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Hampton Beach Sunrise

Remember last summer how I kept saying I was going to get up super early and go to Salisbury Beach and take pics of the sunrise? Remember how it wasn’t until mid-September that I actually did it? This year I thought I’d go to Hampton Beach and do the same thing. I even started with the whole telling people I was going to go and then not waking up early enough to go thing.

Last night we went to bed pretty early. Neither of us slept well on Friday night and we were both pretty wiped out. My poor love has a really bad cold and she was needing sleep. I was just tired. I told my beloved that if I found myself awake around 4am I was going to go to the beach. She said okay and probably assumed I was just an idiot.

I woke up at 2am. Why? I don’t know. I do know that I couldn’t get back to sleep. By 2:30 I was lying in bed reading twitter. By 3:00 I was sitting on the couch watching youtube videos of death metal bands some acquaintances of mine were in back in high school. By 4:00 I was dressed with Waze set to bring me to the ocean. By 6:00 I was back home with a crap load of new pics to bore everyone with.

Here you go…

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I pulled into the main beach area parking lot only to find that there was a little peninsula that was between me and the spot the sun appeared to be heading for. Crap! I drove further down and found this little spot between a couple of piles of rocks. The tide seemed to be very much in so I had to climb over an obstacle course of rocks (the ones you see in this pic) to get to it. And the sand flies. Holy crap, the sand flies! They were there in Salisbury last year but they left me alone. Not today. I was bitten a whole bunch of times.
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That spot where the sky is starting to get brighter? That’s the spot that I couldn’t see from the main beach.
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While waiting for the sun to appear I had to amuse myself somehow. Splash.
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There it is, just starting to poke over the horizon.
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Meathead continues to amuse himself.
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Good morning!
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Zoom.
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And the nitwit continues to amuse himself.
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I put the ND filter on for these, just to see how they’d look.
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The land you see here is part of what was blocking the view from the main beach.
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And one to grow on.
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So last year I went to Salisbury Beach in Massachusetts. This time I went to Hampton Beach in New Hampshire. Does that mean next time I have to go to Old Orchard Beach in Maine? The time after that should be Cadillac Mountain, the first spot on the East coast that sees the sunrise. After that I’ll have to go South to Rhode Island, I guess.

Happy Sunday morning sunrise, everyone.

Hampton Beach Sunrise – Long Exposure Edition

I snuck off to Hampton Beach this morning and took some sunrise pics. I took the tripod and the neutral density filter and shot a few long, or longish, exposures.

To me “long exposure” and “30 second exposure” are sort of synonymous in a weird way. When I set up I set the shutter speed to 30 seconds without giving it any thought.

The first few are from before the sun actually came up. It was light enough to read by, but the sun wasn’t over the horizon yet.

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This one might be my favorite of the bunch.
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30 second exposure

Now it gets weird. You put the ND filter on so that you can take long exposures in the daylight. What if the daylight itself is what you’re trying to shoot? Well, if you leave the shutter open too long you get crap like this. (although I still like the rocks in the bottom left)
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After seeing that image in my tiny little display I thought, I guess it’s time to shorten the exposure. I then began to experiment. Duck and cover.

13 seconds, without the sun, and apparently the Earth has begun to tilt out of control (sorry).
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10 seconds, with the sun. A little better, but still a sloppy mess.
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2 seconds. I kinda like this one.
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1 second. Not as dramatic an effect, but still kinda nice.
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I’ll post some of the non-long exposure pics shortly.

My Eyes Play Better Than My Hands

Have you heard the expression, “my eyes are bigger than my stomach”? Meaning I put more food on my plate than I could actually eat? I have coined a guitar playing version of that statement. My eyes play better than my hands. Let me explain.

I am up to seven songs this month. Three of them were written in the dead of night using the built in instrument sounds in the iPad version of Garageband. Today I replaced the fake, software guitar parts with an actual real live guitar. On one song I was almost forced to stick with the crappy fake software. I came up with a funky little riff that was standing out above most of the others in my little head. I thought it was pretty snazzy. When I tried to play it today I couldn’t. It was beyond my abilities at this time. I’ve no doubt that back in 1995 of 2004 I could have nailed the sucker over and over again, but today? With my playing chops as weak as they are? Nope. I couldn’t do it.

I did find a work around though. It was in two parts. First, and most importantly, I practiced the little bastard over and over again for almost an hour. Over and over again. I got to the point where I could play it, but I couldn’t quite play it cleanly four times in a row as the song required. That’s where the second work around came in. It is a huge cheat. An epic cheat. A cheat for all ages. It’s also standard practice in a recording environment. I played the riff once then stopped. I then started the recording on the second measure of the phrase and played it again. I repeated until I had the whole thing comped together. I now have a complete recording of the entire phrase that is, while not perfect, good enough for my needs.

Am I a cheater? Oh you bet your sweet ass I am. In this respect, me and everyone else on the planet.

June Music Continues

I’m up to five songs. Four were written on the Strat, one using MIDI on the iPad. One has vocals. I tried working on a second vocal tonight but didn’t have time.

You’d think with all this guitar playing I’d be getting my chops up. Nope. It’s the opposite. I’m getting worse by the minute.

I’ve got a goofy idea for this month. I’m going to do all the recording on the iPad then port everything to the Mac for mixing. But… I’m thinking of doing an actual mix on the iPad too, and then putting both mixes of each song onto the bandcamp playlist.

What do you think? Too lame?

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Don Zimmer

Former Red Sox manager Don Zimmer has passed away.

For me, Zimmer was the first Red Sox manager. By that I mean he was the manager of the first Red Sox team I lived and died with. The end of the ’78 season was the first time I followed baseball. 1979 was the first year I couldn’t get enough. It was also the first year I went to Fenway. Don Zimmer was there that night with me.

Then there was the 2003 Red Sox vs Yankees playoff and the Great Zimmer Toss of ’03. I was playing in Break Even and we had a gig at Burgundy’s Billiard room in Derry, NH. The place seemed to be wall to wall big screen televisions and every 5 minutes the replay of Pedro Martinez grabbing the elderly Zimmer by his bald head and chucking his fat ass to the ground was shown. I will never forget that night. I will never forget watching the Red Sox and Yankees clear the benches in a play off game. I will never forget seeing a senior citizen trying to take out a professional athlete.

Don Zimmer is a legend. Even if he did work for the Yankees forever, he will still be missed.

Happy trails to you, Zim.