Scene Through the Lens with photographer Tom Gralish.
At the border of PA and NJ, halfway on the New Hope - Lambertville bridge. It’s a level and well-maintained walkway separated from the cars, making for a safe, short easy walk between the shops and restaurants in both downtowns. With great view of the Delaware River. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
I thought I was being clever approaching New Hope from the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. I knew from experience that traffic can get challenging in the popular weekend destination, especially during festivals and special events.
After easily parking in Lambertville, N.J., I felt downright smug heading to my assignment, almost as if a force was with me while I walked across the bridge on a beautiful spring day.
I was transporting to a place far, far away for a May the 4th celebration, even anticipating an encounter on the bridge with someone from Garrison Carida, the Pennsylvania-based contingent of the 501st Legion.
Alas, only uncostumed pedestrians were crossing with me, and even when I reached Main Street on the other side, there was not the galaxy of cosmic cosplayers I expected to see.
When I finally came across a couple of Stormtroopers and Imperial Officers, I started making photos right away. I learned long ago not to hold off while waiting for “better” opportunities to present themselves — like the legions of white costumed “bucketheads” marching in formation I’d seen when googling May the 4thfestivals and parades.
There never was a squad, or even a platoon’s worth of Stormtroopers, but by mid-day there were more people — and pups — in Star Warscostumes.
Jasper Keeler, 12, posed with his dog Wedge, dressed as an Imperial fleet TIE fighter and named after Wedge Antilles, the rebel pilot who survived the attack on the first Death Star and became a veteran of Rogue Squadron. Jasper attended with his parents, Lily Chiu and Jerome Keeler, of Princeton.
When asked why Wedge was dressed as an “enemy” spaceship, his dad replied: “He switched sides.”
His mom quickly corrected him.
“No,” she said. “He stole the fighter.”
Popping into a corner coffee shop, I ran into a mother and daughter celebrating a May Day Festival happening in town at the same time, for “All Faeries & Magical Folk.” They were there with many others in their ears, horns, wings, shimmer and tails.
A costume parade downtown or a light saber battle on the bridge would’ve been great to see (between Jedi Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi or Yoda and a fairy or unicorn even). But as Stephanie wrote, “even without that, it’s a reminder of the power stories have to bring people together.”
Geena Harney, as Princess Leia, displays her namesake sundae with boyfriend Samuel Medina. The $18.45 Princess Leia Sundae is “Two warm cinnamon buns, a scoop of ice cream, caramel, whipped cream, a light saber, and a star wars themed chocolate. The couple is from Trenton.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Fans and family members take photos in New Hope during the town’s annual Star Wars Day celebrations.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Stormtroopers mingle on Main Street.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
James Buckley (left) of Newtown, Buck County is shunned by Stormtroopers who recognize he’s wearing the badge of a New Republic Marshal. His costume wasn’t official, just something he made himself called Disney Bounding, a way Star Wars fans have created to wear clothing in Disney World that still adheres to the park’s Disney Costume Policy.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Stormtroopers loiter outside a restaurant.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
A young fan of a young Yoda enjoys a frosted drink. Blue Milk comes from Banthas, the Tusken Raiders’ thick furred beasts of burden on the planet Tatooine.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Rainbow fairy Jennifer Ponton from Hunterdon County, N.J. watches the Star Wars activity on Main Street. She was in town to attend a May Day Festival for “All Faeries & Magical Folk” at the same time.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
A youngster in Stormtrooper costume passes outside as rainbow fairy daughter Jennifer Ponton and her forest elf mother Barbara Ponton (left) take a break from their own festival in town.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
Since 1998 a black-and-white photo has appeared every Monday in staff photographer Tom Gralish’s “Scene Through the Lens” photo column in the print editions of The Inquirer’s local news section. Here are the most recent, in color:
May 4, 2026: The hooves were all that remained of a life-size elk statue — sawed off at the ankles — in historic Harleigh Cemetery in Camden on Tuesday. The bronze elk statues were put up in cemeteries all over the country at the turn of the 20th century in what was called an “Elks Rest,” an area reserved for deceased members of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. In many lodges of the fraternal group founded in 1866, members who could not afford a burial were provided space in the “Rest” free of charge. The statue was since recovered and is back in the cemetery’s possession. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
April 27, 2026: What just a week ago was a spring-time canopy of rosy blush blossoms is now a soft carpet of pink petals, on a sidewalk along Wayne Avenue in Germantown.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
April 20, 2026: The water is turned back on in LOVE Park this week, marking another milestone as seasons change in the city. The splash fountain and basin-less main fountain in the park formally known as John F. Kennedy Plaza, was part of the site’s 2018 renovations, that came after the old park was flattened out, removing a traditional fountain and benches and levels that made it so enticing to skateboarders.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
April 13, 2026: Workers set up the stage — with a cooling tower backdrop — for a Gov. Mikie Sherrill event at the PSEG Salem and Hope Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lower Alloways Creek, N.J. Sherrill later signed legislation intended to make way for new nuclear energy projects in the Garden State by removing a key permitting hurdle that has created a de facto moratorium on new nuclear power for decades. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
April 6, 2026: Work continues into the night, two floors above street level in Old City.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
March 30, 2026: New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill (third from right) meets with members of the South Jersey business community while her youngest daughter, Marit, waits in lobby (rear). Mom was attending a fireside chat event hosted by the Chamber of Commerce of Southern New Jersey in Mount Laurel earlier this month.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
March 23, 2026: The plowed snow mountain range at a corner of the PATCO Haddonfield station parking lot in mid-March. After the big Jan. 25 and Feb. 23 snow storms the transit agency started a contest to guess exactly when the humongous snow mountain will finally melt. They are offering a $20 Freedom Card to the winners.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
March 16, 2026: Traffic moving at 45 mph on the Ben Franklin Bridge is photographed using a slow shutter speed from a PATCO commuter train traveling at 40 mph.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
March 9, 2026: Marcin Danych (left), a friend now living in Chicago, films Mariusz Sliwa, his wife, Magdalena, and their 6-year-old son, Tymek, from Poznan, Poland, next to the Rocky statue at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. When Mariusz was a boy, his father was “a typical factory worker; he was working a lot, too,” Sliwa said. “He worked seven days a week. Even weekends.” When they had time together at night, they would watch “Rocky,” “playing it over and over, in the VHS.” It was just a part of his childhood, so he wanted his own son to visit Philadelphia to experience it. And to make a video for his dad, who couldn’t make the trip. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
March 2, 2026: Lynasia Allen, a junior horticulture student at W.B. Saul High School is on lunch break at the Convention Center while setting up for the PHS Philadelphia Flower Show before it opened to the public. Her school’s exhibit is titled, “Up-Rooted, Re-Planted.”Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
February 23, 2026: Glenn Bergman, along with his wife, Dianne Manning, and other bystanders at the President’s House, try to prevent a counter-protester from ripping down notes posted by visitors. The Mount Airy couple had just arrived for the annual Presidents’ Day rally by the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition on the other side of the wall. The confrontation was over in a few minutes when the woman left. Visitors have been taping informal signs to fill the void left by the removal of panels about slavery last month in Independence National Historical Park.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
February 16, 2026: Which came first: the dirty snowpacked berm of frozen slush or the graffiti? This is one of the larger urban artifacts revealed as the region emerges from weeks of a record snowpack from the Jan. 25 storm.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
February 9, 2026: Walking through a corrugated metal culvert called the “Duck Tunnel,” a pedestrian navigates the passageway under the SEPTA tracks on the Swarthmore College campus. Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
February 2, 2026: A light-as-air Elmo balloon rolls along a sidewalk in Haddonfield, propelled by the wind as heavy snow starts to turn to ice and sleet during Sunday's storm.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
January 26, 2026: The President’s House in Independence National Historical Park hours after all historical exhibits were removed on Thursday in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order in March that the content at national parks that “inappropriately disparage” the United States be reviewed. The site, a reconstructed “ghost” structure titled “Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation” (2010), serves as a memorial to the nine people President George Washington enslaved there during the founding of America.Read moreTom Gralish / Staff Photographer
