Let The Music Play On
El Catador, Trenton, New Jersey, December 2025
Well my friends, the time has come.
To raise the roof and have some fun.
The night lines up at the starter blocks when you get out of the car.
You reach back to lock the door and jog across the wet street.
The cold air refreshing on your face after the stuffiness inside the Riviera.
It’s been a long week. Another long week.
But today is payday. And your friends are here.
The little bell, the one that signals in a new adventure, jingles when you push the door open.
Not that anyone can hear it over the music coming from box in the corner.
Life is good, wild and sweet
Let the music play on…play on…play on
The room ambiance is warm, red from the lamps and hued from the paneled walls.
The patrons flit and mingle like minnows in a pond.
Cologne and perfume are the calling cards behind.
Hand shakes, one-thump body hugs are the starter’s pistol for the night.
Another round. Glasses touch, ice clinks.
Smiles all around.
Smoke from the Parliaments and Virginia Slims dangle and dance and ebbs and floats away
Like the worries about work.
And life.
Tonight, it’s Friday night.
Let the music take control
All night long…
____________________
The El Catador bar and restaurant in Trenton, New Jersey. Musical inspiration from this 1983 song by Lionel Ritchie, if you don’t know. This song, and album, is just embedded in my brain about that time and place. I was 13, listening to the local station on the wood-paneled radio that sat on shelving above my bed (If those brackets ever gave out, my early teen good looks would have been in peril).
I’d lie there and listen, especially between 9 and 10 pm, when the station, WKRZ, probably, would have a dedication hour. But you couldn’t just dedicate any song. My friend and I tried this, then would be frustrated when it wouldn’t be played. But we soon figured out that if you request on of the popular songs from that week, then the dedication would go through.
At this time, the song rotation was All Night Long by Lionel…and probably something by Michael Jackson (Beat It or Billie Jean); Owner Of A Lonely Heart by Yes; maybe I Ran (So Far Away) by Flock of Seagulls. But All Night Long and Owner are drilled into my brain.
When I shot this photo a few months ago, I thought a Lou Rawls song would go with it. But that puts it back in the ’70s, which, could still work. But…I don’t know…I heard All Night Long recently and that catchy intro and that hook, just gave this photo more of an ’80s vibe to me.
Still tight pants and wide collars. People smoking in bars. Longish hair, small afros on the guys. Sleeveless dresses and strappy shoes on the gals.
Miller Light and cocktails. Nothing fancy, just homey.
Just a Friday night out after a long week.
Hope yours is a good one!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2026
Photos, In Use
Promised Land Band At The Stone Pony, February 2025
My friends from Promised Land will be hitting the Stone Pony stage this Friday night, and they’ve been promoting their gig with some of my photos.
It got me to thinking how some of my photos have been used.
One of the things I love to see is how and when my photos get used in promo pieces. Whenever I do a photoshoot, I try to incorporate negative space so that prom copy could run. It’s easier to crop down than add extra to the frame.
This photo of musician Bob Geiger came after an afternoon of doing portraits in an Asbury Park studio. The day was dwindling but he wanted some photos on the boardwalk. As I was waiting for him on the sidewalk, I saw that reflection the puddle and snapped a few quick frames. I might have had him walk back across the street and come towards me again, but I’m not sure. In any case, it was a quick snap in an otherwise long afternoon.
Yet, it’s the one that became the key art for his CD.
Back in September 2020, I got an email to shoot a young musician, Grace Kerlin. This was right in the thick of Covid, and we decided to do the shoot in her parents garage. I set up a backdrop and a table and she supplied the wardrobe. She has a throaty, muscular voice that reminds me of Fiona Apple or Rosanne Cash. That, along with her lace top, gave me a Gothic type of looks.
This one became the cover of the album.
Back in 2018, I photographed the band, Low Cut Connie, at the Wonder Bar in Asbury Park. Their frontman, Adam Weiner, has a stage show that leaves his tank top in tatters, and him dripping sweat.
They would use this photo on their 2025 tour calendar poster.
I photographed The Early Elton Trio – John Conte, Jeff Kazee and Rich Pagano – a few years ago in the bowels of the House of Independents in Asbury Park.
The group is still using this photo – they haven’t changed much!
From that shoot spurred a friendship with Jeff Kazee. We’ve worked together a bunch of times and I hope to do more with him. It was a couple of year ago, again in Asbury Park, that I got this photo, which is one of my favs.
Jeff still uses it a lot as part of his marketing materials.
On a side note, this photo was absolutely inspired by this Arnold Neuman photo of Igor Stravinsky in 1946.
When I’m doing the photoshoot, I don’t always know how the pics will be used. The end result is always fun to sew, and sometimes it’s used in a way I wouldn’t have thought of.
But I am always thinking “This could be the cover shot. Or key art for the album. Or a full-page ad.”
I’m also always honored when an artist uses one of my photos as a promo piece. I don’t take that lightly. It’s my visual of them they are putting forward.
Their faith means everything. And I want to reward that faith.
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2026
JSP Visual Week In Review ~ 03.07.26
“The trees are coming into leaf/like something almost being said…” ~ Philip Larkin
Feels like we made it through another winter…yay!
I had a meeting with a photo editor this week.
An actual, in-person meeting.
Not on Zoom, Not on Teams.
But in a coffee shop, out in the world.
I was kinda nervous. I’ve never met with a photo editor before.
If/when I’ve gotten photo jobs, it’s been because people saw my work on line and that was kinda that.
But for this meeting, I didn’t want to just flip through my IG to show my work.
So, I brought along my portfolio.
An honest-to-goodness book of my best (I think) work.
It’s not super special. Just an black-cover 8.5 x 11 album with clear sleeves that I got in Michael’s.
Inside, I put a whole bunch of my favorite prints.
Everything from my music work (on-stage and portraits), to corporate headshots and even some quirky, whimsical prints.
I had it on the table to my left as we were chatting over coffee.
Which was fun in and of itself. Talking photography and photographers with a like-minded person. In person and not online. I highly recommend.
At one point, getting down to brass tacks as they say, she said “So, what do you like to shoot?”
That was the opening I needed. I slid the book over to her to flip through.
And it was fun. It was great to see her flip through and stop on certain photos and ask me about them.
And it was fun to give a little backstory to them.
I was proud of what I shot. And proud to show it to another person, in person.
Now, will I get a photo job now?
I don’t know. Hopefully.
But I do know, sitting in a coffee shop, talking about photography and looking some work that I like in the hopes of getting a photography job is better than sitting on lines scrolling.
And if all the social media platforms rolled down their doors and shut up shop tomorrow, I’d survie.
I have blog, I have my portfolio website.
And I have a hardcopy portfolio.
________________________
This Week’s Links
What I’m Reading: Motoring through The Devil In Bucks County, by Edmund Schiddel; still dipping in and out of Ernest Hemmingway: Selected Letters 1917-1961, edited by Carlos Baker; and Max Perkins: Editor of Genius, by A. Scott Berg. Started, and finished, a novel, Meat Is Murder by Joe Pernice.
What I Watched Last Week: The initial episode of Young Sherlock on Amazon Prime. It’s mid, as the kids say. Not sure if I’ll stay with it.
What I Listened Last Week: Another good discussion between, this time about IG, by Grant and Bill Shapiro, via UN Of Photo (and it plays into my opening section)
Visual Inspiration: This portrait of Gary Trudeau via Chris Buck
Favorite Image I Saw Last Week: Marilyn, by Ed Feingersh
Favorite Lines I Read Last Week: “There are few things more delightful than listening to an album that is the soundtrack to a great, soaring love affair.” ~ Joe Pernice, Meat Is Murder
Epic Aget: Eugene Aget’s Record of Time And Place, via New Yorker
Hungover: Creative Hangovers Are Real, via Hyperallergenic
Ut Sues: Nick Ut, In Dispute Over Netflix Documentary, Sues, via NY Times
F*cking Up: But Still Having Fun With Photography, via Greg Fallis
G Money: Galileo Galilei’s Handwritten Notes Discovered, via Science
For International Women’s Day: The Women of E Street, via my friend Melissa Ziobro over on the the Springsteen Archives blog (I’m thrilled a number of my photos dot this piece to help build it.)
From the JSP Archives: March 8, 2011…A Conversation with Photographer Jerod Foster
RIP: Photojournalist Paul Conroy
That’s all for this week’s hand-drawn, hand-curated, all free JSP newsletter. With the weather being nice this weekend, I played about 4 hours of tennis with my sons. And now, this 55 year old body is tired.
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2026
On Writing: Published!
Ping Ping Clang Clang in the Silverball Museum
Something a little different on this Friday. Something new I wrote and had published.
A few weeks ago, I attended a gallery opening at Mercer County Community College honoring long-time MCCC art teacher, and Trenton, NJ, resident, Mel Leipzig an American visual artist and arts educator, known for his realist portraits in acrylic paint.
Sadly, I only found out about Mel this past December, after reading, in a free local newspaper that he had passed away in late October.
The exhibit, Generation Mel, included his work, but other artists influenced by Mel. After listening to a short talk about Mel, and meeting his son and sister-in-law, we attendees we encouraged to spend some time with Mel’s work, and then create either a poem or short piece of fiction inspired by Mel’s work. This “Ekphrastic writing” is using visual art to spark poetic and narrative expression.
The piece I chose to be inspired by was not by Mel himself, but by one of his students, artist Marge Miccio. It was a scene of the Silverball Museum, on the Asbury Park Boardwalk.
Silverball, Asbury Park (2021), Marge Miccio
Having been on the AP boardwalk at night hundreds of times, and often stopping into the Silverball Arcade – including taking my kids there for a Sunday afternoon in the winter – some of my images specifically came into my head reading Marge’s piece. They all influenced my poem.
Matt In The Silverball, 2017
The cops finally busted Madam Marie…
The old Howard Johnsons on the AP Boardwalk, not Tim Mcloones Supper Club
This short poem was something I put together quite quickly, but that’s how I often write. The spark gets lit and it burns.
Poetry, though, is not really my medium. As you see by some of my posts, I write in staccato, sometimes. Bullet points, almost. So thank you to writer Barbara Krasner, who walked us through the Generation Mel exhibit, and urged me to submit, for helping me get this into the proper form and cadence.
This was published by the Kelsey Review of MCCC. You can read more of the poems, based on this art gallery show, published here.
The Battery Electric band, one summer night
So, yes, something a little different from me. But it was great to stretch my writing chops and creativity a bit here. I’m looking to submit something – one of my photographs and short piece – the Spring issue of the Kelsey Review.
The Crepe Shop, AP Boardwalk in the summer
From the Mercer County College West Windsor Gallery IG page: This art exhibit was made possible, in part by the Mercer County Culture and Heritage Commission through funding from the Mercer County Board of Commissioners and the NJ State Council of the Arts, a partner agency of the National Endowment of the Arts
Let me what you think about Mel, Marge’s piece and my poem, influenced by it all!
© Mark V. Krajnak | JerseyStyle Photography | All Rights Reserved 2026
JerseyStyle Photography 