Last Sunday I got to photograph country legend Randy Travis at his Mother's Day concert in Trenton at Patriots Theater. Besides being a photojournalist, I do some graphic design and now features editing at The Times and I put him on the cover of our weekend entertainment tab called Good Times so I thought I'd go and see in him in person, too. I'm not the world's biggest country fan, but still a fan. I've never seen a big country star in person and Randy is big and he and his band are damn good and I say that as a fan and lifelong musician. It's always a pleasure to see someone at the top of their game, even if it's a game I'm not good at myself. First, here's the cover:

(I had to give a little shout out to the Star Trek movie opening, too.) And here's from the concert:

Also, I posted some others on a site I'm trying out called Zenfolio. The slideshow feature is nice. (The icon is near the top right.) http://michaelmancuso.zenfolio.com/p472687973/h1d378c66#h1fe486fc

Last Sunday was a real dog and pony show and in the words of Sammy Davis Jr. "And I mean that!" (If you don't know who he is, you're a lot younger than I am.) There was a horse show in Hunterdon County followed by the Trenton Kennel Club's 80th Annual All-Breed Dog Show held in Mercer County Park.


Clockwise from top left, Uli, a bulldog from Manhattan, chills (literally) with a cold compress wrapped around her head waiting for the finals. Hickory, a scottish deerhound and Best in Show winner gets groomed before the official photograph is made and Morgan Mattrioli, 14, leads Hawaii Quinn, a great dane, around the ring during judging.They won 1st place in the Junior Division Open Intermediate.




Now for the equine part, clockwise from top left, American Saddlebred horse named The King's talent is ridden by Julie Butler, of Trenton, New Jersey. Check out the horse's posture. Looks like a real merry-go-round horse. So that's where they get that! Before the show King's Talent is groomed with clippers by Lalo Carroen and finally, Theresa Scott, of Long Valley, New Jersey, shows an American Saddlebred horse named A Magic Surprise.

My boss told me he was going to want me to get a weather photo the next day, but as every National Geographic photographer wannabe knows, the best light is usually around dawn and dusk. So I had three choices, wait until the next day and take my chances with the glaring, overhead sun, wait until the next day and wake up at dawn (?!?) or wait until dusk later that day. It wasn't a tough choice, especially since there are more people around at dusk than dawn. After I went home, I waited a couple of hours and went out "in search of." I soon found a park and a young man fishing in a pond. The dwindling light was right and the soft glow of the lights from a little league baseball game next to the pond even helped brighten up the young lad. I braced my elbows on a fence and made the exposure. I left the horizon slightly tilted as I originally shot it because it to me it looks like the curvature of the earth. In fact, with the blue water and green moss, the pond looks like the earth. The only problem is it's a horizontal and they need a vertical for the cover of a magazine. Doh!

I discovered a previously unkown fact today while at St George Greek Orthodox Church in Hamilton Township, New Jersey. Jesus rose two times. Hey, I didn't say it. A parishoner did, although it was tongue-in-cheek. Today is Easter (the day celebrating the rising from the dead of Jesus Christ) according to Greek Orthodox tradition, whereas the rest of Christianity celebrated Easter last Sunday. Anyway, before there's hell to pay, let me tell you I can't imagine a better church for photography. The iconography, the artwork and the lighting, not to mention the people! Absolutely georgeous! I always feel humbled to be a welcome guest in something as personal to a group of people as a house of worship.

Nothing but blue skies (with the help of a polarizing filter) last Thursday around downtown Trenton.

A section of side wall falls from what was a prison as demolition progresses on the area located behind the Old Mercer County Courthouse on S. Broad and Market Streets.



Warm weather has encouraged flowers to bloom and pedestrians to walk along West State Street near the statehouse.

Mazel Tov! Clockwise from top left; Princeton University student Ethan Ludmir, a board member of Chabad on Campus, holds up the new Torah at a dedication ceremony held at the Rockefeller College Common Room on the campus of Princeton University. Following the dedication ceremony, the new Torah is carried by Zvi Webb (various people took turns) in a procession to its permanent home in the Chabad House, just off campus. A student reads music taped to the person walking in front of him. Later when I asked Zvi for his name for the caption, he gave it to me along with a brief history of Judaism. (I did give him permission to explain what was happening even though I've photographed quite a few Torah dedications. He was a very nice man.)

The American Boychoir and Alumni Choir, eighty men and boys, spanning six decades, present their Annual Homecoming Concert at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 801 West Street, Trenton. Inside the church, with violins and cellos playing and those voices, the sound was beyond understanding.