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Posts Tagged ‘photo’

Marine Wonders

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged ancient mariner, Hanging stomach jellyfish, maria popova, photo, photography, postaday, spineless, Stomotoca atra, susan middleton, sylvia earle, undersea on January 13, 2016| 2 Comments »

What’s not to love about undersea creatures? They are so wondrous I’m having a hard time picking just one of the photos from Susan Middleton’s 2014 book Spineless.

Maria Popova reviews the book at Brain Pickings.

“In Spineless, visual artist, educator, and explorer Susan Middleton turns her luminous lens to … the exquisite and enigmatic world of marine invertebrates, which represent 98% of the known animal species in the oceans and are thus the backbone of life on our blue planet, on which 97% of the water is ocean. …

“Using a special photographic technique she developed, Middleton captures an astounding diversity of creatures, ranging from giant squid to tiny translucent jellyfish to two species so new to science — the Kanola squat lobster and the Wanawana crab — that they have been formally named based on the very individuals in the book. Her photographs are at once austere and deeply alive — against the plain black or white background, these creatures fill the frame with striking intimacy of presence.”

(Doesn’t Popova write beautifully? She is from Bulgaria. I just mention that because one of the the best writers I worked with at my old job was Bulgarian. It can happen. We all know about late learners of English who became masters: Joseph Conrad, Vladimir Nabokov, Tom Stoppard.)

More on Susan Middleton’s book here. Marine defender Sylvia Earle wrote the foreward.

Photo: Susan Middleton
Hanging stomach jellyfish (Stomotoca atra)

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Christmas 2015

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged christmas, christmas tree, creche, grandchildren, photo, photography, postaday, presents on December 25, 2015| 6 Comments »

Wherein the grandmother is too tired to talk but will describe the photos. Wreaths on the Colonial Inn, grandson with new truck, church nativity scene early Christmas morning, Christmas tree at John’s house, grandfather with two granddaughters.

So much fun to be around little kids at Christmas. Also very good for sleeping soundly the following night.

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Rambles

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged boston, children's museum, fort point, octopus, photo, photograph, postaday on December 13, 2015| 4 Comments »

These photos are from my rambles in downtown Boston, which I will be leaving at the end of the year for a new commute to Providence.

The first picture shows strange reflections on an iconic piece of local architecture. Then we have musicians in South Station, an octopus sculpture at the convention center, a lovely floral display by the landscape genius where I currently work, fall color in the Greenway, and more color along Fort Point Channel in front of the Children’s Museum.

What a neighborhood!

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Enjoying the Local Scenes

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged exercise, fort point channel, jane brody, photo, photograph, postaday, shadows, walking on November 17, 2015| 7 Comments »

It’s getting chilly around here. Thirty degrees this morning. I’m getting wimpier about taking my walk outside and just go ’round and ’round indoors. I need to toughen up. The NY Times health columnist Jane Brody is older than I am and not only swims every day (vigorously, I’m sure) but walks five miles. Whoosh. I would have to walk back and forth to the high school — twice — to do five miles. It would take me half the day.

Here are photographs from the last couple weeks: shadows at the zoo, where my grandson ran into a friend he usually sees only in summer; milkweed and shadows; leaves casting shadows; an abandoned bird nest; overdevelopment reflecting on the waters of Fort Point Channel; and a burning sunset.

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Documenting Local Sights

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Lars-Erik Fisk, photo, postaday, sculpture, steve annear on November 7, 2015| 2 Comments »

Here are some recent photos.

The totem pole is outside a Jamaica Plain (JP) coffee shop, where on certain days, people pay for the next person’s coffee. When I took my turn to “pay it forward,” the puzzled recipient said, “Gosh, I love JP.”

Next is a Red Line ball on High Street in Boston. Steve Annear reports at the Boston Globe that Lars-Erik Fisk “used polycarbonate to shape the sculpture before he added a windshield, destination arrival sign, and headlights and tail lights to the sphere to capture the T’s look.” (Fisk also made the Green Monster inside the building.)

The second sculpture is on Franklin Street. The giant tree mural is on a Congress Street parking garage, near Government Center. The beautiful staircase is at the Massachusetts State House.

The Redcoat is at the North Bridge, as is the bittersweet on the gate. The dogwood and the Japanese Maple are at my house.

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Cereal Killer

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged bat, carved, costume, halloween, photo, postaday, pumpkin, witch, zombie on October 30, 2015| 5 Comments »

Usually when I ask adults, “What are you going to be for Halloween?” they laugh, and really I am just joking.

But when I posed that question to a co-worker yesterday, he said, “A cereal killer.” He told me with some enthusiasm that he was going to paste the front panel of a cereal box on a red-splattered T-shirt.

I had to laugh. “Well, good for you, Nick!” I forgot to ask what killer cereal he was going to use. Probably one loaded with sugar.

Although I don’t have a picture of my colleague the Cereal Killer, I can show you a zombie in John’s yard, decorated pumpkins on his steps, an upside-down bat carving at the the restaurant Trade, and a stormy sky that a witch just passed through. (You’ll have to take my word for that.)

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Autumn by the Sea

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beach, block island, bluffs, new shoreham, ocean, painted rock, photo, photograph, postaday, rhode island, rocks, sea, sea urchin, slipper shell, tide pool, waves on October 10, 2015| 6 Comments »

A bouncy boat ride in heavy rain last night. A warm sunny morning. Here are a few photos from my last island weekend of 2015.

An especially nice autumnal theme for the Painted Rock. Whoever painted it was lucky to have their artwork survive nearly three days. That would be unheard of in the summer, when birthday messages get painted over by wedding felicitations several times a day.

Down the bluffs on a steep path. Waves breaking on the beach. Tide pools.

I was delighted to find a little urchin (I don’t think I ever had before) and a slipper shell with a smaller slipper shell hitching a ride.

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Late Summer Scenes

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beet poet, garden, harbor, jubali, ocean, photo, photography, produce, sand sculpture, summer, surf on September 6, 2015| 5 Comments »

Signs and portents. Summer is winding down. The writing is on the telephone wires. The sidewalk squirrel is gathering nuts. My neighbor’s garden is producing bounty. A dragon has appeared on the beach. We seized our last chance for a ladies’ lunch overlooking the harbor. I bought Jubali beet-cucumber-apple juice at the farmers market because it was called Beet Poet.

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Blooms and Blooming

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged blossoming, children, growth, lotus, photo, photography, postaday on August 26, 2015| 4 Comments »

Two of my grandchildren just got back from a month in Scandinavia with their parents, visiting the Swedish side of the family. It’s amazing how much kids can develop in one month.

The baby left here with four teeth and came back with eight. She could barely reach for something without falling over and now crawls like a demon. Her older brother is more of a conversationalist than ever and has returned with new ideas for playing with old toys.

The children bloomed and blossomed with all the love and attention of their Swedish family.

The lotus below was also blooming during the past month.

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More Island Photos

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged barrier beach, beatrix potter, block island, carrot, chamomile tea, fire island, islands, long island, peter rabbit, photo, photograph, picture, postaday, rhode island on August 23, 2015| 4 Comments »

I spent my first couple decades vacationing on Fire Island, a barrier beach off New York’s Long Island. Once you get islands in your system, you never want to get them out.

Nowadays I frequent an island that is part of a state that calls itself an island, too: Rhode Island. Here are some pictures from my latest visit.

The photos are mostly self-explanatory, but I would like to draw your attention to the carrot. The young man in the photo pulled that carrot out of the ground for a neighbor, who gave it to him. His mother washed it, and he ate most of it in one sitting.

And he didn’t even feel like he had overdone the eating the way Peter Rabbit did. No need for a dose of chamomile tea.

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New Massachusetts Photos

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged $15, airport workers, boat rental, dewey square, fake snake, grapes, labor, Lacoste Gallery, mbta, photo, shadows, subway, t, teapot on August 19, 2015| 4 Comments »

Let me tell you about these photos.

I first noticed the shoes of the gentleman riding the subway. Then the white suit, the pocket hankerchief, the bow tie, and the hat. I was concentrating so hard on taking a photo surreptitiously that it didn’t occur to me to check out what he was reading. Somerset Maugham? Proust? William Dean Howells?

You never know what photo ops you might see on the MBTA, and I hope to get adept at taking pictures unobtrusively.

Next we have a fanciful teapot in the window of the Lacoste Gallery.

Moving right along: dappled shade on Summer St., Boston, near South Station; and a row boat for rent in Fort Point Channel.

Today’s Dewey Square excitement was a labor rally for striking airport workers demanding a $15/hour minimum wage. Lots of speeches. I photographed a T-shirt and a Boston politician. The politician had such an energetic speaking style, the photo came out blurry, but I’ll add it if you want it.

The last three pictures are of a fake snake — perhaps intended to keep passersby from sitting on a resident’s stonewall — and grapes. The grapes were the most surprising thing that happened to me today. I must have walked past that fence twice a day for years and years, and I never noticed a grape vine growing there. Did someone drape it over the fence while I was at work?

Goes to show you don’t really have to go anywhere much to find surprises.

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A Camera that Flies

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged calgary, canada, DJi Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter, drone, flying toasters, photo, photography, postaday, rob moses, zoo on August 15, 2015| 3 Comments »

The first time I really got into the Internet and computers was in 1994 when I was working at HBR. We all loved experimenting with kooky screen savers. Do you remember flying toasters?

Flying toasters are what I think of when I look at what reader Rob Moses is doing with his camera on a drone. Here are photos from a flight over the Calgary Zoo. (Rob lives in Canada.)

He writes, “I have been flying around this DJi Phantom 3 Professional Quadcopter lately. I took this picture with it flying over the Calgary Zoo. One of the most fun things around flying one of these things is having the ability to shoot photos of views people don’t really see. This picture is a good example of a view not seen. I only wish there was some animals walking around in the picture haha.”

Seeing what your flying camera picked up must feel similar to riding on a train through people’s backyards, where you get a sense of lives as they are lived that you never get from a front lawn.

Be sure to check out the Rob Moses Photography blog, here.

Photo: Rob Moses Photography

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Photo Ops Keep Pursuing Me

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged clouds, congress, dawn, farnsworth, fishing fleet, fort point, lego, mullein, peat, photo, Point Judith, postaday, public art, rose, tughole on August 8, 2015| 2 Comments »

On the corner of Congress and Farnsworth, there is a parking lot, and on the Fort Point Channel side of the parking lot, there is a Lego-size police station. In case you are ever lost around there and need to ask for directions. If LL Bean is more your thing, there’s one by the parking lot, too. I took two pictures.

The clouds at dawn have been especially good lately. I include two shots in case you are not up early. Roses need no elaboration, but I am quite proud of how the yellow mullein turned out the second time I tried to capture it. A granddaughter was with me at the time, in the stroller.

Moving right along, there is a shot of the fishing fleet in Rhode Island. The country road photo was supposed to show you a goldfinch, but even when I zoom in, it is too tiny to see. The still pond is called John E’s Tughole. A tughole is a place where peat is harvested, but I don’t think it happens much anymore. Maybe in Ireland. I know James used to harvest peat. And burn it, too.

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Creative Manhole Covers in Minneapolis

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged art, atlas obscura, David Atkinson, eric grundhauser, haymarket, humor, j wynia, japan, kate burke, loon, mags harries, manhole cover, minneapolis, photo, postaday, sculptor, slate, Stuart D. Kippler, walleye on July 31, 2015| 4 Comments »

Four years ago, I blogged about some beautiful manhole covers is Japan. Now I learn that Minneapolis also has discovered the artistic possibilities of heavy, round metal that lots of people see as they cross the street.

Eric Grundhauser writes at Slate‘s Atlas Obscura blog, “Minneapolis has made its underfoot sewer covers a point of artistic pride, with designs that celebrate the area’s art, history, and wildlife.

“In the early 1980s, Minneapolis began asking artists to design iconic manhole covers for the city. … From David Atkinson’s whimsical summer grill design to Stuart D. Kippler’s introspective geography marker, each of the covers turned what was once a mundane city feature into a unique piece of art. …

“[Kate] Burke created sculpted images of regional icons like the Minnesota state fish (the walleye), the state fruit (Halverson apple), and the state bird (loon). The detailed pieces of steel each feature tableaux of their subject that make most municipal equipment look lazy by comparison.

“Some of the covers even feature small hidden details such as a worm in the state apple, or a pheasant erupting from the bronzed image of the state grain (wild rice).” More here.

I love that the Minnesotan sense of humor is part of the artistic effort. Reminds me of Massachusetts sculptor Mags Harries, who is still associated with the bronze banana peels, orange skins, and broken crates she embedded among the produce vendors in the Haymarket in 1976.

Photo: J Wynia/Creative Commons
Manhole cover in Minneapolis.

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Fountain and Other Boston Photos

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged #designbiennialboston, @hellogreenway, dewey square, farmers market, greenway, photo, photography, postaday, state house, sunflower on July 21, 2015| 4 Comments »

The little Vine video is of the fountain that children love in the Greenway. Nearby is the old State House, looking refined in the shadow of tall, impersonal modernities.

I took a photo of the sign explaining some new sculptures. They turn out to be part of the Design Biennial in Boston.

In the Dewey Square section of the Greenway, I also love the farmers market that materializes Tuesdays and Thursdays. Note the sunflowers, flourishing in the Greenway’s demonstration garden. The narrow, decrepit building behind them always intrigues me. What would you do with it if it were yours? It’s a valuable location that no one seems to want. What about a pocket performance space?

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