Six Flags Great Adventure Wild Safari

Staci and I took Evan to the drive-through safari today. It's late and I need sleep, so here are just a few quick photos.

Evan in Print!

Evan's in a Toys R Us catalog! Check out the bottom right!! Awesome!

Colts Neck Fair

Two posts in one day! Lucky you! Here are a couple of images from my last job of the day, The Colts Neck Fair. Enjoy.

Special Olympics Athlete (Part 2)

I took some initiative and postponed a shoot from a contrived, posed situation yesterday to a more candid setting today. Today's shoot fit nicely into my schedule, and was right by my house, so it really wasn't that big a deal. And it made the resulting images infinitely better. Can you believe my reporter wanted us to go into the parking lot yesterday to "make it look like she's running?" Sometimes I can't figure out what people are (or aren't) thinking. Anyway, these are my images from today, to go with the portraits from yesterday.





The first image is during the training session, with her trainer keeping time in the background. In the second image, she's catching her breath after the training session. Two much better images than running in the parking lot.

Athletes

My first job this morning was to shoot the Asbury Park High School football team during practice. When I got there, however, the coach had no idea I was coming, and had concerns that I would disrupt his practice. So I spent 10 minutes shooting and made my speedy exit, so as not to make a nuisance of myself. I like this image best, shot during a water break.

Players on the Asbury Park High School football team take a water break during practice.

When I arrived at my second job, the plan (hatched by the reporter) was to "go outside and have her run for us." This girl will be competing in track and field events at the Special Olympics in China this October. Since I'm completely against setting up a photo and passing it off as a training session, I asked her coach when the next time an actual training session would be taking place. Turns out, she'll be training tomorrow, and it actually fits into my schedule to go shoot it. So part-B of this shoot will be tomorrow, and I'll post an image or two from that. We still did the portrait shoot today, and while I got plenty of shots of her looking into the camera and smiling, doing her best podium poses, these two more candid moments were the ones I was most pleased with.

Two From Saturday

A local vendor throws another slab of pork onto the BBQ during the Keyport Spanish-American Club's annual Spanish American Festival on First St in Keyport. It was very festive, with lots of good eats.

Sickles Market's annual NJ Peach and Butterfly Release Day. I'm not sure what Peaches have to do with the release of butterflies, but this is almost exactly the image I imagined I would get, so it was a success from my point of view.

Falcons at Jets Preseason

Beating the Heat

I was sent out to get hot weather photos today. I copped out a bit, going to a place notorious for people beating the heat... The beach.

A mother applies sunscreen to her son.

Why burying yourself in the sand at the beach with a rising tide may not be so smart.

Day at the Beach

Yesterday I photographed a wonderful day for a very special group of campers. These campers, all with various disabilities, many of whom had never before seen the ocean let alone swam in it, were treated to a day at the beach by a local Elks lodge. Counselors held the campers' hands as they'd wade into the water, or in some cases, they even carried the campers right into the surf. They played in the sand and also had a picnic, right on the beach. Everyone had a great time.

Monmouth County Fair

I went to the fair today as a dad, rather than a journalist. Staci, Evan and I had a great time. Evan got to feed animals at the petting zoo and he loved it! We ended up not staying terribly long because it was blazing hot and disgustingly humid, but even so we had a great time.

Two New Pics, No New Words...

Both images were shot yesterday.

Free Samples

This photo was shot as an illustration for a story on stores and markets that give away free samples. Unfortunately, this woman wouldn't give me her name.

And Here It Is...

I promised that I'd link you once my football video made it online, so here it is.

DISCLAIMER: Turn your volume down a bit, and break out the Dramamine.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070723/VIDEO03/70723007

Enjoy! (If you can figure out what's going on!) :)

That Sinking Feeling...

After the two days that I just had at work, I could not have imagined a more appropriate photo to communicate how I feel right now... This was shot today during the Braveheart Regatta (a children's regatta in which most of the participants decorate their faces with war paint, a la Braveheart) at the Rumson Yacht Club.

If I Look Confused...

...it's because I am. Video. Not my style. I shot video of the Shore 44 Classic (the Monmouth and Ocean County high school graduated seniors' all-star game) and man was I jealous of the still shooters. The light was perfect for the entire first half. Interesting shadows and a nice orange glow everywhere! But because I was shooting video, a player could go into the light and out of the light on the same play, and it looked like crap. What a great game, too, with Ocean upsetting Monmouth by the score of 11-10. Anyway, my video isn't online yet because of technical issues with the computers back at the office - I gave up around 3:25am. Scared the crap outta the security guard, too. Hopefully in the next few days the video will find its way online, at which time I'll link you. It's a real shame. This is the one game a year where the light is really, really, really nice. During the fall, the night games are obviously played in the dark, and the day games are directly under the sun. Did I mention this light was nice? 6:30pm in the Summer is just beautiful. Ah well, maybe next year. Anyway, it's now quarter-after-four in the morning and my first shoot tomorrow (well, today) is at 10am so I'm gonna go get as much shut-eye as I can.

Photo by Andrew Ong/Asbury Park Press
Man do I need to shave!

Fair Prep

The Monmouth County Fair rolls into town (Freehold) next week, so I was sent out to get images of the fairgrounds being prepared, tents being built, etc. Believe it or not, this is exactly the photo I'd envisioned when I first received the assignment.

All Hail the Queen!

No... Not that queen. Queen Latifah was in Newark promoting her new movie, "Hairspray," and the NJPAC (Performing Arts Center) rolled out the red carpet for her and some of her castmates. They also honored her by giving her a plaque on their NJ Walk of Fame.

It was a mad house, a mish-mosh of press, paparazzi, security, VIP's and fans. And I need to get something off my chest. I hate paparazzi. No, hate isn't strong enough. I loathe them. Let's be honest with ourselves for a minute here... This wasn't all that big an event. The real premier was last night in Manhattan, and "Hairspray" stars John Travolta and Christopher Walken didn't even show up tonight, yet these guys were all elbows and vulgarity. For who? Queen Latifah and Amanda Bynes? Come on... But wait, it gets even better!

Before any of the stars showed up I had the distinct displeasure of waiting along the red carpet with these barbarians. Every other word out of their mouths was unnecessarily inappropriate. "What's taking them so f***ing long?" "We have to stand where? F***!" ... You get the idea. And it only got worse once the stars arrived. That's right, I said worse!

The gimmick was that Latifah and all the other cast members were to arrive via NJ Transit's Light Rail at the NJPAC station. So as they deboarded the train, they just stood there, milling around the station. Well in stead of using their brains or skill to make the best images they could, these talentless ass-donkeys just started spewing profanities at the celebrities. "Get the f*** out of our way! We can't see the f***in' Queen!" And, to make matters worse, it must've been contagious. I'm embarrassed to say I even caught myself screaming for them to look my way once or twice. (Profanity-free, of course.) And then we wonder why people hate photographers.

Once I started screaming, I knew it was time for a change, so I left our pen and roamed, which proved much better for making images. I'm pretty sure the image above is the one that's gonna run tomorrow, and it was made after my departure from Hell.

Anyway, I've rambled enough. Here are a few more images from the event.

Bigfoot Skins Match (Archery)

These guys are just awesome.


This (above) is world-class archer Dave Cousins. (Someone at the meet told me he's the #1 ranked archer in the world, but I didn't get any confirmation on that since it wasn't really pertinent to the story.) It's awesome to watch these guys hit targets the size of half-dollars from 80-yards away. Just awesome. Here are some more images from the Black Knights Bowbenders archery range.



This last image is from a local church's Hispanic-American festival I covered earlier in the day. In the vat are various parts of various pigs that will be used in various ethnic dishes. I'm sure the dishes taste just fine, but the entire area smelled like ... well, let's just say it smelled bad, and attracted many flies. Made a neat image though.

ABCCL All-Star Game

I feel exactly the same way.

Roller Coasters and High Heels

To celebrate 07/07/07, Six Flags Great Adventure hosted seven weddings (or vow renewals) on seven different coasters in their park. This couple tied the knot on the platform of the Batman ride, and their first act as husband and wife (after posing for some photos) was riding the Batman coaster, still in their wedding suits, right down to her high heels. Just when I thought I'd seen it all...

Big Orange Head

Beach!

Subway: Eat Fraud?

Last night, while watching TV, we saw a Subway commercial advertising their new "Super Stuffed" sandwiches and I said, "mmmm, that looks good. I'll have to try that." So today, when I was hungry and had an hour to kill between assignments, I went to Subway. The sign said, "Turn your favorite sandwich into a Super Stuffed sandwich for just $2," so I ordered a Super Stuffed Subway Club. ($4.19 + $2.00 = $6.19) Before the girl even begins putting the sandwich together, she says, "You know that'll be $7.99, right?"

Now I'm not the kind of person who makes a stink over this sort of thing... but come on. How stupid do I look? (On second thought, don't answer that.) So I pointed out to her that the Subway Club is $4.19 and the sign says that I can turn any sandwich into a Super Stuffed for just $2.00 more. The fine print only adds the definition of Super Stuffed - triple meat and a special bread. She tells me that she was told to sell the "custom" Super Stuffed sandwiches for $7.99. By this time, there were four people in line behind me, and of course she was the only sandwich builder in the store for the dinner rush, if there is such a thing at Subway. I hate being that guy. You know which guy I'm talking about, the guy who holds up the line over $1.80. But come on. That's nearly 30% of the price of my sandwich!

She tells me again that this is the price her boss gave her, so I ask to speak with her boss, at which point she says, "Well I hope I don't get in trouble, but that is what the sign says so I'll give it to you for $6.19." I now wonder if she was pocketing $1.80 on every Super Stuffed sandwich she sold. Regardless, I got my sandwich... and let me be the first to tell you that even their Super Stuffed subs are less than, well, stuffed. At least it tasted good.

Playing Outside

New Site!

www.bradpenner.com

Tangerine Restaurant, Philadelphia, PA

This is their executive chef. That's all I've got right now... I know my posts have been few and far between lately, but work's become very hectic so my free time's at a minimum. I'll try harder, I swear. :)

MVA

Yum!

We went to the NJ Seafood Festival in Belmar on Sunday. Had a blast, but the food wasn't exactly of the gourmet variety, if you know what I mean. That's okay though, because the entertainment, weather, and of course, quality time with the family more than made up for it. Evan (as you can see) was quite fond of the butterfly fries covered in liquid cheese. Mmmmm liquid cheese... :-)