Three Stops on a Sunday Morning

I went to three places this morning. The first two were sort of a bust but the third worked out nicely.

I tried to retrace my steps from Friday and hit a couple of things I saw on the Plum Island Turnpike. The first was the little airport on the side of the road. It wasn’t as nice as it was on Friday. I think there were fewer planes parked there, but I’m not sure. I pulled over on the side of the road and then wussed out and took a couple of pics through the windshield. They kinda rot.

There was also this cool abandoned looking house so I drove up to it, but the sun was directly behind it so I had to find a place to turn around. That took approximately 3000 years, but I managed it. This pic is also through the windshield, but it’s not as crummy as the last couple.

That house has to be haunted, right? Otherwise someone would have bought it and fixed it up (and then probably sold it for a fortune).

On the way back to civilization I stopped in the airport parking lot and tried again. The pictures are better, but the view was better from the road, I think.

The next stop was a pretty major fail all in all. It was Water Street in Newburyport, I think. There’s a marina on what has to be the Merrimack River, but might be the Parker River? Not sure. I wanted to get close but it’s right in the downtown area and the waterfront is super built up and I couldn’t find a parking lot or an entrance or anything. I found one little pull off on the side of the road just outside of the downtown that was about 235236236235 miles from the boats. I pulled off and snapped a few in hopes of getting something decent.

The view in the other direction wasn’t quite as New Englandy picturesque, but it was better (I think?).

Check out the house with the observatory looking thing on the roof.

One last shot at the boats.

At this point I was feeling pretty blue about the whole morning’s adventure so I headed back home. I had a thought about trying to find the airport in Lawrence, but I set the GPS for home thinking I’d adjust it after I got back to the highway. There was a stretch of road in Amesbury that was on the river as well with a couple of bridges. I thought about finding a place to park on the way in but passed. One the way out I found a little spot called Alliance Park that was right next to another marina type thing, and a cool looking bridge. There was a parking lot and I was the only visitor. I wandered around the park and got some decent looking pictures. It sort of salvaged the trip for me.

Once I got back to the highway I did point the GPS at the airport in Lawrence, but it was all fenced off and you couldn’t really see anything. There were parked planes in view but the fence ruined the vibe. I didn’t stop and just headed home.

That’s when I got this bonus shot. I got out of the car with my hands full of stuff and started walking up the side of the driveway. 30 yards away from me, along the trees in the backyard, was a deer! I couldn’t get a pic because my hands were full. We just stared at each other for a few seconds and then it hopped into the woods. Crap. I started walking up the driveway again and saw two more.

I quietly put my stuff down on the steps and snuck around the corner of the house. When I lifted the camera the went into the woods too. Damn. I crept into the back yard to see if I could see them through the trees. I could. They were just standing there, eyeing me with suspicion. I tried 5-6 shots but only one of them came out.

Can you see her there, through the trees? I told her she could come back any time. She and her friends are always welcome in our yard. Probably not in the house though, sorry.

Riverwalk in Lowell

My final stop today was the riverwalk on Pawtucket Blvd in Lowell. The Merrimack looks huge there and I don’t think the shots came out very good. At least they don’t look as good as actually being there looked. I don’t know.

There are a couple of places where you can walk right to the water’s edge. My favs from the visit were taken at one of those spots.

The bridge in the distance is the Rourke Bridge. The story as I have heard it is the bridge was built by the Army Corps of Engineers as a temporary structure… back in the 1970’s (I think)… and it’s still there with huge amounts of traffic sitting on it around the clock. Either that story isn’t true, or it probably isn’t a good thing.

That’s my old school across the river, but that parking garage wasn’t there when I was a student.

And we close the post with a faux artsy lamp post shot. Like ya do.

And that is the end of my picture taking bonanza of a PTO Friday. Tomorrow we go to Vermont and we may take the scenic route… so hopefully another blitz of pics tomorrow. Bring it on, babie!

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.

Dig that crazy mist!

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.

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

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.

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.

Just look at that!

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

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

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

Album cover?

No, this is the album cover.

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

Blurry background AND blurry foreground. Nice.

Gazebo pic #1.

Obligatory flag pole pic.

Gazebo pic #2.

Warning!

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.

Merrimack River in Color

Here are the color equivalents of the pictures from the previous post. Amazing, right?

Merrimack River in Black and White

I stopped at the river on my way to visit mom today and took a few pictures. I got a few on film and then switched to the same ol’ digital black and white vs vivid mode again. Here’s a few black and whites…

Photo Time

I warned you, here come a ton of pictures. Well, maybe not a ton. I’ll try to be more selective than usual.

Spicket River, on the wrong side of the dam

Back in Lowell

Lowell, MA. Land of 1,001 stop lights at 1,000 bridges*. Also, my old school. UMass Lowell.

Also, one bitchin’ nuclear power plant.

*There are actually two lights at the route 110 end of the Bridge Street Bridge.

Merrimack River

In Manchester, NH. You can kinda see the river in the distance.

Merrimack River this Morning – 30 Second Exposures

I can’t take the damn camera out of the damn bag without screwing the damn filter onto the damn lens and opening the damn shutter for 30 damn seconds.

The water seemed a little choppy as I was setting up, but it doesn’t seem much different. I mean, it’s nice and glassy and smooth and all, but it’s not a huge dramatic difference.

The wind did interesting things with the branches in the foreground, but that’s not really the goal. And it’s sort of distracting.

The water is pretty cool here, but I lost the shore to the shadow.

There was a ton of traffic on the bridge, all of which was blurred into oblivion. Sweet.

And with this we end the forth post I milked out of about 45 minutes of wandering around town. Sweet.

Merrimack River this Morning

There’s a parking lot right near the 110/113 rotary on route 93 that looks like it might once have had a boat launch but it’s pretty much fallen apart now. It’s been on my list of places to go to to shoot some Merrimack pics and today I finally stopped there.

This is what Fall looks like.

This might be my favorite of the bunch. It’s just the leaves reflecting on the water.

We haven’t gone leaf peeping in New Hampshire this year, so I just went ahead and did it at home.