Posted July 5: It was a great day for fireworks in the NY metro area yesterday. The weather was as close to perfect as it could be, and I had an invitation to my boss’ apartment in Hoboken, NJ, right on the Hudson, right by one of the several barges that would be used to send 40,000 or more shells into the night sky.
I checked out all the mass transit options, and ended up on the train.
Got to see the new Secaucus Junction train station for the first time.
Secaucus Junction
Everybody in Hoboken was partying and enjoying the weather.
Hoboken fountain
The entire waterfront was like a street fair.
Street fair time
The fireboats were out in force on the Hudson.
Fireboat on Hudson
And the best part is when they color the water spray red, white and blue.
Colored spray
Couldn’t possibly have had a better location to shoot from
Great location
Then disaster struck.
The apartment isn’t all that small but I was uncomfortable trying to open and lock the tripod legs inside with all the bric-a-brac around. So I went out onto the terrace — which really IS fairly small — and opened it there… but it’s a tripod I don’t have a lot of experience with, and I apparently didn’t lock one of the tripod leg controls the way I thought I had. I turned back to get the cable release, took a step or two, a gust of wind blew in the direction of the terrace and BAM!! Down on the concrete floor of the terrace. The lens broke into two pieces and the battery door on the camera jammed open so it wouldn’t power on.
The damage
It wasn’t a total loss, however. Not total. But just take a look at what might have been if only I’d been able to shoot with my camera instead of…
… my iPhone…
One shot at least...
Judy’s photographs are extraordinary. As an amateur photographer for many years who eventually quit because I had no sense of composition, I see hers as textbook examples of a sense that I lacked.
I asked her a few years ago why she didn’t submit them to the National Geographic.
Her response was something on the order of “the NG requires resolution down to one molecule, and I can only get it down to two molecules.”
Go figure.
Geez, Ralph… even the iPhone photo?????