Middlesex County Fair at night, August 3, 2009
Yes, more photos from the Middlesex County Fair: night shots capture action and light.
I really don’t like going on the rides, but they are fun to photograph. This photo was taken just a few hours earlier than the one above.
Dhaval thought my sepia photo of the fair was still a bit gloomy, so I added back in a bit more of the colors from the fair. Then I took the sky out of sepia mode, so now it’s really the cars alone that get the sepia treatment.
Fireworks at Middlesex County Fair, August 3, 2009 (Opening Night)
I wish I had read Mason Resnick’s post on Fireworks Photography Basics before going to the fair. And I also wish I knew how to use the continuous shooting mode on my camera inside and out, instead of trying to hunt for it in the dark and running out of time. Maybe next by July 4th I’ll be prepared.
Mason writes:
Exposure tips
Aperture: Most photographers use ISO 100 and an aperture of between f/8 and f/16. The smaller aperture intensifies the colors of the fireworks and prevents overexposure. Experiment and see how the different aperture setting changes the look of your image.
Shutter speed: Use your camera’s “B” (bulb) setting. Start your exposure at the moment the burst begins, and end it when the burst reaches its peak. How long is long enough? For a single blast, a second or two should be sufficient.
Some photographers leave their camera on B and block the lens until there’s a burst, and repeating the process over several bursts. This results in a multiple exposure that can fill the frame with fireworks. Read more.
For more photos of the sky, visit Skywatch Friday: Sky Watch Friday
Middlesex County Fair, August 3, 2009 - Opening Day
The Middlesex County Fair in East Brunswick, New Jersey had its opening day on Monday, August 3, and we had the fun of attending. I found this photo rather dull, so I decided to convert it to sepia (desaturated it then added yellow and tiny bit of red back in). To bring back just the fun colors of the fair, I colored over some areas with the history brush.
Moon on the 14th of the Jewish month of Av (almost full)
By the light, of the silvery moon,
I want to spoon,
To my honey I’ll croon love’s tune.
Honey moon, keep a-shinin’ in June.
Your silv’ry beams will bring love’s dreams,
We’ll be cuddlin’ soon,
By the silvery moon.
Somehow I remember a line in the song that goes “not to fork but to spoon.” The Wikipedia page has some variations of this 1909 song.
So there we (we = husband, daughter and I) are in East Brunswick, New Jersey at the Middlesex County Fair, and I notice the moon is almost full. I think, it’s almost the middle of the month! (The Jewish month is a lunar calendar, so the full moon signifies the 15th of the month.) Why, it’s almost Tu B’Av, the Jewish answer to Sadie Hawkins Day or the Israeli equivalent of Valentine’s Day.
To learn more about this holiday where the young unmarried women used to dance in white dresses in the fields, please visit:
Lobelia Cardinalis, Purple Cardinal Flower, photographed July 2009
You can compare these photos with my photos of the purple lobelia last summer. Those were taken with my Canon Power Shot; these new ones are taken with my Canon Rebel xTi.
Lobelia Cardinalis, centered in the photo, with grey fence behindMystery Flower, no longer there (maybe eaten by the groundhog?)
Update: Sara Rall (on her first visit to this blog, welcome) thinks this may be a moth mullein.
This is my son’s idea of a grande ole time – the setting is Hurricane Harbor, Jackson, New Jersey. We traveled to this (outrageously expensive) waterpark two weeks ago for his entertainment – his sort of thing.
Would you go down this green slide? I’m not showing you the whole thing, but believe me when I say it’s tall, tall, tall. The red arrow shows my son patiently waiting (a half hour? an hour) to go down this green giant.
Here’s my daughter in the pirate section – I daresay she’s Captain of the Ship.
I had fun photographing these birds, who look like they own the place.
Loss necessarily creates a vacuum in our lives whereas consolation is the process of reordering our focus in view of emerging new needs. Consolation allows us to displace some of the importance once attributed to what we’ve lost onto a new locus. So when Yitzchak marries Rivka, we are told (Bereishit 24:67) that he is finally consoled for his mother. He finally finds a new locus for his appreciation of feminine compassion and care that was embodied by his mother.
And then he continues with saying in the Jewish month of Av, which is always in the summer, we enjoy nature. The month of Elul comes right before Rosh Hashana, we concentrate on prayer. “The various rituals of Av and Elul allow us to be more prepared for Rosh Hashanah without a Beit haMikdash. ”
How do you find comfort? What do you do when something or someone in your life, community or in world news causes you pain? How do you get in touch with the pain and also find new ways of self-comfort?
When my children were babies, I remember learning that it was important that they learn to self-comfort. If every time a child cries, a parent or guardian rushes to the child’s side, how will the child learn to cope on his or her own? My boys, I remember, each had a blanket that was precious in the going to sleep process.
One of my friends, when times are hard, reads from the Book of Psalms (Tehilim) when she is in distress. I feel she is fortunate that she can find comfort in that manner.
Today is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, the fast day of Tisha B’Av, the Ninth of Av, the day when the Beit HaMikdash, the holy temple that was in Jerusalem, was destroyed. Other tragic events happened on this date as well. In two days we read the haftorah from the Book of Isaiah, in which he proclaims (Isaiah 40:1-2) –
Comfort, comfort my people, so says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins.
“Double from sins”? – Is this referring to then or now? It seems the pain continues to this day; the warfare does not seem at an end.
And later Isaiah says (Isaiah 40:7-8) –
Indeed man is but grass: Grass withers, flowers fade – but the Word of our God is always fulfilled!
We can read all of Isaiah (especially the part from Chapter 40 and on), and some of us may find some comfort in the words. For many of us, struggling to understand the words of the ancient prophet is as far as we can get. Perhaps we are meant to know that even if we don’t understand the Big Picture, God does.
So getting back to comfort, here’s a short list from me, perhaps I can get your creative juices running, too:
Write a blog post.
Talk to a friend.
Paint. Draw. Putter in the garden. Find a creative outlet.
More on comfort and Isaiah: Comfort, Comfort (2005) by Professor Gary A. Rendsburg, chair of the department that I do work for at Rutgers, the Jewish Studies Department
