Edgartown Harbor, New Year's Eve Day

The challenge, for me anyway, is to try to see the stuff I've been looking at my whole life in new ways and from new angles. I'm always amazed though - the docks and waterfront are my stomping grounds, an area I am drawn to almost every day, and every time, I think, "Certainly there will be nothing new to photograph today," but every day the light is different, the configuration of boats is different and/or they are pointing in a different direction, and almost always I find somebody doing something of interest.

Happy New Year, everybody.

Tom

On Friday, while out and about doing errands, I happened upon my friend and local painter Tom Benedict who graciously allowed me to capture these portraits of him. Tom has been a dedicated bike-only traveler for many years and is a familiar figure around town, often seen with paint brushes and buckets dangling strategically from the back of his bike with classical music streaming from his portable radio. One of Tom's most recent public projects was painting all the lamp posts on Main Street, and a couple of years ago he put a shiny new coat of paint on the cannons and cannonballs in Memorial Park. Tom is also an excellent old-timey style five-string banjo player and has published a collection of banjo tablature, written by hand and illustrated with his own pen and ink drawings.

Chamba!

This is one of my more fortuitous street portraits of late. I say fortuitous because yesterday as I was heading out for a late afternoonwalk with my family I discovered that my camera battery was dead (very unusual for me as I am very organized in this department) so decided to make a short stop at home to pick up a fresh battery, all while thinking, "I don't know why I'm bothering, it's so late and will be dark soon and there's nobody much around, anyway," but I'm so glad I did because two blocks later I ran into this gentleman standing on the corner of North Summer and Main. I literally stopped in my tracks and blurted, "Oh, you're so wonderful, please allow me to take your picture, and don't move or change a thing," instructions that he followed very well, I might add.

I learned that his name is Chamba.















These are a conch pots, I think, though they don't look quite like the conch pots I'm familiar with.








I was recently asked, "What's special about taking pictures at twilight?" The question was in reference to my particular combination of camera and lens (5DMKII and 50/1.4), but this photo is as good an answer as any. In short, twilight is a magical in between time when it is dark enough for lights (including celestial objects) to twinkle, but still light enough for the sky, the subject matter, and silhouettes to be seen.

Paul Schultz, December 29

Today was Paul's penultimate day working for The Trustees of Reservations. He retires at the end of tomorrow's work day. Congratulations, Paul, and best wishes for a happy and healthy retirement.







Some of Paul's responsibilities while working for the trustees over the past twenty years (and nine months) included patrolling the desolate outback of Chappaquiddick's shores as well as tending the Cape Pogue Lighthouse, activities he loved (more photos and related story, here).

Twilight, December 28

South Beach, This Morning

I spent a wonderful early-morning hour out at South Beach this morning. I knew it was going to be good when I saw the white water towering above the beach as I approached from Herring Creek Road.

December, Downtown

Taken with my phone (uploaded to computer first, as loading to Blogger directly does not yield good results, though uploading directly to G+ does work very well - still sussing all of this out)





Ursula Prada and Lenny Jason





Arno Ewing, wrapping it up after a day's fishing.



Arno















A December rose.