Tag: Blue Spring Road

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Tuesday Photo Challenge – Road by jansenphotojansenphoto

All who dare to enter…

My initial plan was to photograph the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, using a long exposure to create exciting light trails of the vehicles entering and exiting the tunnel. The heavily congested area with a spectacular nighttime view of the New York City cityscape is called “The Lincoln Tunnel Helix”.

I wanted to capture something visually exciting for this weeks challenge. But the logistics of that plan overwhelmed me. Light trails are the best capture after dark, and we are in early summer in New Jersey, which means the sun goes down much later in the day. A late night trip to that part of Weehawken would be challenging given that street parking is minimal and the entrance to the “Helix” can only be seen from one corner at the end of the block on one street in this residential neighbourhood. I set the Lincoln Tunnel project aside for another time.

My backup plan was to find and shoot a scene along one of the historic roads in the area. But as I drove around this morning working through my mental list of interesting roads, I realised that this wasn’t going to work either. All of the roads in this area are narrow one-lane county roads with ditches on either side and no shoulder to pull over, and this being New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the USA, even at 7 AM on a Saturday there is traffic on these narrow small town country roads.

I sat at the computer, feeling disappointed, and looking through my Adobe Lightroom Catalogue, hoping to spark more ideas. None came. I consoled myself with pulling a few images from the catalogue.

This capture of the tree-lined Blue Spring Road was taken in the fall of 2018 a few weeks after the leaves of the trees were starting to change colour. I was out for a walk and noticed the light coming over the hill was hitting the tops of the trees. The trees looked like they were on fire. The only camera I had on me was my iPhone.

The second image below was captured a year later, almost to the day, on my Fujifilm X-T2.

Blue Spring Road—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR

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Tuesday Photo Challenge – Rain by jansenphotojansenphoto (Dutch goes the Photo!)

Rainy day moments!

Feeling bored, I picked up some camera gear and drove out to Duke Farms in Hillsborough. Just a few minutes from my house as I drove along Blue Spring Road, I noticed the pink blossoms on one of the trees. So I pulled over and captured a few images. I just love how all the pink looks against a background of green.

Even though I spend most of it indoors, with a runny nose, and itchy and watery eyes, and I can barley breathe, spring is my favourite season of the year. I grew up in the West Indies where there is no fall, no spring, and definitely no winter. But it’s not summer all year long.

There is the dry season and a wet season. The dry season runs from about February to June while the wet season starts in July and ends in January. During the wet season, there is less sunshine and more rain. Of course, there is also a hurricane season which starts in June and ends in November. Ignoring the occasional tropical rain forest shower, with blue sky weather and warm sunshine, the dry season is an ideal time for the islands.

During that wet season, the rains come more frequently and last longer. The land turns an even deeper shade of green. The islands enter a time of renewal when the fruit trees bear so much fruit — bananas, mangoes, java plums, cashews, plum rose, soursop, sugar apple, acerola cherries, coco plum, guava, guinep, golden apple, papaya, jamun fruit. The list of fruits is long.

Spring in the Mid-Atlantic of the United States isn’t as edible as the wet season in the West Indies but it’s more colourful. I have learned to enjoy the display. And the beer.

Spring is also a time of renewal for me. It’s when I come out of self-imposed hibernation both literally and emotionally. It’s time for me to be outside, go hiking in the woods or on long walks with Bhavna.

I have decided to release the images under a Creative Commons Zero license. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. You can download the images from Unsplash.

Signs of spring along Blue Spring Road
Signs of spring along Blue Spring Road
Signs of spring along Blue Spring Road

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Trees, Leaves, Blue Spring Road, Fall, Morning

The image is a row of maple trees along Blue Spring Road in my neighbourhood. I went out for a 30-minute walk before breakfast and noticed how the morning sun was illuminating the varying colours of the leaves.

The photo was captured with the Adobe Lightroom mobile app on my iPhone 7. I applied an Orton Effect preset to the image in Photoshop.