I am accustomed to seeing turkeys in Concord all the time. We have a lot of undeveloped land and many places for wildlife to flourish. Coming across one in the middle of Cambridge across the street from my office was less expected. When a colleague alerted me to its presence I grabbed my camera and approached for the shot.
The first snow of the year had me up at 6 am clearing the driveway so I could get out for some golden light photography. We received about 5 inches of wet snow. Hard to shovel, great for snowballs and photography. This was my first real chance to shoot in good light with my new camera and I have to say I am thrilled with the results.
News of the administration’s move to shrink the Grand Staircase – Escalante National Monument by half left me deeply saddened. For those who have never visited, I can tell you that it is a place of rare and exceptional beauty if you take the time to explore it. I plan to financially support the legal effort to challenge the President’s right to revoke the national monument status established by the Antiquities Act. I have not yet had an opportunity to visit Bears Ears but hope to do so one day.
Maya, working with two partners, completed another engineering project at Olin. They mathematically modeled down force and wheel torque of a Formula 1 race car to estimate 0-60mph acceleration. Wish I had been given problems like this when I was in college.
On my walk back from breakfast, I paused to admire and capture a photo of a Greek Orthodox church near my office.
Superpedestrian held its annual Holiday Party at the Somerville Brew Company, known locally as the SlumBrew. Regrettably, our CEO had to fly to California this morning for an important meeting. He was determined to personally thank everyone for their part in our success this year and joined us briefly by videoconference. Jeanine and I had a wonderful time getting to know his wife, pictured here, a talented musician and composer with an effervescent personality. It was a wonderful evening and I enjoyed introducing Jeanine to all of my colleagues.
Over the last several weeks I have bought and sold two dozen lenses as part of my transition from Canon to Sony. Because I mostly acquire used gear, I was able to make the transition with little net outlay. I often sell lenses for more than I paid for them. I know the market well and never overpay on the buy side. When it comes time to sell, I clean the lens thoroughly and take the time to make compelling marketing photos for my listings. The same cannot be said for camera bodies which depreciate rapidly when obsoleted by newer versions. For those who are wondering, I took the picture with my phone.
Overcast skies this morning made for uninspiring photography and general fatigue from a long day yesterday had me settle for a 4-mile walk. I am gradually getting to know the area around the Superpedestrian office and there is no shortage of interesting subjects to shoot. I stopped at Whole Foods along the way to pick up food for breakfast. Little did I know that my $8.54 expenditure would trigger a credit card fraud alert that would create havoc for both Jeanine and I for the remainder of the day. Apparently, this purchase was much smaller than our normal expenditures at the market and this is deemed suspicious activity. I spent over 40 minutes on hold with Citi Bank before speaking with someone to sort the mess out.
My morning walk took me past MIT where I paused for perfunctory photographs. It was rather cold so I was happy for the brief indoor respite. Only the early morning hour affords an opportunity to capture these scenes absent the multitudes of students and visitors normally present. I completed my 4.5-mile stroll in 75 minutes. Normally this would carve out a rather large portion of the workday. Not so when you leave home at 6:30 am and return at 9:30 pm.
It is that time of year when fall is distinctly over but winter has yet to arrive. While the leaves are all down there is still color and beautiful forms to be found. The walk way to our farmer’s porch entrance is flanked by a berry tree and a huge stand of ornamental grass.
Open Table opened its doors this evening to members of the Maynard community who were out on the town enjoying their annual Holiday Sip and Stroll festival. Following a tree lighting at Memorial Park, town residents enjoyed music and snacks being offered by virtually every downtown business. These dancing youngsters provided an additional measure of entertainment for visitors to Open Table’s new facility.
Since it was announced just over a month ago, I have been anxiously anticipating the arrival of a Sony a7 Mark III camera. It is a mirrorless design, unlike the Canon DSLR (digital single lens reflex) system that I have used for the past twenty years. Mirrorless cameras offer a fundamentally superior architecture but until recently have not been able to match the viewfinder experience of an SLR. Sony’s last two models have rectified that and gone much further. Canon and Nikon have been relegating their mirrorless offerings to the low end of the market and Sony has now created a superior camera that strikes at the heart of their professional market. I found it compelling enough to switch systems wholesale and can’t wait to start shooting with it.
I achieved a new record time of 32 minutes for my morning commute by leaving at 6 am. This afforded me the opportunity to enjoy sunrise over the Charles River during a vigorous 5-mile walk I took before breakfast.
I pass this small parking lot every day on my way to lunch. The more I study the sign posted there, the more I struggle to understand almost everything about it; the font choice, the color scheme, the punctuation, and the kearning. One thing is for sure, I never, and I mean never, want to engage in a confrontation with its creator.
When I started taking photography seriously about 20 years ago, I selected a very unusual quick-release camera and lens mounting system manufactured in Germany by a small inventor-run business called iDeesign. When the company went out of business several years ago, I cornered the market on used sales because I liked the system so much. Apparently, the rights to the design were acquired by another company and they were once again for sale. I picked up a few more sets before that company stopped selling them. At this point, I am very confident I have the largest collection of these quick release clamps in the world. This weekend I decided to switch to the industry defacto quick connect system and will either find a new application for the iDeesign clamps or start selling them off.
