It was a dark and stormy night….

Everybody knows the life of a photographer.  Exotic locales… half-dressed celebrities lined up waiting to have their picture taken for a magazine cover…. sipping on wine coolers…. nipping on cheese…. waiting for the light to get right…. paychecks the size of a pirate’s treasure….

Don’t believe me?  Just ask any photographer you know!  They’ll tell you, “Yeah, that’s about right!”

I guess that JAM and Laurie aren’t photographers, although both have their work opening in a gallery showing here in NYC this Thursday in the Jadite Gallery on W 50^th Street, between 9^th and 10^th Avenues.  Tonight, there was no wine no cheese, no Victoria’s Secret models in wings and no magazine covers.

JAM and I took the subway to the 4^th Street station and transferred to the PATH (New Jersey transit).  We travelled under the Hudson River to Hoboken, New Jersey to the Lackawanna Train Depot.  A promenade runs along the west shoreline of the Hudson.  A beautiful landscaped park that is probably filled with families on sunny Sunday afternoons in May, attending to concession stands with soft drinks, hot dogs and cotton candy for the kids!

Well, this is December.  The concession stands are boarded up and the families are home where it’s warm! This is where we met up with Laurie.

The sun dropped about 5 pm.  It not so much dropped as it was the overcast fog just got dark.  We had been here for a couple of hours waiting.  At sundown (or fade to dark), the wind picks up and starts blowing.  We were sitting on the edge of the Hudson and the wind was hitting us face on.  It started getting chilly.

We had come to shoot the rise of a Super moon over the Manhattan skyline.  The moon was supposed to rise right above the Empire State Building at 5:55 pm.  JAM and Laurie set up the cameras, taking test shots to get everything ready for the big show.  And we waited.

We thought the moon was rising several times.  There was a large light way up the Manhattan shoreline that apparently was something else like a UFO or something.  The lights from Times Square reflecting on the cloud cover had us fooled several times.  The clouds next to the H & M building would get bright and then fade into colors.  You could almost see videos reflecting in the clouds.

Our legs were starting to lose their feeling.  The feet had long since become numb.  Our cheeks were scarlet and felt hardened and slick.  I was thinking a mist from the river was icing my face.  We took turns walking around the promenade, doing knee bends, or just moving around trying to loosen up the muscles.  We sought refuge behind sidewalk walls and trash cans trying to escape the wind.  Our exotic shooting locale wasn’t on a tropical isle.  It was in the wintry elements on the Hudson River shoreline.  We were waiting for “The Shot”!

Sometime around 6:40, I yelled, “Look!” pointing toward the Empire State building.   A giant ball peeked out from behind the clouds and then went back into hiding.  Finally, it returned and stayed long enough to have its picture taken.  Mission accomplished, we packed up to head out!  Three minutes of shooting, 3 hours of travel and waiting.

Half frozen and stiff, we crossed the promenade into downtown Hoboken.  We found a nice little diner that stays open 24 hours, The Spa Diner.

We all ordered coffee and a Mexican omelet on a Kaiser roll, and did I mention coffee.  The Omelet roll was beyond excellent.  I think omelets are excellent regardless of the time of day it’s served.  We ate, talked, laughed and drank coffee.  Soon the feeling came back to our feet and limbs.

We boarded the PATH and left Hoboken behind us.  We will return.  It is a charming community.  In Manhattan, we transferred to The E train and rolled north.  At 42^nd Street, we bid adieu to Laurie, our newest New York friend, and our latest adventure completed.  That’s a wrap.