Chris Casciano’s Place Name Here

A little while back I mentioned that I had reclaimed an old domain of mine and was looking for something to do with it. It took about two months to pull the free time together to design and build it, but I’ve just relaunched the site: Hike New Jersey.

The Secret Lives of Insects from Chris Casciano on Vimeo.

I spent Labor Day afternoon on a 7 or 8 mile hike of some local trails, exploring areas of the park I don’t normally get to. During the hike, while still in the South Orange area of the park, I passed a really busy tree. It was snack time for a wide variety of insects from ants to flys, bees and wasps.

Video shot with a Nikon D90 & Nikon 105mm 2.8 VR, though I shorted and recompressed it a little, its otherwise straight out of the camera.

View HD version of the video at Vimeo

View Slideshow

In the vein of events like 24 Hours of Flickr and Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photo Walk a local photographer recently used Flickr and other local web sites to organize 48 Hours of Maplewood, an event where people in town were asked to go out on a nice summer weekend and document their suburban New Jersey neighborhood.

As a college student in the mid 1990s I got my first regular access to the internet. It didn’t take long for me to realize that the internet was more then just a new piece of software, but a new way to communicate with others and find and form communities and relationships. Back then we didn’t have Facebook or Twitter — or really even web sites at all — the communities I found were in mailing lists like the very active forum for hikers that centered around the Appalachian Trail, at-l.

Out of those interactions came my desire to share online and as the web grew into a place for regular people to share more static and permanent information I registered my first domain name – hikenj.net.

Each Monday night throughout the summer a local car club gets together at the Galloping Hill Inn hot dog stand to show off their cars and hang out with other car enthusiasts. These photos were taken last Monday night.

• See these photos on Flickr
• Galloping Hill Cruisers Official Site
• Info on other NJ Car Shows at njcarshow.com

After another order of test prints arrived in the mail this afternoon [ordered Thursday, arrived today!] I’ve selected the images and papers I liked most and added a bunch of new prints to shop.placenamehere.com. With these additions the New Jersey landscapes and parks album is starting to fill out nicely, and hopefully has some familiar sights if you live in the norther half of the state.

Comment on this photo at Flickr

Comment on this photo at Flickr

I’ve just added two autumn prints from a 2007 trip to Watchung Reservation to the Landscapes of New Jersey gallery at shop.placenamehere.com.

As 2008 comes to a close many sites are doing year end wrap ups see previous post and here are two sites highlighting how New Jersey saw the year.

Comment on this photo at Flickr

New Storefront at Zenfolio

For a long time I’ve just looked at my photographs as something to for myself and as an excuse to get out of the house and into the outdoors. Maybe I’d share some of the images on Flickr or print something for a family member or friend but nothing more. No, I’m not looking to go pro or anything, and I don’t think I’m Ansel Adams either, but its time to do a little more with my hobby [and maybe pay for some of my gear in the process].

So just in time [barely] for the holiday gift season I’ve launched Chris Casciano Photography.

Comment on this photo at Flickr

Comment on this photo at Flickr

I’m usually not one to enter photo contests and other events, but the Great Destinations NJ book project was interesting enough and the rights grab wasn’t too bad so I’ve uploaded some images. to the project.

Its sort of an Everywhere — or JPG — style book and DVD project showcasing the diversity of the Garden State.

There’s now 4 days left to contribute by uploading photos of New Jersey or voting on your favorites. So head on over. You can start by voting on my photo contributions.

Last Friday, Flickr held its second 24 hours of Flickr event where it asked photographers to take a photo sometime in the 24 hours that made up August 8th, 2008 and contribute to a giant pool of images from around the world.

Above is my humble contribution, taken late friday during a break on my regular bike route at Verona Park, in Verona NJ.

view more photos and comment at flickr

comment on this photo at flickr

comment on this photo at flickr

comment on this photo at flickr

More on Flickr

I saw the first signs of something being wrong from my seat on a NJ Transit train into Hoboken. Though I did make it to that stop, by the time I did they had shut down all the train service and other public transportation both in to Manhattan and out of Hoboken.

Gallery of photos from the shores of the Hudson as I was stranded for the day.

Due to rain last night some town had postponed their 4th of July fireworks. Millburn, NJ was one of them