Favorite Photos: First Half of 2024

…………………………………………….(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on July 25, 2024)

 

 

As in past years, I’m presenting a photo chronology of my work from January 1 to June 30, 2024.

 

I should mention that many of the “click to enlarge” images can take TWO clicks to fully-enlarge.

 

January 1 – Eleven minutes into the New Year, I captured some of New York City’s fireworks in Central Park from my apartment in Hackensack, NJ:

 

Twelve hours later, an annual religious procession (“Our Lady of the Cloud”) comes down my street and ends 3 blocks away at Holy Trinity Church, whose Ecuadorian contingent puts this together (click to enlarge):

 

That evening, there was an ABC-TV broadcast of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s recent 2022 Induction Ceremony. I took this photo during the Willie Nelson induction because the huge image that’s above and behind Willie – along with the same image on BOTH front corners of the stage (one not shown here, obviously) is MY 1984 photo of him:

The Hall had bought another Willie shot of mine that they used at the very end of the broadcast, but they didn’t contact me about acquiring the stage photo until THREE DAYS before the ceremony!

Fortunately, I had already scanned the image so they received it within an hour of their request.

 

January 2 – The little round table in my living room needed spiffing up and TEMU came through very inexpensively!

 

January 5 – This is a very early-sunrise photo that shows the tall buildings of Hudson Yards in Manhattan behind the smokestacks of a PSE&G facility in Ridgefield, NJ – right next to the New Jersey Turnpike:

 

When properly-lit, this is what an iPad looks like after reading an entire newspaper online (Swipe City!):

 

January 6 – Smoking, raining, ignoring………….

 

This is what I see when drivers in the first-floor parking garage in the building across the parking lot from me hit their brakes at night:

 

January 8 – On this hazy early-morning shot, some brightly-sunlit Hackenensack mid-rises are dwarfed by midtown Manhattan:

 

Similarly, some snagged Hackensack balloons are dwarfed by bare trees in Teaneck:

 

This looks like a sleepy seagull behind some Hackensack River structure:

 

Nearby, other gulls hang out, standing in their own poop:

 

January 12 – Somewhat more health-conscious than the gulls, this mourning dove is roof-cooing:

 

January 14 – These are two panoramic shots of a small nearby bank (top) and its drive-thru (bottom) that have since been torn down (and I shot all of THAT, too) (click to enlarge):

 

On the way back home, I took this slightly more-picturesque shot of (l to r): the Second Reformed Church’s back corner, Holy Trinity Church’s steeple and part of a new residential building that’s completely devoid of character:

 

January 16 – Different types of baskets (I like the orange one):

 

In a neighbor’s backyard:

 

Would you like to see those birds doing something?

 

January 27 – I’ve written about my friend – Eric Leefe – many times in my blog. As you may recall, he’s been friends with Tommy James (of Tommy James and the Shondells) for a long time.

Eric has cerebral palsy and has been in a wheelchair his whole life, but that hasn’t stopped him from fronting bands, writing songs and releasing albums.

We try to catch Tommy whenever he plays nearby.

He had a gig at BergenPac in Englewood, NJ, on January 27. Eric’s good friend (and best handler) – John Auli – picked him up in Toms River, NJ, in a wheelchair van, picked me up and it was a short ride to Englewood.

Tommy’s dressing room was crowded (what else is new?), so it wasn’t easy getting his wheelchair next to where Tommy was.

Tommy was happy to see him and – after exchanging pleasantries – I said, “Let’s get some pictures”.

This was the big shot. Both were smiling and looking at me……………so what does Eric do? He suddenly looks away at something/someone else just as I hit the shutter and ruined the picture!

I told Tommy to strangle him………………

 

And if you’d like to see how I did in my only concert shoot so far this year:

                       https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=20500

 

February 1 – “Red Light, Green Light”

This shows a row of parked cars reflecting the light from a traffic signal on State St:

 

February 2 – A history-oriented person who used to live in the area thought I should have this because of my work with the city historian’s site:

Gladly accepted!

 

February 3 – The Empire State Building at 12:00am and at 12:01am:

 

Hard to come up with an appropriate caption for this one:

 

February 4 – Hackensack’s heroes are not hot dogs, so which is it?

 

This place took forever to build, so I’m guessing that the window sign referred to carpenters, etc., and not Bad Ass Baristas:

 

Besides needing a haircut, this clock needs a time adjustment:

 

 

After drumming for years with Motley Crue, Tommy Lee becomes a real…….tor:

 

Standing tall, this Hacky hydrant is ready to douse any fires in upside-down traffic signals that are stuck in puddles:

 

February 5 – I didn’t see this happen, but apparently, the cab of this tall crane got stuck in the back of a truck:

In the second pic, a bus tries to squeeze past and in the third pic, a police car blocks off the lane until they disengaged.

 

After work was started to create this steps overhang, it stopped (click to enlarge):

It looks exactly the same today – over 5 months later. Classy, huh?

 

Every year, the sun begins its northward trek reflecting off Manhattan buildings in the Spring and heads southward in the Fall. If you’re familiar with NYC’s “Manhattanhenge” ritual that’s viewed toward the west, this is what the reverse looks like from the east:

For more details on this reversal: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=6652

 

February 7 – Two days-worth of northern solar movement:

 

February 11 – Our garbage dumpsters are on their last legs (actually, “wheels”) AND the tractor has a flat tire…………….sad picture (click to enlarge):

Time to go for a short walk.

 

This monstrosity on Anderson St is the project that I can shoot the side of from my kitchen, Basically, it replaced a small (and beloved) restaurant called “Rudy’s”. This panoramic picture was my first indication that this place now had a name – “The Forte” (click to enlarge):

Let’s see how long it will be before you hear someone say, “Yeah, I live in The Fort”.

 

This cute, cuddly-looking place is almost across the street from Fort Humungous. I think it’s a restaurant:

What you see in the top picture was gone the next day. The bottom pic was taken a month later. I don’t know what the deal is with the rabbits, but I know what the biggest rabbit there should be called………….Rudy!

 

It’s always fun to take a panoramic picture of this type of crane (click to enlarge):

…………but given the recent local accident history of this type of crane (see February 5), I’d be very worried if that white car on the far left was mine.

 

February 12 – Just around the corner from yesterday’s shot, the same crane is being moved. Fortunately, I don’t see any white paint on its cab’s underside (click to enlarge):

Can you imagine driving that carrier truck through city streets? Yikes!

 

While I was in that neighborhood, I took these images:

 

Car dealership balloons (don’t they just make you wanna buy a Nissan?):

(second one is from 2-24)

 

Wondering where those license plates wind up?

Found on a sidewalk across River Street from the dealership:

 

And across the side street from THAT:

 

Three blocks west of that:

 

One more pic before I go home (back at Fort Humungous) (click to enlarge):

 

February 13 – Only 13 minutes separate these two pictures:

 

February 14 – Love is scary?

 

February 17 – Change in the weather……….. (click to enlarge)

 

Fast-moving sun………

 

Odd window reflections:

 

February 19 – The Rothman Center at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Hackensack, NJ (click to enlarge):

 

February 22 – Liquor store likes its location:

I don’t recall anyone saying that when I lived in R.E.

 

February 23 – Geese

 

February 24 – After a long flight, the men have to use the yard (What? No men’s room?):

 

Your guess is as good as mine:

 

Wild deer fenced in at the Teaneck Walkway by the Hackensack River:

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Same place………….tree looks like it’s all roots:

 

Look at the amount of garbage some slobs dumped by the Walkway! (click to enlarge)

 

Three signs seen along Passaic St:

Note: there is no Thurgood Marshall US Federal Courthouse anywhere in the State of New Jersey (try Manhattan).

 

Frozen bubbles in an ice cube:

 

Variation of the window reflections seen above on the 17th:

 

February 26 – Another project that I shoot from my living room (but not this shot, obviously) (click to enlarge):

 

February 27 – I love shooting moving lights at night. When I saw the fire truck in the parking lot (left), I knew it was going to pull out onto the side street (and go the wrong way on one-way Ward St…………it’s a more direct route to the firehouse) and that the result is what you see on the right (click to enlarge):

 

February 29 – Read the caption:

 

March 2 – Good name choice:

 

March 3 (and 24) – There’s a famous hamburger place about 3 blocks from where I live called White Manna (Google it! Ask Guy Fieri!). I was shooting something else nearby on a Sunday afternoon and saw a big crowd there, so I took a picture.

Three weeks later, I was there again at the same day and time and saw three people there (click!). I don’t know what was happening on the 3rd, but if Mr. White or Mr. Manna ever needs a good publicity shot, don’t pick #2:

 

March 3 – This is an upper view of Hackensack’s Johnson Public Library:

If you’d like to see a semi-humorous guess at what’s atop the weather vane (along with a more serious interpretation), go here: http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,1927

 

This panoramic shot shows most of a block of Main St that’s just north of the library (which you can see on the far right) (click to enlarge):

Some of us old-timers still lament the loss of the Oritani Theater, which was right in the middle of this scene (AND the Fox Theater, which was directly across the street from the Oritani). TWO movie theaters within steps of each other! TWO huge losses!

 

There are two shots taken 10 minutes apart:

The first one is about to fully reflect the sun (I took it because of the chopper) and the second one shows that Hudson Yards still has one building that sun-reflects.

 

Two minutes after THAT, I saw this interesting nearby sun-and-shadows combo from my LR (I’m sick of writing “living room”):

 

That evening, there was a small basement fire in my building. Since we were all evacuated, what else was there to do but document it? (and if you wanna see that, go here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=20570)

 

As I was approaching this intersection, I saw the end of the hose with the water coming out. By this time, there wasn’t much else to shoot, but then I saw the fireman straddling the hose and facing the opposite direction and it just looked a bit odd, so I took the picture:

There’s no humor in a fire, but this shot still puts a small smile on my face.

 

March 5 – Speaking of hoses…………….

 

March 8 – During the March 3 basement fire, the building’s electricity and gas were turned off. Before they were restored, everything in the fridge’s freezer melted, but I didn’t know that until I wanted a frozen fruit bar a couple of days later.

They had melted – separating into their components – and re-froze in their plastic wrappers:

They – and their sticks – would still be usable as is, but I thought it best to re-melt, homogenize and re-freeze.

Still good!

 

March 10 – Three sunset shots…………..sans sun (click to enlarge first image):

 

March 13 – Is this what Springsteen drives? (click to enlarge)

 

March 16 – Dinner!

 

March 18 – The ESB’s lights on this night have something to do with the International Cricket Council:

I know nothing about cricket, but I’m pretty sure I have a relative in the UK who does.

A little background: My paternal grandfather emigrated here from Derby, England. I’ve traced my ancestry back a few hundred years to an area known as Lincolnshire. I even have a relative who was crazy enough to name one of his children “Green”.

There’s a very well-known cricket legend in the UK named Bob Leafe! He played for a team called Cleethorpes. The town of Cleethorpes is located in…………Lincolnshire! Their nickname is “the Lincs”.

There are a lot of Leafes in Lincolnshire. I may very well be related to this Bob Leafe cricketer. I did find an email address for him and wrote him twice, but never got a reply. It’s been sarcastically-suggested that he’s unhappy with me because whenever he Googles himself…………….well, YOU figure it out.

Anyway, that’s why I took a picture of the ESB that night. I hope he sees it.

 

March 24 – I saw this interesting-looking vehicle parked in front of the library and took a picture from across the street. It has a religious theme in its door insignia:

I wish I had taken more pictures of it that day. I DID, however, see it again sometime after that and took photos, but I can’t find them right now. If I DO, maybe I’ll add them.

 

 

Further down Main St, I took this close photo of the top of a former bank that’s been converted to a residential building with an interesting sculpture added to the roof:

I have lots of other photos of the full sculpture, but none are from this angle.

 

This is another project that I’ve been covering since the beginning, but I chose to not feature them extensively here. I liked the ladder and shadow and – of course – the outhouse (click to enlarge):

On the off-chance that someone is even remotely interested in all these projects around town that I’ve covered (and cover), they’re all over http://www.hackensacknow.org – the city historian’s site (which I moderate). BTW – he’s also the Director of Redevelopment for all these projects.

 

March 30 – I’m always trying to get the wheels of these planes that are coming in to land at Teterboro Airport to appear to have landed in some ridiculous place, like this construction tower:

Once in a blue moon, it works.

 

Well, at least the dogs have cool footwear:

 

This is the perfect way to end this month’s photography – a clear shot from my LR of an excited kid on his tiptoes about to catch a big pink ball:

 

April 1 – Remember our falling-apart metal trash containers? They were replaced by the eight heavy-duty plastic ones you see here that have just been put out by the curb for collection. (click to enlarge)

I heavily-saturated the color to make the building addresses (430) look ridiculous. Of course, that REALLY brought out the colors of the Second Reformed Church’s Tiffany stained-glass windows, which look great, but not like this.

 

April 4 (and 20) – The daredevil squirrel and the dumb crow. I have no idea where the squirrel thinks he’s going to land and the crow looks like he’s about to short out his life and maybe half the neighborhood:

 

April 5 – An unusual two-tone cloud covers the entirety of Hackensack Hospital………OOPS! I mean “Hackensack University Medical Center”:

 

April 8,9,10 – OK, this is a biggie that no one asked for. It’s another one of my self-imposed projects that I do just because it’s there right in front of me and no one else is taking these pictures of a church’s roof replacement.

But I’m able to capture little stories/scenes/progressions that only others can judge whether they were worthwhile or not.

But I like them, so they’re worthwhile to the photographer. Let’s see what YOU think.

So – here’s the First Presbyterian Church, as seen from my south-facing back room window:

You can see workers on the southeastern section’s roof beginning the job.

 

Here are two closer and VERY close shots of that work:

 

These are two REALLY close shots of workers ripping out the old shingles (click to enlarge):

 

Two more shots of the workers on the northeastern section:

I picked this shot because of what appears to be a shadow of a worker’s hand on a shingle, EXCEPT as far as I know, shingles are not see-through and the hand has only four fingers! (?)

 

Goof-off time for two workers in the chimney shadow, PLUS a fashionable worker models the shingle/shade device he just manufactured (click to enlarge):

He wears it well!

 

A load of new shingles is slowly brought up to the roof (click to enlarge):

 

Anyone know what this device is?

It appears to have made tiny, V-shaped indentations on the roof. Maybe after an adhesive is applied, it helps the replacement covering to have a better “grip” on the roof? Just a guess………

 

Dumping (and throwing) old shingles away (click to enlarge):

 

Fun and photos on the roof (click to enlarge):

Are those official red-tipped, roof photo gloves the photographer is wearing? And what is the proper headgear for this work? “You MUST wear a helmet OR a backwards baseball cap OR nothing to do your job!”

 

More ripping, dumping and tossing (click to enlarge both):

 

It must be difficult climbing onto an unsecured ladder from a slanted roof WITHOUT carrying a heavy roll of roofing material, so I tip my helmet/backwards baseball cap/curls to this gentleman (click to enlarge):

 

Almost done (top) and carting away the old roof (bottom):

 

DONE!! (click to enlarge)

 

April 9 – I took this shot from my kitchen of the roof (and above) of the humungous Forte project on Anderson St:

 

April 11 – A fly on my dirty window (dirt courtesy of the fly):

 

April 12 – I was on line at the pharmacy at Walgreen’s when I noticed this on the back of some guy’s shirt:

I’m not in the habit of taking pictures of people in stores – ESPECIALLY when there are people on line behind me – so I had to be VERY careful/discreet to get this.

 

April 13, 16 – What idiot thinks this is the way to get something like this picked up by the DPW? Three days later, nothing’s changed (click to enlarge):

 

April 13 – Car wash in the parking lot:

 

This is the reflection of the setting sun on a top-floor window of a building at 417 Main St:

This was taken at about a 10 o’clock angle from my LR window.

 

April 16 – This is Hackensack’s beloved YMCA building, two blocks from where I live (click to enlarge):

My mother took me here in the 1950s for swimming lessons (still can’t swim – fear of water).

On the far right, you can see a “SOLD” sign. Yet another residential monstrosity is scheduled to take its place. And it’s DIRECTLY across the street from the now-gone bank building, whose demolition I was shooting the day I took this picture……and guess what’s going to be built there?

 

April 17 – I’m guessing that this colorful guy now has one-and-a-half wings and can only fly in clockwise circles:

 

Color is courtesy of a tree in the front of the First Presbyterian Church (as seen from the same window from which I shot the roof replacement):

 

April 18 – Face it……….April is a bad month for flying insects around here:

 

April 20 – I’ll bet this is not a dull household:

 

Party animal with inflatable hamburgers and fries:

I wonder what the occasion could be………..

 

April 21 – Manhattan and a plane over NJ coming in for a landing at Teterboro Airport:

 

April 22 – Insect that’s NOT coming in for a landing at Teterboro Airport:

It looks like it’s trying to deploy a parachute.

 

April 26 – Time for another leisurely stroll/photo shoot along the Hackensack River Walkway.

For all you locals, it starts near the Anderson St border of Johnson Park and goes up to Route 4.

This panoramic river shot was taken near where the southern end of the Fairleigh Dickinson University (Hackensack) campus begins. If you look WAY in the distance, you can see the Anderson St Bridge – basically, where I just came from (click to enlarge):

On the left side of the river is the Teaneck campus of FDU.

 

You just saw this in the previous shot. I thought it deserved its own picture (click to enlarge):

 

Two excited mourning doves got their feet stuck in the metal fencing:

(That’s EXACTLY how mourning doves look when they’re wildly excited.)

 

Park lighting captures bugs (click to enlarge):

 

This is the Hackensack campus entrance to the FDU pedestrian bridge to the Teaneck campus (click to enlarge):

 

This panoramic shot was taken at the bridge’s midpoint. The Teaneck campus is on the left and Hackensack’s is on the right (click to enlarge):

 

Continuing north on the Hackensack side, I captured this big smile on a center field fence (click to enlarge):

 

Almost up to Route 4, I was kept from walking into a river inlet by this well-placed stop sign (click to enlarge):

I’d hate to think what might have happened if it wasn’t there (can’t swim, remember?)

 

Having survived that close call, I started heading back south. I hadn’t been able to get close enough to photograph any robin red-breasts…………until this showoff came along and posed……….twice!

 

One thing that I’ve been photographing for years has been this guardrail-eating tree (click to enlarge):

Metal digestion is a slow process.

 

As I was leaving FDU’s Hackensack campus by a parking lot, I noticed the back of a certain vehicle and thought it was worth a shot (click to enlarge):

I made a couple of appearances on the ram.

 

But my favorite shot of the day was…….what else?……..a leaf:

I’m holding it in one hand in the sunlight while taking its picture with the other. The colors are great, as is the veining…………but there’s one other amazing thing I’ll bet you already noticed.

It looks like there’s a smiling bug with big eyes (and possibly a nose) who appears to be happily eating his way through the leaf!

What else could it be?

Sorry, family, but this HAS to be my favorite leaf shot ever.

 

This was a great photowalk.

 

April 29 – Back to the bugs: This unfortunate Morning bug’s parachute didn’t deploy properly. You don’t want to see what happened next:

How do I know it’s a Morning bug? It’s got “AM” on its back!

 

I’m stopped at a RR crossing, saw this engine I had never seen before (or since), had my camera sitting next to me…………..CLICK!

 

Time for May Day(s).

 

May 2A Hackensack police officer and his SUV just below my LR window:

 

May 4 – Some color in the sunlight:

 

I don’t know what these are, but there were four in my basement:

 

May 6 – Two shots of the same guy because he asked for photos with and without the city (click to enlarge):

 

May 9 – Really, Hackensack? How can this be allowed to stay like this on a main drag for more than 10 minutes?

 

A cleaner shot as I approached home. There are FOUR churches in this photo (click to enlarge):

Three are obvious. The fourth is in FRONT of my building (the brown roof to the left of home).

 

May 10 – Some kind of problem up Ward St (the side street between me and the Second Reformed Church):

While the shutter was open, another car (headlights) passed the 3 cop cars.

 

May 14 – Grammar question at Walgreens’ pharmacy:

 

Maybe this is better than what’s in Walgreens’ safe:

 

May 17 – Coolest car I’ve seen on Main St in a while:

 

But this ugly sight still exists a block from City Hall (and Main St):

 

May 18 – Without that bank in the way, I can take slow-shutter shots like this (bus? truck?) turning onto Main St from Passaic St (click to enlarge):

(but only until the new monstrosity goes up)

 

May 21 – Gotta water them bricks so the building grows……..

 

May 25 – They just don’t empty these receptacles often enough:

 

Why is this guy smiling?

Just a guess: because his dogs are about to poop on church property and he doesn’t have a plastic poop bag?

 

May 26 – Now THERE’S a colorful back end of a car!

 

May 29 – Nice parking!

 

Crash landing:

 

I saw this unusual scene from my kitchen (it’s actually four photos stitched together) (click to enlarge):

Two Norfolk Southern(?) engines pulling a large load of wood northward on commuter tracks?

 

A more-recent shot of the Anderson St monstrosity (click to enlarge):

 

This shot was taken from the other side of the tracks (where the above monstrosity is located. It’s where yet ANOTHER monstrosity is planned to be built! (click to enlarge):

The other reason I took this shot is because it shows a sight that won’t be around soon: our Walgreens store and pharmacy – the last local drug store – is being supplied by a Walgreens truck.

Since most of these monstrosities have (or will have) first-floor commercial entities, why hasn’t a drug store been included in ANY of them?

 

A weird side door of a local market:

 

A beautiful shot of the side and back of the Second Reformed Church – my next door neighbor (click to enlarge):

 

Colorful reflections on a wet parking lot:

 

May 30 – Conflicting feelings on the news channels (click to enlarge):

 

I’m not sure, but did today’s news result in an increase in fine rooftop dining? I missed the main event, but somehow captured the after-effects under difficult conditions.

I was in my kitchen and SOMEHOW, I managed to notice something unusual to the very far left – almost out of my field of view and pretty much out of my camera’s view because the kitchen has French windows that crank open to the side, meaning that even fully-open, it was near impossible to get good shots.

But I DID manage to identify the diner from the shots I managed to get – a redtailed hawk! I knew enough about them to see that it was a mature one because its eyes were brown (juvenile ones have yellow eyes) (click to enlarge):

At its feet was what looked like another bird that looked black. I can’t be 100% sure that it was the hawk’s victim or not, but look at the middle image: there are red dots leading up the wall toward the black bird. Those dots weren’t there before and HAVE to be blood.

At this point I HAD to get closer. I DO have my own personal roof door in my back room that would bring me right there, but it’s a noisy proposition to open the large interior door undetected.

I tried my best to be as slow and as quiet as I possibly could, but by the time I finally got it open, the diner had fled (without paying!).

There were feathers on the roof, but they all appeared to be white:

You can see some blood on the left and a puddle on the right that held a bunch of feathers.

 

I took a picture of the area where I thought I initially saw the redtail (and the “black bird”), but the feathers were mostly white and gray – kind of like those of a pigeon:

I can tell you that I know that hawks love to dine on pigeons because I took shots of a redtail tearing into a pigeon in a tree over a decade ago.

 

I saw some whole feathers near me, so I took closeups so the bird type can be positively identified:

 

Unfortunately, this is the shot of the evening:

I sent the pix to a birder I know, but never heard back from him.

 

So I’m disappointed that I wasn’t in my kitchen earlier to witness what went on, but at least I have some evidence of what transpired.

 

On to June………..

 

June 4 – Another angle of the Main-Berry-State-Camden Streets project (MBSC) near me:

 

A nice shot of the First Presbyterian church’s steeple, an active bus stop and my apartment:

 

June 5 – Four shots looking straight down from my LR window of an arm/hand of two women in a car (smoker in the back seat, gesticulator in the front) (click to enlarge):

 

June 7 – Guess who has a beauty academy near his apartment?

 

I saw this while stopped at a light 2 blocks from home:

This should NOT be anybody’s idea of New Jersey. The Nerds were a popular local band eons ago – I’m surprised they’re still around. I’d be more surprised if anyone attended this festival as a result of seeing this sign.

 

Interesting sunset:

 

June 8 – I’d like to tell you that these are two choppers in one shot, but I’d be lying about both things (click to enlarge):

 

June 9 – The entire bank property is cleared (I’m pretty sure I didn’t parachute in and I think I see a small fence opening on the right by my watermark) (click to enlarge):

 

The triple cross at sunset:

 

June 10 – The church is St Joseph’s in Bogota and the high-rises overlook the Hudson River in Cliffside Park. There is an entire valley between them!

 

These cars were not parked next to each other on this day, but they belonged together, so I made it happen (click to enlarge):

 

June 11 – The next day, I thought I’d get a shot of the big tough-guy driver:

………and I was right! (hey – she’s got ink!)

 

June 13 – I’ve seen people shading themselves from the sun with an umbrella before, but I’ve never seen an umbrella get blown inside-out unless it was pouring rain (and the person got soaked):

 

June 14 – A very important photo evening! It had rained, so when it stopped, I decided to start off with a look to the west – to a pretty nondescript (dull) photo of the triple crosses:

But just 14 minutes later, look what I shot to the east! (click to enlarge)

 

I noticed something in that image that I wanted to see a lot closer. The rainbow appeared to land just to the left of the Empire State Building!

 

It dawned on me that with all this bright light around, I’d better make the 15-step trek to the kitchen to check the western sky…………and boy, am I glad I did!

These are 3 images of the SAME shot – I just cropped it to zoom in closer and closer.

Let’s start with the original:

It looks like there’s a widening laser beam coming from the horizon and reflecting off the wet roof (those annoying awning frame bars were finally torn down two weeks ago……too bad it wasn’t pre-June 14).

 

For this one, I cut out the roof. It really looks like there’s some artificial light source projecting that beam:

 

Finally – the ultimate crop. I have NEVER seen anything like this in my 36 years in this apartment (click to enlarge):

It’s beautiful, but looks completely artificial

 

And check THIS out! Just TWO AND A HALF MINUTES LATER, I zoomed in on the triple cross and got this:

 

And just THREE AND A HALF MINUTES AFTER THAT, I got what looks like what’s behind the gates of Hell!

(and on highly-religious crosses!)

 

I hope everything after that doesn’t look TOO boring.

 

 

June 15 – But it does (YAWN!):

Bugs on my LR window………….big whoop.

 

Nice skirt………….

 

June 16 – I need to go for a walk. So what’s the first thing I see? Two skinny chicks having a yak on Main St:

 

IN and OUT (the changing face of Hackensack that ISN’T residential)

 

IN: Target (replaced Packard’s years ago)

IN: Safelite (replaced Sears Auto Center)                   (click to enlarge)

 

OUT: Bruce the Bed King (it says “Since 1954”). Actually, the while block of businesses are gone………..AND GUESS WHAT’S GONNA REPLACE THEM!

OUT: Sears (It’s been there since 1932 and no one ever notices this ugly side).

(click to enlarge)

Hackensack wants to keep the structure. The owners say it’s up to them (the owners) – not Hackensack.

 

While I was on the Safelite property, I saw this sign:

Sorry, but written illiteracy doesn’t make me smile.

 

At least there was a nice balloon to see on the way home that was semi-smile-worthy:

 

I closed the day’s photography with a nice triple-cross sunset:

On a related note: I’ve always noticed that from my perspective, the sun sets way down south toward Essex Street on the Winter solstice. I wasn’t sure how far north it set on the Summer solstice, but it was somewhere in the vicinity of the triple cross.

 

June 17 – This is the Middle School’s field. I think this was a setup for graduation ceremonies:

 

Somebody wanna explain this to me (or should I send it over to the beauty academy?):

 

June 19

 

Guess where I was to get these closeups:

I was in my car in the parking space by the fence of the Second Reformed Church, shooting through my windshield.

 

This was the only other sunset shot I got before the Solstice (ONE day before), but it was too cloudy to even see the triple cross (and completely cloudy on the 20th):

 

June 22 – Interesting outfit:

 

Is that a rubber mallet in his hand?

Strange thing to have on a dog walk.

 

June 25 – From a distance, I had no idea who or what he was holding:

 

June 26 – Usually, this means that the gate is stuck, but then the gate is fixed and goes up and down as it normally does:

But this was the last time I saw a gate there and it’s now a month later. Oh, well……….not my problem.

 

Well, this is different………….heads galore!

 

Why is that woman on the left holding a baseball bat?

(I have a good/bad thought in my head)

 

Omigod, I was right! I have to get this one shot timed right:

Not bad, but if I had time to think about it, I would have shot video and made stills from it. Of course, a better pitch and swing might have produced a better result.

 

Later that evening………….

 

June 28 – I like this shot:

I just happened to see this from the rear parking lot.

 

June 29 – What’s THIS about at 12:15am?

 

June 30From my LR, I could see something on a car that was partially-blocked by a tree branch, but it was windy and whatever-this-was revealed itself for split seconds here and there. A little timing got me the image. It said “9GensoSiety”. A Google search brought me to the bottom image:

Kind of a cool-looking ride, right?

 

So much for June………..

 

 

Well, kids…………..my biannual nightmare of putting this mess together is finally over. Did anyone make it all the way through, including the stories?

 

Whether you did or didn’t, thanks for looking.

 

And because the next-to-last post said it’s after 12:15am (shot on June 12, BTW), there’s only one more thing left to say:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                     OOOPS!!!

 

Of course, the day after I sent out the document that took most of a month to prepare, I realized that I never checked the image files for the blog posts I sent out from January to June.

 

I have a dozen additions to make, but I’m hoping you won’t mind too much because many of them are better than what you’ve already seen (he says modestly), so – chronologically – I give you the Delayed Dozen:

 

January 15 – Dazzling artwork in tiny Union Street Park (click to enlarge):

 

 

February 13 – You can’t see this, but you can “see” someone walking to their car, cleaning off the snow, driving out of the lot and making a left onto Ward St (click to enlarge):

 

 

February 15 – Tiny Manhattan is under a crazily-streaked sky (click to enlarge):

 

 

March 14 – My car gets super-stretched-out in a DMV Inspection Station (and it still passed!) (click to enlarge):

 

 

 

March 26 – Death and destruction………….well, destruction…………..at a bank demolition that I shot from my living room:

 

 

April 5 – Cassette-Guardian Noids are shown in my apartment before and after today’s New Jersey earthquake:

 

 

April 8 – These are the protective eclipse glasses that I held in front of my camera to get the images of the sun that are shown in its lenses:

 

 

And these are the three best unprotected photographs that I took during the eclipse as the sun passed the weather vane atop the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church on my block (click to enlarge):

And thanks once again to the Jeanty family for letting me shoot from their property, two doors down from my building.

 

 

April 16 – More bank destruction, but from on-site and NOT from my living room (click to enlarge):

 

 

May 4 – The joy of a little girl flying a kite…………… (click to enlarge)

 

 

June 11 – Interesting “yarn bombing” in next-town-over Maywood’s main commercial district:

I still think the middle image looks like a duck from behind.

 

June 13 – The moon sets behind Hackensack buildings:

 

OK – that’s it (until the next forgotten find).

 

 

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