw that it is the Shark River Bridge, but I didn't realize until I got home that a famous trombonist/bandleader had been one of the officials who brought the bridge into existance!

Here is what the plaque says:

"

Shark River Bridge
Bridge W43 [W48?]
on Ocean Avenue
between Avon and Belmar
-----------
Monmouth County, New Jersey
-----------
Built 1936
-----------
Board of Chosen Freeholders
Raymond L. Wyckoff, director
Henry W. Herbert . . . James S. Parkes
Joseph Mayer . . . . . . . . . Arthur Pryor
-----------
John E. Hogan, County Engineer
-----------
Ash Howard Needles & Tammen
Morris Goodkind
Consulting Engineers
Merritt Chapman & McLean Corporation
Contractor"

Now, that may seem like just a bunch of names, and it is, but the part that caught my attention was one of the Chosen Freeholders.

Arthur Pryor?

Arthur Pryor was a Chosen Freeholder?!

Arthur Pryor was a famous bandleader and trombonist in the John Philip Sousa Band. (The only reason I know this is because one of my community bands did a huge Arthur Pryor feature last year. We imported a trombone virtuoso from Virginia who dressed up in period band costume and narrated the songs.) Pryor had strong ties to this area: although he retired from the John Philip Sousa Band (in 1903) before the band started making regular appearances at the Ocean Grove Auditorium [outside view] (from 1912-1926, until Sousa made a crack about Prohibition and the Ocean Grove Methodists decided not to invite him back), Pryor's own band performed for 26 seasons on the Asbury Park boardwalk (which is less than a mile from the OG Auditorium); he retired to Long Branch; he died immediately after a rehearsal in the Asbury Park bandstand.

And APPARENTLY, according to this source, he DID win a seat on the Board of Chosen Freeholders, so the name on the bridge IS the same Arthur Pryor!

What an unexpected perk of a bridge plaque photograph!

firehouse

Well, as you can see, this is the Union Fire Company (located in Belmar). Here's what the official Belmar Web Page has to say about it:

"The Union Fire Company was organized and incorporated on Jan. 31st, 1889. Two other companies followed, The Volunteer Hook and Ladder in May, 1894 and The Goodwill Hose Company in Jan. 1900, when an ordinance creating a fire department was adopted.

"Since their organization, these three companies have worked in close harmony and have so combined their efforts that they operate at each fire as one unit. The Union Company, with its modern engine, takes over the pumping. The Volunteer Company mans the hook and ladder, and The Goodwill operates the hose lines."

Heineken Sushi

Sushi made from beer? Beer made from raw fish? The mind boggles.

Found at Klein's Fish Market.

freedman's

(Ugh. I was planning on making this a short post tonight, but the interweb is not telling me what I want to know, and I'm spending way more time than necessary trying to find information THAT IS NOT THERE.)

Freedman's Bakery is located on Main St. in Belmar, NJ. I have searched and searched for a history of the shop but CANNOT find one. (So now I'm curious, and if you know anything, I'd love to read/hear it!)

Here's what I CAN tell you:
* Freedman's Bakery was rated one of the best bakeries in Monmouth County by a 2007 Asbury Park Press reader rating.
* This past summer, the borough of Belmar tried to get Freedman's Bakery to shut down/go elsewhere because the building was "blighted," just so that Belmar could build new stuff. (Apparently, Belmar is planning on redeveloping the downtown, which has become more and more filled with vacant and dilapidated storefronts.) Nobody approved this, because Freedman's Bakery is just FINE.
* In 1985, the recipe for the famous Kneip family hard rolls was sold to Freedman's Bakery.
* Before 1909, the Belmar Elementary School stood on that spot.

bridge 3

It's the first of the month; that means it's City Daily Photo Theme Day!

In light of the "bridge" theme, I present to you a photo of the Ocean Avenue drawbridge between Belmar and Avon. (For those unfamiliar with Ocean Ave., it runs right along next to the boardwalk for much of the Monmouth County shoreline. Ocean Ave. is the "scenic route" of the shore area.)


Wanna see some bridges from all over the world? Then check out these links for other participants in today's theme!

Boston (MA), USA - San Diego (CA), USA - Stayton (OR), USA - New York City (NY), USA - Portland (OR), USA - Montego Bay, Jamaica - Inverness (IL), USA - Singapore, Singapore - Stockholm, Sweden - Setúbal, Portugal - Brussels, Belgium - Phoenix (AZ), USA - Seattle (WA), USA - Hyde, UK - Manila, Philippines - Fort Lauderdale (FL), USA - London, England - Austin (TX), USA - Toulouse, France - Weston (FL), USA - Sesimbra, Portugal - Selma (AL), USA - Silver Spring (MD), USA - Saarbrücken, Germany - Cleveland (OH), USA - Crystal Lake (IL), USA - American Fork (UT), USA - Seoul, South Korea - Kyoto, Japan - Tokyo, Japan - Norwich (Norfolk), UK - North Bay (ON), Canada - Arradon, France - Paderborn, Germany - Durban, South Africa - Philadelphia (PA), USA - Cypress (TX), USA - Cottage Grove (MN), USA - Prague, Czech Republic - Portland (OR), USA - Greenville (SC), USA - Boston (MA), USA - Port Angeles (WA), USA - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Wichita (Ks), USA - Saint Paul (MN), USA - Petaling Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Grenoble, France - New York City (NY), USA - Nottingham, UK - Hobart (Tasmania), Australia - Arlington (VA), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Miami (FL), USA - Cheltenham, UK - Albuquerque (NM), USA - Saratoga Spgs. (NY), USA - Las Vegas (NV), USA - Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina - Nashville (TN), USA - Toruń, Poland - New Orleans (LA), USA - Port Elizabeth, South Africa - Melbourne, Australia - Moscow, Russia - Trujillo, Peru - Château-Gontier, France - Quincy (MA), USA - Melbourne, Australia - Port Vila, Vanuatu - Joplin (MO), USA - Bellefonte (PA), USA - Brookville (OH), USA - Chateaubriant, France - Chandler (AZ), USA - Stavanger, Norway - Baziège, France - Auckland, New Zealand - Wellington, New Zealand - Ocean Township (NJ), USA - Subang Jaya (Selangor), Malaysia - Detroit (MI), USA - Riga, Latvia - Nelson, New Zealand - Budapest, Hungary - Cape Town, South Africa - Sydney, Australia - Dunedin (FL), USA - Sofia, Bulgaria - Radonvilliers, France - Turin, Italy - Montpellier, France - Kansas City (MO), USA - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Haninge, Sweden - Wailea (HI), USA - Lubbock (TX), USA - Rabaul, Papua New Guinea - Terrell (TX), USA - Mexico City, Mexico - Saint-Petersburg, Russian Federation - Budapest, Hungary - Montréal (QC), Canada - Sharon (CT), USA - Le Guilvinec, France - Jefferson City (MO), USA - Saigon, Vietnam - London, UK - Crepy-en-Valois, France - Orlando (FL), USA - Maple Ridge (BC), Canada - Paris, France - Mainz, Germany - Newcastle (NSW), Australia - Wassenaar (ZH), Netherlands - Menton, France - Monte Carlo, Monaco - Darmstadt, Germany - Naples (FL), USA - Torino, Italy - Saint Louis (MO), USA - Bogor, Indonesia - The Hague, Netherlands - Minneapolis (MN), USA - Glasgow, UK - Anderson (SC), USA - Melbourne (VIC), Australia - Clearwater (FL), USA - West Sacramento (CA), USA - Christchurch, New Zealand

rainlight 2

The boardwalk isn't always warm and sunny.

bee

I was walking down the street in Belmar, NJ, and said,


"Well, theoretically, if theOH my God I have no idea what that is but I need a picture of it."


It's apparently a bee doing laundry.


Good to know.


(Cross-posted to MCDP)

cyan

A big concrete thingie from construction in Belmar, NJ.


"But Josy, why is it square when all the rest of your photos are rectangular?"

"But Josy, what is the point of this photo?"

"But Josy, there are so many flaws in the composition!"


I liked the color. Deal with it.