Category: Scenic Photography

Out There

Posted on by Markman
Out there.

There were so many times in my life when I thought it was the end but there was another day.

The story behind the photo: Another sunset drive around and happened upon this spot where I had noticed that a guy with a fishing rod walked out to the end of the line of rocks and just decided to fish there. This is one of those being a place at the right time kinda shots that I’ve been lucky to capture. I like the mood of this one – you have the bright sunset but the guy looks lonely to me, isolated, but hey – there’s hope. I don’t know, I just like the dichotomy of that sort of thought I guess, and once again somewhat applicable to the current situation in the world – don’t you think? Do folks like this idea I’ve been doing? The photo with a quote and the stories behind the photos?

Red Roses

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Roses are red…

“But he who dares not grasp the thorn

Should never crave the rose.”

The story behind the photo: This was a valentine’s gift one year and I felt like playing around with close up photography. I wanted to focus on the rose petals toward the front of the shot with the baby’s breath muted in the background. I then applied some effects after to give it a “softer” look. The red rose has been associated with love and passion for thousands of years. In Greek and Roman mythology, roses are often linked to Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love.

Gametime: Ice Roll. In case you haven’t noticed I have a thing for Puzzlescript games. I like these kinds of games that make me have to think on how to get to the exits. Maybe they can help you pass the day away too trying to solve them.

Spent some time over at Earth-1 this morning/afternoon. It was a good time, ended up watching SpiderMan 2 of all things. I think tomorrow I’m going to do some planting.

Along the Cliffs

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Cliff Walk

Life is a walk to the edge of a cliff. Every day we get a step nearer and what lies over the brink, no one can tell.

Tonight we made some Chicken with an Apricot Jam sauce, and watched Menendez: Blood Brothers staring Courtney Love of all people (we all know the story – I was curious how this version would be – verdict – what you would expect). Today was such a rainy and windy day, I think I even took an afternoon nap which is something I never do!

The story behind the photo: Sad to say I don’t have any real interesting story about this one. Just happened to be at that location and took a snap and there it was.

Healing

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Rock Harbor Sunset

“Okay Mother Nature — You win.”

The story behind the photo: This was taken at Rock Harbor in Orleans. This is one that I was surprised by. This was actually taken just in the parking lot so if I stepped the shot back just a foot or two you would see the awful pavement and surrounding automobiles. I do think in a strange way the Earth is trying to reset itself – you hear stories of pollution way down and marine life returning to the canals of Venice. Maybe Mother Nature has had enough and wants time to heal and so is forcing it to happen, the only way she knows how.

Missing My Vitamin Sea

Posted on by Markman
Watching the scene along the Newport coast

The story behind the photo: Not sure if I ever posted this one before since I refreshed the site but if I did, well here it is again. I’m having to plumb my archives for some content since I haven’t been going out much these days as we all need to lay low to flatten the curve. Let me see if I can remember how this one came about. One afternoon we were just driving around Newport RI one day and we stopped into the Ocean Cliff Hotel but you could go in and eat even if you weren’t staying there. I remember it not being very bust this particular day – seemed like there might have been some big family event going on later on, like maybe a wedding or something. I vaguely recall this place had something of a safari motif which I thought was a little weird, in fact, I believe it may have been called the Safari Room actually. Anyways, they had an open deck area out back and that’s where this shot was taken. I knew I definitely wanted to have a sailboat in the background of this shot and I also thought the black chairs looked kind of cool but other than that this was literally a quick snap from the cellphone. I also thought the cotton candy clouds were a nice touch as well. I believe the day had the threat of rain but other than some drizzles here and there I believe it was mostly partly cloudy. Unlike today, which actually did start raining and had to cut short our noontime walk around the block, but hey, April showers bring May flowers! Which reminds me, I really need to start planting some things.

Some random thoughts: Since I’ve got my Versa 2 activity tracker I’ve walked over 588k steps. I’m going to draw Carson – do a little art therapy with myself. Maybe I can finish some reading, I’ve been slacking on that lately. I may update this post later with more so check back. Tonight’s movie watch is Serpico!

Spring and Teacher Parade

Posted on by Markman
Spring came just the same.

“I am going to try to pay attention to the spring. I am going to look around at all the flowers, and look up at the hectic trees. I am going to close my eyes and listen.”

Anne Lamott

Just updated the site to the newest version of WordPress. This entry is just more or less to make sure nothing “broke” in the process. Seems to be alright. I’ll try using some of the new features in posts over time as I feel they warrant it.

I braved going to the grocery store last night. Looked like everyone was practicing social distancing and all. In and out. Work for me has been really slow lately – been watching some training videos but will probably have to take some personal time (PTO) to help with utilization. Kinda sucks and is concerning regarding my possible future but keeping the chin up, it all could be worse.

At lunch today we went for a walk around a block and discovered that all the teachers in town drove around in a parade with balloons and honking horns while waving from their cars said hello to the students around town. It was a nice thing to see today. So great to see them spreading positivity their students. What are you doing to spread positivity?

Connections

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Rockport coast

“My mother always wanted to live near the water,” she said. “She said it’s the one thing that brings us all together. That I can have my toe in the ocean off the coast of Maine, and a girl my age can have her toe in the ocean off the coast of Africa, and we would be touching. On opposite sides of the world.”

Megan Miranda, Vengeance

I thought the above quote goes well with today’s photo and what we are all currently going through these days. Have to stay connected in some way. Going to try to do a social Zoom get together with some folks this weekend. Anyone else want to try with us? I’ve also been playing around with video calls over Instagram – let me know if you want to vid-chat. I’m game for it.

Update (3/29/20 4:31 pm): Just did a Zoom call with some friends playing Scattergories for a couple hours. It was fun and nice to get some sort of social interaction!

The story behind the photo: This shot is actually from the same location as the earlier picture I posted looking out the window but outside at dawn the next morning. I remember having to get up pretty early to beat the sunrise and all, not the easiest thing to do.

Let Our Light Shine

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Scituate Light, Social Distancing Edition.

Lighthouses are endlessly suggestive signifiers of both human isolation and our ultimate connectedness to each other.     

Virginia Woolf

The story behind the photo: One day we went to the Light and I walked all the way out along the rock break wall, which actually goes out quite a ways, turned around, and took the shot. I thought the texture of the rocks along with the clouds in the sky would provide some nice features to look at with the focal point being the lighthouse itself. There really were a bunch of folks there that day so I’m not sure how I got the shot with nobody else in it, but in these days of social distancing I thought it apropos to bring out now again and touch it up a bit. Thinking up metaphors it could be the light at the end of the tunnel, navigating the deadly rocks to get there. I have thing for lighthouses, if you haven’t noticed.

Updated: Ok, so today spent some time trimming some rose bushes and hydrangeas out front that have become pretty crazy looking, doing a little working with nature and cleaning up the look – maybe try to tame it all back a little, hopefully not damaging anything in the process. Maybe I could have done more, but it’s s a start.

Also, I find it so weird watching newscasters and tv hosts not being together, further strengthening my belief that something has gone wrong with the current timeline that put us in this reality.

Rivulets in the Sand

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Rivers in the sand

“You don’t need to be the tide to rise and fall, you don’t have to be a wave to touch the shore; just be a little sand-grain and feel them all.”

In these days of staying at home, I’ve been going to go through some older photos I just have laying around on my storage devices, touch them up, and if I think they’re worthy enough – sharing them, to keep the content coming. As I may have mentioned before, I will literally take tens to hundreds of shots from a location in which only one gets to be posted. So how’s about another sunset photo – people seem to like those! Once again, I like the texture of the sand in this one – the rivulets marking tiny canals throughout.

Other things we’ve been doing to keep sane, is going out for a little walk at lunchtime. We discovered a little trail very nearby that cuts across some streets, like a shortcut, which has these pretty blue wildflowers growing along it. Also beating a game called Colorkey, although admittedly I found it pretty easy except for the last level.

BONUS! I just found out that NECN (a local news station in Boston) shared my Blue sunset photo below on their page! Might be shown on the news segment – I’ll be keeping a look out for that!

Blue

Posted on by Markman
Another Sunset

The story behind the photo: Another Cape sunset shot this time from July 2018. The original shot is much more orange – I altered the tint in post production to give it less warmth. I particularly like the texture of the water lapping up onto the shore in this one.

Moody Cobblestone Streets

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Moody Boston cobblestone lined street.
Moody Boston cobblestone lined street.

Has every day started bleeding into one another yet for everyone? Sometimes I find it a little hard to remember what day it is. And then you’ll think the day has gone slow but then you look at the clock at it’s after 6 PM already – maybe it’s just me though. Strange times indeed. In fact, we’re not sure if the cat wants us home all the time now. I know he likes the company but unsure if he wants it all day long every day. I did go to the grocery store yesterday and got a bunch of items – I generally go when it isn’t too busy, and being smart about staying away as best I can from contaminants. Most of the items you can get now except for maybe bread and paper or cleaning products.

It snowed yesterday and at one point it was really coming down, but you’d never know that now as it’s in the 50s and sunny so it’s all gone. Maybe that’s what’ll happen with all this craziness going on now. We can only hope!

The story behind the photo: Not much to explain about this one, I just happened to be walking around Boston one Friday afternoon during the summer (notice the trees have green leaves) and decided to check out Acorn Street – the most photographed street in Boston. This one was just sitting on my hard drive, I decided to pull it up and adjust some of the tonal contrasts to make it look a bit moody. In hindsight, it would have been better to be down here later in the day, like maybe around dusk to get better lighting but I wasn’t hanging around that long. I’m not really totally pleased with how this one turned out but I figured I’d show it off anyway.

Today’s Message

Posted on by Markman
Brewster, MA

“Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light. “

The story behind the photo: It’s shots like this one that make me think that maybe I could be a good photographer. This one is from last summer vacationing on the Cape. We basically would scope different locations every day for possible good sunset shots. I was somewhat protected this time from all the biting bugs having learned my lesson from the year before, but they were still pretty brutal swarming all over my face. I think it had rained earlier in the day and it was just wrapping up which is why there’s clouds in this photo. I think this photo could represent what’s going on in our lives at the moment, in a way, with a symbol of hope at the end of it all – just trying to be positive in a sea of sh*t.

Finding Gratitude

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Looking out the window sipping coffee in Rockport out towards rocky shoreline.
Looking out the window sipping coffee in Rockport

Gratitude. Today I’m going to spend a few moments thinking about all the times and things I’ve had and have, the big and the small, and how thankful I am for them and sitting with those feelings they evoke and how they make me feel.

The story behind the photo: This was actually taken a couple of years ago on a overnight stay getaway. I particularly wanted to stay at this location for the window and it’s proximity to the rocky shoreline. We got to sipping tea and coffee while just looking out at the beautiful scenery. It’s one of my special memories.

Going out for a drive, and this evening going to try out some live online stream yoga thing with a practitioner that we know. Will update with findings from both! The drive was to Marshfield where we did a quick walk along the shore and the yoga thing did work but was weird.

Get Through

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Springtime

Another somewhat uneventful day. Did go for a nice little walk around the neighborhood. Spent some time trying to get some things in order around the house. Did take up some of my old birding hobby today – managed to watch a little woodpecker begin to dig out a hole up in a tree in the backyard.

Did start watching a ridiculous show on Crime Investigation channel called Monstresses – basically women killers that are a bit on the deranged side you might say and I’ll just leave it at that and an exercise to the readers to find out more about it on their own should they so wish. I feel it’s shot weird too – like parts of it remind me of a comic book layout. (Actually looking it up I learned there’s only one season consisting of only three episodes).

Gaslight Alley

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Gas lamp lit alleyway somewhere in Beacon Hill

My hands are so freakin dry from all the hand washing. Get that paraffin on me! I went out this afternoon once I felt it had warmed up enough and bagged some more leaves, this time mostly from the ivy bed area we’ve been watching grow for a couple years now. It took a while but the ivy is really starting to cover the area, there seemed to somewhat of a huge growth spurt in them last summer.

Made some zucchini and tomato flatbreads tonight, with a nice lemon ricotta and drizzled with a slight tinge of honey.

Hunker Down Time

Posted on by Markman
Green Harbor, Marshfield, MA

Went for a drive today by the ocean in Marshfield to get some fresh air, clear our heads, and walk along the beaches. Can’t be holed up in the house all the time, and it’s the perfect place to get some air and not too many people around.

Beware the Ides of March!

Social Distancing

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The new normal?

Kinda mad at my sister for staying out all night last night with some dude but I can’t control what she does. I find it pretty irresponsible, especially since she does have underlying conditions that would negatively impact her in a huge way should things not go well, as well as possibly making it worse for others. Some people just don’t seem understand it all yet. And I get it, because I was one of those earlier but my views have been changing a bit over the last few days. Be safe everyone.

Remembering the Need

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Meditating in this point in time for a bit…

Kids are out of school now. So now a thing is that some of them might have trouble getting food and meals that they rely on. I grew up on Welfare since my mom was a single mom so I can kind of relate, although we always had food in house, no doubt thanks to my grandparents. I remember actually going down and waiting with my mom while she got the block of cheese (the government cheese! yes, that really was a thing, don’t believe they do that anymore – they give you money to buy your own now). We were never destitute thank God, but hearing the latest stories did make me remember those long ago times. We might not have had much, but it was enough, and appreciative of what we had and have.

Anxiety Station

Posted on by Markman
Enter the Portal…

Crazy times we are currently living in these days, with the virus and all. Social distancing is the term of the day. Sporting events are all being either put off or cancelled all together. College kids are out of their dorms and can’t come back (mostly). Just taking it day by day and seeing what develops and go from there.

I did have a good performance review though so there’s that.

Creek Square

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Creek Square

Creek Square got its name from Mill Creek, which was dug between the Town Cove and the Mill Pond, beginning in 1643. As you face east, the creek would have been in front of you, running along where Blackstone Street is now located.  The land directly in front of you (Creek Square) would have been marsh land. 

That began to change in 1652, when Joshua Scottow bought this land from William Franklin. By 1654, Scottow had excavated the marsh land to create Scottow’s Dock. “Dock” here is used in the 17th-century sense, meaning a navigable harbor. The dock connected to Mill Creek and from there to the Town Cove. This dock became an important area for maritime commerce, with wharves and warehouses built along it in the late century. By the early 18th century, however, it had been filled in, as the city’s shoreline steadily migrated east.

Here more than anywhere else in Boston, you can peer north up the narrow cobblestone streets and imagine what the original colonial city, with its narrow alley and winding, irregular street patterns looked and felt like.

Source: atlasobscura

I’m really liking the tunes on Ice-T’s band Body Count’s new album. Good stuff. Check it out on YouTube – album is called Carnivore. Rap and Metal. Fits my mood these days it seems. I really like the remake of Colors.

Crouching Lion

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Most people are rowing against the current of life. Instead of turning the boat around, all they need to do is let go of the oars.

Woke up early, went to the Depot for some leaf bags and we ended up bagging 7 bags of leaves from around the patio and the back yard garden areas – I want to get ready for planting soon. There was even some green popping up through the dead leaves already – it’s awesome. The ivy over in the back has really taken well, I’m hoping this summer it will spread throughout the whole area for coverage. Spent the afternoon sitting outside in the sun enjoying the rays and tranquility. Then we cooked in preparation for the week ahead while watching the classic movie Office Space.

Possibly more updates later today…