The compression effect of a big telephoto lens (600mm) helps tell the story of how crowded the beach was on August 11 in Ocean City New Jersey.

Hello! Click the link to see a slideshow of the one-week long 500-mile charity bicycle ride from Rutland VT to Trenton NJ to raise funds and awareness for the Anchor House, a shelter in Trenton for runaway and abused teens. I'm too smart/lazy to pedal. I just drove along. This same content is also on my wedding website where the images are larger. www.MichaelMancuso.net

What rare and exotic animal is this? It's neither rare nor exotic. It's just an abandoned kitten temporarily housed in the Ewing Township (a suburb of Trenton) Animal Shelter, while it awaits its fate, adoption or perhaps euthanasia. Employees at the shelter have charged that a number of cats were euthanised at the shelter without proper protocol being followed.

While the writer and I were there, Gayle Hobson & her daughter Sara Hobson came along. They got help from shelter employee Amy Mostrangeli, right, in wheeling out 14 cats which they are "fostering" (keeping until homes can be found).

Here's an update on the Anchor House photos. They're now all together on my wedding website in a separate portfolio called "Anchor House". Clever, huh? Goto www.MichaelMancuso.net and navigate to Anchor House and simply click on the first photo. Have fun!

The Anchor House Ride for Runaways is back! Back from a full week of cycling 500 miles from Rutland, VT, to Trenton, NJ. I'm too smart/lazy to actually cycle, but I documented those who did. I've been blogging for The Times throughout, so if you'd like to re-live the week (in pictures), I'll send you to that site, confusing as it is to navigate :( http://blog.nj.com/times_anchorhouse/2008/07/ When you get to this page, scroll down more than halfway toward the bottom until you see my posting titled "And they''re off!" That's the first day. From there if you scroll back up, you can pick out my entries because they are titled with the day, as in "Day Two: Heavenly harmonies", "Day Three: What's wrong with this picture: "Day Four...", etc. Good luck.

Hello Anchor House riders, family & friends! I want to thank veteran rider and photographer Martin Griff for his introduction and express my humble appreciation that I will have the honor of documenting this year's ride. Until I get my act together, I am posting my photos leading up to your departure from Waterfont Park, right here on this blog for now, even without captions, but after today, I expect to post regularly on The Times blog myself, or with Tim Quinn and/or somewhere else where the images can be viewed in a slideshow format, somewhere where it will be easy and intuitive for you & your families and friends to view them... I hope.

Friday 7-11-2008 Support van loading...

Saturday 7-12-2008 Departure from Waterfront Park...

Mikai Barnes,8, of Trenton gets help with her backstroke from Njeri Grubbs, at the pool at Hetzel Field, one of five city pools open this summer. I made this photo using one of my favorite tricks, putting the camera on a monopod (a stick) and holding it out to get an angle I couldn't reach otherwise, so until I master the art of floating over a pool, this will have to do.