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.

This pumpkin has been sitting in our kitchen for several weeks now.  Today I noticed how interesting the colors in the stem were and decided I would make it the subject of a still life. I spent the balance of the day collecting and spending money.  Three of my Craig’s List postings sold netting a total of more than $2K. I turned around and spent that on a new 27″ iMac.

We returned to Concord this afternoon so that Maya could host a Friendsgiving gathering of her high school buddies. All are doing well and they had a great time catching up. It took little persuasion to coax the women into a group photo which I hope they will look back on fondly one day.

This year our family is having Thanksgiving dinner at my mother’s house in Schenectady, NY.  She will celebrate her 90th birthday next year and can still run circles around the rest of us. The three hour car ride was a great opportunity to learn more about what each of the kids are up to. We were joined by my sister Alissa and her family for the holiday feast and later connected with my brother Mark and his family over FaceTime and briefly with my other sister Mayela by phone.

Nico encouraged the group to learn the card game of Canasta and despite its complexity, the group picked it up fairly quickly.

Having never really enjoyed card games of any type, I spent my time taking photographs of the family.

Cold weather and an outdoor location afforded me exactly two attempts to snap a family portrait. Given the constraints, I should be pleased with the outcome, but all I see are the opportunities to have done a better job. Those regrets aside, however, I have come to recognize how increasingly less frequent these opportunities are becoming and to make the best of them. 

Rare it is these days when all three kids are in the same place at the same time. Rarer still when they allow me to rope them in for a portrait. My goal for this holiday week is to get one good family portrait and one good photo of all three children.

As part of our effort to free up more space at Superpedestrian headquarters, we managed to fill a van with bicycles that will be donated to Bikes Not Bombs. Bikes Not Bombs uses the bicycle as a vehicle for social change.

Nala enjoyed some canine companionship while Jeanine hosted close friend Irene and her mother. Kobe is a big, handsome, and very gentle fellow. Still, Nala was not the least bit receptive to his amorous advances.

Fiona is the daughter of one of my soccer teammates and a very close friend of Maya. She is studying nursing at UMass and is back in town for the Thanksgiving break. Her parents have just sold their home and are looking for one in Rhode Island where they are moving to be closer to family and work. We have offered to let her stay with us during the transition and hope she will take us up on the offer.

Maya is back for the holiday break although we have to share her time with Caleb. She genuinely seems to be enjoying her college experience and it was nice to hear about her various projects and classes. I completed my third week at Superpedestrian feeling very good about my choice to return to work. I was able to orchestrate a shift in product strategy which I am confident will pay huge dividends down the road. Next week I will be busy helping the team to organize around our new direction.

Jeanine treated me to two of my favorite foods this evening. Meatballs in marinara sauce and brussel sprouts with bacon, onions, and maple syrup. Admittedly this might sound like a strange combination to some but trust me when I say that it was a delicious meal. I am a very lucky man to have a wife with such amazing culinary talent.

Superpedestrian is located just a few blocks away from MIT. As has become my habit, I drive into Cambridge very early to beat the traffic and walk from the office to one of many cafe options for breakfast. This morning I made a little detour and discovered Arcturus, a recent MIT solar car, well hidden behind a fence. I reached over the top and got a nice shot with Simmons Hall in the background.

I facilitated my first all-hands meeting of the Engineering team at work today. I challenged participants to design an award-winning new product in one hour.  They rose to the challenge and I was pleased to see such good collaborative and engineering skills at play.

This distinctive bit of artwork can be found on the facade of the Cambridge Public Library, located a 5-minute walk from the Superpedestrian office. Had I taken a wide-angle photo you would have seen two homeless individuals sleeping on the concrete sidewalk below.

Motivated by a 30% discount on custom holiday cards, I completed this year’s design before the promotion ended at midnight.  For someone who takes so many photos, I was amazed at how few of the family I had from this past year and resolved to take more. Here is one of Kyle preparing dinner. He trains at the gym every morning before working on his programming course and is looking mighty strong these days.

Jeanine and I went out for lunch today and caught owner Steve Verrill cooking up a massive pan of beef stew at Verrill Farm.  Jeanine gets very excited any time she sees large cooking utensils being put to good use. She will take a break from her Executive Director role at Open Table next week to be head chef for one of their community dinners.

Nala is aging gracefully and has now surpassed Jeanine and me in relative age. It is somewhat disconcerting to see changes in her that are just around the corner for us. She remains as dumb and cute as ever but has now developed an acute aversion to being photographed.

I received a new lens in the mail today and through sheer laziness did all of my testing while sacked out on the couch. From that vantage point, our entry foyer is the most interesting subject.  I am in the middle of transitioning camera systems and have been buying one new lens for each one I sell.

The commute to Cambridge is almost tolerable if I leave at 6:30 AM as was the case this morning with a door-to-door time of 42 minutes. The breakfast options within walking distance of the office are impressive and the walk invariably presents new photo ops. You simply don’t see dumpsters decorated in this manner anywhere in Concord.

Couldn’t resist this shot of my bonsai as I was headed out the door this morning. The sun had just risen and was bathing our Japanese maple in golden light. Wish I had spent a few more minutes to set up some foreground lighting but beating the crush of commuter traffic was a higher priority.