Been kinda slow around these here parts lately. Did get to do some Smallmouth fishing on the New River near Sparta, NC. Fishing was slow, but good company as I was hanging with some of the guys from the Carolina Fly Fishing Club. Been feeling a bit under the weather as I get ready to head out to LA for 9 days. I am heading out to second shoot 2 weddings with my friend Laura. Laura runs an excellent wedding photography business in LA specializing in shooting film (!). We are working on building a wedding book for me so that I can become one of her photographers. I love going out there, I miss LA. Laura and her awesome husband Daniel and their lovely daughter Willa, live in a great neighborhood between Santa Monica and Venice. They have a guest house whose first floor is Laura's office and the second floor is where I stay. It is so nice to just head to the beach and watch the surfers and the tourists. When I lived in LA, Laura and I were housemates, and we lived on the Eastside. So of course we stayed away from the Westside, other than a few trips to the beach. But now I like the Westside better. One of the things I like about LA is how easy it is to be 'green' and to eat healthy. Where I am now there is NO recycling and healthy eating means veggies from a can. In LA, everyone carries their own reusable water bottles, you can eat fresh fruits and veggies on every corner, there are businesses set up for 'green' cleaning of your house. You can drive your scooter without people thinking your doing so because you got a DWI! Oh, and I can play poker in LA!!

Growing up in Freehold, when some one says "hey, we're going to the market" it only can mean one thing, the Englishtown Flea Market, officially known as the Englishtown Auction. It is where you went for food, cameras, fruit and veggies, cheap tee shirts, cheap gold, junk, junk, junk, junk, junk and more junk. There are 5 building housing stalls that sell everything from food, to bras, to musical instruments, to records, to books, to really anything you could want. There are food stalls everywhere, some so, so, so good and some not so good. You can eat your way through the market with burritos and funnel cakes and snow cones, and mini doughnuts and sausage and peppers, don't forget the pizzas. and the bagels, the bagels are oh so good. There is fresh fruit and veggies, there used to be a butcher, and a fish market, not sure if they are still there. 

There is Walt's Camera's. When I was younger and still in college, Walt's was a place for me to buy gear. My mom bought stuff from Walt all the time and he carried just enough top level gear to keep me interested. He had great prices and some interesting used gear. He would have 100's of lenses and camera bodies stacked up on the shelves behind the small counter, you had to push thru the crowd to get his attention. But when you did you had it. He would talk for hours about cameras. I stopped by his booth when I visited the market over Memorial Day weekend,  it was just a shadow of what it once was. some old musty gear, a few busted up enlargers that would work if you can find the chemicals and the paper to make prints, a board of filters with 1/4 inch of dust on them, a display case with only a few used obscure items in it. Just a victim of the times Walt says, not as much traffic through the market these days and no one wants the old gear anymore.

My friend John V. plays softball on a team called the Woodpeckers. The Woodpeckers has been a team playing softball in Freehold, NJ for about 30 years. John's father, Slick, was one of the founding members. A few other of my friends play on the team also. As the years have gone by, the team has become a mix of original members and their sons. For the last 20 years, whenever I've been in Freehold and there was a game, I've gone to it. There is usually some beer to drink and some trash talking going on. I've come to know many of the players and been to many parties and BBQ's. Years ago, maybe 10 or 12 years ago, I did a series of B/W photos for John V. They lived on his families fridge for many years. When I was back in Freehold this past Memorial Day, John asked me again to take some photos for the Woodpeckers website. Here are some of them.

So, I have been doing a bit of fishing the last couple of weeks. Here are a few trips all wrapped up in one post. All photos taken with the point and shoot, so quality is good to iffy.