The Wedding

I almost never do this, but a friend sent me this and this is worth a serious look:

Water everywhere

Here in the Trenton area in the wake of Hurricane Irene, the water is worse than the wind.

 OK, I did see one big tree uprooted on Rt 130 in East Windsor.

 Further down Rt 130, the highway was covered in both directions leaving stranded vehicles.

 Downtown Hightstown was under water, from Peddie Lake overflowing the waterfall.

From the I-295 overpass, this is Rt 1. Trust me it's under the lake there.

The rest of my pictures from the day, along with many others, are on the Trenton Times photo blog site:

http://photos.nj.com/the-times/index.html

Base ball

Two Sundays ago, I photographed Derek Jeter playing baseball with the Trenton Thunder on a rehab assignment and one week later (yesterday) I had an 1864 "base ball" match played at the historic Brearly House in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. What's Derek smiling at? It better not be the funny uniforms!

Inside a balloon

It was a hot air balloon partially filled with cool air and it didn't ascend into the sky but it was still plenty of grounded fun for a bunch of preschoolers from the Greater Trenton New Jersey YMCA. The Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning and PNC  brought the giant retired-from-flight 75-ft tall balloon to Cadwalader Park to promote PNC's "Grow Up Great" school readiness program.

If you want to see more red, the rest of the photos are here at nj.com

Jon Herington Band at Havana in New Hope

If you don't know the name, maybe you've heard of Steely Dan. Jon's played guitar for them for the past eleven years in addition to being an active working NY musician for many years. I wrote an article for The Times of Trenton about his band's appearance in New Hope. The link to the story appears below after the photographs I took at this most enjoyable show by three consummate professionals.

Dennis Espantman on bass

Frank Pagano on drums

Soundman Matt Marvin breaks down after the show... I mean he breaks down the equipment ;)

Here's the story previewing the show :

http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2011/06/jon_herington_steely_dan.html

Trenton Thunder score walk-off win

I had the assignment to photograph the Trenton Thunder play the Binghamton Mets on an overcast Sunday afternoon and the game was going slow. So slow, this is what I did to keep involved. Can you believe the technique this pitcher has? Nearly identical form on two separate throws.

I thought I had my picture and I could go home late in the game with this tag at the plate, but there were only a couple more innings left and the skies were threatening rain (possible good pictures) so I resolved to stay until the bitter end.

But it instead of bitter, this ending became sweet when Austin Krum, in the bottom of the ninth, with two outs, hit a line drive triple to right field which drove in two runs and earned his team the come-from-behind win, walk-off style. His teammates were pleased. Me, too!

Garden of Reflection in Yardley, PA

Mark Seibert, 10, of Yardley. PA finishes making the sign of the cross after pausing with his mother, Teri Siebert, left at the entrance to Garden of Reflection, Pennsylvania's official memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack, early in the afternoon on Monday, May 2, 2011. An anonymous person had just had balloons delivered and The Seibert's including hisband and father Glenn, not pictured, assisted in placing the balloons at the entrance. Michael Mancuso/The Times

Students from a social studies class at Council Rock High School pay a visit to the Garden of Reflection, Pennsylvania's official memorial to the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack. Michael Mancuso/The Times

Grace Godshalk affixes flowers to the memorial marker for her son, William Godshalk, and hugs a well-wisher (below) late in the afternoon of Monday, May 2, 2011. Michael Mancuso/The Times

Visitor Eric Swanson pauses at the piece of steel from the site, positioned to point in the direction of lower Manhattan. For Swanson, who attended Rider University and lived in Piscataway at the time of the attack, it was his first visit to the memorial. Michael Mancuso/The Times

A spontaneous memorial features a newspaper headline which proclaims the death of Osama Bin Laden with a hand-written inscription "They got him!!! RIP USAF" at the edge of the fountain at the Garden of Reflection. Michael Mancuso/The Times