A not particularly great sunrise photo from yesterday morning. I was too busy today preparing for upcoming travel to spend time on anything else.

At work we threw a surprise party for my boss, the CEO and founder of Formlabs, to celebrate his eighth work anniversary and by extension the eighth birthday of the company. He was definitely caught off guard and it was a very fun, if fattening event. Joining the party was his wife and new baby. I was able to steal the baby for a few minutes and also got a nice portrait of him. I handed him back to dad just moments before he threw up.

It is a fairly rare occurrence when Jeanine comes to me requesting that I take a photo of her. That was the case after she returned this morning from a 13 mile bike ride during which she had to repair her jammed derailleur. She was extremely proud of her greasy hands as was I of her newly developing bike repair aptitude. While she was riding, I was playing soccer and spent more time on the field than my current conditioning justified. Despite having a short bench, we managed a decisive 4-0 win over Wayland.

On the advice of our local weather forecasters, we decided to spend the afternoon at Plum Island for what was predicted to be the last “beach day” of the season.

It was a very relaxing afternoon as we absorbed the sunshine and the smells and sounds of the ocean.

Maya joined a few of the other interns at Blue Origin for some mountain hiking. Looks like she also scored a dog fix in the deal. Her mother and father were very happy to receive these photos because we know how genuinely happy she is despite what continues to be a demanding work load. Note to Maya; please try to secure the full resolution versions of these photos.

As is my habit, I tend to sell my photo gear as soon as I upgrade to better versions. For sale as of today is my Sony a7R III (pictured above and below). I have replaced it with a Sony a7R IV which sports a higher resolution and much improved ergonomics. Camera bodies depreciate rapidly whereas lenses can actually increase in value. My new camera arrived just ahead of planned trips over the next two months to Europe, Asia, and Central America so the timing could not have been better.

I had enough time yesterday on my drive back to the Raleigh Durham airport to stop at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens on the campus of Duke University for about 10 minutes. I could have stayed for hours and will certainly do so the next time I get to Durham. On this occasion making my flight was the higher priority.

On some level, I was not thrilled about the prospects of flying out of Logan airport on the morning of September 11th. It certainly made me reflect more deeply about all who were traumatized that day 18 years ago and all those who have paid the price since. Nonetheless, I have been very delinquent in visiting our new office in Durham, North Carolina and today I was finally in a position to do so. We currently have two floors of the building pictured above with ambitions to lease it all. Recruiting top talent here has proven very successful and I have high expectations about the work that will be done at this location. I enjoyed a tour of the facility and time getting to know the team better before a same-day return to Boston.

Since I started commuting to Formlabs I have had to endure construction traffic on Cambridge Street where the new King School and Cambridge Street Upper School (CSUS) have been under construction since 2015. The 250,000 square foot, $160M building will be home to 850 students. That’s a bill of nearly $10K per student for the next twenty years. Yikes! Despite the cost, it certainly is beautiful, especially when illuminated at night as was the case during my evening commute.

Normally when I photograph Nicolai on a soccer pitch he is one of the players on the field. This evening, I had a chance to see him in action in a different capacity, as Head Coach of the Concord Carlisle High School JV Men’s Soccer Team. They were playing Boston Latin High School which is not too far from my office. It was a lot of fun watching Nico coach a team he once played for. He is an absolute natural and I have little doubt that coaching will play an important role in his future. A set of action photos from the game can be found here. The game ended in a 0-0 tie despite the fact that CCHS dominated possession and really looked to be the better team.

This morning I started my sixteenth season with the Concord United soccer club. We travelled to Raynham where we secured a 5-0 win getting things off to a good start. I play a wing midfielder and have never kicked off a season in such poor shape. The combination of a demanding work schedule and various procedures related to getting rid of my kidney stones contributed to a summer break with little exercise. It is very clear to me that I am going to have to make a serious effort to get back into soccer shape if I am going to pull my weight on the team.

For the last several years, the shower in our master bathroom has suffered from a progressively increasing drip when turned off. I was confident that this could be rectified by replacing the four washers and seals used in the main valve body (pictured above). The challenge was getting it out. First, there is no water shutoff for the shower which means that it would require turning off water to the entire house. Although this is easy to do, the risk of breaking a pipe during this operation is very real and would result in no water for the house until it was repaired. Second the handle had 31 years of corrosion on its internal spline making it next to impossible to remove. Ultimately, I needed a torch and fairly large pry bars to remove the handle. Once liberated, I had to fight different battles with each of the four threaded joints inside the valve. The entire repair took the better part of the morning but was well worth the effort.

Later in the day, Jeanine and I joined Kyle for lunch and a long walk around Fresh Pond where we encounter this bumper crop of mushrooms.

All the items pictured here were found within a 10 foot radius in our backyard early this morning. It never ceases to amaze me what you can find when you simply take the time to look.

For someone who thought she would be dead after complications from surgery, I would say my mother is looking quite alive. Earlier this week she moved from a hospice care unit into an assisted living residential facility. Little by little she is gaining weight and I am confident it is only a matter of a few months before she returns to ballroom dancing. She sent this iPad selfie to family and friends today as if to announce “I’m back.”

When I returned from a walking meeting with one of my colleagues today, I found this caterpillar crawling up the back of my neck. After recovering from the surprise, I paused to photograph this future butterfly with the camera on my phone. It is absolutely amazing to me that evolution would produce a set of fake eyes to help intimidate would be predators.