Stupid Bird

I got photobombed by a seagull.

Stupid bird.

Day Off

I took today off for music purposes, but the forecast called for clear skies so…

What a nerd.

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…

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.

That spot where the sky is starting to get brighter? That’s the spot that I couldn’t see from the main beach.

While waiting for the sun to appear I had to amuse myself somehow. Splash.

There it is, just starting to poke over the horizon.

Meathead continues to amuse himself.

Good morning!

Zoom.

And the nitwit continues to amuse himself.

I put the ND filter on for these, just to see how they’d look.

The land you see here is part of what was blocking the view from the main beach.

And one to grow on.

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.

This one might be my favorite of the bunch.

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)

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).

10 seconds, with the sun. A little better, but still a sloppy mess.

2 seconds. I kinda like this one.

1 second. Not as dramatic an effect, but still kinda nice.

I’ll post some of the non-long exposure pics shortly.

Unplanned Hampton Beach Visit

It was gorgeous out yesterday. Sunny, temps in the high 60’s, a nice breeze. It was the perfect Spring day.

FINALLY!

My beloved wife suggested we make an impromptu stop at the ocean, to celebrate the perfect day.

Check it out! Surfers! It’s just like California, only without the impressive waves.

Sunrise Bug… Again

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Late last Summer, and into early Fall, I had this really nasty bug. It was the go to the ocean and take pics of the sunrise bug. I finally did it in late September. I went to Salisbury Beach and got my pics. I was pleased.

I’m getting the same bug again. This time Hampton Beach is calling me. The weather had better warm up soon.

Hurry up, weather! Jerk.

Hampton Waves

I took three short videos of the waves at Hampton Beach today. Nothing special, but I figured I’d share them.

I love the iSuper 8 video app. Unfortunately it usually doesn’t work. I was lucky today.

Date Day

So The Book of Mormon didn’t actually happen. We got to the Opera House, found our seats, sat down and began feeling miserable. There was a feeling of claustrophobia combined with an upset stomach combined with being extremely tall and sitting in a seat designed for someone who is not even a little bit tall. It was just a bad feeling from the word go. We ended up getting up and going to the lobby just before the show started and then we left after the first song. Maybe we’ll try again another time if we can guarantee an aisle seat. We shall see.

The Boston Opera house is beautiful, if not tall person friendly.

How’s this for the bathroom lobby?

I didn’t buy a souvenir, but if I had I would have had a tough time choosing between the stuffed magical aids frog, and the Hasadeega Eebowai shirt.

We ended up heading toward home. When we got close Jen, my amazing wife whom I love with all my heart and all my soul, asked if maybe we could extend the Date Day by aimlessly driving toward the ocean. That works for me!

We got to the ocean at Salisbury Beach in Salisbury, MA and then headed North. When we got to Hampton Beach in Hampton Beach, NH we had our first really clear view of the Atlantic. It was furious. I’ve never seen waves even close to as huge and angry as I saw today. It almost looked like the Pacific. Just North of the public beach the waves were crashing into the rocks and splashing up over the retaining wall onto the road. We stopped to admire the view. I took a few pictures using Hipstamatic. I took a few short videos too. Those will be posted later.

We weren’t the only ones watching the waves. Just about everyone who drove by stopped for a look.

And obviously, this is my favorite of all pictures.

We went up North as far as Portsmouth, NH and then turned around. We ended up going to dinner at a new Indian restaurant in Andover, MA. Turns out the manager on duty was actually from our usual favorite Indian restaurant, Kashmir in Salem, NH. We might have an alternate go-to place now.

So we didn’t do what we had initially set out to do, but we still had a date day that was wonderful for the simple fact that the love of my life and I spent the day together. I am so insanely in love with her.

My 2012 in Pictures – Part Deux

Yeah, I did a my-year-in-pictures thing the other day. It was fun. What the hell, thought I, why not do it again? This time I’ll run fast and loose with the whole one-pic-from-each-month thing. I’m crazy like that.

We have to get our pics of the Sands Bridge in Methuen before she collapses. Or maybe I should say before she finishes collapsing. It’s already started. Also, I don’t think I found a relative in the Grove Street Cemetery, but who knows?

In February I finally finished an RPM Challenge on time. It only took me five tries. We also got a new bed. Jen’s penguin approved.

In March, the kids and I became wilderness explorers. Hipstamatic came along for the ride. Actually, we just wandered around in the woods behind our house for a little while. It was fun.

April in San Diego. I want to go back RIGHT NOW!

May gave us baseball, Bar Harbor, and my first up close New England Lighthouse.

The picture pickin’s are slim in June, but we did get a new Rush album (and it is awesome) and we got another fantastic piano recital from the kids.

July offers more choices after a spontaneous trip to Boston, and a week long stay in Maine that included some time in the mountains of New Hampshire.

In August we went to the Top of the Hub for the first time in my life. The views of my city were spectacular. We also spent some twilight time on Hampton Beach.