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Friday, July 20, 2007
A Visitor From Baltimore
Well, I didn't say it was a person, right? We're just starting to move, and I was sitting out on the back porch with
the kids when this Baltimore Oriole landed in a tree in our backyard. It was hanging around for awhile, long enough for me
to decide I needed to take a picture, go get my camera, etc. This is really cool, because I've been wanting to encounter one
of these birds (Goldfinches are pretty common).
Bonus photo that's completely personal, but I thought I'd share it with you anyway. So after this whole episode,
Kara's got Alex upstairs and I'm in the kitchen when Katherine comes over with a sly look on her face. She hands me an envelope,
sealed and with stickers on it. I ask if I can open it up right away, and she smiles and says yes. This is what was in the
envelope:
My readers who are parents will probably get a little extra kick out of this. It's an unbelievable precious
and wonderful thing when your child spontaneously shows their love for you. Especially when they are this young.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Pine Hill Tower, Version 2.0
Before I begin, I should tell you that this tower has many names. To purists and map readers, it is Wright's Tower. To locals, it is Pine Hill Tower. In either case, this is great news. I've been going to this tower for at least a generation
now and have seen it in all sorts of conditions.
I will now apologize twice. First, for not writing about this earlier, but you can read a little background at the Friends of the Fells.
I will also apologize for the quality of the photo. There is basically one place to get this shot, next to 93N just after
Roosevelt Circle, and you are shooting directly into the sun. I didn't have all my stuff with me, or I'd have done a better
job.
I was inspired to get this up because of Kim Davidson, by the way. You see, the tower had a roof, but it had been burned
a number of times, presumably by partiers, yobs, whatever you want to call them. For a long time, they just chained it shut.
Then, a few weeks ago, they brought the crew in and took the old roof down. I almost had an accident when I saw it, because
as Kim reminded me, it looked just like a castle (think of the chess piece - without that shiny new roof, there are just four
stone posts that look like parts of a parapet). I wanted to get a photo of that but I missed it. By the time I was back over
there they had started raising the new roof. So I promised myself I'd at least get something of the construction and I don't
know when I'll get another chance because I am moving this weekend.
Monday, July 16, 2007
The Beauty Of A Map
If you've been reading lately, you know I've spent a lot of time in the Middlesex Fells. It's a natural for me. I grew up here and explored most of the Fells as a child. There were no mountain bikers back then.
And they'd occasionally find a body from a mob hit. These days, the Fells is run by the DCR and advocated for by the Friends of the Fells.
Personally, I'm glad the FotF are there, because someone needs to do this. I'm not always in sync with they or Mike Ryan's
tactics, but I respect the fact that they are really working hard to protect the land they love. Anyway, one way to get familiar
with the FotF and some enjoyment at the same time is simply to purchase the superb map they produce in conjunction with the
state.
Now, I love maps, and this is a good one. It's chock full of information about all the trails, gates and attractions.
It also has, overleaf, a guide to history, flora, fauna and other notable information. And the best part is, you don't have
to go to Borders to get it. The best place to buy these maps is right in a good old fashioned local bookstore. Me being me,
I'm going to recommend two of them.
BookEnds, in Winchester Center, is great for browsing, especially if you have kids. It's also really close to South
Border road.
The BestSellers Café, in Medford Square, is a beautiful bookstore with snacks and seating in the back overlooking the Mystic
River. It also has a great kids section.
Happy Hiking!
South African Lawyers Are The New Nigerian Civil Servants
...or something like that. By now, most people have heard of the Nigerian 419 fraud, also known as Advance fee fraud. In this scheme, you get an E-mail from someone claiming to be in the Nigerian government looking to move funds around.
You, lucky devil, have been chosen to be the agent, if you can accept a healthy percentage of the transfer amount as a fee.
Of course, it's all rubbish and you'll lose your money.
That hasn't deterred some south Africans from trying the same basic fraud. Witness the E-mail I received recently:
From: michael kalis [mkalis77@hotmail.com]
To:
Cc:
Subject: Contact Mr. Michael
Hello,
I am Mr. Michael Kalis Esq attorney to
Mr. Paul Hanley senior manager at Investec Bank of South Africa, who happens to be account manager to a Chinese businessman
based in Johannesburg South Africa by name Mr. Chow Liu who is now late through fatal road accident. We are writing to solicit
for an agent to assist us in the transfer of (USD10.5M) left in account of the above mentioned for disbursement and investment
purpose in your country.
If interested please furnish me on (michaelkalisza@hotmail.com)
with the following for further details: Your name in full, Office or residential address, Telephone and fax numbers, a copy
of your international passport or driver’s license. Please note that your share for participating on this exercise will be
30% of the total sum of USD10.5 Million
I await your favourable response,
Mr. Michael Kalis.
I'm not sure why I even looked at this E-mail because I can usually remove the junk by subject/sender line inspection
if it has gotten through the SPAM checker at my ISP. But the first give-away is the empty To: line, which screams
out mass E-mail. Upon closer inspection, you'll notice that he asks for a response to a different E-mail address
than he sent it from. That's a big tip-off too. I'm willing to bet that if you respond to the message, either nothing will
happen or it will bounce. Why? Because there are a ton of people who will hit reply and type %)*\$(#! But I'm not going to do
that. Oh no. One thing I learned in London from Mr. B was that there are some very, very bad people in South Africa, even
in J-burg. People you really don't want to mess with. What I mean is that the bad people there are sort of much badder than
the bad people we're used to here. Oh, never mind. Despite the slander, it is a wonderful place that I would love to explore.
A cool 3 mill would help with that, but I think I'll pass this time.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Dave's Periodic Link Roundup
OK, this one is more like news of the wierd. I get around on the Internet, as many of my readers know. I have run across
many really strange stories lately, more than usual. So without further ado and for your browsing pleasure, here's the 411:
At a wedding in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China, the world's tallest man meets one of the world's shortest. Strangely, the nicely dressed guy is not the groom.
Proving once again that you can find anything on the Internet, Tom Dickson puts his iPhone in a blender to answer the question, " Will It Blend?"
They are racing to finish the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland and France. This massive accelerator, a full 17 miles around, has suffered some setbacks but is now due to be completed in May of next year. Don't get too excited though. There is a very small chance that something
could go wrong -- they could destroy the planet. No, I'm not kidding you. There are three highly improbable but scientifically feasible scenarios that could destroy the planet. But hey, it'd be cool to finally create a black hole,
right? Not.
Oh yeah, aliens really did land in Roswell, New Mexico.
And last but not least, the best of the Saturday cartoons. Enjoy!
I Get By With A Little Help From My 'Flector
Walking through the woods the other day, I glanced up an intersecting trail and this log just jumped out at me. I mean,
I walk through the woods all the time. I see logs all the time. Sometimes they are cool and I take pictures of them. In fact,
my Lightroom keyword database tells me I currently have 42 pictures of logs prior to this log I shot the other day, but none
of them looks like an alligator.
Now, truth be told, I needed a little help with this shot. It's hard to explain, but this is a photo that works because
of a lighting dynamic I had to create. You see, the tree had light hitting the top of it when I arrived on scene. I took a
whole series of photos that way. But it didn't work because the light on top made it look like, well, a dead tree. So I took
a break and broke out my portable reflector. I propped it up in the sunlight and reflected an irregular swath of light back
up at the tree. While I was doing this, the sun changed position enough that the log was no longer in direct light. Perfect.
This was kindof a subtle lighting trick, so let me add a bit more detail. One of the ways to judge a photograph is how
your eye moves through it when you look at it. It takes some experience, but generally your eye is drawn to the brightest
thing first. In this case, it's the tree, which is so bright it dominates the scene, except...
The 'eye' of the alligator is dark. Really, really dark. It sort of counter-balances the brightness of the tree. But
here's the rub: without this little splotch of light on the front of the tree, you don't notice the eye so much. The scene
is overwhelmed by the brightness of the tree on the right. The tree doesn't separate from the background and it just looks
like a dead tree. But this little patch of light creates a transition for your eye, from the bright of the tree to the dark
of the eye. I find that I tend to jump back and forth from the eye to the spot to the tree. That's good, because it means
that people will 'get it' when they look at it. It doesn't need explaining. Does it?
OK, because it's me we're talking about, I took a 'how-to' photo for your enjoyment.
These reflectors are pretty cool. They have different surfaces on each side: white, silver, gold and diffused gold, or
something like that. They have those wiggly-jiggle circle things in them. You can fold them up like a figure-8 and put 'em
in a pouch about four inches around. I used these quite a bit the other day. If you are doing macro photography, as I was,
you can simply hold it up and reflect light on the subject from whatever angle you like.
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