You can see a full color version of this mosaic wall at Raritan Valley Community College in this post. To put this in sepia, I copied the original photo to a new layer in Photoshop, desaturated the photo, added yellow and red to get sepia, and then set the opacity of the sepia layer to 90% so just a wee bit of color would show through. I wanted to use the sepia effect to emphasize the textures of the mosaic.
For more sepia photos, visit Sepia Scenes:
I am pleased to introduce Zev and Leslie Rosenberg of Raritan Air Water Power Service. This is part of a series of guest interviews with small business owners in New Jersey. For a past interview, see Interview with NJ Playgrounds.
I previously wrote about Raritan Air Water Power in this post called Say Thank You – a trait the Rosenbergs do well! I got to know the Rosenbergs when our sons were in the same Cub Scout pack.
When did you start your business? We started our heating and air conditioning company here in February 2005. However, we were in business for a number of years when we lived in Potomac, MD. Zev has been in this field for 30 years.
How do you market your business? Currently we market mostly through word-of-mouth. We also send customers reminders about preventative maintenance that should be done in the winter and spring. Being part of the Highland Park First Aid Squad discount card also brings in additional business and customers seem to appreciate the savings.
Customers are very interested in energy savings and we try to alert them to ways to save. There is tremendous opportunity in high efficiency equipment right now due to federal tax credits and utility rebates.
Have you used social media? We currently have a page on Facebook. Readers can become a fan of our page at Raritan Air Water Power Service. We give tips and reminders there on savings and ways to manage your home.
What are some ways a business can keep customers? The most important thing is 100% quality control. For us that means every job that we do the customer has to get a follow-up phone call asking them how things are going and if we met their expectations. Let’s face it, people have come to expect lousy service. When someone’s not happy with the service they’ve received they are likely to go elsewhere, thinking it’s not worth the hassle. Occasionally we have to go back on a service call or installation. It makes the whole situation easier on the customer if we call them. I think people appreciate that you followed up even if they don’t have a problem. Most people are just shocked that once you get paid you even care! That is the biggest thing.
The second thing is to let people know that sometimes they have options of what they can do to repair their equipment. If they do have options, I like to present them and let people decide what best meets their needs.
Third, whenever I make any kind of suggestion on what needs to be repaired, I ask myself, “what would I do if this were my home or business.” I think people appreciate that you are trying to keep their perspective and or help them make decisions that are in their best interest.
Finally, in this current economic climate people need options for paying which is why we take credit cards.
How do you suggest dealing with a difficult customer? The first thing is that you have to establish realistic expectations and listen to what your customer is saying. We try and spell out for people exactly what we can and cannot do and what they should expect. Also you have to understand that not everybody wants what you have to offer. Many contractors will do anything to “get the job.” Because I live here I can’t offer to give someone less than what they need.
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Thank you so much, Zev and Leslie, for this interview.
I jokingly told Leslie I was going to photograph one of our toilets, which Zev has fixed while checking our heating system or our air conditioning (he’s multi-talented), but instead I will show you their logo and phone number:
Do you have any questions for Zev or Leslie? Or if you would just like to cheer them on, please feel free to leave a comment.
I’ve been wanting to post my photos from our trip to the Cape May County Zoo in southern New Jersey from last August. I hope you enjoy the tour.
I think they painted a mailbox zebra colors and wrote “Zoo Donations.” The zoo is free, so donations are greatly appreciated.
I don’t know what kind of bird this is, but it was wandering around, mingling with the zoo guests. Maybe a guinea fowl?
This is a bald eagle. It was hard to photograph him in his cage.
The flamingos were fun to watch. See that gull who looks like he owns the place?
Here’s Mr. Gull again, resting with the flamingos.
I cannot remember the name of this animal, but it had tons of energy.
Giraffes are beautiful animals.
Animals behind fences, like the leopard, were harder to photograph.
This zoo guest had a great time. Photos of family come out nicer when everyone is having fun.
NJPlaygrounds has more photos of the zoo and the nearby playground.
Thanks for coming with me to the zoo!
We visited Allaire State Park back in early November. Here are some of the doors and windows of that pretty park. The above building in the historical village was closed, but many were open.
Strictly speaking, this is not a door or a window, but it is OPEN – so it’s like a gateway to the bakery. I enhanced the saturation of the colors in Photoshop.
We were able to visit the original home of the Allaire family. As I said on a previous post, we were not allowed to photograph inside, but here’s the doorway to that interesting home. It was said to still be inhabited by a descendant of the original Allaire founder in the 1950’s, and that 1950’s owner kept a horse in his kitchen. Eccentric.
This was a vertical photo, so I increased the canvas size to make it horizontal, and then I used the clone stamp tool and the blur tool to get the main part of the photo to extend a bit into the side areas.
What is that white board that looks like a door but is curiously up too high to be a door? Where there once steps there? I didn’t notice this until today, when I was looking through these photos. Does that happen to you; do you find mysteries in your photos that you didn’t recognize when you were on the scene?
These are windows in the train of the Pine Creek Railroad, which is next to the Historical Village. The train ride just goes around in circles, but we did get to see some deer as we circled about.
For more windows and doors, visit Window Views (hosted by Mary the Teach):
Is this what Thanksgiving dinner looked like in the 19th century in New Jersey? Or a meal on the go when traveling from New York City to Philadelphia? Note the two-pronged sharp fork. We learned at Allaire that’s how forks used to look, until someone figured out it was safer to have a three-pronged less sharp fork. And they ate the food with the knife, using the two-pronged fork to hold the meat steady.
I have been working at getting interviews with Central New Jersey small businesses, and I plan to start a new series that I have nicknamed “Wednesdays With.” I won’t necessarily limit it to businesses in Central New Jersey, but that’s where I have been asking…hoping to get good, fun responses soon.
New Jersey has many old-fashioned villages, and East Jersey Olde Towne in Piscataway is in biking distance of our home. So my husband and middle son biked out there last week, and my daughter and I came later by car.
Since this is a post for Ruby Tuesday, I focused on photos with a bit of red. There’s the schoolhouse. All of the buildings were moved to this spot from elsewhere in Central New Jersey.
We had fun in the one-room school house, with its pretty red gingham curtains.
Throughout the buildings there are a lot of fake place settings, showing how food might have looked or been served. The buildings are from a variety of periods in New Jersey history.
This sign, with its red border, says the “In the 1970’s, the Indian Queen Tavern was relocated from New Brunswick to East Jersey Olde Town in Piscataway. In 2003, archaeologists uncovered artifacts from the original site of the tavern in New Brunswick.” (On display were a toothbrush, a comb, a shaving mug and a chamber pot.)
On our way out, I photographed this colorful bush, with its red fall foliage display.
For more photos with red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
The Three Little Pigs is showing at the Forum Theatre in Metuchen, New Jersey. For more information, including times and how to get tickets, visit the Forum website.
We greatly enjoyed seeing Rapunzel in October.
What creative groups are featured in your area? Theater, artists, musicians, museums – are there any that your family enjoys?
For more weekend reflections hosted by James of Newtown Daily Photo, visit:
Yesterday we had the fun of visiting Allaire State Park in Farmingdale, New Jersey, including the historic village and the train ride. The historic village featured Election Day 1836 – should women get the vote? The man without a hat was arguing with the women suffragettes to his right that that was a ridiculous notion.
The actors played their roles with great oomph and and in an impromptu fashion – they talked directly to the audience (there was no stage, and we were part of the show). The boy on the right was handing out blue ballots for his party, and he handed them only to the men in our party (my husband and a friend), but not to the women. I joked that I could influence my husband’s vote by telling him for whom to vote. My daughter and her friend, however, wanted the pink ballot party to win, no matter what the agenda, so they kept sneaking into the building to cast ballots for the pink party. They succeeded once or twice, but they also got caught and got a good “scolding” – all in good fun.
I wasn’t allowed to photograph the insides of the Allaire Village buildings – too bad, there was a lot of good history. We took the short train ride near the village at the end of our day. I’ll post the train another day, but here’s a great ghoulish guy at the train stop. He’s just there around Halloween time, have no fear.
For more photos with a little red or a lot of red, visit Ruby Tuesday:
My daughter, her friend, her friend’s mom and I had the pleasure of attending the play Rapunzel at the Forum Theatre in Metuchen, New Jersey. When you attend a play at the Forum, you are in for a treat. The actors talked directly to us from the stage; in the second half of the show, they went through the aisles of the audience. Some of the play was narrated, and much of it was bursts of creative song. I had a feeling when the witch showed up, she was not going to be all that scary. Indeed, by the end, she was one of the good guys (and there were only four actors, so they were all good guys). Here’s a photo of the witch signing her autograph outside the theater for my daughter:
My daughter thought the prince was the funniest actor, the way he reacted to the witch. Here’s a line from one of his songs, when he is bemoaning his poor luck as a prince: “Never come with a dragon – I only come with a cold.” At one point he pretends to be the witch, and my daughter thought that was SO funny! I found Simon, his valet, was amusing and versatile in the many roles he played (he’s in the top photo as a hairdresser).
Looks like the next children’s play at the Forum is The Three Little Pigs. You can fan the Forum Theatre on Facebook to keep up with their events.
