I had another of a bummer sunrise photo failure today. I got up early enough to get to the ocean, drove the whole way there, it was 30 degrees out so I was wearing a winter jacket, no clouds to be seen the whole 40 minutes I was driving, I got to the beach and…
One band of clouds blocking the horizon. Clear skies everywhere else. Sunrise failure. Also, the tide was so far in that there was no beach. I had about a five foot wide area between the water line and the sea wall at the side of the road. It greatly reduced the potential photos, seriously.
I got a few nice pics, just nothing with the sun poking it’s big round head out of the water which is the whole point of these visits. I did eventually finish this month’s installment of the Frugal Film Project though. I just packaged up four rolls of film to ship off to the lab. That’s a good thing at least, even if the sunrise photos are duds.
I mean, could those clouds suck any more?
I might try again next Sunday. It will be Halloween after all.
I took a shit load of photos in San Diego but I haven’t posted hardly any of them. What am I waiting for? Am I waiting for the film? Could be. I shipped four rolls of film to the lab in Los Angeles the other day and three of them were from the trip. I got the notification that the package had arrived yesterday. Now I just have to patiently wait for them to do their thing and develop my stuff.
For now though, while we wait for still more bad photos, here are some pics of kites on Mission Beach.
I kicked off my Labor Day early this morning by driving out to the ocean and taking some sunrise pics. I went to Salisbury Beach on the Massachusetts side of the MA/NH state line and caught the actual sunrise. After that I drove over to Plum Island. I usually turn left when I cross the bridge onto the island and go to the lighthouse. This time I turned right and went to the Parker River Wildlife Refuge. There is a beach on the ocean there and hiking trails through the salt marshes just inland from the Atlantic.
There were a lot of people at Salisbury watching the sun. More than I’ve ever come across on one of these little trips. It was probably because the sun came up at 6:14am or so. The last time I did a sun rise visit I think the sun came up just after 5:00. Big difference. The only people on the Plum Island beach were a middle aged couple who were clearly on a date. I tried very hard not to draw attention to myself and thus distract them from what I’m sure was a lovely morning. The trails I walked on had a bunch of people too but they were all using binoculars while I was using cameras. They were bird watching.
I took some digital pics with my Z5, I took some 35mm with my N90, and I took some 120 with my Lubitell. I shipped the film out for developing today along with three rolls I shot in August. Will I get the scans back before we leave for California next weekend? Not likely, but I’ll chose optimism and say I hope so.
For now… digital pics.
We start with Salisbury Beach and the start of Labor Day 2026.
The Atlantic Ocean just before dawn
The waves were decent (the big ones were at Plum Island)
Almost time
Almost time
Good morning, everyone!
Nerd boy is about to get artsy with the pier
Fun with symmetry
Seagull photobomb
People. Sorry
Big waves on Plum Island Beach… well… big for the Atlantic at least
I was trying to get the waves as they rolled over. Success!
Crash
This view is from an overlook in the wildlife refuge
The whole trail was on a raised platform
And there we have it. My morning pics. The highlights of the digital pics at least. The full album is here on Flickr. When I get the scans back I’ll add them to the album. Hopefully I’ll have them by the end of the week so I don’t have to rely on a hotel’s wifi to upload them. Fingers crossed.
Two weeks ago I took a bag full of cameras to Boston to shoot some film for the Frugal Film Project. I got half way though things and had to leave to go home for something. It was the day after the 4th of July and I wanted to walk along the Charles River by the Esplanade.
Today I went back. I also stopped at Acorn Street and wandered around Arlington and Berkeley Streets near where I used to go to school. I shot a roll of Kentmere 100 in my Lubitel for the Frugal Film thing. I also had most of a roll in my Nikon N90. I loaded it at Sail Boston last week and only shot a few pics before it was too dark for film. Finally, I had a roll in my dad’s Pentax K1000 that I loaded in… April? May? I don’t remember. I finished all three rolls.
When I got home I took those three rolls and three other rolls that I finished over the last two weeks and sent them off to get developed.
While I was in town I also shot a bunch of stuff with my Digital camera. My Nikon Z5. Here come some highlights.
Acorn Street
Acorn Street from the other direction
I took a ton of pics of the Hancock building
I also took a ton of pics of the Pru
I also took a ton of pics of little foot bridges
I was using the 70–210mm zoom so I could take pics of things that were really far away
The Longfellow Bridge from a crazy distance
There is a chance that one of the film pics I took of this fountain has a rainbow in it but I think I missed it
The view from one of the foot bridges
Same bridge, other direction
Bridge
The Hatch Shell. The Boston Pops are not there anymore
Today is Monday. At about 7:30am today the house painters arrived. We booked this months and months ago and in the intervening time we’ve had 100 things go wrong in the house and we just sort of lost track. They have been here for 11 hours. They are scraping the old paint off and prepping for the actual painting. Will that start tomorrow? Who knows.
In the meantime, here are a few more pics from our visit to Sail Boston on Saturday. Talk about your gorgeous day in the best city in the world, am I right? It was spectacular from start to finish. We walked about 400 miles in total. I took about 100 pics with the digital camera and one roll of 35mm film and a handful of shots on a second roll. Someday I will get them developed, but not today.
Here are some digital pics to hold us over until the film is developed, probably before the end of the century.
Two of my favorite people
Norway fans. They were sad. The lost 2-1 to England
I took a bunch of fireworks pics but they are all lame so I am only posting one.
There you have it. Our trip to Sail Boston. I am guessing we saw maybe 5% of the ships, but what we saw was worth it.
I have been super busy today working on new songs and running errands and I haven’t had a chance to post about yesterday.
My wife and step daughter and I paid a visit to a tiny fraction of Sail Boston. We didn’t see the tall ships parade, but we did see a bunch of them up close. We managed to stay for the fireworks too.
I took a lot of pictures and I hope to post a bunch of them eventually, but for now here are just a few to serve as a teaser for a post that might not ever happen. Aint I a stinker?
Happy Fathers day to all who are fathers or who play the roll of a father in someone’s life. Whether you are a biological father, a step father (like me), or a single mom who covers both the mother and father responsibilities (a good definition for the word “hero” if I ever heard one), then today is your day. I don’t know about the rest of you, but the one accomplishment I am most proud of in my life is that in September of 2007 a six year old girl and a four year old boy let me be a part of their lives, and in the nearly 19 years that have passed since then they haven’t changed their minds. Frankly I am honored and I hope I’ve been up to the challenge. I’m sure I’ve failed left and right, but over all… here’s hoping I’m doing right by them.
That’s not really the point of this post though, it’s just a nice bonus. The point of this post is photos! I went on another morning photo walk today. This time I hit three riverwalk type things in Lowell, MA. The Wamesit Falls Overlook, the… whatever the riverwalk along the Merrimack River near the Rourke Bridge is called, and a third little thing that I never saw before but noticed as I drove past that was basically a gazebo and a boat launch and a lot of graffiti.
I finished three rolls of film. One roll of Phoenix II 200 in 120 in my Lubitell, a roll of the new Kodak Ektacolor 400 (that is supposed to be just Portra 400 under a different name?) that I loaded in the Nikon N90 yesterday to use at my nephew’s graduation party (but only took a few shots), and another Phoenix II 200 (this time in 35mm), again in the N90. I took those three rolls and the four rolls I shot on last weekend’s photo walk adventure and shipped them off to The Darkroom Lab earlier. Give them a couple of weeks and then I’ll share any of those that don’t suck… assuming there are at least one or two that don’t suck. We’ll have to wait and see.
The rule on these little jaunts is to shoot film while walking away from the car and then digital while walking back to the car. The twist on the digital last week was that I used a lens that came in the kit with the N90. I used the other lens from that kit today. It’s an AF Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8. I got a lens with exactly the same specs when I bought my broken Nikon F401 last year, but despite the identical specs it is definitely a different lens. I have dubbed this one 50mm f/1.8 number two. I actually used it on all shots taken on both Nikon cameras today. The N90 and Z5 (with the FTZii adapter, of course).
But enough of my yappin’, here come some pics!
First, a bunch from the Wamesit Falls Overlook, which is a riverwalk along (and in two places, across) the Concord River.
Concord River
Expect lots of white water through the trees pics
Told ya
Would I lie?
Not sure what that concrete wall thing is doing there
Fun with reflected sunlight
The view from one of the bridges
Same bridge, looking in the opposite direction
I saw the sign
Lowell, MA has old mill buildings everywhere. I don’t know what this one is now, nor do I know what blew that hole in the wall
Falls through the trees. Yes that is a mattress on the left
I’ve heard of going over waterfalls in a barrel, but on a mattress?
Ducks!
Above the falls
This is probably my favorite view
Now we skip the second stop, which was the boat launch with all of the graffiti because it was such a short visit that the digtal camera never made it out of the bag. So instead we move on to the VFW Highway and the Merrimack River.
The Merrimack River and the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution in the United States
The Roarke Bridge and UMass Lowell Crew’s dock
How do you spell buoy?
The dock through a fence
A 40 something year old temporary bridge
Ducks!
More ducks. No geese, thankfully
I had never walked right up to the bridge before, but today is the day!
Bridge
I’m just tryin’ to find the bridge. (Led Zeppelin joke, thank you very much)
The Roarke does include a foot bridge but you couldn’t pay me enough to step onto it
Under the bridge
Please don’t feed the animals
So there you have it. Another couple of hours on another Sunday morning, wandering around like a nerd with a bag full of cameras. I am thinking the next time I do this will be just after the 4th of July. I have an idea about going to the Esplanade in Boston and seeing the aftermath of the Pops concert and the fireworks. We will see.
I went on an epic photographing journey today. I went to two locations and I walked something like four miles. Who even am I?
I paid for it with chores though. The cellar has been put back together after twice being blown off by a contractor. I won’t say it is “clean” but I will say it is drastically “cleaner” and that’s good enough for me. Speaking of contractors, yet another is scheduled to come by tomorrow to fix a piece of broken furniture in my step son’s room. Along with cleaning the cellar, I got everything ready for that too. Now it’s time to post some photos and then its time to nap.
I had a bunch on my photo to-do list this morning. One, shoot the sunrise (which required me getting out of bed at 4:00am and being on the road toward Hampton Beach, NH by 4:20… yikes!). Two put a roll of 35mm film through my new (to me) Nikon N90. Three, complete the Frugal Film Project for this month. Four, use the crap out of the 70–210mm zoom lens I got with the N90 on my Nikon Z5 via the FTZii adapter that I mistakenly called the F2Zii adapter in a post yesterday. Five, if possible finish off the roll of film in my Nikon FG-20 that’s been sitting there since March or so. In all five cases, mission accomplished.
I did not ship out the film for developing yet. I am planning on taking the N90 to my nephew’s high school graduation party next week (CONGRATULATIONS!!!!) and I might try to sneak in a second photowalk next Sunday too, if the weather cooperates. I’ll wait until after that to ship out the film. As usual, the day of blog post is only digital photos. Unlike all of my previous posts with images shot on my Z5, this one has a zoom lens. Not only a zoom lens, but a 70–210mm zoom lens!
First stop, Hampton Beach where the sky was completely clear and I saw the sun come out of the water. Success!
70mm
210mm. You can almost touch it!
I love how the sunrise lights up the windows
Dig that crazy star
The huge zoom let me steal a shot of this dude fishing. He was far away but the lens brought him close.
I drove up the coast a ways to get a different view. This time from way up a hill. The tide was so far out you had to walk half way to France to get to the water. It kinda took some of the granduer out of it for me. Oh well.
Rocks
Bike
Islands in the distance
210mm is kinda awesome
The next stop was the two Rail Trails in Newburyport, MA. One is called Clipper, I think, and the other is called Harbor… I think. The plan was to shoot film while walking away from the car, and then to shoot digital while walking back. So these first shorts are on the Harbor trail after I turned around. The sun reflecting off the water was kinda brutal. My Z5 and N90 both had fast enough shutter speeds to handle it, but my FG-20 and my Lomo Lubitell were struggling. I’m a tiny bit nervous about how some of those shots are going to turn out.
Zoomed way in on that little boat heading out to sea
See what I mean about the sun reflecting?
Boats, boats, boats!
Hey look, a lighthouse! I think it’s a restaurant
Water
The new lens managed some blurry background at f/4!
What do you call a boat like this? Is it a catamaran?
Today is Flag Day after all
The new lens managed some major blurry background at f/5.6! Wow!
How do you spell buoy?
Chairs
Steeple
Grass
More boats, boats, boats!
I took a lot of pictures of stairs for some reason
A little stroll through the woods
More blurry background
Bridge
Fence
Library books
And there you have it. A shit load of pointless pics that I had a lot of fun taking. The film version will come… someday… maybe.
The pricks did it to us again. Yesterday one of the contractors that was supposed to work on our house blew us off. After their arrival window closed they called and said they had to reschedule. My wife booked 7:30–10:00am today and got them to guarantee they’d show up.
They didn’t show up.
My wife called them at around 11:00am to tell them to go take a long walk off a short pier and they put her on hold for 40 minutes then sent her to voicemail. Boy did she let them have it. Both barrels.
In preparation for this work I had to tear one of the kids bedrooms apart and then totally destroy our entire basement. Since we’ve told them to screw, I started putting things right again. The bedroom is back to normal, an one area of the cellar is done. There is still a couple of hours worth of work to undo. I’ll take care of that tomorrow.
Speaking of tomorrow, I was sort of planning on taking a bag full of cameras to the ocean for sunrise this morning, but the rescheduling screwed all of that up. Instead, I am going to try to do it tomorrow. The forecast at the coast looks pretty good. The only downside is that sunrise is at 5:04am, which means I have to be out of bed at 4:00am. It should be worth it. I’m thinking of hitting a couple of spots near Hampton Beach, NH and then maybe a riverwalk somewhere. Maybe in Lowell? Not sure yet.
I got ready for this by putting film in all of the film cameras, and like a schmuck I burned one shot on the medium format camera. Dumb ass. I also put one of the manual focus lenses that came with my last eBay purchase onto my digital camera to give it a test drive. It worked great.
The lens is smart enough that the camera can control the aperture but not smart enough to auto focus. I have focus peeking turned on though and that is a HUGE help for an old fart with weak vision like me. I’m not sure if I will use it tomorrow, but I might. We’ll have to wait and see.
Other than that the only news right now is that my step daughter is coming home today. She’ll only be here a couple of days before she’s off again, but that’s fine with me. Any time with either of the kids in the house is time well spent.
Also, as a bit of forewarning to regular readers, once I get the cellar put back together you can expect a barage of music posts. I have five songs in progress right now and I hope to start putting guitars onto the demos soon. Duck and cover, everyone.
Until then, never forget that donald trump is a fascist and a rapist and a pedophile. Release the complete, unredacted epstein files. I don’t care if it brings down the entire US government. If it is bad enough to do that then the US government deserves to be brought down.
Finally, on the Rush 50 Something Tour, is Anika Nilles doing a drum solo?
