Along FDR Drive from Old Slip to Broad Street

I am still recovering from my experience in the hospital but by Tuesday I felt well enough to try walking as opposed to the painfully strained leg manoeuvre I had created to get me from the front door to the car. This week I grabbed my messenger bag, a Kati roll, and found a seat along FDR drive. Once I had dispatched my lunch, I pulled out my Manfrotto PIXI mini tripod, attached my Glif tripod mount, mounted my camera and strolled the FDR between Old Slip and Broad Street. All images were shot with Adobe Lightroom Mobile.

Lightroom Mobile uses Adobe's cloud to syncs your images (and edits) back to my catalogue in Lightroom desktop.

Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York
Photo Walk Wall Street Broad Street Manhattan New York

Exploring Hopewell

I arrived on time. I've eaten and walked around Hopewell many times, so I assumed it would be easy to find the corner of Mercer and West Broad St. That's where the group had agreed to meet.

I parked on East Broad and walked toward the western end of the street. I couldn't find the cross street, and neither could the residents seated at the Boro Bean enjoying a mid-morning coffee. Someone suggested I continue heading west. Mercer St. might be near the end of Broad at the liquor store. I found the group headed in the other direction and crossed the street to introduce myself.

Hopewell
Hart | Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1/1250 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 100

We walked back toward Model Street, which leads back toward an old railroad station, Hopewell Station.

Along Model Street, we discovered this home with a beautiful garden. When I left the car, I decided to take just my camera and one lens; my Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G. I wanted to have just the minimum needed. But with the 35mm, I was challenged to fit the house and garden in the frame.

Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1/1600 sec at f/1.8 | ISO 100
Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1640 sec at f/1.8 | ISO 100

I decided to shoot a set of images of the house and garden, and then later, I could stitch them together in Adobe Photoshop. So … that's what I did. I used a technique popularized by Ryan Brenziner. I'm still learning how to use it effectively.

Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1500 sec at f/1.8 | ISO 100
Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1/1000 sec at f/2.8 | ISO 100

Hopewell Station is on Greenwood Avenue. The station was built in 1876 by the Delaware and Bound Brook Railroad and added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 22, 1984. It's not a large station, but I could imagine that many of the towns business leaders must have taken that train to New Brunswick or New York City in the past. We explored the outside of the building before walking back toward East Broad Street.

Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1500 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 100

We walked along East Broad Street, stopping along the way to look at some of the items for sale. A few residents had items out for a yard sale. As we walked along, two vintage fire trucks drove by headed to the playground for the Hopewell Harvest Festival.

The Hopewell Harvest Fair is a wonderful event, bringing together residents, businesses, and community organizations for a day of old-fashioned fun and entertainment.

Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1200 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 100

Sports & Specialist Cars is on the corner of East Broad Street and Princeton Avenue. This beautiful vintage car was parked in the same lot as more modern sports cars from Lotus.

We stopped at The Brick Farm Market, where some of us bought lunch and cold drinks. The walk ground dispersed soon after that.

Saturday 27 September, 2014 | Nikon D5100 | 35 mm f/1.8 | 1800 sec at f/4.0 | ISO 100

Duke Farms

Despite severe allergies and feeling tired from another photo event the previous day, I decided to join a group of photographers for a walk through the Duke Farms estate in Hillsborough. I popped one Zyrtec one Singulair, squeezed a mist of Nasonex in each nostril and drove the ten minutes to the estate. Once again, I met with Ed and Prasanna, our leader Loren, and a few other people from my last photo walk.

The first stop along the path was the waterfall feature. On the last photo walk, Ed and Loren had talked to me about Neutral Density filters. I learned that an ND filter is essential for creating that creamy white water look in photographs of waterfalls and rivers. After some online research I purchased a Hoya 55mm Neutral Density ND-400 X, 9 Stop Multi-Coated Glass Filter from B&H to use on my Nikon 18-55mm f/5.6 lens. I used it for the first time today. What do you think of the result (above)? With some trial and error, I took a 20-second exposure of the waterfall at f/22.

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Above is a closer crop of the image.

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I didn’t take many photos on this photo walk. I had too much fun being outdoors and enjoying the company of other photogs. Perhaps I’ll come back in a few weeks when the trees have more flowers.

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Some images were post-processed in Silver Efx Pro and Color Efx Pro.

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