22-FEB-2009
Day 053 - Swimming's Done
Photo of my son after his last swim lesson (for this session). I was able to utilze his modeling services for all of 45 seconds this afternoon. After that, his patience wore thin.
I have the flash off camera, sitting in the bleachers behind me to the left. He is looking at a point between the flash and myself. It isn't that bad for a single bare 580EX-2.
21-FEB-2009
Day 052 - The Trainyard
I 'd never actually been to the train yard in Dover (NH) before. It isn't a huge trainyard, it is basically a couple of parallel tracks and a muddy parking area. But, it is very interesting, lots of things to photograph. These tank cars were lined up and just sitting there, waiting for someone to photograph them. There was another train on the other side of it that began to move while I was out there. I expected to be shooed away while I was out there with all my photographic gear, but there was no one in the actual yard, per se. The crew had already boarded the freight train.
I actually found this area (yard) on google maps a few weeks ago and made a mental note to check it out. Google maps rocks, I've lived in this area for pretty much all my life and never knew about areas like this. I've been able to scope out some interesting locations by just 'browsing' through maps (Satellite view).
20-FEB-2009
Day 051 - Slick Road
We got some snowfall last night that was completely unexpected. The roads this morning were a little slick. I tend to see cars off the road around two times in the winter.
The first time is the first snowfall, drivers have forgotten what it is like to ride in the snow and take their minds off the road for a split second and wind up in a ditch the next moment.
The other time I see this is right towards the end of winter, like the last or next to last snowfall. Especially after we've had some very nice weather. Last week we had great weather, we had a weekend of 40's and 50's lead into a nice warm[er] week. I was able to get 90% of my driveway cleared, most of the ice had been chipped and/or melted away. Roads widened as the snowbanks melted. We all felt like it was spring. Then this morning, we were reminded that we live in New England.
A lot of us, myself included, didn't think anything of the snow until we saw this car off the road, then we paid a little more attention to the road. I want to thank this guy (or gal, there was no occupant when I pulled over) for reminding me that the roads were slick.
It's easy to make light of this situation now as I am from and was in Maine when I took this shot, the car had New Hampshire license plates, that state is so much further south, they have better weather ;-)
19-FEB-2009
Day 050 - Just before the fall
This old condemned building beside the pier at Prescott park is literally on its last legs (it's not even touching the post in the foreground). I imagine I will come by some day to find that a quarter of it has slid into the river (or more). It was raining out this morning as I was taking this photo (the rest of the photos got canned).
I really like the tones in this photo and believe I might have to come back to retake this photo when the weather is better, I can try a better composition.
18-FEB-2009
Day 049 - All for a bag of chips
I took a different route this morning through Kittery, Maine and came across this scene. It was quite the event, police directing traffic from three directions. I swung around after realizing that Tody's PaD had found me. While I was walking around snapping photos, the driver (in this photo on the right) shouted to me "All for a bag of chips". (He explained he was reaching over for a bag of chips that fell under the seat) He perked up and was quite chipper with me when he thought he was going to make the paper. After I explained what I did, he looked confused (I get that a lot).
Just as I was packing up, this cruiser pulled up beside me presenting this particular vantage point. I couldn't pass it up.
And, yes that sign on the back of the truck says "How's my driving? Call...".
17-FEB-2009
Day 048 - Concrete Example
Today is a quick one (though it was the result of a complex and perilous adventure ;-)
It is a concrete example of a vignette.
This is what happens when you spy an aircraft taxing out for takeoff at one end of the runway, while driving into work, then rushing to the other end of the runway in hopes of catching it taking off. I was about 2 minutes too slow, I saw the plane off the end of the runway well before I was near the end to pull over, setup, and get a shot of it.
16-FEB-2009
Day 047 - Frothy
I snuck out of the house this afternoon to take some photos and stumbled on a path beside the Salmon Falls river in Somersworth. The river has started to show itself, working it way through the ice and snow. This is the perfect time for some long exposures as the snow and ice provides for a great surface for me to walk and set my equipment on.
15-FEB-2009
Day 046 - Weathered and Worn
The side of this barn has seen its better days. I noticed this while driving this afternoon (the barn, that is) and caught it on our way home. It was the weathered look that caught my eye, I knew it was worn, but didn't realize the door was just resting on the side of the barn. While Post Processing, I noticed the track was about a foot higher than the door, there are missing boards, and there are some extremely rotted (possibly burnt) boards further to the right (out of frame). I love the colors.
If I could do it over again, I'd push the ISO up and open the aperture up to f/8.0 as it's a tad soft on the edges.
14-FEB-2009
Day 045 - Winter Thaw
The river in downtown Dover has begun its thaw. I had a few minutes while waiting for my daughter to change while I was at the pool, to get a few shots in.
13-FEB-2009
Day 044 - Rusty
My morning photo jaunt took me into downtown Portsmouth today. I thought I was going to shoot something in the alley on Church Street (behind the North Church) but the shot didn't happen after I actually made it to the street. A short walk down the alley and I saw a number of potentials, including a very interesting angle on North Church with the Church Street sign in the foreground (but it didn't pan out during Post Processing). This is the kind of fire escape that you'd have to think twice about in the event of an actual fire (is it safer to brave the flames?).
12-FEB-2009
Day 043 - Misty Ski Hill
Powderhouse hill. The local Ski, Snowboard, and sledding hill (just around the corner from us). Sledding is actually to the left of the ski hill, there is no sledding allowed on the ski hill as indicated on the sign. We've never actually skied or snowboarded on this side, we've only used the sledding side. In the coming years, I believe my son will be using this side for snowboarding. The posts support a rope tow that is powered by an ancient motor that just keeps on ticking.
Powderhouse hill is named so because there was a gun power house on the top of this hill in colonial times. As far as I know, there is no longer any gun powder stored on this hill.
My kid's daycare is pretty close to the hill, after dropping off the kids this morning, I saw the mist on the hill out of the corner of my eye and did a U-Turn to come back to the parking lot and get this captured. I lucked out, it stopped raining out long enough for me to get out a couple of times for shots (I returned to change lenses).
11-FEB-2009
Day 042 - Leftover light
Our 'traditional' Christmas Tree stand, down the road "a ways". I pass this pretty much every morning and mean to stop to capture some of the lights that have been left up. There are more colorful lights to the right of this string, but I saved them for another day.
A very simplistic shot with great Depth of Field, though it could have been even better if I had the 70-200 f/2.8 IS (but I digress). Just the kind of shot that I required from this very hectic day.