It's Valentine's Day and that means that the mayor of the City of Trenton, Doug Palmer, born in Trenton himself, will be marrying couples at City hall from noon to 1pm. It's an interesting mix of people who choose this day and this spot to tie the knot.

By the way, Mayor Palmer says he's officiated at over 2000 nuptuals in his career.

Here, the happy couple admires a digital photo taken of them by their daughter.

I had two basketball games to photograph for deadline one night. The first game, girls, Trenton Catholic Academy at Peddie, in Hightstown, was the sports frontpage color which means that had to be filed before shooting the 2nd game. This could never happen without two key components, motor drive and computer. First, I allowed myself the luxury of shooting two quarters at the girls game before rushing to West Windsor Plainsboro at home vs Princeton High where I worked on images from the girls game and filed from the library. Then it was onto the court to photograph one quarter of the boys game and send them from the gym where I had my laptop set up. Deadlines met.

The lighting at the gym at Peddie is way dim, but I hate using flash for sports, so I set my ISO 1t 1600 and shot from high up looking down, so at least the players would be looking up into the lights.

This player, Lakeisha Sutton, provided a nice image as she went airborn toward two of her 30 points. leading her team to victory.

The gym at West Windsor Plainsboro was just as dim, but there's no balcony, so I went down low on the floor.

Just got back from a weekend in the Lancaster, PA area with friends. Downtown Lancaster has a lot going on these day, including a growing art community. There is, of course, a main drag expressway (Rt. 30) with every store and outlet store imaginable cutting a path through the sprawling farmland of Pennsylvania Dutch country on either side. I made this photograph with a very long lens on a misty Sunday morning. (The telephoto lens allows me to be pretty far away.) Although I've never had one tell me in person, I hear The Amish don't like having their picture taken. Maybe I should have asked the hard-working horse.

OK. Now that I look at them all together, maybe it wasn't the greatest idea to combine these four images of recent food-related assignments. Clockwise, from top left, Very Berry Bread Pudding French Toast from The Brothers Moon in Hopewell, NJ, A glass of beer from River Horse Brewery doubles as a tasting-size cup of chili at the Chili Cook-Off 2008 held at Ocasions in Union Square, New Hope, Traditional Iranian food on display at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Princeton and a Polenta festival at Dorothea's House in Princeton, NJ.

Rider University cheerleaders make an appearance in a sports action photo from a men's basketball game where Rider's record-holding rebounder #1 Jason Thompson outreaches Loyola's #13 Dan Ficke for a pass.


Kiara Thomas, 5, joins with the adults to sing "This Little Light of Mine" at services today at Westminster Presbyterian Church where Hannukah, Three Kings Day and Kwanzaa were all celebrated.

From left, Stacie Carr, Julie Coston & David Croft run across the Trenton Makes Bridge from Trenton into Morrisville at dawn on their morning loop which starts in front of Sacred Heart Church on S Broad St in Trenton. The three are part of a new Trenton running club. I enjoyed chasing them around (in my car) at the crack of dawn for one day.

I got them coming and going.

Trenton firefighters douse the back roof of the site of a house fire at 38 Chestnut St. in Trenton in frigid weather.

Kim Davis, holds a shivering "Mittens", one of her cats which was rescued by Trenton Firefighters from the fire.

This is what 96 looks like, at least if you're Elsie Davis, born in Asbury Park, currently resideing in Trenton with her daughter. She was quoted in a story about New Jersey trying to be the first state to officially apologize for slavery. She is descended from slaves. Elsie has had 12 children and can still go up and down steps by herself but told me that after raising all those children, she feels like these days she has nothing to do. It was interesting to hear her perspective. She's thankful every day she wakes up, yet she indicated that she would be alright with it if it was over, only hoping that she would pass peacefully in her sleep.