When I was growing up we were not blessed with the wonderful programming of Nickelodeon or Disney Channel.  We did have PBS which of course was (and still is) the home of Sesame Street.  Although BigBird was the favorite of many kids, my favorite was Cookie Monster.  He had the appetite of a T-Rex while retaining the heart and kindness of a butterfly.  I felt he would be as loyal to me as my own dog.  I couldn’t help by love the guy, uh monster.

On Christmas Eve, we were leaving cookies and milk out for Santa.  I began wondering what would happen if Cookie Monster and Santa met at the table and only one cookie was left.  I then imagined this epic battle royal between the two.  You know, like 100 year war kind of battle.  Although as much as I ran the battle through my head, I was never able to come up with a winner.  It then hit me that Cookie Monster and Santa, being the kind souls that they are, would probably end up sharing the cookie.

-Enjoy

Throughout the internet this word is over-used and has lost a lot of it’s true meaning, but the serving size of the meals at Harold’s Deli are EPIC!  If you don’t believe me then Google “Harolds Deli” and check out the images for yourself.

The place was packed last night.  Most people at my table ordered the corned beef sandwich.  That would be the glorious mound of meat in the picture above.  My wife had the turkey and swiss sandwich.  This thing would feed a family of five.  Needless to say we have left overs to get us through the new year!  I had the bacon cheeseburger.  It came loaded with what seemed like a side of bacon.  Although it didn’t look all that impressive, it  put up quite a battle.

Lastly, we ordered the chocolate mousse cake.  Again, huge!  When all was said and done, I think the knife and fork got an equal workout when it came to making our way through all of the food.  We don’t go here a lot, but when we do it is….EPIC!

Last weekend my family visited Hershey Park to checkout their “Candylane”.   Candylane is the winterized holiday experience at Hershey Park.  The decor is full of holiday items and lights.  A bunch of the rides are open (not the big ones, but the “carnival” type rides).  What a wonderful day we had.  The weather was not too bad.  The hot chocolate was good.  The kids had lots of fun.

From a photography stand point I went as light as I could.  I had my D5000 with an 18-105mm lens.  That’s about it.  No tripod or filters or anything else.   I captured plenty of images of the kids having fun.  The shot above was really the only shot I stop to take for myself.  I wanted to get some variation of the typical long exposure carrousel shot.  I walked around and took notice of the sign explaining the history of the carousel.  I thought that would work as a good subject with the streaking lights in the background.  I thought it came out pretty nice considering I didnt have a tripod to lock down the camera.  I figured as long as I could read the text on the sign, I would live with a little blur.

Enjoy!

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Sometimes we try too hard to make an image.  Get the tripod. Get the correct lens. Get the ND filter. Get the cable release.  Get into the perfect position.  Lock it all down and make it happen.  Then what do we do? We wait, wait, and wait.  But does all that effort pay off.  Sometimes it does.  However, sometimes it doesn’t.  Then as your slowly making your way back to the car you wished that you had spent more time enjoying the moment rather than fussing with your gear.

I went through this a few weeks ago.  I had gone to my local park to capture some amazing sunset images.  I worked my butt off trying to make something awesome happen.  At the end of the shoot I really had nothing.  I exhausted all of this effort toward making a great image and spent no time enjoying the show.

Then as I was moping back to the car I saw the above scene.  I grabbed my camera and made a couple quick clicks.  That’s it!  No tripod, filter, cable release, etc…  Sometimes we work too hard to make something happen.  Sometimes images can be simple.

I ran into this spectacular view on my way to Dinosaur BBQ.  My initial reaction was to get lined up directly under center and capture a typical symmetric shot.  Man, those get sooo boring.  There is no effort involved in that.  Trying to find a spot to shoot this WITHOUT being perfectly center, now that brings forth a bit of a challenge!  Do I go left, do I go right?  Do I go up or down?  Well I went left, largely in part because that was where the Dinosaur BBQ was so I had to walk over there anyway

You are looking at the underbelly of Riverside Dr while standing on W 125th Street in NYC.  I love the iron, the arches, the straights lines, the curves, and its massiveness.  Probably would have missed it to if I didn’t get my head out of the ground once in awhile.

Through myth, legend, and folklore I have heard nothing but awesomeness about Dinosaur BBQ.  For years it had lived in mystery in my head.  Many of people have told me about experiences they have had there.  They would refer to it as if it had changed their lives.  Could such a food experience truly exist?  This past Sunday I went to find out.

My cousin (and fellow food connoisseur) was visiting NYC for work.  He suggested that we hit the Dinosaur for lunch.  I didn’t even check with the wife on this one.  I instantly said “YES!”  Finally I would have my chance to go face to face with the beast.

We took the subway up to 125th and headed toward the Hudson.  Just before our feet got wet it had appeared.  It was one of those ‘angels singing and lights glowing’ kind of things.  We had reached the mythical Dinosaur BBQ.  It looked exactly as I had imagined.  An old brick buidling meant to handle the toughest of conditions.  A nuclear bomb could explode nearby and this building would probably survive.  We opened the doors and headed in.

Upon entering the establishment I felt tougher.  There was an aroma of smoke and beef. The brick and iron insides were cold. This was a place meant for the tough and grizzled.  You know, a meat and potatoes kind of place.  The place where if you mentioned vegetables they’d throw you out on your a$$.  It was my kind of place

After placing our order I walked around to take some pictures.  I was having a field-day.  There was so much character and if I may, even a little charm.  We enjoyed a nice beer and then our food arrived.   I had ordered the TRES HOMBES.  It was monster of a dish that included Brisket, Pulled Pork, Ribs, Mac & Cheese, Fries, and a Corn Muffin.  I’m exhausted just saying all of that.

Now I have been to many BBQ joints based on people’s recomendations and most of them usually fall way short of expectations.  So how’d the Dinosaur fair?  It is one of the few that actually lived up to the hype.  I’m not a big fan of brisket, but theirs was actually good to me.  The pulled pork was so tasty.  The ribs were the meatiest ribs I have ever had.  Everything was seasoned perfectly.  The blend of spices, smoke, and sauce were phenomenal!

As I mentioned before, not many places live up to the hype.  Dinosaur BBQ definitely did.  Great atmosphere, good beer, outstanding food!  It certainly earns my badge of awesomeness!

Living in Central New Jersey I am blessed with the opportunity to travel in to the city and take pictures whenever I want.  I just happen to not do it often.  Well yesterday I made the trek under the Hudson and into Manhattan to meet up with some family for good food and picture taking.  I will talk more about the good AWESOME food later this week.  Picture taking is the theme today.

In my head was an image that Trey Ratcliffe had taken from Times Square.  I remembered the camera being out in the street.  It inspired me. I didnt want to create the same exact image but I was inspired to get my camera some place other than the usual touristy shots.  Now I have never met Trey, but I do recall a Twitter conversation where we expressed our mutual love for the TV Show BURN NOTICE.  So when I arrived at Times Square I went into “Michael Weston” mode to get my shot.  It went something like this, “You can set your camera up on the curb, but if you get to close to the street a cab could crush your camera along with your dreams.”  :)

So I had my camera mounted to my Gorilla Pod.  I sat down on the curb and set the camera as low as I could get it.  I composed the image and then waited for some cabs to come by.  For some reason when I think if an image of Times Square there has to be cabs in it.  I captured a few frames and that was it.  I took some shots from other areas, but none I liked as much as this.  I then processed the image on the iPad using Snapseed.  It is my favorite processing app for the iPad.

So thanks to Trey for some inspiration and thanks to Times Square for being….well Times Square.  Have a great week everyone.

BTW: If you look close, Spiderman is in the image!

Last night I finally had time to work my local park for some Autumn images.  Colonial Park in Franklin, NJ. I’ve been shooting this park for over 2 years now and it never gets old.  Sure while driving there I had the usual spots in my head that I think I want to go to.  I was gonna setup along the bank of the lake and shoot the sun setting behind the trees.  Maybe I would get lucky and catch a reflection in the water.

Well, as I arrived at the park the sun was pretty much gone.  By the time I got into position and got the tripod setup all I had left was a big ball of yellow glow from behind the trees.  I ripped off a few shots but nothing came of it.  So there I was standing there with a couple of crappy images in the can.

I walked over the small wooden bridge to the other side of the lake in search of the some leaves.  Maybe I could make something happen.  As I continued to walk, the harder it was to make an image happen.  Then I did something that changed the entire shoot.  I turned around! Yep, I simply turned around and took a look back at the bridge.  Between the bridge and the color of the leaves on the tree I knew I had something.  Add in the fading glow of the sunlight and now we got something.

I worked that bridge from every angle.  The shot above was my favorite.  It made me think of an old country town like on Little House on the Prairie.  As I was shooting I kept waiting for Charles Ingalls to ride across on his horse and carriage.

I guess the point here is to always keep working.  If the shot you had planned didn’t work, look for something else.  Practice, practice, practice.  Never give up and continue to work as hard as you can on your craft.