so here we are…

On Monday, I will be leaving New Jersey and starting a new chapter of my life in Chicago. I’ll be going to graduate school there for biomedical visualization (which is a fancy way of saying “medical illustration,” which is, y’know, drawing kidneys and stuff). I will be ceasing my daily photo activities. You will, however, still be able to find me on Snapshot Optimism, an occasional photoblog that I’ll be keeping up, as well as JosyDoodle, where I’ll show off my kidney drawings and stuff.

I am prone to enthusiastically starting projects, followed by enthusiastically forgetting about them two or six weeks later. But here, I wanted to prove that I could keep the ball rolling on something (that wasn’t immediately crucial to my life, like work or school). With the exception of a few short out-of-town excursions, I’ve posted every single day since December 14, 2006–which, including today, makes a total of 606 posts on this blog and 475 over on OTDP (which only began 4/30/07). I’ve loved it, I’ve hated it, I’ve been super-involved, and I’ve cared less, but I did it. I think I’ve accomplished what I set out to do here; I can only hope you’ve enjoyed the ride and maybe even learned something about Monmouth County, NJ.

Tomorrow will be my last (and 607th/476th) post.

I’ll miss these blogs.

 

the fair! (4)

I know I already showed you the midway by night, but since I went to all the trouble of hauling my tripod out to the Monmouth County Fair, I thought I might show you something else.

So here we have the Zipper.

 

the fair!

You may or may not remember it from last year, but it’s time for the Monmouth County Fair again!

People flock to the East Freehold Fairgrounds from all over the county. They can ride the rides, play the games, submit entries (art, crafts, homegrown vegetables/ flowers, and canned goods) to the home and garden tent, smell the animals in the 4-H tents, visit vendors, eat the traditional fair cuisine, watch all kinds of entertainment (including pig races, lumberjack shows, Bwana Jim, local artists, dog shows, etc.), and plenty of other stuff.

It’s a five-day festival that sadly ends today, but I’ll keep providing you with photos for a few days.

 

nagle’s 2

Nagle’s by night.

 

bottles

The side of Nagle’s boasts a collection of old seltzer bottles.

Peeking through the windows of this place (after hours), I really need to go inside sometime. Little apothecary bottles line the inside wall, which kind of fascinates me.

 

kaboom!

Fireworks at Joe Palaia Park for the USA’s Independence Day! Viewed from a slightly distant supermarket parking lot with all kinds of trees and power lines in the way.* I had loads of company in that parking lot–many families threw little tailgate parties for the event. Due to the limited visibility, though, I heard sarcastic teenagers-who’d-been-dragged-along comments, like “OH MY GOD! THE FIREWORKS ARE AMAZING!” when the explosions didn’t quite clear the trees.

*Okay, technically, I was in the middle of a field that I probably shouldn’t have been in. Okay, technically technically I wasn’t in the middle– I was about 12′ away from the edge of Route 35. But I did park in that parking lot.

 

fireflies!

You may or may not be able to see, but this nightscape is full of FIREFLIES! (Or whatever you call them. I grew up calling ‘em “lightning bugs” but slipped into calling them “fireflies” at some point. Either term is acceptable around here.)

Some of those fireflies might be the same ones, as this photo is actually a composite (of like 10 of the FOUR THOUSAND PHOTOS–okay, more like 40– that I took. I’ve been trying to photograph these guys for a few days now, but my camera’s longest shutter speed is 4 seconds [and highest decent ISO is 200], which… just wasn’t enough. Google confirmed that this is a supremely tricky task that’s virtually impossible with a shutter less than 60 seconds. So I gave up and cheated).

 

belmar bound

Spring Lake train station at dusk. I was actually trying to get a picture of the last glow of sunset, but by the time I’d jogged up the street (in shoes not intended for jogging), that last bit of pink had disappeared.

I make no apologies for the lens flares/moisture on the lens.

Guess what! Yesterday, when I was in Ocean Grove for a concert, I saw some kid taking the exact photo I’d already posted yesterday. Ohhhh well, we always knew I was unoriginal! The sky wasn’t nearly as awesome yesterday, though. His loss.