While photographing the helicopter, I was so focused on getting a tight shot that I completely forgot to take a wide shot showing just how close the helicopter was to my window.  It was only after the chopper was further away that I shot the wide photo.

However, my girlfriend happened to snap this photo with her Blackberry at the same time.  It’s funny how photographers can forget to do the simplest thing while in the middle of shooting.  Good thing she was there, I think her shot is better than all of mine since it gives a sense of distance.

Also, updated article on shooting here:http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/nyregion/17jersey.html?hp

This morning at 6 AM, I was awakened by a helicopter labeled “STATE POLICE NJ” and “HOMELAND SECURITY” circling around my apartment very very low.  It’s hard to describe how deafening a helicopter that low is, but I certainly couldn’t sleep anymore.  Just like one of my previous posts about Air Force One (see here: http://joshgerritsen.com/blog/?p=20) I grabbed my camera and started taking photos.

The chopper eventually flew away and I went back to sleep for a few hours.  When I woke up, I checked the Jersey City news and was greeted with this headline: “Jersey City shootout leaves four cops wounded”.  I then read the two suspects were shot dead.  And I saw that it happened half a block from my apartment.  Great.

That entire side of the block is blocked off with police officers, and earlier in the morning SWAT teams were going door to door searching for the suspects.  You can read the original article here: http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/2009/07/four_jersey_city_cops_shot_two.html

A few weeks ago, I came home and noticed there were two baby Praying Mantises roaming around my kitchen.  I was immediately fascinated by these little creatures for a couple reasons.  The biggest one was that my brother had studied the Mantis fighting style from the five animal system of Gung Fu for over 11 years, and I could see a lot of his training in these tiny creatures.  The Mantises would slowly sway from side to side, just like I had seen my brother do while sparring with other people.

I was also fascinated because I had no idea how they had made it into my apartment.  I live on the seventh floor, the top of my building, and there was no way these insects had just walked up here from the ground.  The next day, my girlfriend and I spotted another six Mantises running around.  Then, we looked at our branches we had purchased for a party a few months prior:

Looks like a few harmless branches right?  Well, we looked a little closer and saw this:

Oh no… they were ALL OVER the branches, and were rapidly walking off and spreading over the ceiling and our dinner table!  We realized that we had literally carried them into our apartment.  In the form of an egg sac.  The branches had been bare when we first brought them in, but over time had sprouted and flourished.  They were my favorite plant of the apartment and sadly, we had to part with them to ensure we wouldn’t get anymore Mantises running around.

After the whole fiasco was over, I realized that my photo of the branches could become a fun game on my blog.  Click on the first photo and your browser will show you the high res version of it.  Try to count as many Praying Mantises as you can.  Then, take a look at the photo below, which is also linked to a high res version, to see how many I could find.  I counted 43.  Good luck!