Quick Trip to Charlotte, NC

Last weekend we made a trip to visit Tammy’s mother and step-father who recently moved to Charlotte, NC.  As I have come to expect with any trip to see Tammy’s mom the weekend was action-packed with lots of activities and fun.  On Saturday we went to see Tammy’s mom’s new horse, Spyder, and watch her riding lesson.  Of course I took a little time to wander around the grounds of the stables and take a few photos.

This is Tammy’s mom, Vicki, on her new horse Spyder during her riding lesson  and monochrome of a tree that I stumbled upon on the grounds of the farm.

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    The South End in Color (film) – Boston, MA

    So as my foray into shooting film continues, I decided to try and shoot some color film.  I set out with my Olympus OM-1 and roll of Fujifilm NPH-400 film.  I had read about this film in a magazine sometime ago and seemed like it had some interesting properties.  It is a low contrast portrait film, but has a good properties for general photography as well.  Of course it is no longer produced (it has been replaced by Fujifilm 400H which is quite different from what I have read) so I went on eBay and found a few rolls of old/expired NPH-400 and off I went.  I set out around my neighborhood, Boston’s South End, on a few different occasions and came up with some interesting shots.  Scanning the film was a bit of a chore, but actually kind of fun.  It reminds me a lot of being in a darkroom.  I plan on posting about scanning workflow as soon as I run a few more rolls thorough the process and fine tune it a bit.  Stay tuned for that.

    For now, here is the South End in Color (film)…

    This is one of the chef’s at Coppa through a window with the reflection of autumn foliage in the window.

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    A skull left over from Halloween I assume.

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      Sled Dogs on Newbury Street – Boston, MA

      I tend to walk the same streets over and over again: the South End, Back Bay, Copley Square.  These tend to be the center of my universe lately.  Sometimes I don’t think I will see anything new or different and then sometimes I am pleasantly surprised.  A team of sled dogs on Newbury Street?  Yup, sometimes I am pleasantly surprised.

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        Pumpkins in Concord Square – Boston, MA

        This year Halloween kind of came and went without me even realizing.  Hurricane Sandy blew in around the same time, and I was busy with work around the same time.  This was also the time that my camera was (stuck) in the repair shop in NJ and I was shooting some film instead.  On Friday night I got a couple of rolls of film back from the lab and look what I found: the most interesting pumpkin display in Boston.

        At a distance it is a little bit difficult to see what is going on, but as you get closer it becomes very apparent.

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          Thanksgiving Day 2012

          Happy Thanksgiving! Boy do I have a lot to be thankful for. If I actually took the time to type out the list it would just go on and on.  The highlights would be my beautiful wife, my loving family, my friends, health, happiness, security, etc…

          This year, Thanksgiving dinner was in Boston at our house.  Tammy made an awesome meal, and my mom and dad came up from NJ and my sister came up from Brooklyn dinner.  Here are some pics from the day.

          The guests shortly after they arrived for Thanksgiving.

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            Shooting Film – Boston, MA

            When I returned from Brooklyn I decided to send my M9 off to the Leica service center in NJ.  It was acting all wonky and I wanted to get if fixed up before we go away this winter; also I was getting frustrated with its out-of-calibration rangefinder so the time had come.  While the M9 was vacationing in New Jersey I decided to shoot some film, which I had not done for quite some time.

            The religious folk were out doing some preaching in Boston Common.

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              Brooklyn Bridge – Brooklyn, NY

              Wow, it really has been a while since I have posted here on my blog.  Kind of embarrassing, but what can you do?  Sometimes life gets busy and there is not enough time to do everything you want.

              A few weeks ago Tammy and I went down to Brooklyn to visit my sister.  One of the things that I always wanted to do in NYC is to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.  When I lived in Manhattan I was always so busy with work that I never got a chance to do a lot of the little touristy things that I wanted, so what better time than the present.  We were fortunate enough to have a really beautiful weather weekend (before Sandy decided to visit).  We got a bit of a late start on Saturday after sleeping late, working out, and eating breakfast.

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              This is my favorite photo from our walk across the bridge.  As you can see there are a lot of tarps covering the bridge (I think they were painting) so the views were a bit obstructed. I got this shot before getting to part of the bridge that was completely covered. After we walked across the bridge we went to lower Manhattan and then met my parents in the Meat Packing District for dinner.  We had a really nice day.

              You may be thinking: he took only one photo?  Well no.  I took a lot more, but I was having camera problems so a lot of them did not come out that well.  As soon as we came home I sent my camera off to the Leica service center in NJ. So hopefully it will be coming back to me soon and in good working order.  Stay tuned for some interesting photos.  There is a surprise coming.

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                A Short Walk – Boston, MA

                This past weekend was one of those not-so-productive weekends for me.  I spent some time working (writing) and running errands, and Sunday was rained-out for half of the day.  So there wasn’t that much time for photography.  By the time I got myself up and out of the house on Saturday it was quite late – I am actually embarrassed to say how late – and there wasn’t too much daylight left.  I took a short walk with my camera.

                This is on Newbury Street in Boston’s Back Bay.  It is a spot just east of Mass Ave where artists and musicians gather to sell their wares and entertain the passers-by in exchange for their loose change.  I took this photo from across the street with my 50mm lens wide open at f/2, which is why it is a bit soft.  I also processed it with a film emulator in Lightroom; this one is Fuji 800Z from VSCO film.  It is not quite the same as film, but I like the high ISO look that some of these pre-sets create.

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                  Trump Tower – Chicago, IL

                  I have been pretty busy lately and it has been getting darker earlier so there has not much time to get out and take photos.  So I decided to revisit Chicago.  No, I didn’t go back I just spent some time going through the photos I took when I was there last month I found this one that I like, but didn’t bother to process the first time through.  Here is a “looking up” photo of the Trump Tower.

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                    Brewers Cup Gran Prix Cyclocross Race – Gloucester, MA

                    On Saturday, Tammy and I went to Gloucester, MA to watch the Great Brewers Gran Prix of Gloucester cyclocross bike race.  The weather was pretty terrible – rainy, wet, raw, cold – but the race was quite fun to watch.  I have never seen a cyclocross race before.  It is a cross between road cycling and mountain biking with a little bit of a steeple-chase thrown in for good measure.  Also there were some weird traditions/antics going on like offering beer, bacon, and dollar bills to the riders as they rounded the course.  I don’t think I am going to go out and buy a cyclocross bike and start racing, but hey you never know.

                    The Taco Truck was at the expo serving up gourmet tacos for lunch.  What do you think? Is the Taco Man going to hop on that Cannondale and take it for a spin?

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