Merry Belated Christmas

Quick Post ... I hope everyone had a great Christmas. People in the Boston area: enjoy the storm. Please feel free to pass the time while you're home by baking me an assortment of pies.

More JR to come soon. Enjoy some snowmen in the meantime.


Song of the day: "The Weather" by Built To Spill

Royal Z

Today was a day to wake up and test my toughness against the cold. I woke up at 5:30 this morning to go and do some shooting. As soon as I got up I checked weather.com for Boston's temperature. It read 9 degrees ... feels like -2 degrees. Unfortunately this was Fahrenheit. So on went the long johns and 54 layers up top and off I went to shoot the Zakim Bridge. I really wanted to shoot from below it, which was my only option anyways because my helicopter is imaginary. Despite my fingers burning from future frostbite and my face numbing, it was cool being down there. Some of the water was frozen. And actually, driving from my place along the Charles River through Cambridge, I saw a lot more ice than I ever would've expected this early in the year. There was a thin sheet of ice over just about the whole river. After I was done shooting at Zakim, I headed over to the Naval Shipyard area in Charlestown. This was much windier and colder, so my time was going to be short. I did more walking around than anything, just observing, but managed to get a couple of shots, one of which is below. So all in all, cold morning, but, as always, worth waking up early to be outside with a camera. ... Enjoy! ....... click images to enlarge


Song of the day: "I Will Be The Sun" by Old Canes

Aquatic Battle

Today was a really great day. I decided to wake up at 5:30 this morning to drive down to Scituate, MA to do some shooting around sunrise. I thought of the Scituate lighthouse before I went to bed Saturday night and lucked out that there was going to be some pretty nice weather today to do some work. I had visions of getting a one dollar cup of hot chocolate at McDonald's for the ride, but I was racing the sun and don't ever really want to step in a McDonald's anyway, so off I went. I arrived just in time to work with some really interesting light and some amazing scattered clouds. I had a shot in mind of the curling of the coast with the lighthouse off to the side of the frame and was able to work on that shot, with what seemed to be a ticked off ocean trying to make itself known to me. The waves were strong today, almost like a winter storm, so that made everything a lot more fun as I had the tripod set up right at the edge of the water (at least at first). With every second of these long exposures my waterproof boots were becoming less waterproof and my shins a little bit shorter. I eventually looked up and saw a defunct typhoon's wave about to attack me, so I grabbed my tripod mid-shot and made a run for it. I'm sure I looked like an idiot standing in the tip of the ocean in December (in New England) with jeans soaked up to my knees and laughing completely by myself. ... But I am an idiot, I laugh a lot, and like to push the limit to create images that I enjoy, so its all good. In unrelated news, I was rewarded with delicious French Toast later in the morning to continue the great day. Happy Sunday! ... or Monday now, I guess.

Below is an outtake from today ... a little ghost-like self portrait. And, as always, please click the images to view them larger.


Song of the day: "Little Lion Man" by Mumford & Sons

So it begins.