Month: May 2022

Maison Nicolas

I was curious about the padlocked wooden box with the words "Maison Nicolas".

I was drawn to the pastel colour of the bicycle and the colour of the tyre. I feel that they reflect the colour of the sand and the sky. I was curious about the padlocked wooden box with Maison Nicolas printed on the side.

Is Maison Nicolas a real place? Is it a house of fashion or something else? If it exists, where is it located? What’s in the box?

A Google search using the keywords "Maison Nicolas" and "Asbury Park" led me to the website of Lush Wines - Beers & Liquors which is located in downtown Asbury Park on the corner of Bond Street and Cookman Avenue. The webpage featured a white wine, Chardonnay Vin De Pays DOC Consensus, from a winery in Bordeaux called Maison Nicolas. I was puzzled at first, and then it hit me. The lettering on the bottle of Chardonnay Vin De Pays DOC Consensus matched the lettering on the box. A quick look at my photograph of the bicycle and my intuition was confirmed. The box on the back of the bike is about the right size for a bottle of wine.

So now I have new questions. Are the bicycle and box and art installation? Are they part of an advertising campaign by the winery, Maison Nicolas? Or are they the personal property of a resident who loves wines?

The image was made during my [Saturday afternoon trip to Asbury Park with Bhavna]. There was a distracting sign to the left and an unattractive boardwalk bench on the right. I went for the square crop to remove these and entered the frame to focus on the bicycle. I had read that the rule of thirds can be ignored for square photographs and that entering the subject makes the picture feel more balanced. I don’t remember where I read this.

As I pushed the shutter, a man and his dog suddenly entered the frame from the left. I quickly dispatched both in Adobe Photoshop using the lasso tool and content-aware fill.

Yellow Door

This small yellow-door kiosk is one of many badge purchase kiosks one sees along the boardwalks in New Jersey.

In New Jersey, you pay to access the beach. I was told that the money is used for beach cleanup. Beach passes can be expensive and have made some beaches in New Jersey inaccessible to some year-round residents and low-income families looking for an inexpensive beach experience.

I want everyone to enjoy the beach ~ Lisa Cramp, Asbury Park resident and Founder of the Asbury Park Community Beach Badge Fund

The Asbury Park Community Beach Badge Fund was established by Lisa Cramp when she noticed a trend in the beach area. While working at a bar on the boardwalk, Lisa noticed that many families would wait until after the beach staff and lifeguards went home for the day. Underprivileged families and teens could enjoy the beach for free but ran the risk of swimming in the ocean without professional supervision. Since 2018, the Asbury Park Community Beach Badge Fund has raised over $36,000 towards badges for Asbury Park residents in need.

I remember the first time I was asked to pay a fee to access the beach in New Jersey. I was appalled. In the West Indies, beaches are public property. You can put up a multi-million dollar house on the beach, but if you fence off the beach, you will be fined, but the citizens have the right to destroy the fence to ensure their right of way.

I can’t even imagine how that would work. Imagine a scenario where you are born on the island. Wealthy westerners buy up all the beaches and fence them off. The only way you, the island-born person, can see the beach is via the tourist brochure. I imagine there would be a revolt.

This small yellow-door kiosk is one of many badge purchase kiosks one sees along the boardwalks in New Jersey.