Monthly Archives: December 2012

The Hannahcapades

Hannah On Ice

Hannah On Ice

Some Of Hannah's Fans

Some Of Hannah’s Fans

Dorothy’s friend, Hannah, has been skating since she was seven years old. Dorothy has seen her skate before but I hadn’t, so when she announced that she’d be performing today, I thought it would be good to come. Dorothy wanted to be there, as well, and we heard that a bunch of other friends from school were planning to be there. The first picture for today is one of quite a few that I took of her on the ice. I don’t have a lot of experience with photographing skating. Also, it’s not all that bright in the indoor rink (and it was dark outside in any case). In order to get a fast enough shutter speed I needed to set my camera’s ISO to 6,400. That let me shoot at f/3.5, so I had a little depth of field and 1/800 second. I got a few pictures that I’m happy with and a bunch that are not very good. Sorry it is so grainy, but that’s life. Hannah, on the other hand, was lovely throughout and all her fans were happy to cheer for her when she was finished.

The second photo is some of those fans. This is actually probably about half the people who came specifically to see her. They are, from left to right, back: Jessie, Libby, Dorothy, Cat, Louie, Hannah, Abagail, Brandon. Front: Tyler, Alex, Kyle, Connor, and Garrett.

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Foggy Morning

Foggy Morning

Foggy Morning

It was a foggy drive to church this morning but I headed into the mist without fear. Alright, perhaps that is a bit dramatic. Still, visibility was significantly reduced, particularly in low lying areas, like here as I headed down toward the creek. I like fog, actually, and wish we had it more often, although it does not do wonders to traffic around here. I remember leaving for school in the fog in Cambridge years ago. I honestly don’t remember if that was a happy memory or not, but it is now. So there.

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Stop

Stop Light

Stop Light

I was waiting at this traffic light on the way home from work and realized that I really liked the rich colors of both the light and the sky. In the picture the light has washed out just a bit and turned slightly orange, but it still works well with the deep blue evening sky.

Then the light changed to green and I moved on.

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Do You See What I See?

Christmas Lights

Christmas Lights

I stopped in front of a house with lots of Christmas lights on the way home this evening and took a bunch of pictures. Some of them were taken with fairly long exposures and I moved the camera around a bit to see what patterns I’d get. In this one, there are two lights that stand out from the rest and you can see the pattern that was made by my movement. What do you see? I showed it to Dorothy and asked her what she saw and she said the same thing that I saw.

Note: This post was originally titled What Do You See? It was quickly pointed out by my brother that, given the season and the reason for the lights maybe the title should be, Do You See What I See? He is right, of course, and I changed the title. I only wish I had been so clever from the start.

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Night Sky

Night Sky

Night Sky

After picking Dorothy up at Julia’s house this evening, I set my camera on the roof of the car, told Dorothy to sit still, and fired off a 30 second exposure. The clouds were moving fairly quickly so they have ended up blurred and covering more of the sky than was apparent when I took the picture. Also, the spinning of the earth turned each pin point star into a little line segment. I think it’s really cool that here at a latitude of 39° we’re moving at over 800 miles per hour as we spin around the earth’s axis. For course that doesn’t count the 66 thousand miles per hour we’re hurtling through space as we orbit the sun. Anyway, during a 30 second exposure the earth turns one eighth of a degree. Hopefully that doesn’t make you dizzy. If you prefer, you can think of this as a pretty picture of the night sky. That works for me.

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Downside Up

Hannah

Hannah

It would have been better if we had a bit more room but this evening Dorothy’s good friend Hannah was doing one-hand cartwheels and I took a few pictures. I think this is the best of them because it looks as though she is standing still on one hand. She’s actually moving from right to left in this picture.

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Lake Needwood on a Clear Morning

Lake Needwood

Lake Needwood

I’ve stopped a Lake Needwood a few times this fall to take pictures. Once the trees were all in their festive fall clothes. Once it was foggy and mysterious. Today, it was bright and sunny and the blue of the water was enhanced by the reflection of the blue sky. It was a chilly morning but very pretty out so I stopped for a few pictures.

I took some with the longer lens and got some nice pictures with geese on the water. Then I switched to the wide angle and took a few more. This is one of the wide angle shots and it emphasizes the blue of the water, contrasted with the dull brown of the trees on the shore.

I would be pretty awesome to take a picture looking in this direction at the same time every day for a year and turn that into an animation. Not that I’m going to do that, mind you. Just that it would be pretty awesome.

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Holiday Party

Katie and Ilene

Katie and Ilene

We had our group holiday lunch/party/thing this afternoon and I took a few pictures. It’s a little weird. Some places I go, people are not used to seeing me without my camera. Other places, they are not surprised when they see me taking pictures, although I don’t always have it in front of my face. Work, however, is the other way ’round. I do go outside at lunchtime some days to take pictures and a few people are used to seeing that. On occasion friends and co-workers will have their children at work and I often get to take pictures of them (the children). But it’s pretty rare for me to be snapping pictures of my co-workers themselves. This is the second year the small group I work in has gone to the party with this larger group at work and I only really know a small fraction of them, which adds to the weirdness, I suppose.

That’s a long-winded way of saying, this is a picture of two of my co-workers, taken at our holiday party/lunch/thing — Katie on the left, Ilene on the right.

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Cute Kids

???, Elizabeth, and Elsie

???, Elizabeth, and Elsie

Elizabeth

Elizabeth

After the dreary morning yesterday, I was a little afraid that today would be a washout. Instead I woke to a beautiful day and it only got better as the day went on. I spent much of the day at a craft sale at Rocklands Farm, offering my cards and prints to whoever was interested. I’m sure the gorgeous weather played a part in making it a pretty successful day. Not only that but I got to see friends whom I see far too infrequently. Finally, there were a host of cute kids there and for the most part they were happy to pose for pictures.

In the first picture, I’m not sure of the name of the girl on the left but the other two are Elizabeth and Elsie. I’m fortunate enough to know their parents and I’ve photographed both of them before. The three girls were using some of Janis’ wreath making supplies to make themselves a bit more more festive.

The second picture is another of Elizabeth, modelling a hat. I was impressed with the pot holders that Elizabeth had made for the craft sale. She stood with her wares and happily pocketed the money earned. What an adorable girl she is.

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Another Henry

Henry

Henry

I don’t know a lot of other people named Henry. At times it has been a popular name but there don’t seem to be a lot of people my age with the name. I don’t know if this is enough of a sample to say the name is coming back into fashion, but I photographed two little boys named Henry in as many days. Yesterday there was a couple with two children and the younger of the two was a Henry. Then there is this Henry, who has been coming to our church for a little while (with his parents, of course). This isn’t the best picture I’ve ever taken of him but it’s the best I got today. He’s a wonderfully cute little boy. It helps to win the genetic lottery and have attractive parents.

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Tree Silhouettes

Tree Silhouettes

Tree Silhouettes

As I left work today I took this picture of the deep blue of the evening sky with black silhouettes of trees against it. It isn’t perfectly sharp because I didn’t have a tripod for the 1 second exposure but it’s at least passably sharp.

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Stained Glass Colors

Fall Bramble Colors

Fall Bramble Colors

What beautiful colors the brambles turn in the fall. I’m not sure why I think of them as stained glass colors, except they seem to come alive in the sun. I took some pictures of a great blue heron today, as well, but it was too far away for them to be any good. With the warm weather we’ve been having, there was also a dandelion in bloom. Spunky little plant, the dandelion. But these colors are what attracted me the most.

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Magenta Sunset

Magenta Sunset

Magenta Sunset

We usually think of sunsets as being red or orange. This evening as I left work it was definitely magenta. I took a few pictures through the woods bordering my office building’s parking lot because I didn’t know how long the color would last or if I’d get another shot. After pulling out on the road, however, I was fortunate enough to be stopped by the traffic light on the corner (and how often do we consider that a blessing?). This was the view directly to my left. The first two shots I took turned out nicely. Then a truck drove between me and the sky while I was taking the third. I got one more a few minutes later in the reflection of my rear-view mirror, but that’s not worth bothering with.

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Potato & Leek Soup

Heinz Potato & Leek Soup

Heinz Potato & Leek Soup

Dorothy has been working for a while on this screen print in her art class at school. It’s printed on the back of a faded blue shirt and I think it turned out very well.

The assignment was to take an every day object and make it ironic in some way and to do it in the style of Andy Warhol. Clearly this makes you think of his Campbell’s Soup cans but with the twist that they are Heinz and the soup is thick potato and leek instead of tomato.

It was actually a pretty ambitious design because of all the colors used, taking 20 screenings in all.

Now I’m a bit hungry. I think I’ll go have a bowl of soup.

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Frosty Morning

Frosty Morning

Frosty Morning

The temperature has been up and down quite a bit the last few weeks. We’ve had wonderfully warm days in the 60s and a few cold days that made if feel like winter was here to stay. This morning it was cold again and there was a touch of frost everywhere. The grass was a whitish-green and was crunchy under foot. The azalea leaves had tiny ice crystals all over them. This picture is of oak leaves in the pachysandra. I love the way the leaves are outlined in white.

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Cutting Christmas Trees

The Cabin and Pond

The Cabin and Pond

Dorothy Cutting A Tree

Dorothy Cutting A Tree

Dot Looking at Jewelry

Dot Looking at Jewelry

We drove up to Pennsylvania with mom to get Christmas trees today and as usual we stopped by the farm. As we got out of the car we startled two squirrels, who ran up the side of the cabin and into holes up at the ridge line. It seems they have been doing a little chewing inside, destroying one chair, but not as much damage as they could have done. There’s not a huge amount we can do about it. If we had time and a long ladder we could put hardware cloth over their openings but that might not do more than slow them down a bit. Still, probably worth doing in the spring.

It wasn’t as cold as some years and there was only the smallest amount of ice on the pond, just at the edges. It was actually a beautiful day with enough clouds to make the sky interesting while still being basically clear. We walked around the pond and I took a bunch of pictures. We haven’t planted Christmas trees in way too long so there are none there worth considering for our houses. We didn’t even go look this year because even the smallest trees will be way too big.

From the farm we drove to Seven Springs Tree Farm to get three trees, one for mom, one for Ralph and Tsai-Hong, and one for us. We got smallish trees this year. Because of that and because there were only four of us in the van we were able to fold the back seat down and put them in the back of the van. That’s even easier than tying them on the roof. In this picture the tree Dorothy is cutting down is in the process of falling. Got to get those action shots.

We went into the shop for hot chocolate and to listen to the little band that was playing folk music inside. The third picture here is of mom looking at jewelry in the shop. She knew I was taking it but didn’t realize that more than her arm was in the picture. Sneaky, eh?

We went to lunch after getting our trees. This is the third year in a row we’ve gone to the Ott House Pub in Emmitsburg. It’s a friendly place with pretty good food. The onion rings were excellent.

Going to get our trees is one of those traditions that I don’t really want to give up. It’s definitely not the cheapest or easiest way to get a tree but it’s worth the extra time and expense. It’s a shame that Dorothy’s friend Kendra wasn’t able to come with us this year, but it was still fun.

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Santa’s Early Visit

Santa's Early Visit

Santa’s Early Visit

T.K. With Light Wands

T.K. With Light Wands

In our neighborhood, Santa doesn’t want to take any chances of not knowing where all the kids are so he makes an early run, just checking things out. He doesn’t bother with looking at chimneys or roof tops and the reindeer are still resting up for the big night that is just over a week away. For this trip he uses a bit more modern transportation and he brings some elves with him to help distribute a few goodies to boys and girls who have been suitably good.

One nice thing about this trip is he’s not so silent as he is on Christmas night. In fact, if you are quiet, the music can be heard for many blocks — to say nothing of his “ho, ho, ho!”

This was the first time our new neighbors, Jimmy and Katie and their three kids have seen Santa making his early rounds. Apparently where they used to live he either didn’t feel it was necessary or it was a much quieter affair. In any case, they were excited to go out to see him. Of course T.K. and Piper were here, visiting their grandmother across the street from us. They’ve seen this pretty much every year, so they know how excited they should be. As you can see from the second of these pictures, T.K. has been especially good and got not one but two light-up wands.

Is he excited? Yes, he is!

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Rain Jewels

Rain Jewels

Rain Jewels

Not a lot going on this evening and I didn’t take many pictures today. When I walked out to my car after work the windscreen was glowing a sparkling gold. I was parked under a lamp and the light was reflecting off the hundreds of tiny drops of rain that had accumulated there. They were big enough to cover the glass completely but not big enough that they started combining into larger droplets and rolling down, leaving streaks down the glass.

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White House and National Christmas Tree

White House and National Christmas Tree

White House and National Christmas Tree

For her birthday we gave Dorothy four tickets to a Grouplove concert at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. If you recall, however, Hurricane Sandy rolled through on Monday evening and much of Tuesday. The concert was postponed and rescheduled for tonight. With Dorothy’s exams yesterday, today, and tomorrow, this wasn’t the best night for us, but she’s doing well in her classes and we knew she’d have had all but the last two of her exams. One friend who had planned to come couldn’t but Dorothy was able to find someone else who could. So, I drove them down in the evening and then spent a few hours wandering around DC. I took pictures of the Capitol, Union Station, and the White House, including this one of the National Christmas Tree on the Ellipse. This is actually three images with different exposures combined into a single high dynamic range (HDR) image using Photoshop. It’s still not perfect but it’s better than any of the three individual images turned out.

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Christmas Caroling

Christmas Caroling

Christmas Caroling

Suzy, Fiona, Trish, and Cathy

Suzy, Fiona, Trish, and Cathy

A few folks from church had an idea for doing a little Christmas caroling this year, took the initiative to get it organized and seem to have started a tradition. Rather than simply walk through a neighborhood singing the plan was to rig up a trailer behind a pick-up truck. The back of the truck would have the drum set and room (just barely, as it turned out) for guitar and base players. At the front of the trailer was a keyboard. The rest of the trailer was set up for the singers, sitting back to back on bales of straw. The whole thing, pick-up truck and trailer, were lined with Christmas lights.

Taking flash pictures of Christmas lights is a bit tricky, particularly when they are moving. The flash is so much brighter than they are that they disappear. The first picture here does a decent job of showing you the lights, although it isn’t a great picture of the carolers. The second is a bit better, showing Suzy, Fiona, Trish, and Cathy. On the right you can see Dave holding a flashlight for Amanda on the keyboard.

Everyone had a fun time and it sounds like something we’ll want to do again next year. Put it on your calendar now and don’t miss it.

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Hannah and Dorothy

Hannah and Dorothy

Hannah and Dorothy

School is out for Christmas break but Cathy and I still had to go to work today. Dorothy was able to spend the day with her friend Hannah. By the evening when I went to pick Dorothy up, I still hadn’t taken any pictures. I asked if I could come in and take a few pictures of them. They were nice enough to let me. Most of the pictures are of them mugging in various ways but this one turned out very well. I’m not sure what Hannah’s hat is in aid of, although it was raining quite hard outside.

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D, D, and P

Preston

Preston

We had the X-Factor Christmas Party this evening and I took quite a few pictures. There are a lot of good pictures to choose from. Actually, I’ve been meaning to post another bunch of pictures of people onto Facebook but frankly, there are way too many to do that. I pulled out people pictures from August through November and realized I was going to have to throw out a lot of good pictures to cut down the pictures from nearly 1,900 pictures to few enough for a Facebook gallery.

Anyway, of the pictures I took tonight, we liked this picture of Preston the best. He’s always been quite photogenic and with good looking parents, he definitely won the genetics lottery. Now, he has gotten old enough that he actually sits still for long enough that I can get his picture. Here he is modeling the slippers he got in the Yankee Swap gift exchange game. They were subsequently taken from him but he got them back later, so he ended up with them, which made him happy.

D and Donna

D and Donna

Since I have a good picture of him, I thought it would be a good excuse (like I need one) to post a picture of his parents, D and Donna.

In this picture you don’t get the pleasure of seeing Donna’s beautiful smile but that’s life (“that’s what all the people say”). The picture makes me smile. Guys, we love you and are so glad we have you working with our youth.

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Live Nativity

Live Nativity

Live Nativity

We had a great time this evening at our friends’ annual living nativity party. We gathered in their barn, which was chilly but at least out of the wind, had a pot luck dinner, and went through the Christmas story. As the various characters were mentioned in the story, anyone dressed for the part went to the front, adding to the pageantry. Christmas carols appropriate for each portion of the story were sung so everyone was involved, dressed for the part or simply watching. In this picture, there are four Marys, which isn’t strictly speaking accurate (that is, there was only one in the true story) but it was fun for the girls involved. There is also a pig and a monkey in the stable with them, which my not be completely accurate, either. No matter.

After the Nativity story was finished, we went into the warm house for cookies, a visit from Santa, and a chance to catch up with friends.

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Brookside’s “Garden of Lights”

Rainbow

Rainbow

Somewhere, under the rainbow, are the friends we went with to Brookside Gardens’ “Garden of Lights” this evening. We can never see enough of Mike and Krystal and it was wonderful to see Sue, Tom and their three children, Daniel, Matthew, and Alyssa again after so long. My how they have grown (the children, Tom and Sue are pretty much unchanged). We were also happy to get to know Mike’s mom a little bit. What a joyful person she is. Thank you so much for including us in the party.

I took a lot of pictures, as you would probably expect, most of which were intentionally blurry. In general I find pictures of Christmas lights to be rather boring, even when they are pretty in real life. This picture was a bit tricky because I wanted to balance the flash lighting the people with the lights making up the rainbow. It turned out just about right.

After we left the garden we want back to Mike and Krystal’s for pizza and a fun time of chatting, laughing, and basically having a good time.

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Octopuses

Octopuses

Octopuses

As a gag, Dorothy brought some frozen octopuses as her contribution to the gift exchange at X-Factor on Friday night. Once the game was over, I traded some pop-tarts for them, so the poor guy who got them wouldn’t go home totally empty handed. I had them for lunch yesterday, boiled and then sautéd in butter and olive oil and served with yellow rice. They were delicious and I thought I’d use them for my banner for a little while.

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Candle Light Service

Candle Light Service

Candle Light Service

Candle Light Service

Candle Light Service

One of my favorite times of the year is our annual Christmas Eve service. I enjoy the singing, although I try to sit far enough from other so they aren’t bothered by whatever key I happen to sing in. “They asked me to sing tenor… twelve miles away.”

My favorite part of this favorite evening is the candle light song at the end, with the lights down low and everyone holding a lit candle, as we sing (which I guess is what a “candle light song” implies). I took a few pictures, but don’t worry, I was still singing as I did it (although I wasn’t holding a lit candle).

These are my two favorite pictures from the evening. The first has Trish and Ben (although you can only see the top of his head) and some of their family. The second is of two sisters, Sasha and Stasia. Beautiful people, all.

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Christmas, 2012

Christmas, 2012

Christmas, 2012

We had our traditional three-fold Christmas today, starting with our simple Christmas at home with just the three of us. We moved up from that to our favorite breakfast of the year at Cathy’s mom’s house. Pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage along with orange juice and freshly brewed hazelnut coffee. It doesn’t get much better than that.

We went from there to my mom’s where we had our traditional, if somewhat unorthodox enchilada dinner, with plenty of extras. We played our also traditional gift swap game and generally had a good time. We hadn’t taken a picture at Thanksgiving but we did today, which turned out nicely, I think.

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Chrysaora fuscescens (Pacific Sea Nettle)

Chrysaora fuscescens (Pacific Sea Nettle)

Chrysaora fuscescens (Pacific Sea Nettle)

Dorothy and I went to the Baltimore Aquarium today with her friend, Julia. I took quite a few pictures including this one of a Pacific Sea Nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens). Many of them suffered from the thick acrylic I was shooting through or the low light levels but this one turned out pretty nicely. I got a few other good pictures but more importantly we had a good time. It was a nice unwinding sort of outing and except for the drive to and from in the snow and rain respectively, it was quite relaxing.

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Karlee and Dorothy

Karlee and Dorothy

Karlee and Dorothy

I had a pretty quiet day today. Cathy went to work. Dorothy and her cousins took their grandma out to lunch and then went to see the new Les Miserables movie. In the evening I picked her up and we picked up Dorothy’s friend, Karlee and the four of us (Cathy was home from work) went to a little Thai hole in the wall that we really like.

I know this isn’t a great picture but it’s the best of the few I took.

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Union Station

Post Office Pavilion Tower

Post Office Pavilion Tower

Rail Yard, Union Station

Rail Yard, Union Station

Escalator

Escalator

Cattle Chute

Cattle Chute

Dorothy, Karlee, and I went downtown today. We spent a good while in the Natural History Museum, mostly looking at sea creatures and the rocks and minerals collection. We particularly liked the fossils of crinoids and some brightly colored rocks, like rhodochrosite (MnCO3). I took some good pictures of stones but didn’t select any for today’s post.

From there we went to the American History Museum to look at their trains. Karlee is working on a photography assignment and we thought we might find some good pictures there. We took quite a few pictures and some that I like quite a bit but again, I didn’t put any of them in the post, either. You’ll just have to imagine.

On the walk back to the car I took the first of these pictures, the tower of the Post Office Pavilion on Pennsylvania Avenue. I asked if they wanted to go in and get something to eat but Dorothy wanted to eat at Union Station, which was our next stop in any case. We parked on the third level of the parking garage and took pictures of the tracks heading out to the north of the station. We tried to get some that showed motion by using a slower shutter speed so that the moving train would be blurred but Karlee’s camera didn’t give us a lot of control over shutter speed.

We went into the station and the next picture here is of the girls going down the escalator in the parking garage. If I had brought my tripod (which was in the other car) I could have blurred them a bit more as well as having the rest of the picture a bit sharper, but I like the color and the lines of this one, anyway.

We walked all through Union Station. I had been here a couple weeks ago (see White House and National Christmas Tree, December 18) so I knew my way around pretty well. There is a pretty huge food court in the bottom of Union Station and since Dorothy found out that there was a Bojangles she’s been talking about eating there. When we got there, however, she decided to have a gyro instead. I joined her in that and Karlee had a couple slices of pizza. We had a nice (late) lunch and enjoyed watching all the people.

As we were heading back to our car we looked down on a line of people moving through the cattle chutes they use to organize the chaos of boarding the trains. I love watching motion and was able to take a few photos including the last one here, showing the flow of people. Again, a tripod or bean bag would have helped but I’m pretty happy with the results. Having stood in these lines it brings back the feeling of being herded (and wanting to make mooing sounds).

We made one more stop at the Maine Street fish market, where I bought a dozen large clams and one huge octopus.

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Here Be Dragons (and Dinosaurs)

Dinosaur and Dragon

Dinosaur and Dragon

We all know that the map makers of old used to write “Here Be Dragons” in the uncharted areas of their maps. Except of course we’re all wrong. The Lenox Globe (ca. 1510) is only one known instance of a map which actually has that phrase (in Latin — hic sunt dracones). Map makers did, sometimes, fill empty areas with drawings of beasts including dragons and sea serpents, but that’s

Anyway, here we have a picture of not just a dragon but a dinosaur and a dragon! They seem amazingly healthy for extinct or mythical creatures. I found them dancing in my living room and was able to photograph them a few times before they went back into hiding. It pays to carry a camera all the time, even when walking through your own house. You never know what you will come upon.

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New Banner – Winter Lights

Winter Lights

Winter Lights

I had a friend complain about the octopus picture that I used as a banner. She said she didn’t stalk me quite so much with that there. Since she’s a good friend and since I had this picture to replace it with, I made the switch.

As you can see from this original version, I’ve flipped it horizontally so that the brightest of the red lights are not covered up, either here or in Facebook, which I try to keep in sync.

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Coke Machines

Coke Machines

Coke Machines

I only took a few pictures today so didn’t have a lot to choose from for my post. I did take a bunch of the octopus that I bought on Friday at the Main Street fish market but I posted octopus pictures recently enough that I didn’t want to repeat them quite so soon.

Instead you get this picture of the soda machines in Five Guys. It’s not exactly fine art, is it?

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Last Moment of 2012

12:59:59 12/31/2012

12:59:59 12/31/2012

The clock in my camera was about a minute and a quarter off from the clock on the television (which was also off when compared to my phone, so it may have been wrong). In any case, as measured by whatever network we were watching, this it the last photo of 2012, taken at 11:59:59. It is, not too surprisingly, very similar to the final photograph I took last year, standing virtually in the same spot and with many of the same people. Thanks to all for making it a memorable year and for putting up with my camera in your face so many times. I’m looking forward to the year ahead.

I also passed a milestone this week, passing the 50,000 mark on my two year old camera. This picture is number 50,132 on my camera. That means I took 22,633 in 2012, down a bit from the 27,263 that I took in 2011.

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