Jeanine attended her first professional baseball game courtesy of a colleague at Open Table who offered her a pair of field box seats. The Red Sox defeated the Seattle Mariners 5-0 and we were treated to a home run, a stolen base, a marriage proposal on the Jumbotron, and all the sounds and smells of a major league ballpark.

We belong to the Clark Farm CSA and this is where our food comes from.  This morning I made a pick up which included a visit to the strawberry patch (foreground where people can be seen) to pick some very yummy fresh berries. We chose to live in Concord for the school system not realizing the secondary benefit of being in such close proximity to prime farmland.

Chatham Lighthouse

Nauset Lighthouse

Highland Light

We have lived in Massachusetts for almost 15 years. In all that time, I have never visited Cape Cod. Today I rectified that situation with a grand tour of the more prominent lighthouses that terminated in Provincetown and a visit to the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Having access to a metal lathe is a huge benefit of working at Superpedestrian. This morning I machined one of my favorite ball heads down to a much smaller profile for use on my travel tripod. I also fitted it with a new quick release. The new version is 60% of the weight, 75% of the volume, and nestles perfectly between the reverse folded legs of my tripod. Below is the original version.

Have you ever seen such a forlorn dog? Nala’s most recent visit to the vet has netted her this humiliation. Little wonder she fights us every time we try to coax her into the car.

Hard to believe that Maya turns 19 today. It seems like only yesterday that she was a tiny little cherub who loved riding horses. Now she is a rising sophomore in college working a summer internship in far-off Indianapolis on her way to a career in engineering.  We are missing her more than usual today.

I walk past the EMF Building every day on my way to and from breakfast and lunch. Today, for the first time, I notice a tiny little alcove in the brickwork. Inside was a small Absolute Vodka bottle and a pipe emerging from the building.  I am left with many unanswered questions.

Today my over-56 soccer team accepted a forfeit to complete a perfect season (10-0-0) and secure promotion to Division 1 next fall.  As a new team, we had to start in Division 2 as a matter of policy.  Over the next two weeks, we will play the winners from the other regions (North and South) to determine an overall champion.

Although I did not spend any time on the field, my day was full of soccer action as I enjoyed watching the day’s full line up of World Cup action with Kyle. The only way to improve on this Father’s Day would be to add Nicolai and Maya to the couch.lineup

Kyle requested a new headshot for his LinkedIn profile and I was happy to create this for him. I think the result was pretty good but we both felt it could be better and will try again.  His hair is quite beautiful and I did not do a very good job of lighting it.

We then spent an embarrassingly large amount of time watching World Cup soccer, sometimes with Jeanine and sometimes with her sister Susan who is visiting us for the weekend with her friend Jean.

Visiting us for the weekend is Jeanine’s sister, Susan, and her friend Jean. Kyle joined the four of us for dinner at El Huipil, a Mexican restaurant in Maynard.  Susan, an Associate Professor at the University of Vermont and Chairperson of the Social Work department in the College of Education and Social Services will be retiring in the coming months.  In lieu of a retirement gift, Susan has requested that a wall within her building be dedicated in her name.  Kyle and I enjoyed brainstorming with her about different ideas for how to memorialize it. 

At my last startup, we were initially located in a windowless machine shop and my desk was 3 feet away from a CNC milling machine that was running more often than not. Superpedestrian is located in the two buildings nearest the camera. The smaller white one is our main office which resembles a bike shop when you walk in the door.  The larger off-yellow one is where the engineering organization resides.  In addition to these two buildings, we also have rented the first floor of an adjacent apartment building where we have located a number of conference rooms. What these buildings lack in elegance they more than make up for in character.  Little by little we have been renovating the interior to create larger labs and more open space.

The Quincy Quarries were first opened in 1825 to supply granite for the Bunker Hill Monument in Boston’s historic Charlestown neighborhood and was actively mined to one degree or another until 1963. Once abandoned, the Quarries slowly flooded and became a popular — if dangerous — site for cliff jumping. A number of people began to die jumping into the flooded pits, so in order to curb the practice, a number of wooden pylons were placed sticking out of the water. However, these eventually sank below the waterline, becoming invisible, and deadly. The death toll went through the roof.

After being closed to the public for a number of years, the site was reopened in the 1980s after dirt from Boston’s “Big Dig” was used to fill in the pits. Now, Quincy Quarries is linked to the Blue Hill Reservation trail system and is open to the public. It has become very popular for its spectacular array of graffiti art, rock climbing, and views of downtown Boston. 
I left the house at 5 am so I could arrive at the quarry before it was overrun with people and so I could still beat the traffic into Boston for work. Unfortunately, this did not leave time for any climbing which would have produced more interesting photos.  I will simply have to make another visit.

I have been without my Mavic Air drone for over a week while it was being repaired.  For some reason, the internal fan stopped working causing the unit to overheat.  Fortunately, the failure was covered under warranty and the manufacturer chose to replace the entire unit.  When I returned from work it was waiting for me so I did a quick flight over the house to test it out before the sun was gone. Props to the drone maker, DJI, for prompt and hassle-free service.

Over the weekend I did a series of Copenhagen Wheel photos for  work.  I enjoyed the assignment but not the results thus far.  Lighting such a highly reflective object is tricky and I do not feel I have quite arrived at the optimal result.  The goal of the image is to celebrate the interface between the hub and spokes, a design element we call a smiley for reasons which should be self explanatory. I think I will make another attempt later in the week when the effects of yesterday’s soccer match have worn off and I am feeling like doing something other than sleeping.