Down Texas way, my friend Jeff Lynch, he of Serious Amateur Photography, recently blogged about some landscape photography he’s been shooting. In his post, he referred to Neil Diamond’s He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother song.
Right here, I have to admit two things: One, I had never heard the song. Two, when I first read his post, I read it as Neil Young, not Neil Diamond. So as I was forming this post in my head, I was looking forward to searching YouTube for some cool Neil “The Grandfather of Grunge” Young song.
Instead, upon the re-read, I found I need to look for Neil Diamond.
Annnnndddd…..I found it.
Eh. Sorry, Jeff.
Still, to each his own when it comes to musical taste. One man’s Ian Anderson is another man’s Darius Rucker. So be it.
But what really struck me about Jeff’s post was that I recently processed some images and had actually titled one, He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother.

I actually remember this phrase as a tag line associated with Father Flannagan’s Boy’s Town. In fact, their silouette logo is a representation of this phrase.
But I digress. Last week, my wife was laid up with piercing migraines and some other physical issues. She was, basically and unfortunately, bedridden for much of the week (doing MUCH better now though). Anyway, I stayed home to watch over the Little One. While I felt bad for my wife, I did enjoy the one-on-one time with Olivia. Our days were somewhat structured and I’d always try to find a field trip to take her on.
One day, I asked her if she wanted to go look for turtles. She responded with an enthusiastic “Yeah!” so off we went to Allentown, New Jersey. Allentown is one of my favorite little NJ towns and they had a nature path I wanted to explore with Liv and my camera. So we did. And, as you can see from above, we did find turtles.
And ducks too. I was really excercising my inner Moose Peterson on this little outing.

I told you to put the quackers on my bill!!!!
In the hour or so that we spent rambling around, we saw some really cool things and Olivia loved it. But my favorite frame of the day wasn’t of a turtle or a duck. This was one of those times when I saw the image in my head as it developed and I was just lucky enough that all elements held together long enough for me to get it. I really like this one.

The moment it clicks….I’m already looking to frame this one.
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Oh, I almost forgot (actually I did and am now editing this post). I hated to read this, I hate to hear this. Another of my photographer friends, Chris Klug over at Patterns Of Light ‘n Dark is going through a really rough time right now thanks to this unbelievable economic downturn. Unfortunately, Chris has to sell some gear to help things along. In his Transitions post, he details what he’s selling. Chris is a great shooter and takes care of his gear the way I take care of my two-year old. You can’t go wrong. If something sparks your fancy, contact either me and I’ll put you in touch with Chris, or Chris himself.
To Chris I say…just hang in there my friend. Tie a knot, hang on and we’ll all help you through this. And please keep shooting if you can – your stuff is too good not to be shared.
© Mark V. Krajnak 2009 | JerseyStyle Photography | All rights Reserved
Unless otherwise noted, images captured with a Canon 20D, SanDisk digital film, finished with PS2 and Nik Software






























