Entries from October 2010

October 10, 2010

Wires | Market Street

Another new lens arrived on the scene this week.  It’s somewhat of a freak of nature according to most people who have seen it in person….a vintage chrome Hasselblad Carl Zeiss 50mm lens….it certainly doesn’t look at home on the Canon 5d Mark II.  It’s completely manual focus and forces me to think more about each shot.  I’m still in the testing phase, and it’s still not as wide as I’d like it to be – but I decided to head over to the Market Street rowhouses on a cloudy afternoon to see how it handled the bright and varied colors of the building, and also the sharpness, etc.

I like this shot as it captures the feel of the streetscape and also happened to capture a few shoppers doing their thing on an otherwise quiet Market Street.  I’m also blown away every time I stop to realize just how many power lines still hang over our streets downtown (with all of the other infrastructure improvements we’ve had over the past few years).  What do you think of the textures and the new lens?  I’ll post what it looks like in the next day or two.  Thanks for checking in.

October 9, 2010

The Path to the Lake

I love a good sun flare.  I’m pretty sure all of the photography purists out there cringe at all the imperfections and how it ruins a shot – but there’s something about an image like this that just makes you squint a bit, and I think in a good way.  The morning sunlight was so rich and saturating.

This shot came out exactly how I had hoped…..after waking up to shoot the sunrise over Yellowstone Lake, I was walking back towards the lodge for breakfast when I decided to turn one last time back towards the lake.  I wanted to catch the scene after I realized how great the grass looked in front of me – and when I turned around, it was blindingly bright but the little path I took to get to the water and the lonely tree made for an interesting shot.

October 8, 2010

The Portsmouth Brewery

We are lucky in Portsmouth to have some fantastic locally made craft beers.  New Hampshire’s original and thus the city’s longest standing brewpub, The Portsmouth Brewery, is located right on Market Street with one of the most recognizable facades in town.  What I typically pay less attention to is the interior of this fine establishment, which is world renowned for its award winning Kate The Great (which will be released to the public in 2011 on March 7th).  Last time I was in – this cool older sign caught my eye in the afternoon light….and I loved the textures of the sign and the detail of the plant, contrasted against the softer brick buildings across the street.

October 7, 2010

106 Kitchen & Bar | Penhallow Street

One of the newest dining establishments in Portsmouth is the 106 Kitchen & Bar located on Penhallow Street.  This space has been through several iterations since I’ve been living on the Seacoast – and I must say that of all that I remember seeing, I like the signage and the front door best of all.  Although I haven’t been to eat yet, the menu looks good and relatively reasonably priced for a nice downtown spot – and Jay McSharry (of Jumpin’ Jay’s & Dos Amigos fame) knows his stuff.  I look forward to my first stop, and in the meantime, I thought I’d share the industrial brick facade and metal signage that now complement each other.

October 6, 2010

In the Bleachers | Fenway Park

It’s not everyday that someone gets to attend a baseball game between the rival Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees in the historic Fenway Park.  I was lucky enough to catch a game this year, and the weather was perfect….nice and warm during the afternoon portion of the game that started at 4, cooling off and feeling like a perfect fall night once the lights came on.  I always love visiting Fenway, and enjoyed sitting out in the bleachers for a change.  Hopefully next October we’ll have a healthy roster and will be looking forward to the opening series of the playoffs.

October 5, 2010

The Sagamore on Sagamore Creek

Saturday morning I was venturing around town with my camera and armed with the Hasselblad Zeiss glass.  It is a 100mm lens…which means that the focal plane of the lens is much further than what I’m used to.  I typically shoot in the 24mm range and love to shoot wider (meaning lower) whenever I rent a lens.  That’s what helps me get so much information and so much landscape goodness in my typical scenes.  When Steph and I ventured out running/cycling, I decided to stick with one lens – and brought the 100mm so I forced myself out of my comfort zone in an effort to sharpen my skills.  I’m also currently experiencing some serious computer heartburn, so I’m not able to survey the majority of my shots – but I was happy to come away with this quintessential New England seacoast scene.

This boat, “Sagamore” is moored on Sagamore Creek….an inlet stream from the Piscataqua River inland from Portsmouth Harbor.  Makes me want to hop on the boat and head out into the open ocean.

October 4, 2010

Bridge Reflections & the Financial District


During our visit in San Francisco, I wanted to get out for at least a couple adventures.  The evening walk that my brother Dave and I went on ended up bringing us down around the financial district and the Transamerica Pyramid that I featured a couple weeks back.  We enjoyed a stroll around the area on a late summer evening, with the typical business meetings/dinners going on and plenty of foot and road traffic to be captured.  As we were about to head home…we decided that we were too close to the water not to make a stop.

Thankfully, the Bay Bridge (which connects San Francisco to Oakland) was beautifully lit in the late evening air over the water.  This has been one of the favorites that people seem to gravitate to of all the shots from my trip. One of my favorites from the trip was taken a few minutes later, featuring one of the office towers of Embarcadero Center in the Financial District.