Six months in a leaky boat

Rusty freighter
Boston, MA, January 2007 [Click all images to enlarge]

Thrifty car rental's lot isn't at Logan Airport proper. It's about a five-minute drive north of the terminals, right beside a navigation channel where, as luck would have it, a rusty old freighter was anchored when I first got off the shuttle bus and walked into the building.

After I signed my life away and was given the keys to what could very well have been my grandfather's car (a cream-colored Chrysler 300), I asked the attendant if he would allow me to walk to the back of the car lot to take a picture. His eyebrows furrowed in the universal "you're insane" pose, but he good-naturedly asked his supervisor. She happily shrugged her shoulders and said she hadn't done anything all that interesting all day, so this seemed worth a shot.

Out we went into the clear, late afternoon cold. In a very friendly, Boston-gregarious kind of voice, she asked me why on earth I wanted to take pictures of a boat. I gave her my 30-second I'm-addicted-to-photography speech before we arrived at the back fence. I took my camera out and shot through the fence. She noticed a hole in the fence and suggested I try to shoot through it. I carefully navigated over the icy ground and got the second shot in this sequence.

I showed her the images on the camera's screen - another thing I love about digital - and she chatted amiably as we headed back inside. In a strange city far away from home, I had somehow managed to leave someone with something she likely wouldn't forget for a bit. Neat.

Your turn: Connecting with strangers in a strange place. Please discuss.

More background on the boat: I dug up a couple of links that share some more background on this ship. The Romo Maersk is a Danish vessel, built in 1986 to carry chemicals and oil. When I juxtapose the rust over the kind of cargo she carries, I'm left with a bit of a sinking feeling. At least she's double-hulled. Anyway, enough of my eco-whining. Neat links are here, here and here.

Playing with water at the airport

Dancing water
DTW - Detroit Metro Airport, McNamara Terminal, January 2007
[Click all images to embiggen]

On my way to Boston last week, I managed to clear security a bit early, and consequently had a few extra minutes before I needed to head to my gate. One of the joys of moving through this airport is despite its gargantuan size, the combination of high-speed tram and moving sidewalks means even the furthest gate in the furthest terminal is no longer an hour-long hike. Which means more time for goofing around with a camera.

The McNamara terminal stretches out for what seems like a mile in either direction. Smack in the middle sits a computer-controlled fountain whose dancing streams of water give travellers a bit of a break in the middle of an otherwise-alien place. Out came the camera. Unlike most of my in-transit photography, I wasn't alone this time. Folks from everywhere speaking every language imaginable milled around the base of the fountain, chatting animatedly about the best way to record the fascinating piece of public scuplture.

The light was a challenge, but shooting into the gigantic window with the Northwest Airlines 747-400 parked just outside gave the scene a bit of an ethereal tone. I lost count of how many pictures I took in the 12 minutes that I was there, but I was - and remain - thankful for large memory cards and long-duration batteries. I had taken pictures of this fountain the last time I came through the airport, but a point-and-shoot doesn't have the speed or flexibility to do justice to fast-moving water that changes consistency and composition every fraction of a second. It was like painting a portrait with a Benjamin Moore paint roller, and I was disappointed with the results. This time, I was glad that I had returned with a somewhat better tool for the job.

I wanted to stay there for just a few more minutes. I had lots of battery, lots of room on the memory card and a head swimming with ideas for capturing this in other ways. But the clock was ticking, and the last thing I wanted was a last-minute mad dash through the terminal a la O...well, we won't mention him. So I carefully tucked my camera back into its bag, closed everything up and started the long trek to a gate that likely resided in another zip code. My journey was nowhere near over, but I had already succeded in capturing a small piece of it for everyone back home.

I blew off the moving sidewalk and decided to walk to my gate. Tomorrow, I'd be in this same place, heading home. I wondered what other scenes were awaiting capture as I criss-crossed the countryside.

Your turn: What's your immediate reaction when you see the flying water? Do these pictures work for you? How?

Looking over the railing

Wood and water
Lake Worth, Florida, December 2006 [Click to enlarge]

Sometimes, the most memorable images of being in a unique place are also the most abstract.

Your turn: What three words come to mind when you first view this image?

Music...to go

Anyone who knows me remotely well knows how jazzed I get from technology. Not technology for technology's sake, mind you, but technology for the purpose of squeezing a little more fun out of life. Or for the purpose of squeezing out more life in the first place. If it has a bottom-line benefit that regular folks can understand or appreciate, I get excited.

A friend of mine turned me on to something called the Avvenu Music Player a couple of days ago. It takes all that lovely music that you have bottled up inside iTunes or your iPod and frees it. Want to get at your tunes remotely? Can do. Want to share your music with your friends? No sweat.

We'll set aside the legalities of sharing music for another day. But my take is simple: anything that helps build out the community of sharing that makes music such an experience of humanity is by definition a good thing. If it broadens our knowledge of what's out there and points us toward a richer base of artistic output, then you've got to applaud the effort.

The product is in beta now, and it's free to try. (See the Digg here.) The geek in me will be playing around with it in the weeks to come.

Your turn: As someone with a significant stake in tech, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this new offering. I'd also want to know if anyone wants me to share a playlist from my own library. I have highly eclectic tastes in music, so I don't want to scare anyone. But if you're feeling adventurous...

Caption This 3

[Caption to be filled in by you...]
Lake Worth, Florida, December 2006

They say a picture can speak a thousand words. As soon as I saw this person, I knew that old saying was indeed true. I know I crossed lines of privacy by taking this image from afar. But I thought sharing a poignant moment justified it. A month after I captured this, I remain ambivalent about whether this is the case.

Your turn: If this is your first time submitting a suggestion to Written Inc.'s weekly Capture This feature, click here for the rules, such as they are. Click here for last week's entry.

Before I forget...last week's winning caption is:

I'm proof that life IS good!

Terri penned this keeper. If you haven't yet had a chance to visit her site, Island Writer, I wholeheartedly suggest doing so without delay. Her writing is a not-so-hidden treat.

Part of a balanced breakfast

Having a look at the menu
Deerfield Beach, Florida, December 2006

On the last day of the year, we went out for breakfast. Because I didn't want to end the year with any degree of inconsistency, I brought my camera along and noodled around with it before the food arrived.

Sharp-eyed readers will recall that we went to this place, Shelby's, last year. I'm happy to report that not a whole lot had changed after 12 months. It was still an unspoiled little slice of the way it used to be.

I thought a closer look at the menu would tell the story of this place better than any words could.

Your turn: I hope you'll click on the image and let your eyes linger for a bit. You might begin to notice details that suggest this isn't a slick franchise operation. And that's a very good thing indeed, wouldn't you agree?

Pretty plane

757 at rest
Logan International Airport, Boston, MA, January 2007 [Click to turn it into a Jumbo]

Those who know me are well aware of my fascination with all things that fly. Unilike most folks in this post-9/11 world, I still enjoy getting into a plane and leaving the planet for a little while, especially if that plane is bringing me home.

I have a hierarchy of commercial aircraft. Some, like the Embraer E-Jets and the Airbus A-320 family, rank very highly. The lowly old DC-9...not so much. I've got a soft spot for the Boeing 757. On Thursday, I flew this one, a Northwest Airlines 757-200, from Boston to Detroit. While waiting for the ground crew to get the plane ready for our flight, I snapped a few quick images through the thick glass windows of the terminal.

Why the 757? It's subtly pretty. It seems to sit relatively high on its landing gear, and its thin, long fuselage stands out as it moves across the tarmac. It was a highly successful design for Boeing that marked its move into a new generation of fuel efficient, sophisticated designs. That it's the flying equivalent of a sports car - same engines and wings as the heavier, wide-bodied 767 in a much thinner, lighter airframe - makes even the most routine flights a touch more fun.

In this angle, the curves and the surface detail defy the conventional definition of the airplane as a mere tube. I wish I had more time to capture the scene.

Your turn: Pictures in an airport. Please discuss.

Pause for technical update...

Quick note to let you know that I've transitioned off of the old Blogger and onto the new. It seems to have gone well, save for the fact that the links to some - OK, make that many - commenters' sites have been stripped out, and it now looks like I've had lots of anonymous commenters.

There's a fly in every ointment, I suppose.

I had intended to stay on the old platform until completely transitioning off of Blogger, but I won't have time to do the full-on migration anytime soon, and Google was making it a royal pain to keep maintaining the site under the old regime. So I caved.

I'll keep my eye out for other little foibles along the way. In the meantime, I'm glad I'm still (virtually) here.

Smart food

Smarties
London, Ontario, December 2006 [Click to enlarge the chocolate]

I take pictures of food. Anything with color or texture is fair game. It doesn't say no and it doesn't walk away, so it's pretty easy to work with.

Smarties are sort of like a Canadian version of chocolate M&Ms. We get the latter product here as well, so you can well imagine the arguments that ensue over which one is better.

Taste-wise, I'll commit heresy and admit that I'm a Peanut M&M fan above all. Photo-wise, chocolate Smarties take the cake. They're flatter and more uniform, so they tend to lay down more predictably. And when you're shooting macro, depth of field is critical: the narrower the depth of the object being photographed, the more likely you will be to get it all in focus.

Yes, I think about this too much. No, I don't know why. No, I have no intention of stopping.

Your turn: What are your favorite foods to photograph? Why do you photograph food in the first place?

One more thing: Got home incredibly late last night. Was welcomed by lake effect snowstorms and bitter cold that delayed my trip, but in the end I made it home in one piece. It's good to be home. New pictures soon...

Reflective father and son

Us, exponential
Lake Worth, Florida, December 2006

This little pizza restaurant just across the street from the beach was very good to us: Great food that made the kids happy, and a great set of opposing-wall mirrors that allowed me to handhold this image just before we headed back to the beach.

I've played with mirrors before. Click here, here and here for earlier examples of the optical games I play when the shiny surfaces line up just so.

I love this picture because it is yet another glimpse of yet another magical moment I got to spend with one of our children. I guess I'm just a really lucky person.

Your turn: Do you do mirrors with your camera? Why?

Note from the road: I'm blogging this wirelessly from the hotel lobby in Framingham, MA, which is a town west of Boston. I took some rather unconventional pictures on the way here. The most interesting ones involve a jumbo jet, water, and a gigantic window. I look forward to sharing them with you upon my return.

Carved in stone

Angled mantel
Delray Beach, Florida, December 2006 [Click to embiggen]

A camera, a tripod and some free time. It's a pretty good recipe when I'm feeling creative and I have an itchy shutter finger. As I meandered through the living room, the tripod allowed me to use longer exposures and smaller apertures, which allowed even oblique compositions like this to be tack sharp from edge to edge.

The texture pulls me in every time I look at this image. I feel like I can touch it.

Your turn: What's photographable in your living room? Will you be taking a picture of it anytime soon?

Quick note on life: I'm zoomin off into the big blue sky tomorrow - oops, make that today. Heading to Boston to work on a fascinating project. It's a quick trip - I'll be back late Thursday night - but I suspect I'll find a way to capture unique, new-to-me experiences along the way. More soon...

Little folks, both serious and funny

Our three kids
Deerfield Beach, Florida, December 2006

We managed to get them to shmush their faces together for just long enough to capture this fleeting moment of childhood. I don't often pose them because I'd rather quietly capture them as they are. But I like to take periodic our-three-kids pics because, well, that's what parents do. And because their grandparents asked.

Of course, they're my kids. Which, as you know, means they've got a funny streak that extends well beyond the horizon behind them. So mere seconds after I grabbed this picture, they went back to being the insanely funny folks that they usually are. In doing so, they repeated history, as it was my mission when I was a child to make a funny face in every picture my parents took of me. (Note to self, scan and upload Carmi's childhood pictures. Should be worth a laugh or two, ya think?)

Since my parents used film, I can now appreciate why my father's teeth were so often clenched when he took pictures of me. Still, it's the unexpected images of childhood that seem to stick in my mind. And theirs. Hence, the following picture...

Click either image to embiggen.

Your turn: Silly pictures. Please discuss your perspective on this time-honored family photo album staple.

Tea time in Toronto

Reflective teapot
Toronto, Ontario, January 2007

I think I've figured out the trick to the artistic photography thing: the key is to be always on. To that end, I constantly find myself looking at the world around me as though it's framed in a viewfinder. I wonder what a given scene would look like if I shot it. I wonder who would be interested in sharing the scene with me. I wonder what memories it might trigger years later.

So when I'm chatting with friends and spot a rather large spot of tea on their kitchen counter, I sometimes find myself wanting to capture a surreal slice of that image. As I did here. Thankfully, they know me well enough to let me have free rein: Bless them. I hope you like it, too.

Your turn: Please click on this image to enlarge, then look deeply into it. What do you see?

Cover me

Shielded
Deerfield Beach, Florida, January 2007 [Click to open further]

Umbrellas shield us from the rain, from the sun, or simply from prying eyes. Whatever they're protecting us from, they can represent interesting studies in geometry and color if you take the time to stare at them.

As you've likely figured out by now, I stared at this one for just long enough. What first presented itself as a compositional exercise in predictability became anything but when I noticed the runny ink at the apex. Imperfect perfection: it's a theme that should crop up in a few other pictures of mine in the days to come. Stay tuned...

Your turn: What's protecting you?

Caption This 2

[Caption to be filled in by...YOU!]
Deerfield Beach, December 2006

This is Noah, our youngest son. I often call him the happiest boy in the world. He has a sunny, sweet and kind personality that can break through to even the crustiest of cynics. This picture pretty much sums him up, and I'm turning to the readers of my blog for help in writing a caption for this image.

This entry is the second one in my just-launched Caption This series. For more background on how Caption This works, please click here.

Thank you to everyone who submitted a caption for last week's CT image. The winner is...

My fellow Londoner and a mad-cyclist too, Persia! His caption is: "Cute @ss, 10:00".

Your turn: How would you caption this photo of Noah? I'll post my choice next Sunday - along with yet another new image for you to caption. Have fun with it...and thanks!

Waves and transitions

A wave's end
Deerfield Beach, Florida, December 2006

The sun was setting fast as I snapped the last few images of the day. I stood ankle-deep in the surf, watching the kids play by the water's edge, and thought about a question our six-year-old had asked earlier in the day. He wanted to know where waves came from. We did our best to explain, but our limited knowledge of oceonographic theory compelled us to keep it simple. We talked about how waves can begin, how they travel, and how they end when they reach shallow waters by the beach.

Now, as I stood in the middle of the churning surf, his little voice played in my head as I watched wave after wave roll up the smooth sand and then cease to exist. I couldn't adequately explain wave theory to our kids, but I sure could try to capture the last seconds before the whole process came to an end.

Beginnings. Endings. A little boy's question. As I stood between land and sea and watched day slowly turn into night, this seemed like a nice way to capture it all.

Your turn: How do you answer a child's unanswerable question?

Overhang

Roof meets sky
Deerfield Beach, Florida, December 2006

I'll take pictures of anything if it captures my eye just so. The changing room/services building beside the pool is your typical one storey concrete building set amidst countless other forgettable structures. But every time I walked past it, I found myself staring at it. Its stark, unadorned angles seemed to have their own charm,.

I like the edges and the color of this one. The shadows seem to invite the eye in for a closer look. The picture reminds me of where I stood when I took it. The kids were swimming with my wife just behind me. Their voices sang in my ears as I took the picture before putting the camera away and joining them.

Your turn: Why am I so fascinated by all that is plain? Why are you?

Photographic update: The blue isn't enhanced. I believe pictures should faithfully reproduce what the photographer saw when the image was first shot, so I limit any Photoshopping to occasional minor tweaks. Florida sky is just that much cooler to look at, I guess.

Endless waves

Rolling surf
Lake Worth, Florida, December 2006 [Click to double the wave height]

The ocean looks different every time you see it. Time of day, weather, waves and wind influence how the water dances with the atmosphere, and how it all hits your eye.

But how to capture it? I had no idea when we first got to Florida, and I didn't feel I was any better informed when we left. I must have taken hundreds of pictures from the sandy shores, but I didn't have a eureka moment where I felt I suddenly knew how to confidently shoot the surf.

But that's fine by me, because it gives me another reason to go back. To here. To another beach. Wherever. As long as I feel humbled the next time I feel sand under my feet, it'll be worth the trip to get my family there.

I like this image because it illustrates the various shades of green and blue in the water. It was the first thing my wife noticed when we first arrived, and as soon as she said it I knew I needed to capture it in some way.

Your turn: How do you feel when you first get to the seashore and you see and hear the waves?

iPhone, you phone, we all phone for iPhone...

My exciting, jet-setting life continues. I've was on TV earlier this afternoon, talking about the latest developments in the high-end smartphone market. Pat Bolland and Amanda Lang from Report On Business Television interviewed me.

The deal is that LG released a new phone, officially known as the KE850, but more popularly called the Prada. In a collaboration with the famous house of fashion, LG's new phone is a sexy-looking, giant-screened affair that's already inviting comparisons to Apple's just-announced iPhone. For 600 euros ($780-ish if it sold in the U.S., which it won't for the forseeable future because it isn't designed to run on North American carrier networks, but I digress...) it should also make breakfast.

So I sat down for a chat to sift through all these big high-end phone announcements, to speak about the whole designer-phone thing, and to assess what it all means for folks like you and me who just want to get work done. All in all, very cool stuff. I love what I do!

Oh yes, you can actually see the interview by clicking here. Warning: if you've never seen or heard me before, viewer discretion is advised.

Your turn: Was it fun to watch?

In the margins

In the shadows
Deerfield Beach, Florida, January 2007

When I first decided to become a writer, I began to appreciate the green and red markups that my teachers/reviewers would leave in the margins of my submitted work. The richness of their feedback helped me take so-so first drafts and turn them into somewhat better pieces of work. I learned that the real value in something isn't always in the stuff you see first. Rather, it's buried in the margins, in the less obvious places most folks won't ever see.

Handwritten markups have largely been replaced by electronic collaboration tools. Microsoft Word's reviewing tools add a whole new dimension to the process, but the fundamentals remain the same.

It spills into my photography as well, where I find myself peering beside and behind the main subject, looking for little snippets of brilliance that will make the thing fly and, on occasion, stand out on their own. Consequently, I look down and a lot.

Your turn: What do you see when you look beside and behind?