The Boston Common and Public Garden was my morning walk destination today. Spring will be here and gone in a matter of days so I took advantage of the nice weather to visit one of the prettier destinations in the city. I only had time for a 15 minute visit but found many nice compositions in that time.
Taken from the window of my car as I drove past Harvard Square. You would be amazed at the number of unusual things I observe while passing through this corridor.
On the way to my soccer match this morning I was compelled to stop for a turkey rafter sighting. Had I a few more moments to spare, I have little doubt that these photos would have been x-rated. My team secured a 2-0 win over Lexington today, our toughest opponent thus far. We remain undefeated and have yet to give up a single goal this season. I started full-strength dosing of Ibuprofen two days ago and the regime paid off. I managed to play without any knee problems. It remains to be seen how I will feel when the drugs wear off, however, and I will likely continue taking them for another day or two. If this works it will confirm that my pain is from inflammation rather than any serious mechanical problems.
As a favor for Jeanine, I took photos at a retirement party for the architect who helped design the new Open Table facility. The complete set can be found by following this link and includes my favorites shown here.
The Boston Public Improvement Commission just announced that it would return Yawkey Way to its former name, Jersey St. at the request of the Boston Red Sox organization. Tom Yawkey owned the team for some 44 years and is generally viewed today as having been a racist. Despite the good works of the Yawkey Foundation, created after his death, many felt that it would be racially insensitive to continue to associate his name with the street bordering Fenway Park. I personally would have preferred to keep the name of the street and added a very prominent plaque which acknowledged his racist behaviors while also recognizing his accomplishments. I think we gain more by understanding than trying to simply erase.
I thought I would get a photo of one of the signs before they all get stolen (I am sure they will be quite the collector’s item one day). While I was in the neighborhood, I put up my drone for a nice aerial view of Fenway Park.
Geese are not high on my list of interesting photographic subjects but I found the wavy tall grass reflections in the water as they swam away very interesting. I encountered this pair on my morning walk which took me to the Fenway Garden Society this morning.
A sure sign that spring has arrived is the nightly chorus of peeper frogs that can be heard throughout the night. I had to work rather late this evening and did not return home until ~10 pm. As I drove down ORNAC (Old Road to Nine Acre Corners) I could see dozens of frogs hopping across the road (also a number who were run over in the process). I pulled over and used my flashlight to illuminate the little fellow above. He was quite cooperative, remaining still as I struggled to hold my light with one hand and properly focus my camera with the other. It made for a very satisfying conclusion to a very long workday.
At work today I needed to create a photograph that will be used in a media campaign by one of our bike frame partners. The goal was to convey a sense of motion while still featuring the brand identity of the product. There is a standard technique for doing this. You set a relatively low shutter speed and pan with the action so that the background is blurred and the subject is in focus. Easier said than done was my takeaway after the exercise. It took over a hundred shots to get the one above and I am not really all that pleased with it. Next time I will use a tripod with a panning head, and a lens with a larger aperture and spend more time scouting a better background. Live and learn.
At long last, signs of spring are beginning to pop up. It has been a long and unusually rough winter that has dragged on far too long. As I looked around today there were signs of new life everywhere and I am reminded how quickly the spring season in New England comes and goes. Hopefully, there will be enough sunny days between rainy ones to get some decent photographs of the transition from greyscale to color.
Still nursing an injured knee from last weekend, I did not play soccer this morning. Instead, I watched from the sideline as my teammates ran up an 8-0 score by halftime. The final was 9-0, limited only by a desire not to further humiliate our opponents. The weather could not have been nicer so I invited Jeanine to join me on a waterfall hike. Pictured above and below is 45-foot tall Royalston Falls reachable by a steep 1.6-mile hike. It took us much longer than we expected given my bad knee and Jeanine’s still recovering calf muscle. Despite the slow going, the journey was well worth the effort. We also visited Doane Falls but I prefer the winter images I shot of it back in February to the ones I took today.
The field containing the trees pictured in the foreground has been fully inundated by the Sudbury River. The uniform and stark contrast between the water and trees makes for a rather compelling photo. Another interesting angle is from directly overhead. In another few weeks, the trees will be covered in buds and the water will have likely receded creating an entirely different scene.
The South Bridge Boathouse is familiar to anyone who has rented canoes for a paddle downriver to visit the Old North Bridge. Occasionally I pay the proprietor a few bucks to put my kayak in and take it out from their dock. Money well spent when I prefer to stay dry (most other put-ins and take-outs along the river are wet). Currently, the river is so high that there is scarcely clearance to paddle under a number of bridges on the river. In a few weeks the water level and temperatures will be conducive to kayaking and I hope to do more this year than last.
Now that I am shooting exclusively with the Sony a7R3 I no longer need crop body only primes such as this 30mm f/1.4 prime that I used with my a6300s (sold both over the last couple of weeks). It can now be found on Craig’s List in search of a new happy home.
At this time of year, few people are willing to brave the wind and cold to ply the waters of the Sudbury River. For those brave souls who are, the reward is having the river to yourself at a time when it is swollen with winter snow melt and spring rains. I captured this image with my drone minutes before sunset, the kayaker oblivious to its presence.
