Several weeks ago I ordered a newly announced 135mm f/1.8 lens for my Sony camera system. I had to wait around this morning for the signature required delivery. UPS now allows you to track the GPS location of your package and I met the driver at my door as he was getting ready to ring the doorbell. Conditions were not great for outdoor photography and the 135mm focal length is really something I like most for portraits but I was happy to photograph this swan to break in my new optic.
This bridge over the Sudbury River is constructed entirely of wood. As beautiful as it is to look at, especially when water levels are high, it is even more interesting to listen to. When cars cross it the entire structure shakes and the sound of tires rolling over the deck timbers elicits a rhythmically mesmerizing salute to times gone by. The tune changes constantly with the number, size, speed and direction of vehicles crossing this conduit between Lincoln and Sudbury.
While at a pledge dinner for our church several weeks ago, I entered my name in a drawing for two tickets to see the Red Sox play Tampa Bay. My name was drawn from the hat and this afternoon Jeanine and I took in the game. Regrettably, the Sox did not see fit to win for the benefit of our enjoyment, dropping the game 2 to 5. Still we thoroughly enjoyed attending and were very happy with our seats in the grandstand that sheltered us from the slight drizzle that began about half way through. Below Mookie Betts thinks about stealing home until the inning came to an end with him stranded on third.
The first Audi e-tron shipments have just started to arrive in the US. I test drove one today to confirm I want to keep my reservation and am leaning in that direction. My car is currently in production and should be delivered within a couple of months barring unforeseen delays. My order is for a Galaxy Blue version with turbine style wheels (as pictured below
Next week is Olin’s final for the spring semester. Maya has requested a care package to help her through the final days of her sophomore year. The package will be delivered by “carrier brother” in lieu of a carrier pigeon. My contribution will take the form of pictures I took of otters, Maya’s favorite animal. I hope these will bring her joy and help her to relax as she powers through the rest of the term.
Weeping willows are possibly my favorite tree, at the very least, a close second to the Japanese Lace Leaf Maple. At this time of year, in my estimation, they are at their peak of beauty. I would like to find an isolated tree with a more photogenic background and will update this photo if I am successful.
Frequent rain over the past few days have caused the Sudbury River to expand well beyond its banks. This is most apparent from the air. Normally, the river is rarely wider than 30 feet. Now it has turned massive swatches of land into marshes.
My collection of photographs numbers roughly 101,000 at the moment. For the last several years I have tried to keep the number capped at 100,000 by routinely culling weaker or less memorable images from the archive. This evening I spent some time engaged in that exercise when I came across this flamingo. At the time I took this image, I don’t think I fully appreciated how good it was so thought I would post it again as a reminder to myself to get out and do more photography.
Three years ago on a trip to California, I took the photo above through the dirty window of the airplane I was flying in. I remember thinking how much I would enjoy going back and photographing in this area. Today, after reverse-engineering the flight path, I was able to locate this place using Google Maps (screen capture below). At some point in the future, you can rest assured I will be featuring some drone photos taken of this area.
I travelled to Mansfield, MA this morning for my league soccer match. The drive took 45 minutes and I was not all too happy when our opponents decided to throw in the towel shortly after the start of the second half. We were leading by a score of 4-0 at the time and it was clear that our scoring would go higher. The game was stopped when half of their players took a knee, signaling they did not want to continue (no mas). 90 minutes of driving for 30 minutes of playing time did not seem like a good ratio to me. On the bright side, I was able to return home for a shower before heading out to an Easter brunch with the family and my sister Alissa and Maya’s Olin roommate, Lauren. The original plan had me driving directly to the restaurant from the game, a much smellier proposition. Lauren was kind enough to take this family portrait with my camera before I captured additional shots of the kids.
I spent the better part of what proved to be a very rainy day indoors working on renovations to our downstairs powder room/bathroom. I installed a new faucet set and drain in brushed nickel to replace the now tarnished gold set I previously installed some 14 years ago. Connecting the drain inside the sinks support column proved to be a most frustrating exercise given almost zero space to operate. Later, I added a new triple-sconce light fixture over the future location of an oval mirror that is next on my list to install.
When they were first announced more than 4 months ago, I immediately placed orders for two new cordless DeWalt tools. A router and barrel grip jig saw. This week after numerous delays, they finally arrived. If ever there was a tool that wanted to be cordless it is a trim router and I am surprised it has taken this long for DeWalt to introduce one. Immediately after ordering the barrel grip jigsaw, I sold my “D” grip jigsaw on Craig’s list. I prefer the handling of the former by far. Now, if only DeWalt would offer a cordless biscuit joiner, I could replace my final corded tool with an untethered version.
We mourn with the French. Kyle is in the foreground during our trip to France in 2000.
I was very busy at work today. Too much so to participate in a campus-wide Easter Egg Hunt. As I was leaving for the day, I ran into the CEO and his wife who were on their way to Hoppy Labs.
I had not planned to attend because a beer party (hoppy) is not really my thing. When I learned that the event would also feature baby bunnies (hoppy) and goats I had to stick around. Next year I will invite Maya who would have surely smuggled out some furry friends.
Spring has arrived and with it rowers on the Charles River.
Monday’s are always very busy for me at work. Even so, I was able to find 90 minutes shortly after lunch, between meetings and the rain, to take in a bit of the Boston Marathon. The four mile round trip walk took 80 minutes leaving me only 10 minutes to shoot. While spectating from a bridge over Commonwealth Avenue, I was standing next to a man with one child on his shoulders and another by his side. He was checking on a phone app telling his young kids that mommy was getting close. When she appeared they began yelling and she spotted them. I captured a nice sequence and gave the dad my contact info and told him I would send the photos. This evening I made good on that promise and was happy to provide this family from Asheville, NC a happy souvenir from their visit to Boston.
The kids were all home this afternoon for a family celebration of Jeanine’s birthday as was our niece Rachel. Jeanine had requested that here children prepare a meal together as her birthday gift. Kyle expertly prepared a lamb dish, Nicolai roasted cauliflower and broccoli, and Maya was in charge of the cake (not sure who made the rice). Jeanine was thrilled to be surrounded by family and to witness her children sharing her gift for cooking. Unfortunately, I had procrastinated on preparing income taxes and had to spend a good portion of the day involved with that less than enjoyable activity. My mood was not enhanced by my soccer game this morning which resulted in a 0-0 tie. Our opponents did not make a single serious shot on our net but managed to pack the box with defenders throughout the game frustrating our many attempts to score. I may have had our best opportunity with a header that just missed the lower corner.
Once a year, spouses are invited to the book group to which Jeanine belongs. This year, for the first time, we met at a restaurant, the Forge and Vine in Groton. Reservations must be obtained months in advance and this was reflected in the quality of the food. Our group of ten enjoyed a quiet semi-private room which lent itself to conversation. As I have suspected for many years, the book group is really a cover for monthly social gatherings. I was one of only two participants who actually completed the assigned book, Michelle Obama’s, Becoming. For the record, Jeanine was not the other. As is her habit and right, Jeanine is stretching her birthday into something of a week-long event which made for a very delicious end to the evening. Tomorrow we are celebrating again, this time with the kids.
Our little Jeanine is all grown up. Today she celebrates her 56th birthday. Seems to me she becomes more lovely each year.
Many of my recent posts feature new buildings going up in Cambridge or Somerville. For better or worse I have exhausted most other photographically interesting subjects within walking distance from my office. For every new building that goes up, there are old ones coming down. Today I walked passed the pictured construction site and watched for several minutes as this excavator made quick work of its demolition task. I think the water is to keep dust down rather than fire prevention.
Boston is well known for our fleet of Duck Boats. These military surplus amphibious vehicles are used to give tours of the city from both land and water. Our whole family took one when we first moved to the area and enjoyed it immensely. In addition to the driver/captain being a very funny guy, he let the kids skipper the duck while on the water. In Boston, Duck Boats are also used for “rolling rallies” to celebrate national sports championships, eleven in total since 2002. Pictured above is one of the fleet in front of the Boston Science Museum.
Located a few blocks from Formlabs, the Zinc Apartments building seems to carry some kind of cryptic message on its exterior. When time permits I may try to solve the puzzle. Monthly rents range from $2500 to $10,000.
I just learned that Mark Krauss, a former Concord United soccer teammate of mine, passed away yesterday at the age of 56. He was afflicted with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and ALS, possibly a consequence of Lyme’s disease which he also suffered from. He leaves behind his wife, a school teacher, and their five children, three of them in college. It is a heart breaking situation and our soccer community is coming together to support the family. His nickname on the pitch was “Mouse” but he played with the heart of a lion. He was a true gentleman on and off the field. We are all extremely saddened to lose one of our own and reminded to live life to the fullest each day.
His daughter, Jessie, organized a fundraising 5K run to benefit the Massachusetts General Hospital FTD Unit. It was scheduled for yesterday which only seems to amplify the sense of loss. Pictured below with our Concord United squad. He is the one with my arm over his shoulder.
Nicolai has been accepted to Lesley University’s graduate degree program. High school teachers in Massachusetts require a Master’s Degree in Education in order to gain certification. He is currently living with us but is actively looking to find a friend to share an apartment with. Even so, we rarely see him. This evening he was home and we enjoyed a nice Sunday dinner with him before he left to hang out with friends.
“Before kickoff I said I wanted the game to be over by half-time. For the first 20 minutes some shambolic defending meant that without a few superb saves from Rob we would have been sunk. After that we sorted ourselves out… Carl under a lot of pressure and moving away from goal outside the box curled one top corner 1-0. Tony made a run down the wing and a pinpoint cross onto Bob’s head, 2-0 at half-time. In the second half we buried them in the first 5 minutes… A dazzling dribble from Jamie resulted in a ball across the box and Joe hammered it home. A corner from Joe found Frank two feet in the air and he headed it top corner, 4-0 and their heads went down. We kept going with some great team work resulting in Jeno and Tony both scoring. 6-0 and no cards a perfect start to the season!”
Little by little we are preparing to sell our house. Last week we had the wallpaper in our foyer removed and the walls repainted. Today, I removed the carpeting, padding, and tack strips from our front hallway stairs so the refinishing and paint work can continue next week. I left the remnants neatly stacked to keep my boss happy.
Pictured here is the Program Manager for our recently announced Form 3L 3D printer. The “L” in “3L” stands for large and hence the tag line on these shirts passed out to all 500 employees of the company. On the other side is a graphic depicting the new machine. Interest in the Form 3L has been overwhelming and we are now in a race to get it into full production.
On my daily walk today I came across this clever adaptation of a tree stump in Cambridge. I was tempted to sit down for a spell but it is most definitely a “high chair” which would have required a running start and half gainer to deliver my backside to the correct location. I thought it better to maintain my aerobic walk and paused only for the photograph.
Timed perfectly to coincide with our big product announcement yesterday, Built In Boston just published their Insider Spotlight on Formlabs. I wish they had used the Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots picture (featured on this blog last week) but still very pleased with the piece. Here is another photo that I really liked which also did not make the cut.
A huge day at work today! We announced our next generation of 3D printers. The Form 3 and the large format Form 3L. Both using Low Force Stereolithography, an advanced printing technology that we invented. We have teams at two major trade shows, one in Chicago and the other in Germany, introducing the products to the world and a team in China working feverishly to ramp up production while the folks at headquarters are working seven days a week to put the finishing touches on the design. The next several months are going to be a marathon but the whole company is hyper energized. Below is a video created by our marketing folks to introduce the products.
Interest in our new products was intense and orders started flowing the moment we announced them.
sThe colleague pictured to my left organized a pancake breakfast for our teammates at work this morning. After enjoying some myself, I offered my services as a short-order cook. He continued to mix up batch after batch of batter while I cooked an estimated 60 pancakes. Fillings included blueberries, pecans, chocolate chips, and bananas. Can’t think of a better way to start the morning.