Charlie Fineran has a lot of “favorites” and occasionally he shares many of them with us here in Inside Warren.

It is December 10, 2022, Saturday morning and I am pondering, “What will my Photo Of the Week article be about?” Driving over to get my coffee, I remembered a conversation I had with Dan Hirshberg when he asked, “Do you have any favorite photos?” He follows with, “Maybe showcase some of your favorite photos in Inside Warren.”

I’m back home and on the computer when I just sit back in my chair and begin to mull over, “MY DEFINITION of a favorite photo!” I don’t know about you, BUT, for me, the word FAVORITE covers a lot of territory. OR, maybe I should say, “The reasoning behind why it is a favorite photo covers a lot of territory.

OK, after some back and forth mental discussions I decide to peruse the dated sections of my archives and when a photo ‘Jumps out at me and catches my attention’ I will write a short memo about the photo and see how that operating procedure works. NOTE: The dated section of my archives is where I store my photos by year and month taken. They are not ALL the photos I took during that time because usually if I create a special album of photos I ‘cut’ from that month’s photos and paste them into a specific album. Just an Example:  July, say I took 100 photos of various trips and subjects. I might cut 10 hawk photos, 20 site visit photos, 6 bear photos, etc. etc. Whatever I don’t cut is left in the dated album.  OBSERVATION – just because I didn’t cut and use these remaining photos does not mean they are not good photos. I just did not select them at the time for what I was working on!  Another good example of this way of archiving occurs if you take museum collections where there are a lot of artifacts stored that have not yet been evaluated. Hope this makes sense! Same way with personal letter collections, many of the saved letters have not been read yet!

Are you still with me?

MOTUS OPERANDI

I just happen to pick September of 2018 and begin to peruse the photos there. I immediately remember several of these photos! I had used them for a Facebook article or email presentation but hadn’t copied and pasted into their own album. OK, I think I have found an interesting way to present some unique, interesting or at least different photos. I will use the subject title, “Right Place + Right Time + Took the Photo = JUST DIFFERENT” to present them to you as a group and then elaborate on each photo individually.  Let us see how this works out!

FIRST PHOTO – Now You See It  This photo was taken by my house along Youngs Island Road at 7:37 AM on a damp cloudy morning.  The dew had exposed many items that were otherwise invisible. This spider’s web amid this hoop caught my eye! I actually did a complete Facebook article showcasing how the dew made many items visible.  Visited this same place later in the day.

SECOND PHOTO – Now You Don’t  Same place as first photo but later in day 12:45 PM when sun dried up dew

THIRD PHOTO (featured above)– This photo was taken on September 3, 2018 at 11:21 AM. This was just one of many photos I took at a Farm Garden. Drove by the garden, stopped, parked and camera in hand walked among the flowers taking photos of all the beautiful flowers! Doing this type of tour I like to have photos of the overall garden site/sight and also some closeups of the individual flowers. What caught my fancy here was you usually expect to see a bird, bee, butterfly – not a grasshopper! Again, maybe it is just me but I thought this was kinda different.

FOURTH PHOTO – A one antler buck in the group. This was taken at my friend’s backyard in Allamuchy on September 15, 2018 at 6:04 PM. We have all seen deer with one antler, nothing rare, happens etc. But, when you get a groups of bucks together with some pretty impressive antler displays on each, the one buck really kind of steals the show and stands out!

FIFTH PHOTO – Different perspective of a Red-tailed Hawk.  This photo was taken along Youngs Island Road in Allamuchy, NJ near my home on September 24, 2018 at 9:31 AM. I had a whole series of photos on this Red-tailed Hawk. What caught my eye with this and those other photos was the fact I could position myself underneath him looking up. AND he allowed me to watch him preening his talons!  Usually I have to photo shoot myself closer to these hawks hoping they don’t fly away before I get closer. That is usually what happens! THUS I consider this for myself to be a neat shot along with all the others.

After reviewing the above photos and remembering the circumstances that caught my eye in the first place, while I might not classify them as FAVORITE, BUT I think they certainly represent the words “Just Different, Interesting etc., etc.”  BOTTOM LINE – Think about this. Every one of these and all my other photos – something caught my attention, spiked enough interest for me to grab my camera (which is always close by) and snap a photo!AND as is the case with Photo number two, actually go back for a comparison photo! Sounds pretty fun and interesting to me. How about you?

After doing this article, I am going to start looking through my other albums. I have quite a few interesting/different photos waiting to be re-discovered!!

Enjoy Your Open Space

Charlie Fineran  

Director Open Space   

Allamuchy Township Environmental Commission – Chairman    

Allamuchy Historical Society – President