Prospective Ode to Google

If I could, I would... pen such a piece for the service that daily saves my butt.  Today it was the abilty to type "classic swan boat book" and get Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey.  Otherwise the SO would figure out that it didn't stick on Sunday.  Having already played the Dear Matchette card, I am little short on creative solutions at the moment.

So...  the first snap was stuck in the middle of the Public Garden post but it has since become abundantly clear that swan boats get pride of place.  Clearly, this is a photo target that is going to take some more work but for now, I offer the best of Sunday's swan boat snaps.

Cape Ann

well... before the impromptu visit to the Public Garden (see the prior post), I planned a trip to the North Shore of Cape Ann, specifically, Essex, Wingersheek Beach and Annisquam.  The trip was curtailed by the X100 battery running out of juice but not before I got some decent snap candidates.  As it turns out, I think really pretty decent given it was the first real attempt with the camera that just arrived on Friday.

All pretty much f/8.0 at ISO 200 (the minimum) at whatever shutter speed soultion that yielded, all of course at 35mm - standard one-shot Nashification recipe.

Ipswich Bay from the end of Coles Island Road

Dashed transportation in the Annisquam River

Wingersheek Dunes and the Annisquam Light

Through the dunes and on to the light

Mothers Day picnic

The second course

Pretty much the middle of Annisquam

Perhaps the only grit in very polished Annisquam

Public Garden

and one from the Common.  The X100 battery died in Annisquam because it was never fully charged.  That dampened my enthusiasm as I wasn't much interested shooting the 7D.  So two weekends in a row, on trips especially planned for snaps, no juice.  On the way out to Cape Ann, I spotted a Best Buy so I figured I would stop and get yet another 12VDC to 120VAC converters.  Turns out there is a Target next to BBY, so I guess I saved a few bucks.  Anyway, a half hour charge on the way from Danvers to Boston got me a a decent number of attempts in The Public Garden and yielded one from the Common.

I think they were all f/8.0, at ISO 100, Aperture Priority, pretty standard Nashification.  Missed some, seems that the X100 is a bit slow unloading images to the card, maybe it is the RAW + JPEG setting or maybe because the battery was low. Something to explore. Anyway here are some snaps ...

A rather pedestrian shot of an equestrian George Washington at the west entrance for starters

Why ruin a pedestrian roll when you are on one

Hoofin' it on the Lagoon Bridge

Paying the piper (well guitarist)

Short, as in stature, not Bobby

Looks like things have changed since 1848

Ibid

the one from the Common

Small favors...

Dateline, Lowell, MA, 7:14PM, May 7, 2011

Dear Joe,

We won't be making that trip on May 8th.  Please try later in the season.

Capt. Steve

Cap'n Steve is an astute man or at least his customers are.  One lighthouse was cold enough six would have been hypothermic.  Maybe still a little too early for seersucker bermudas north of the Hub.

Annisquam River and Light in Background, from Wingersheek Beach,  7D, 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS, 180mm, 1/320, f/8.0, ISO 100.

Atlas unshrugged

Half the SSC Atlas team camped in the Copley Marriott this week.  The rest across the river in the PDR of Cambridge, at the Marriott visible in the middle of the snap.  Snapped on the 35th floor with XZ-1 RAW. Processed with the just available ACR 6.4 RC and then Silver Efex 2 in seat twenty something C on a screwed up SWA flight from Logan to BWI.