The Park

I went to that park near my mother’s facility after leaving her today. It’s a nice open space with a little garden with a stone bridge and a gazebo and a couple of war memorials and lots of park benches and one huge ass cannon.

I took a bunch of pictures and didn’t like any of them. I felt the same way when I saw the film shots I took there a few weeks ago too. Just… blah. Then I converted today’s pics to black and white and now they are almost okay. Here’s a few…

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Footbridge over nothing.
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Footbridge and tree and bushes
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Hello, bench
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Gazebo pic #1
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Gazebo pic #2
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Great big fuckin’ gun

Here are a couple of color pics too, just for the record.

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More benches
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Why does the house across the street have those stone things, and what are those stone things supposed to be anyway?
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In closing, that footbridge over nothing… again

Three Bodies of Water in One Morning Part Three: Merrimack River

Hello and welcome to the third and final post dealing with pictures I took this morning. This time we returned to Raymond J Martin Riverside Park on Riverside Drive in Methuen, MA. The last time I came here it was with my Nikon film camera, also known as the ebay camera. Today it was all digital, babie. Nikon D90 like a boss from 2010.

When I first arrived the water was perfectly still. It was like a mirror, except for the mist. I am so happy most of my shots came out okay. At first I couldn’t figure out what the two crossed lines in the water were, but then I realized they were reflections of the contrails in the sky. Awesome.

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Dig that crazy mist!

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This one is a little crooked. I was leaning over trying to get under the tree and I should have just used the LCD screen. Oh well.

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Ducks! Even though they ruined the perfectly still water. Still, ducks!

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Now we come to the lesson part of our journey. Using Manual mode instead of Auto means that when things come out of the blue you can’t just point and shoot. You have to set things up. When I suddenly saw a mist-spiral cruising along the top of the water I had to be quick, but in Manual I wasn’t quite quick enough and this is the best I could get. Had I been in Auto I would have nailed this before it hit the trees. This is the best I could do under the circumstances, I guess.

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I was trying to get another misty shot but the birds flew in out of nowhere and it looks like they were the point all along.

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Just look at that!

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I wish I had the polarizing filter. I would have seen right through that glare to the bottom of the river.

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I need to find out what that building across the water is. Pretty sure that’s Andover, MA.

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Did Robert use exposure compensation on this puppy? Yes, Robert did use exposure compensation. Almost like he knows what he’s doing, babie!

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Album cover?

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No, this is the album cover.

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I took a few of the park itself too, including some pics of the places I got all of the previous views.

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Blurry background AND blurry foreground. Nice.

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Gazebo pic #1.

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Obligatory flag pole pic.

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Gazebo pic #2.

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Warning!

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And that, friendly readers, brings my three part post journey to an end for today. If the weather holds I might do my original idea of visiting three bodies of water in Tewksbury tomorrow. Long Pond, the Shawsheen River, and Ames pond. We’ll see. Tewksbury is only 15 minutes away but it seems like a long drive for some just-after-sunrise goofiness. I haven’t checked the weather since last night. If it holds, I might give it a shot. I’ll let you know.

Three Bodies of Water in One Morning Part Two: Forrest Lake

Part two of this morning’s photo adventure is Forrest Lake. I’ve been here a few times and the pictures always disappoint me. Not today. Not really, at least.

There were a lot of people at the boat launch area so I walked a little toward the closed beach to keep plenty of social distance. The mist coming off the lake made the stop worthwhile.

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Dig how still the water was.

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Is it really a lake, or is it more like a pond. Seems pond-esque to me, but what do I know?

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The public beach closed at the end of August.

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Dig that crazy mist.

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I should have brought my polarizing filter but it doesn’t fit on the lens I was using.

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Next stop is the final stop, at the Merrimack River.

Three Bodies of Water in One Morning Part One: The Mighty Spicket River

Did I go out shootin’ pitchers this morning? You know it babie! The air was cold but the sun was bright and the sky was perfectly clear. I thought about going to Tewksbury and checking on the Shawsheen River and Long Pond and maybe Ames Pond but we had people coming to pick up the couch we donated and I didn’t want to go that far from home. Instead I visited the three biggest bodies of water in Methuen. The Spicket River, Forrest Lake, and the mother of them all, the Merrimack River.

I took a few pictures at each location, going slightly overboard at the Merrimack, but we’ll get to that later. First, some shitty pictures of the muddy and gross looking Spicket. It’s super low, but not nearly as low as it was the last time I checked on her.

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The Mighty Spicket has seen better days, but it’s not nearly as bad as I thought it would be. This is on Hampshire Street, just a few minutes after the sun came up.

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The sun wasn’t getting through the trees to the water, but it was pretty freakin’ glorious out on the road. Is this why they call it golden hour?

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Crossing the road for a different view…

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The next post will be Forrest Lake and after that will be the Merrimack (where I went a little overboard).

Earth’s Largest Couch

The largest couch on the planet Earth is moving to a new home tomorrow. I was kinda hoping I could break it down into more than two giant pieces, but two giant pieces appears to be the best we’re gonna get.

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Here’s hoping she fits through the door because I don’t know what’s gonna happen if she doesn’t.