In early April, we went to the Museum of Science. There we visited the Butterfly Garden.
Here are the pictures I am most pleased with. Some were very patient, others weren’t. Focus on the patient ones and play with your f-stop and composition. A decent macro lens can really help, but oh how the depth of field can be thin if your f-stop is to small. A place like the Butterfly Garden, which has a decent amount of light, helps.
Usually when I am going to/from work, I don’t take my camera, but rely on my mobile phone to capture things I run into in my travels. I cannot say any of them are good, but the more times I get to play with composing photos, the better I’ll get hopefully. Enjoy!
Inspiring hope and fear
My aim was to capture the graffiti on the ground with the wall art. The people in the top left were a bonus. It would be a more compelling composition if I had captured the backs of the people closer to the graffiti on the ground.
Abandoned gloves
With Spring upon us, someone discarded their gloves in an office stairwell. I decided to play with the perspective.
Shadow within a shadow
The harsh morning light, seen in the top right, reflected off of the glass building behind me to cast me in shadow within the shadow of the building in front of me.
Reflections in Glass and Wood
Another photograph playing with reflected light. I liked the way the light reflected off the glass window as well as off the wooden counter and then off the glass window.
All rolled up with nowhere to go
A job left undone.
On 4/25/2019 I briefly attended the Boston Free Chelsea Manning protest of the incarceration of Chelsea Manning co-organized by BU Students Against Imperialism and MIT Students Against War.
Speakers advocated for pardons for Reality Winner and American Indian Movement Leader Leonard Peltier, as well as stopping the extradition proceedings against Julian Assange and US support for the war in Yemen.
You can find some of the photographs I took of it:
Earlier that day I came across the Protected Bike Lanes Save Lives stand out in Porter Square, Cambridge and took this photograph that I hope communicates the need for separating bike lanes from lanes for automobiles:
My youngest was in the Somerville Musical Theater production of Aladdin Jr. last summer. This production is organized by the Somerville Arts Council. Here are some of the better pictures I took of two performances.
You can view them all at this photo album:
Last May, my son and I traveled to Portsmouth New Hampshire to photograph the USS Manchester (LCS-14) which was being commissioned.
It was tied up at the New Hampshire State Port Authority on the Piscataqua River. Since it was a weekend, we were able to setup across the river on Badger Island.
Later we moved to Kittery and found an open site off of Rice Ave. that allowed me to change perspective.
Also got a few close ups:
Afterwards, we visited the USS Albacore (AGSS-569), but I’ll post those pictures another day.
I took my son to Arisia 2019 for one day. In between talking with friends, purchasing art and walking around, I took some photos of cosplayers. Light was poor so most are photographed at f/1.8.
My son and I photographed the blood moon on the 21st in the freezing cold. This was the best one. Used a 1 second exposure that also captured some of the stars in the sky, though it shows up better in the actual Flickr image.
Expect I will try creating more sky photographs from the backyard when the weather gets warmer.
Back in August I visited Bath with my eldest to see the ships Bath Iron Works was creating. This included the Zumwalt-class destroyers USS Michael Monsoor and USS Lyndon B. Johnson, as well as the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers, USS Hudner and USS Daniel Inouye.
The best way to photograph the ship yard was to take the Maine Maritime Museum‘s hour long Shipyards & Lighthouses boat tour.
The tour turns away from the ship yard and travels down the Kennebec River before returning, sailing past the ship yard to the Sasanoa River, turning around and traveling past Bath Iron Works to the museum.
I started the voyage with my 55-300mm lens. I got some photos of the various buildings along the river as well as some pictures of the ships under construction.
As we approached the ship yard, I switched to my 18-105mm lens. Unfortunately, I realized too late that the 2nd lens was set to manual mode with vibration reduction turned off. Ooops! Reminder to self: recheck that the camera and lenses are setup the way they should be before leaving.
Later in the day, we surveyed various vantage points across from the ship yard. After parking at the Dairy Queen near Sasanoa Point, I walked along the Sagadahoc bridge (Route 1) over the Kennebec. While very few people walked over the bridge while I was there, there wasn’t much space for a tripod, so I shot handheld. With the late afternoon sun high in the sky and the air over the river hazy from the August sun, very few of the pictures came out well.
On a return trip to see the LBJ, now that it is in the water, I’ll aim to arrive before sunrise and try using a tripod since that helped with the USS Hudner pictures. The rest of the pictures are at my Bath Iron Works photo album.
While photographing the USS Hudner, I also caught some pictures of birds in Boston Harbor. Double-crested Cormorants and seagulls mostly. They are also at my shore bird Flickr album.
The USS Hudner, an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer, was in Boston for its commissioning ceremony. My son and I saw this ship in August when we travelled to Bath, Maine to photograph the Zumwalt destroyer, USS Monsoor. However, many of the photographs of the Hudner came out poorly due to distance or an error on my part.
While it was in Boston, I was able to go on a public tour of the Hudner. Most of the photographs are from that outing.
The following Saturday, I planned to take pictures when the sun came up. I woke up early, but decided I wanted to sleep more and tried to get back to sleep. After 30 minutes of failing to get back to sleep, I got up, threw the previous day’s clothes on, gathered my camera equipment (except for my remote trigger) and drove to a spot across the Reserve channel, which I probably should not have.
I drove to the lobster boat pier, found a sign that said not to enter, and doubled back to another spot. I parked, gathered my equipment, walked near the waters edge and found a large barge in the way. I decided to try the lobster pier again and found that the do not enter sign applied to a different fenced area, so I drove in. After asking if it was ok to photograph in the area and getting an ok, I grabbed my gear, setup my tripod and took a bunch of photos.
I watched as a Massachusetts Environmental Police boat appeared, came to the waters edge and dropped a Massachusetts Environmental Police officer off. We talked courteously and he went on his way.
Just then the light peaked through the clouds and lit up the Hudner.
I got a few more shots of the ship and the surrounding seagulls and decided to drive home. I saw another spot outside the port on the drive home, but ignored it. Since this was likely the last time I would get a chance to photograph any Burke-class destroyer, I turned around and got a few more photos of the ship and a number of birds from a little park.
However, the light was higher and much more harsh, so the pictures aren’t nearly as good, unfortunately. You can find all of the pictures I posted at my Flickr album:
