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The July 4th Holiday was a very busy and very fun day for me. We spent the morning and early afternoon in Morristown NJ covering a "Tea Party" rally with between 3750-4250 people in attendance. It was an impressive turn-out I thought. The people were there to protest ever increasing spending, debts, taxes, bailouts, and the move toward becoming a socialist country by what they consider to be an out of control, intrusive Government.

There were many impassioned speakers ranging from politicians, to "ordinary citizens", to a surgeon, an author, a veteran, a whole host of people from all walks of life. I am waiting for confirmation of the names of the speakers from the organizers of the rally. When I get that info I will post it here.

I just got the list of speakers which I am just going to copy and paste into the post below.

11:00am: Invocation Deacon Tim Holden

Pledge of Allegiance

Star Spangled Banner Rob Kastner

11:10am Opening Remarks Rich Luzzi

11:12am Salute to the Armed Forces Paul Albanese Corp. USMC

WWII Vet: Corp. Curtis Glenn Army

Korea Vet Capt. Thomas Tierney USMC

Viet Nam Vet Lt. Col.. Michael Shield VN/Gulf

Major Robert Elton

Iraq War Nathaniel Putnam Specialist

Donald Backer Specialist

Moment of silence for fallen soldiers

11:22am History of The Green Maryann Franzese

11:25am Charles M. Payne

11:40am Assemblyman Richard Merkt

11:45am Mayor of Morristownship: Mr. Scott Rosenbush

11:50am Rep Candidate for Mayor of Morristown Mr. Jimmy Gervasio

11:55am Cap and Trade Speaker Mr. Tom Adkins

12:10pm Reading of the Declaration of Independence

12:20pm Citizen Speaker Matt Perez

12:28pm Gubernatorial Candidate Mr. Kaplan

12:35pm Assemblyman Mr. Michael Patrick Carroll – did not show

12:45pm Healthcare Speaker Dr. Alphonse DiGiovanni

12:55pm Fair Tax Speaker Linda Terczak

1:00pm Citizen Speaker Polina Maire did not speak

1:05pm Citizen Speaker Flagman does not want his real name used

1:10pm Poster Contest

1:15pm Closing Remarks Ralph Franzese did not speak

1:20pm Song: God Bless America

To see more images from the rally view the slideshow here. All images in the slideshow were shot from 200-400mm and other than possibly being cropped are unedited.

After the rally we got a bite to eat in town and then went home to unload the photos. We decided on the spur of the moment to go the Macy's 4th of July fireworks on the Hudson River. We took the train to Hoboken. We got there around 4:30PM, spent the afternoon in town eating, having a couple of adult beverages, enjoying some nice conversation and company at one of the wonderful little outdoor cafe before staking out a place on the Steven's Campus on the hill overlooking the Hudson River to view the fireworks. It turned out to be a pretty good location for viewing them especially since we went very last minute. It was not nearly as crowded as the waterfront along Sinatra Drive and we found a seat on the grass on the hill which was pretty comfortable. We staked out our spot pretty late at around 7:45 PM. I got some good photos considering I wasn't really thinking we would be in a great location since we got there so late. There was a utility pole and a lamppost in our line of sight and I left my remote in my other bag...DOH! I do have a few shots I will share just the same. All I can say about the show is...WOW!!! It was spectacular.

I have loaded a slideshow of images from the Macy's Fireworks which you can see here.

Nikon D700
Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR w/Nikon 2x teleconverter
1/125 second
F/13.0
ISO 500
400 mm

Check out my new slideshow page. The link is here and at the top and bottom of every page. I am testing out several formats for the slideshows each with their own advantages and disadvantages. It will be an evolving process and I will add new ones from time to time. I hope you will stop by and check them out and feel free to leave me some feedback.