Murmurs: Hints of Longing and Regret
Hints of Longing & Regret
In Asbury Park, last Thursday, sitting at the light on Cookman at Kingsley, I looked over.
Saw the light on in this condo.
A very pricey condo. A condo that wasn’t even there when I first started going to Asbury Park in 2000.
I don’t remember what was on this corner….maybe an empty, trash-strewn lot, but it wasn’t there.
Now it’s there and it commands money.
But the streets were nearly empty. And the light was on in the upper window.
And it felt sad.
It also looked like a Edward Hopper painting.
One of those images I would have found in that book I recently read, Hopper’s Places,
A murmur.
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Did you do anything post photo to make it look more Hopper-esque? Looks amazing.
Great question, Paul. I’ll be honest – I sat at the light for couple of minutes. And no one was behind me on Cookman Ave (quiet night in Asbury Park. I had my Fuji XT3 on the seat next to me, and snapped a few. Didn’t like them but didn’t have time to mess with settings. So, I snapped it with my phone. Once I got to the boardwalk and parked, I opened the image, pulled it into Snapseed and opened up the Tools>Tune Image > and used the Brightness and Ambiance sliders. As I did that, the darkness across the building became more pronounced and the light in the window became more separated. I touched the Saturation only little. I wasn’t going for a Hopper effect…it wasn’t until later that it struck me that’s how it looked. Happy in-between accident. I knew the scene was cool. Just didn’t expect this.
That’s really interesting, your story paints a good scene (no pun intended). I’ve just looked at your camera online, looks a great one, a little rich for my blood right now but I just need to get out and start taking shots, this one inspires me further.
A good eye and a creative talent goes a long way in making a great image. You have both.
Asbury Park has become one of those places that become cool and then everyone wants a piece of that cool, move in, change it and then destroy the very things that made it cool.
Well, I can only agree to that to a point. Everyone has a romantic view of Asbury Park, but when I first went there in 2000…it looked like bombed out Beirut. A town really down on it’s heels. The transformation in the last 20 years has been interesting to watch. Yes, there are higher-priced living places – but it IS a beach town and with so much more to offer. I can’t say it’s being destroyed. It’s doing well economically, people are going there, music festivals and bar bands and art galleries imbibe it with an artistic community vibe. Overall, downtown has changed for the better. (Other parts still need work).