Silhouetted ...

 “Never waste a shadow in creating art.”

         ~ attributed to John Constable

                 ~ English painter

                   ~ 1776 ~ 1837

 General Harry C. Trexler looks majestic and stately on horseback, silhouetted on a late October day when the autumn sun and clouds gave play to light and shadows around this beautiful bronze statue of his image at Trexler Memorial Park, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

 

The statue depicts General Trexler on his horse, Jack ‘O Diamonds.

 

A silhouetted bird, likely a Canada Goose or gull, flies at bottom right in a V formation, visualizing a sense of freedom. 

 

General Trexler (1854-1933) is the father of Allentown’s park system. He was an industrialist, agriculturist, philanthropist, conservationist and soldier. The park is his namesake.

 

During his lifetime, General Trexler contributed a great deal to the growth and quality of life in the City of Allentown and the surrounding County of Lehigh. 

 

This bronze statue of General Trexler was presented to the City of Allentown by his trustees Nolan P. Benner, William B. Butz, Joseph S. Young, Carl J.W. Hessinger and Richard E. White. It was commissioned January 16, 1979 and dedicated May 8, 1982.

 

General Trexler was a great man, and I’m personally very thankful to him, as Trexler Memorial Park and Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania are two of my very favorite places to be and to photograph.

An Autumn ...

 “As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.”

           ~Vincent van Gogh

                ~ 1853 ~ 1890

A late October evening comes softly as sunset rays pepper the peaceful beauty of autumn at the ford of the Jordan Creek, one of my very favorite places to be and to photograph, at Trexler Nature Preserve, Schnecksville, Pennsylvania.

Main Street Americana ...

 “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.”

             ~ Elliot Erwitt

           ~ French-born American photographer

                    ~ 1928 ~ 2023

A slice of Americana …

American flag bunting festoons storefronts on Main Street at Union Square in the historic town of Phillipsburg, New Jersey as a Chevy truck is stopped at the traffic light on a beautiful mid-September afternoon in the waning summer.

Signs advertise the Phillipsburg Farmers Market and 2025 Railroad Festival at the spot at the end of the historic Northampton Street Bridge, commonly called the Free Bridge, which spans the Delaware River and links Phillipsburg with Easton, Pennsylvania.

Phillipsburg, a Delaware River Town, was established March 8, 1861 and named for William Phillips, an early settler of the area.

Try A Little Tenderness ...

 “… But it’s all so easy …

Just try a little tenderness …”

      ~ “Try a Little Tenderness”

            ~ 1932

       ~ song by the Ray Noble Orchestra

        ~ Renditions include those by Bing Crosby,  Frank Sinatra & Otis Redding 

  I spotted a honey of a summer sight ~ two beautiful white-tailed deer fawns, twice the joy of seeing just one! ~ sharing a tender moment as they enjoy their first summer on an early July evening along the Ironton Rail Trail, which loops more than nine miles through Whitehall Township, the Borough of Coplay and North Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania.

 The Ironton Railroad was a shortline railroad in Lehigh County. Originally built in 1861 to haul iron ore and limestone to blast furnaces along the Lehigh River, traffic later shifted to carrying Portland Cement when local iron mining declined in the early 20^th century. Much of the railroad had already been abandoned when it became part of Conrail in 1976, and the last of its trackage was removed in 1984.

In 1996, Whitehall Township purchased 9.2 miles of the right-of-way from Conrail, transforming it into the Ironton Rail Trail.

Come Fly With Me ...

“Come fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away …

We’ll just glide, starry-eyed …

Weather-wise it’s such a coo-coo day …”

      “Come Fly With Me”

           ~ 1958 popular song composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics by Sammy Cahn, written for the great Frank Sinatra. It was the title track of Sinatra’s 1958 album of the same name.

A sweet Cabbage White Butterfly flutters toward a buddleia bush – also called summer lilac – on a perfect August afternoon along the Delaware & Lehigh National Heritage Corridor (D&L Trail), Slatington, Pennsylvania, near The Lehigh Gap.

In the shadow of the Kittatinny Ridge, also called Blue Mountain, The Lehigh Gap is a crossroads where the Lehigh Gap Nature Center’s trails connect two historic trails ~ the Appalachian Trail and the D&L Trail. 

The Appalachian Trail, a foot path, follows the ridge on both sides of the Lehigh Gap, running 1,245 miles south to Georgia and 930 miles north to Maine. Running from Wilkes-Barre to Bristol, the D&L Trail passes through the Lehigh and Delaware rivers and their canals in Pennsylvania.

 

Bakin' Up Some Whimsy ...

“What’s life without whimsy?”

 ~ Dr. Sheldon Cooper

  ~ “The Big Bang Theory”

   ~ American sitcom

   ~ 2007 ~ 2019

 

The adorable Pillsbury Doughboy declares “I’m a Hot Little Biscuit” as he poses in front of my stovetop percolator in this monochrome capture where whimsy meets nostalgia on a summer day in the kitchen.

 

Poppin’ Fresh, more widely known as the Pillsbury Doughboy, is an advertising mascot for the Pillsbury Company, appearing in many of their commercials. Many commercials from 1965 until 2005 (together with some for Geico between 2009 and 2017) ended with a human finger poking the Doughboy’s belly. The Doughboy responds by giggling when his belly is poked (Hoo-Hoo!, or earlier on, a slight giggle “tee hee”).

 

The Pillsbury Doughboy was created by Rudolph “Rudy” Perz, a copywriter for Pillsbury’s longtime advertising agency, Leo Burnett Company. Perz was sitting in his kitchen in the spring of 1965, under pressure to create an advertising campaign for Pillsbury’s refrigerated dough product line (biscuits, dinner rolls, sweet rolls, and cookies). His copywriter, Carol H. Williams, imagined a living doughboy popping out of a Pillsbury refrigerated dough can and wrote the campaign, “Say Hello to Poppin’ Fresh Dough.” Williams was inducted into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Fame in 2017.

 

Cube & Thread's Pop Of Red ...

 “The object of art is not to reproduce reality, but to create a reality of the same intensity.”

                     ~ Alberto Giacometti

                             ~ 1901 ~ 1966

                           ~Swiss sculptor

The Cube And Thread brings a bold pop of red to Cedar Creek Parkway, Allentown, Pennsylvania on a beautiful late May afternoon.

The public sculpture was created by artist Paul Sisko in 1977 and gifted to the city by the late philanthropists Phil (1915 ~ 1997) and Muriel (died 2004) Berman. Phil Berman was the retired owner of the iconic Hess’s Department Store, which he acquired in 1968 and had been headquartered in Allentown.

The Bermans were American art collectors, philanthropists and the founders of the Berman Art Museum at Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pennsylvania, Phil’s alma mater.   Phil was the chairman of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Muriel was an honorary member of the board. They endowed many Jewish charities including Hadassah as well as funding the “Philip and Muriel Berman Sculpture Park” in Allentown.

The sculpture is an 11’ x 13.5 ‘ steel and stainless steel piece featuring a large cube with a screw-like element extending from one side. It was restored in 2025 by the Heritage Conservation Collective of Philly. Initially painted red, the sculpture had become rusted and decayed. The restoration involved refinishing the piece and bringing it back to its original vibrancy.

Liberty In Light ...

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”

   ~ from the inspiring Inaugural Address of

  President John Fitzgerald Kennedy

  ~ 1917 ~1963

  ~ 35th President of the United States of America

  ~ 1960 ~ 1963

  & U.S. Navy veteran

Liberty’s red hot rays of ravishing light burst across the summer night sky during the 2025 Fourth of July Fireworks set off from J. Birney Crum Stadium, Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Happy Birthday, America! Bravo!

How wonderful it would be to have fireworks ~ and the fire of patriotism ~ in our hearts every day!

Great Spangled's Summer ...

“The beautiful is a phenomenon which is never apparent of itself, but is reflected in a thousand different works of the creator.”

     ~ Goethe

     ~ 1749 ~ 1832

 

A Great Spangled Fritillary – the first I’ve ever captured in a photo – sips the nectar of a purple coneflower on a beautiful summer afternoon in early July at Jacobsburg State Park, which spans between Wind Gap and Nazareth, Pennsylvania.

Jacobsburg State Park offers environmental education programs from the preschool environmental awareness programs to high school level environmental problem solving programs, historical programs, teacher workshops and public interpretive programs.

The park surrounds the Bushkill Creek.

The original land for the center was purchased by the Department of Forests and Waters from the City of Easton in 1959. In 1969, additional land was purchased using funds from Project 70. This brought the total land area of the center to its present size of 1,168 acres.