Here’s an obligatory downtown Methuen pic. I took this a couple of nights ago and then forgot about it. It’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it’s bad. I need to take my Nikon out for a walk, soon.
Tag: methuen
Aw, Shit
We went to the Loop in Methuen today. While there we saw a really cool hayride type thing circling the parking lot.
The best part, by far, was the dude with the shovel and the shit bucket following the horses around.
Vote
I cast ballot #523 in precinct 5 in Methuen, MA tonight.
Did you vote?
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.
Back to the Spicket
I posted the other day that someone else on Flickr posted a picture of a smashed up dock stuck on the Spicket River just above the dam. I went back today and again failed to come within a million miles of the great pic posted to Flickr.
This is the best of the new pics. Not that it’s good.
The reflection in the water is almost nice.
These are probably better than the first go around, but still not good. Was it fun? Yup!
There will be two more posts from this morning’s goofiness. One is pics from the Merrimack River, the other is 30 second exposures from the Merrimack River.
Go Red Sox
Caution: Pictures Coming
Just warning you all. The camera and I stopped at a couple of river locations this morning.
You have been warned.
Jealousy
I took this pic in May of last year. Today, another Flickr user posted a pic of this washed up dock and it is approximately 93,487 better than this.
I am so freakin’ jealous. I think I’m going back there tomorrow to take another shot. It’ll still suck, but maybe it will be better than this. Probably not.
Out on the Town
Long Exposure Tests
I took advantage of my new Monday telecommuting day by going to the gym (laugh), going to the store to pick up a loaf of bread, and by pulling into the Methuen Music Hall parking lot to do a couple more long exposure pics of the Spicket River.
This time the plan was to take the same pic multiple times, using different exposure times. First though, my house has central air. The AC was on most of the night. When we woke up today it was pretty chilly inside. Outside, however, it was already pretty muggy. Do the math… cold inside plus muggy outside equals foggy camera lens. Grrr.
Before I could start the experiment though, I had to rush through de-fogging things so that I could grab a picture of our friend the huge ass heron, who was just up river from me. He hung around for quite a while. He’s a good guy (assuming he’s a he and not a she, in which case she’s a good gal).
Next we have the just-when-you-thought-you-knew-what-you-were-doing moment where I forgot that I had the ISO setting up really high from yesterday. Woops.
Now that the silliness was over, I could begin the experiment. First I pointed the camera at the little waterfall and took four pictures. The first was a 30 second exposure.
The second was a 20 second exposure.
The third was a 10 second exposure.
And finally, a 1 second exposure.
Cool! Can you see the differences? Longer exposure means more light entering the lens and hitting the sensor. It also means more pronounced blurring. Shorter exposure means less light and less blurring. You can actually see it! I can’t decide if I prefer the 30 second or the 20 second.
Next I turned the camera down river toward route 28 where the river goes under the road. Again, four pics with four different exposure times.
30 seconds.
20 seconds.
10 seconds.
And finally, one second.
Again, the differences are pretty clear. Can you see the blurred cars on the bridge in the 10 and 20 second pics? I was so focused on the river that I didn’t even think of the road. Pretty cool.
Now that I’ve done this, I need to figure out what to do next. There’s always the Merrimack River, right?
Inside the Red Head's Head 