Explosives!

Fireworks display from July 5th. Bradley Beach and Asbury Park ended up doing their fireworks on the same night! My mother and I headed down to the Ocean Grove fishing pier (what’s left of it) to watch the Bradley fireworks at 9:00, and then turned around to watch the Asbury fireworks at 9:30. I never get tired of photographing explosives!

I don’t feel like/ have time to do a lot of editing, so I’m just gonna crop and resize and post a whole bunch of my favorites. (I won’t even STRAIGHTEN them. Yeah I KNOW. The AUDACITY, the ARROGANCE.)

Oh hey, P.S., I have an Instagram account, which is where I’m uploading casual snapshots these days. Follow me there for updates more often than once a year! (Side note: I have wayyyy too much fun with filters.)

Brass bands

Nothing speaks to the holidays like a brass band! Well, I don’t know how true that is, but brass bands are pretty great any way you slice it.

I found these guys (Chatham Brass) packing up after a gig at the Livingston Mall. I’m mad that I missed the concert, but they were still a friendly bunch of people, happy to answer all my questions. What more can you ask?

Say ‘trees!’

Just a little more festive holiday spirit from Morristown. w00t.

Christmas ball… things.

Morristown has hung these ball-things all over its downtown. They’re very festive, but I’m not sure what exactly to call them. ‘Cos really, aren’t “Christmas balls” those shiny metallic ornaments that end up in holiday centerpieces? If those are “Christmas balls,” then what are these? “Light balls?”

I suppose a quick Amazon product search would yield some solid answers, but I kind of enjoy the mystery.

Choo choo ch’boogie

To celebrate the upcoming holidays, Morristown has a festive little electric train that runs in circles around the Morristown Green on weekends. Isn’t that cute?

The kids think it’s pretty cool, too.

Turkey day

When I was driving my friend Kyle home after a somewhat disappointing hike, I nearly ran over some wild turkeys.

“WHAT!” I cried.

“They’re turkeys,” said Kyle.

I stopped the car in the middle of the road and grabbed my camera from the backseat.

“Are you serious,” Kyle deadpanned.

“They’re WILD TURKEYS!!! I’ve seen wild turkeys like three times!”

“Dude, they live in the woods. They’re as common as sparrows.”

“Not to me!”

Kyle sat there in patient disbelief as I kept shooting pictures of these stupid birds.

“…In the spring, they have babies, and they’re kind of cute,” he conceded.

 

Anyway— Happy Thanksgiving, if you’re in the U.S. and you celebrate. 🙂

Happy Fireworks Day!

I like fireworks!!!

Don’t you?!

Of course you do.

In the United States, we celebrate our country’s Independence Day (on July fourth) by setting off fireworks!

They’re ESPECIALLY fun when you have front-row seats.

Well, technically, there weren’t really any rows or even seats at New Providence’s July 3rd show, per se. Just folks with lawn chairs set up along the town’s main drag, which was closed to traffic for the event.

There was a beautiful empty area of a parking lot where nobody was sitting, so I set up my tripod and laid down and snapped photos to my little heart’s content.

That’s a photo of my forehead. See the little black dots, especially above my eyebrow? That’s firework ash. THAT’S HOW CLOSE I WAS. I shielded my eyes for most of the show, after I felt the first couple ash flakes on my face.

Yeah. SUPER FUN TIMES! I always forget how much I enjoy fireworks.

Memorial Day Parade 4

Remember how I said that most towns have their own parade? Chatham doesn’t! So the Chatham fire department came across the river and tagged along with us New Providincians.

During the closing ceremony, though, they got a call, and had to run— literally.

Memorial Day Parade 3

After the parade, there was a closing memorial ceremony in front of the New Providence Memorial Library. (They also paused to say a few words in front of the Methodist Church [plus its cemetery] and Presbyterian Church [plus ITS cemetery] along the parade route.)

Police were keeping an eye on things. Cars kept driving through the middle of this ceremony, since the end of the parade wasn’t well-marked, and the cars needed to go SOMEWHERE.

Memorial Day Parade 2

Being a former band geek myself, I appreciate marching bands. Even when they don’t start playing until they’ve marched 100 feet past where I’m standing. (I’m not bitter. AT ALL.)

It’s interesting to see what the norm is for different marching bands. This band only fastened the top button of their jackets, and let the back zipper hang open, unzipped. (It seemed a little sloppy, but they were all wearing matching maroon t-shirts underneath, so I guess it was planned. But why not forgo the jacket entirely, and just wear the matching maroon t-shirts?) Plus, a lot of them carried their own little knapsacks/ mini backpacks through the parade. I wish we’d been allowed to do that when I was in band. (sulk sulk sulk)