kevinnowak.com

Patriots Sunday.

Since we now reside in "Eagles Country", [apparently it's state law around here that every other house hang a large banner out front that reads "Eagles Country" just incase you forget where you're at] it's hard to watch every Patriots game on TV at home, since they don't play them a lot on network television.  As a result, we typically head to a  bar with Jackie,Vince  [both huge Patriots fans] and Sophia [a Patriots fan in training], and sometimes Renie [not a Patriots fan, but a good sport who comes anyway!].  Watching a Pat's game at a bar isn't an ideal situation, because I can't hear the audio and follow along as closely as I want, but I really don't have too many options, so we go.  Typically we cause a scene asking for a good table, a spot where we can see the Patriots broadcast, and usually a couple special requests for the baby.  But hey...we're usually camping out for 4 hours, so we need to be comfortable!  Here are a few shots from this past Sunday at a bar call the Landmark.  It's funny to see our table covered with beer bottles and baby food...we get some odd looks from people! 

     

     

     

     

     

    

Fall Ridin'.

You can't beat this time of year for some good riding out on the bike.  Granted the mornings are a bit cool, but once things warm up it's perfect out there.  I took advantage today and hope to do the same tomorrow [before the Patriots game of course!]

A few shots from todays ride...on the bike and then after-wards, sans the helmet.  I look like a mosquito in that photo with the sunglasses and noggin-warmer on!

     

For those keeping score at home...I'm now up to 2,201.41 miles for the year.  Reaching 2,500 isn't going to be easy, but hopefully I can still make it before December 31st!
  

Ashley

Nothing says "Fall" more than football and pumkins, so why not combine the two and throw in a cute baby?

     

Not sure when Patriots cheerleader tryouts are...but she's got my vote!  The other photo was taken inside, and doesn't really speak to "Fall" like the other one, but I figured I'd throw it in for good measure.  Hey, it's my site, I do what I want! 
  

Playtime @ the Playground!

A few weekends back I had the opportunity to take some photos of 3 great kids..Sammy, Joey and Mia.  I met them and, their parents of course, on the playground at Scotland Run Park in Clayton.  It was a perfect fall afternoon to do this and the kids were really well behaved, even smiled on que.  We mixed it up between group shots of all 3 of them and play time on the jungle-gym.  That, and the fact they were bribed with ice-cream after-wards if they were good, helped things go very smoothly.  We did have to compete with a birthday/halloween party going on [totally didn't anticipate that happening], but Kelly was with me so I just had her kick the other kids out of the way!  Click on any image to enlarge:

     

     

     

     

     

       
  
     

     

  

The little one, Mia, was a riot...she had that tongue out all day long.

So there you have it...a quick little recap of our shoot [and by quick I mean this is only a fraction of the 500+ photos we snapped].  It was a lot of fun and great to meet such a wonderful family. 

Let me know what you think! 

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So far this little photography side gig is going well.  I've done a number of shoots, put a few dollars in my back pocket, and already gotten a few referrals from people.  So far, so good.  I had planed to buy a new point and shoot camera, to replace a horrible little Olympus we have, with some money I had made the past few weekends.  That plan got scrapped when the night before the photos you see above I was checking my gear only to realize that my SB-600 speedlight had passed away.  It was nearly 4 years old and had fired thousands of times...but it would fire no more for me.  That left me scrambling to find a replacement before the next morning.  I had to rush to a Ritz Camera in Delaware before they closed and drop a nice $225 bucks to replace it.  You win some and you lose some and a new point and shoot will have to wait a bit longer.  

50 States Print.

A bit more news/update on the 50 States project you've heard so much about here on kn.com.  A few months ago I came across a new printing company called BayPhoto [they're out of Santa Cruz, CA; hence the Bay part of BayPhoto] in one of the photography mags I subscribe to.  They had an interesting product called a Metal Prints that seemed very cool.  It was hard to tell from the ad what the finished product would look and feel like...so I ordered a sample.  I've been continually searching for a good way to display the 50 States project once we buy a house of our own.  I know that I want it to be BIG, but just wasn't sure what the best medium would be.  I've used the GalleryWrapsfrom Mpix for the one that Deb ordered, but I think this Metal Prints thing may be the way to go. 

  

This is what the sample looks like.  I guess you really need to see it in person because it's really hard to tell that the image is in fact printed directly onto a piece of metal.  The 30"x40" size MetalPrint costs nearly $300 clams so I figured a small 8x10 sample would make sense first.  Now that I've seen it I think I will used one of these for the final product down the road.  They even provide mounting hardware that allows the image to be "floated" about a 1/2" off the surface of the wall.  Should look pretty good! 

Now we just need a house.  Oh, I guess I need a job before that happens! 

We're off to Boston for 5 days.  Have a grand Halloween and we'll catch you on the flip-side.  Be sure to tune in on Monday for great post of some photos that I took last weekend of some children. 

Jose's Brother?

Last weekend we went out with a friend of mine from college, Natasha, and her fiance Pete.  They suggested we head over to a Mexican joint they liked in Old City.  Since when do Kelly and I turn down an invitation like that?  Especially considering we're trying to find a replacement spot for Jose's.  Well, I'm happy to report that Mexican Post may be Jose's long lost brother.  The place was simple, the decor understated, and the food was perfect.  Exactly what you want in a Mexican restaurant.  We ate at a place over in Collingswood, NJ a few months back called The Tortilla Press, but it was one of those places that tried too hard.  And you all know, with Mexican the key is to keep it simple.  So I think that Mexican Post may be our new go to spot! 

After dinner we dipped over to The Plough for a few drinks and to chat some more.  It was funny though, once the clock struck 11 the place seemed to instantly go from chill bar scene to a bass thumping club.  And thus we felt very old very quickly!   

     

It was great to see Tash and to hang out with Pete a bit more.  Plus we discovered two more great places in Philly. 

Sticks and Stones.

I wanted to fill you all in on a cool company that Kel and I discovered recently called Sticks and Stones.  They are a a family run outfit that makes custom alphabet photography keepsakes.  Basically your last name spelled out in photographs of found objects that make up letters. Click that link and you can see for yourself.  Or better yet, check out this one that Kelly and I got for Tommy and Heather as part of their wedding gift.

    

   [please pardon the crap-tastic quality of the cell phone image] 

Like I said, each one is custom made, by hand, and the quality is top notch.  Even the packaging they send the final product in is impressive.  That being said, they're not cheap, but they're well worth it and make a fantastic gift idea. Or better yet...a nice addition to your home? 

Check out the site...laying out your last name can be a lot of fun with the various options they have for each letter.  I've actually thought about doing one myself...but of photos that I take.  We'll see...it would be a lot of work to search out the letters and make them interesting enough to use.  I guess that's what these guys are here for...they've already done all the hard work!

da plane, da plane.

The other day I took some time on my lunch break to head over to Red Bank Battlefield, not too far from the office here [for those who don't know, I'm lending a hand at Kel's moms company for the time being].  Every day on the ride to and fro work I can see, and hear, the planes overhead that are bound for PHL, just across the river.  The airport is probably about 3 miles from here as the crow flies, but a good 25 minute drive away because you need to utilize one of the bridges over the Delaware River. So I decided to move in a bit closer to investigate, and to get some interesting photos. 

Red Bank is a beautiful little park and historical site right along, you guess it, the banks of the river.  It was home to Fort Mercer, a key outpost for the American's during the Revolutionary War.  It was a nice afternoon that day so the place was teeming with people out enjoying the nice weather. The park has great vantage points of the city and of course of the planes landing at PHL, directly across the water.  The funny thing about the Park is it's location/address.  It's in a town called National Park, NJ...yet there are no national parks there.  Kinda odd, right? 

Below are a few of the shots I took, mostly of the planes.  You'll also notice a few people out on speed boats, some great wildlife, a hazy looking Walt Whitman Bridge, a few large commercial ships floating by and even "Big John", mothballed across the way.  All sorts of activity in and around the water.  There are also a few shots of the park/battlefield itself.  Most notably the Whithall House and the Fort Mercer Monument. 

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

       
    [the usual drill, click to enlarge]

So...check out the Red Bank Battlefield park.  Bring the kiddos.  Pack a lunch. 

Blurb Book.

After about a week in "production" our Blurb book finally arrived today.  All 196 pages of it!  I'm so happy with the final product.  Everything is top notch.  Binding.  Paper. Image quality. The whole 9 yards.  All of this for around about $115.  Sounds like a lot, but this book really captures our entire trip and will be a nice way to show people what we did and to have something to look back on for years to come.  Heck, the book has nearly 500 photos in it so even if you got them printed at CVS for 19-cents a pop you'd still be spending that kind of money and not get a nice little photo book like this. 

The Blurb software was easy to use and I was even able to create a few custom templates to help the layout a bit.  I actually did a good portion of the title and text pages in Photoshop and then imported them in so that I could have even more control over how the final product came out.  I had wanted to use the "premium paper" option that they have, but since we were over 160 pages that wasn't an option.  Oh well...maybe on the next book I make? 

Total project took about 2 weeks.  1 week of me designing it [with input from Kel] and then 1 week for the Blurb'ers to print it.   

Below are a few photos of the book of photos.  Woah, that sounded funny.  Is that even legal?

     

     

       

    [as always, click photos to enlarge]

What do you think?    

Overcooked on the Farm.

The rain here has finally let up after about 4 days of cold, wet, nasty-ness.  Thank god...maybe I'll be able to get out on the bike sometime this week? 

Anyway...this past Friday was particularly bad down here at the farm with all the rain and wind.  Lots of the roads were flooded out in the area and the water was ponding everywhere.  One guy ,with an old car, [and presumably bald tires] took the turn out in front of the house a bit hot and ended up overcooking the whole thing and slid into the field across the way. 

     

   

   

I was up at the office with Deb and Steve [ironically helping out on a 9-1-1 project] but Kelly was here and actually called 9-1-1 to make sure the guy got help.  He was fine but I think he snapped an axel as he went over the curb.  Not good.

[all photos by Kelly]

The Market.

Several weeks ago Kel and I ventured into Philly to check out Reading Terminal Market.  We'd heard a lot of good things so figured it was worth the trip.  For those who don't know, it's right across the street from the Philly Convention center.  The market reminded us a lot of the markets we've seen recently throughout Europe and is really nice to have so close.  All the meat, poultry and fresh produce you could ask for in one place.  We stocked up on some meat, but next time we go we really need to bring a cooler so we can get stuff back here to the farm [it's like a 55 minute drive for us to get from here to downtown right now!] The cool part about this market is that they have a lot of prepared foods and even a foodcourt to sit down and eat.  That's something that very few of the markets across the pond had. 

Here are a few photos to help give you a little flavor of what its like there...

     

     

     
     
     
     
     

       
   
Several items of note:  How about the size of that jaw-breaker and the shrimp?  Where do you even start with a jaw-breaker that's ?  And those shrimp are $24.99/lb...meaning all the shrimp you see in that photo probably cost around $250 bucks! 

Another small fact, [Ciff Clavin style] Bassett, one of the oldest ice cream makers in all the land, had their main farm here in Salem, NJ back in the old days.  Little ole Salem, how bout that!

Next up in terms of places we want to visit...Eastern State Penitentiary.  Anyone been there?

Sinking house?

I'm no structural engineer...but something tells me there's a decent sized structural problem inside of this home.  I can't imagine what the second floor looks like in there...must be a huge slope to it!

    
    
  
 [Took these shots at a house about 7 miles from us here on the farm.  I got by it all the time on my bike.]

@ 30th street station.

@ 30th street station. Dropping of kel for her trip up to nyc.

The Eastern Shore.

Kel and I took a ride down to Maryland's famous "Eastern Shore" this weekend to officially celebrate our 4th anniversary.  Based on a recommendation from MPW's little lady we based our operation out of St. Michael's for the weekend.  This quaint little hamlet was only about a 2hr drive from us here at the farm and the perfect place to enjoy a fall weekend.  We got there around 11 yesterday and spent some time checking out the area before we got lunch at the Crab Claw restaurant.  Right on the water, this place looked to be a local favorite.  The gloomy weather kept the crowds away this day, but I'm sure it's packed any other day.  I didn't take a lot of photos, but here's a little sampler of St. Michaels...

     
     

    
     

     
 

For dinner we went over to the amazing Sherwood's Landing restaurant at the Inn at Perry Cabin.  The Inn at Perry Cabin is the hotel/resort where the movie Wedding Crashers was actually filmed at.  Well the big wedding scene anyway.  Of course I put our reservation under "Secretary Cleary" to make sure we got a little extra special service.  I joke.  But we still got an amazing table, right next to the window overlooking the Chesapeake Bay.  The room there is decorated exquisitely in a nautical theme and the views just top it all off.  This is all before they even bring out the food.  Holy cow...one of the best meals we've ever had.  Kel had the crab cake and I got the beef tenderloin.  We both shared everything so we could each try each others meals and of course we each wished we had ordered the others.  If you're ever down this way...Sherwood Landing is a definite must!  [we would have stayed at the Inn, but #1, they were booked and #2, it was like $450/night on the holiday weekend!]

Speaking of our stay...interesting story there.  We were booked in at the Hampton Inn a few towns away in Easton, MD.  A reservation I made over 3 weeks ago.  As we were walking around St. Michael's on Saturday afternoon I got a call from the front desk with some bad news.  Well, what we thought was bad news at first.  Apparently there was some "computer glitch" and as a result the hotel was overbooked for the night.  The room that was supposed to be ours was not available!  Thoughts of sleeping in a rental car [Besancon, France 2004] and curling up on a train station floor  [Marseille, France 2009] quickly ran through my noggin.  Luckily the girl offered up a room at the Holiday Inn Express down the street where we'd be able to stay.  For FREE.  You don't have to tell me twice when they say free.  We agreed and off we went.  Free hotel room, still got my Hampton points, and the $165 we saved on the hotel room nearly covered the cost of our dinner. 

Back to the story...after dinner we decided to check out the new movie Couples Retreat with my boy Vince Vaughn.  I think this was our first trip to the theater in about a years time...maybe more.  Sadly all the funny parts of Couples Retreat can be seen in the commercials.  It was okay...but nothing to rush out and see.  Wait for it on Netflix!

On Sunday we checked out the towns of Oxford and Cambridge before making the return trip to the farm.  I caught the tail end of the Sox game on TV [listened to most of it on XM] and got to watch the entire Patriots game.  Two horrible results, but what can you do.  Hey...the Celtics won, that must count for something?  And we can't forget the US mens soccer team getting a huge 3-1 victory over Honduras on Saturday, in Honduras mind you, ensuring they'll be making the trip to South Africa in 2010 for the World Cup! 

So there you have it...our quick weekend trip down to Maryland.

My Stats.

A few weeks ago I signed up with a company called StatCounter in hopes that I could monitor and keep tabs on my website stats, both for kn.com and krnphotography.com.  Wow.  After two weeks the data being provided is just crazy.  I can see what IP's hit the site, how long they visit, and how often they check in.  Very cool.  They even provide me a google map of the world that shows pinpoint locations of where each visitor comes from. 

Most of my hits come from the East Coast, but I have a good following in California and sporadically throughout a lot of other states.  Just look at all the states where I've gotten hits in the past 2 weeks:  Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Washington, DC, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Of course there are a few international visitors too. We've had people from Australia, Poland, Mexico, France, Canada, the UK, Italy, and even the United Arab Emirates.  Who knew I had fans in the Middle East?

If you have a website or blog you really should consider signing up with StatCounter...the information they provide can be really helpful, especially for a business. 

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Speaking of other states...Kel and I are off to St. Michaels, Maryland for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. If you have any restaurant recomendations or thins like that for the area please leave them down in the comments area.  Full report [with a few photos of couse] at some point next week.  Have a good weekend!  

p.s. - lot's of comments lately, let's keep it going!  I enjoy writing and taking photos to put up here but I really love to hear the feedback too!