Twitter / Buzz: the new news?

Today's XKCD discusses the math behind a tweet out-distancing an earthquake (oddly, I read the comic before I heard about the quake). Later in the day, I found myself using Google's Buzz to post pictures of a fire in Boston. It's now getting to the point that I look to the Buzz map on my Droid before I consult Boston.com for local news. It's not that it's more rational or more considered. It's just a matter wanting to know what's going on now rather than a half hour ago. Sure, I can visit a regular news site and find more detail later on, but there's just nothing like having a few thousand potential "reporters" on the scene.

I suppose the future written by some science fiction authors is coming: we'll all be the on-the-scene "reporters" with actual journalists being the people who surf Twitter, Buzz, YouTube and so forth, the way they used to listen to police-band radio for a story. Once a journalist can tap into your head-mounted cam for a live feed hire you on the spot as a freelance photographer, there will be no story too fast to be fed into the hungry maw of the Internet.

The Canon EOS T2i: My new dream camera

The Cannon EOS T2i (what a horrible name) has everything I've ever wanted in a camera. It's a great digital SLR with the industry's best lineup of lenses behind it. At 18 megapixels (5184 x 3456 max resolution) it's a beast of a camera with one of the most advanced sensors in the industry. On top of that, it's capable of a range of light sensitivity that has previously only been found in professional (read: multi-thousand dollar) cameras.

Now, if that doesn't make you want one, it can also shoot full HD quality video at up to 30 frames per second. You can even step down to a smaller resolution and get hardware-based digital zoom of 7x that doesn't sacrifice sharpness.

I bought the first Digital Rebel when it came out and I loved it. But I've always envied my friends who bought later models. I think it's finally time for me to upgrade.

My Photos On the Web

I've always put my photography up on the Web under the Creative Commons licensing that allows others to use and distribute them as long as they give credit and allow others to do the same (the CC-By-SA license). Over time, I've seen my pictures used for more and more things that I'd never have dreamed. One church has used a panorama of mine for their banner and I've seen my images used for several news articles, such as the story of tequila being used to make diamonds.

For those who might want to use some of my images in the future, the best place to look is on my Picasa folders. One of these, Misc Photos, contains what I consider to be some of my best general work, though I have other sections for nature photography; specific events like the Tall Ships and Fireworks; and so on. You need only credit me and provide some way for people to find the original in order to use these images.

Boston 2009 4th of July Fireworks From the Office

Boston 4th of July 2009 fireworks over the Charles River

I work in Kendall Square, and there's a really wonderful view from my office's kitchen area. Last night we watched the fireworks from there, and it's just the perfect view. There were some odd moments, though. For example, we noticed at one point that the Sheraton Hotel in Boston had some kind of light display going on. There were three rows of pulsating lights along the building, and they all pulsed in unison... it became a bit disturbing when we realized that that was actually the room televisions, all tuned to the simulcast of the fireworks, and therefore all changing brightness in unison.

The other bit that I found strange was watching so many people get worked up about Neil Diamond. Now, I was never a big fan of his, but even still I can see why he had a fan base 30+ years ago. What boggles my mind is how that translates to what I saw last night. Oh well, he clearly enjoyed himself, and while I always thought America was a little too blunt, the songs he sang were good ones.

My gallery of fireworks photos from last night is fairly small. I used my PowerShot S1000, and while it's capable of excellent night photos, getting it to focus correctly is a battle of wits, and I may have lost. Anyway, enjoy what I have, and I'll try to get a better setup next year (hopefully, I'll have the T1i by then).

False Sun Over Cambridge

A "sun dog" over Cambridge, MA.

I was walking home one day when this view caught my eye. It's what's known as a false sun or "sun dog", and it happens when ice crystals in clouds act as a lens, and refract sunlight toward your eye. In this case, the glow in the clouds over the intersection is the false sun and the brighter glow over the building to the right is the real sun. More spectacular images still can be seen under exactly the right circumstances, making a full ring of light around the sun with bright spots to the left and right.

I've heard that under unusual circumstances including when volcanic ash is in the air, false suns can out-shine the real sun. I'd love to see something like that one day.

I'm In Love With the Maine Coastline

A view from the Maine coast. From Misc Photos

There's so much to love about Maine, but I'm always amazed by its coastline. The jagged rocks and sandy beaches are as wonderful a contrast as the weather which ranges across the full gammut of New England's "if you don't like it, wait a minute" patterns.

The picture above was taken at the Fort McClary State Historic Site in Kittery. Too many people go to Kittery for the outlet stores. I think that visiting the nearby coast should be required of anyone shopping at those stores.

Mt Welch In the White Mountains: iPhone Panorama

View from Mt. Welch and the Waterville Valley From Mt Welch hike 2009-05-17

This lovely picture was taken from my favorite mountain in the White Mountain chain in New Hampshire. The mountain is called Welch and the spot is on the Dickey / Welch trail loop. The high point that you can see in the picture is the summit of Mt. Welch and the low point is a cliff that overlooks the Mad River and the Waterville Valley. I just love to go to this mountain, and I try to make it at least twice a year. It's a wonderful spot for just hanging out, taking night photographs, watching meteor storms, and the like.

What really pleases me about this photo is that it was taken with my new iPhone (the old one just died a month after its warranty expired). It's a composite panorama of over 30 individual pictures that I took immediately on arriving. I stitched them together using the free autostitch demo.

CHDK for PowerShot Cameras

A sample of what CHDK can do in a darkened room. From CHDK

Last night I tried out CHDK for the first time. This is a third-party software suite for the Canon PowerShot line of cameras. It allows all sorts of interesting things that the PowerShots don't allow by default. For example, the picture to the right was taken in a nearly pitch-dark room with an 80-second exposure. The PowerShot can only do 15 seconds out of the box.

But there's far more. CHDK includes tools for multiple histogram modes, "zebra" flashing of blown-out regions, and even a scripting language in which you can write your own code to control the camera! For anyone who wants to be able to carry around a small camera that's capable of taking complex shots, this is the tool that will let you do it.

The Tubes Are Clogged

2nd story walkway with the Akamai in background
From Misc Photos

Ever wonder what happens when the Internet's series of tubes gets clogged? Apparently, they call in this guy....

Finale

A desert at Finale From Misc Photos

Finale is a dessert restaurant that I went to for a friend's birthday party in Harvard Sq. If "dessert restaurant" makes you think of the Cheesecake Factory, disabuse yourself of that notion immediately. The entree menu here is fairly restricted, and the focus is really on the deserts. Of these, there's a range between indulgent and simply artful, but the name of the game is sugar and chocolate. If you enjoy the two, prepare yourself for an evening of pleasant surprises.

Mushroom Photography Season Approaches

An Amanita mushroom button From mushrooms

In past years, I've taken quite a few pictures of mushrooms, but the last two years have been a bit light. Part of that is the weather, which has been rather dry, but part of it is just how little I've made it out into the woods. Hopefully, this year I can change that. I've already spotted morels outside of the Marriot Hotel in Boston (yep, right on their mulch there were three of them), and a few scattered spring mushrooms around the city. I'll be trying to make a run up to the White Mountains in New Hampshire soon, but if I don't at least I'll make it to the Middlesex Fells Reservation, which is just north of Boston.

View Larger Map

If you live in the Greater Boston area and haven't made it to either Blue Hills or the Fells, you really should. The trails there range from pleasant walk to serious hike and there are some views of the city and of the surrounding area that just can't be beat.

For mushrooms, I usually go to the southern part of the Fells (see map to left) for the great view and lots of different kinds of terrain that support mushrooms. If you walk north from here, you eventually come to the sheepfold, which is a lovely pasture used as a dog park. Around there you find many types of field mushrooms and there are many swampy areas that support mushrooms as well.

For species that prefer moving water, the eastern Fells has a great waterfall area that's fairly easy to get to from a parking area on North Border Road.

The key thing is just to get out there and enjoy it!

Dickey / Welch: In the White Mountains of New Hampshire

From Nature

From Nature

From Nature

From mushrooms

One of my favorite places to go hiking is the Welch/Dickey loop in the southern edge of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Many of my best mushroom photographs in my mushroom gallery are from this trail. In the late summer and fall, this trail just fills up with fungus of every kind. But, the best pictures of this particular trail are all of the mountain itself. From near the top of Welch, there's a wonderful view of the Mad River Valley. It's a smooth, easy hike up, easily accessible to even the most casual folks. In fact, I was first directed here by the front desk at an inn when I asked about easy hikes for beginners. While it's a great view during the day, it's even better at dusk and dawn when the sun either sets behind the cliff wall behind you or rises over the mountains in front of you.

I've been going back to this trail for about 16 years now (I know because it was one of the first dates of my current relationship... I'd be in trouble if I forgot) and it's that time again. Soon I'll have a new batch of pictures and hopefully a new batch of friends that I've take up there. Perhaps I'll even get the chance to do some night photos of the stars this year.

One of the rarest sights I've seen on this mountain is a luminescent fungus growing on a tree. It was a pale bluish color and no larger than a rasin. It was probably all over the place that year, but I only saw it on the lower sections of the trail as I walked back down in the dark on one late excursion. Since then, I've always tried to head back a little after dark so I could see it again, but I never did.

The roughest excursion up this particular trail was when a friend of mine and I foolishly decided to do it early in the winter. I think it was probably just after a late November or early December snowstorm, and we trudged up through 1-2 feet of snow, tearing off layers of clothing as we went, due to the heat we were generating from the effort. When we got to the top, and cleared the trees the very slight wind was enough to force us to immediately bundle back up. My friend who had been keeping a water-skin slung under his arm, pulled it out, took a drink and handed it to me. In that time (no more than 20 seconds) it had already turned to slush. We hurridly made some tea on a burner that I'd brought (note to those who might try this: making tea with mittens on is really quite hard), drank it with the leaves in and almost immediately headed back down for fear of cold-related injuries that would strand us. It was a wild night, but it didn't sink in just how dangerous it was until the next day when I saw a news report that someone had died on Mt. Washington that very night.

Pictures of Flowers On the Way In To Work

From

I've been wandering around taking some macro (that is: extreme closeup in photographerese) shots of flowers and other signs of spring on my way into work. This lovely blue flower for example is in a windowbox outside of a local pub in Cambridge. I think that these are from the Muscari genus, possibly Muscari latifolium. I really love its intense color and clustering, especially with the yellow out-of-focus flowers behind it for color contrast.

From Nature

This one, on the other hand is just down the street from my house. The goal, here, was to try to capture a car driving by in the background with the flowers on this tree in the foreground. I think it worked out pretty well given the difficulty of timing it just right. This particular street, Prospect St in Somerville is just loaded with gorgeous flowering trees in the spring. It's really worth walking through the neighborhood if you love near Inman or Union Squares.

From Nature

And then there's this gem. I spotted this poor, lonely flower growing behind a fence and it made me feel kind of sad for it. It looks like it's in jail. Anyway, I'll have to re-shoot this one if I get the chance, since it's the fence that I ended up focusing on, and really, I wanted the central part of the flower with the stamens to be in focus.

How It Feels To See Your Art

The Las Vegas Strip as seen from my hotel room at sunset From Misc Photos

There are times that my life seems a tad surreal. Yesterday, I walked into a co-worker's office and was talking to him, not really thinking about what I was looking at. The large print he had leaning against his window was a stunning view of a Las Vegas sunset. I knew it well of course.

Wait... why did I know it well? Where had I seen it? As the picture clawed its way from the periphery of my attention into the light of conscious thought the answer became obvious: I had taken the picture myself. It was from a 2003 trip to Las Vegas that I took with my family. My partner and I had just fallen into our hotel room and I pulled back the curtain to catch the most fabulous sunset I'd ever seen. I rushed to get out my camera and took two photos in rapid succession. Thankfully the first of the two came out well, even though I'd used auto white-balancing. The second had a blue-cast and made the scene look flat and dull. Anyway, back to the office...

I was stunned. I asked how he'd gotten the image, and he told me that another of our co-workers had sent it to him. It was a feeling I never thought that I'd have. This was a confirmation of my work as an amateur photographer that couldn't be denied: at least one person in the world thought that it was not only worth paying money to have one of my photos printed, but he intended to hang it at home.

Of course, I can't really claim credit. The hotel put me in that room and I certainly didn't put the sunset there. As photos go it's decent, but today I know much more about how to use my camera, and the second shot clearly demonstrated that the results I got only happened to be so stunning. Still, I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment that I've only ever felt with respect to my software development in the past. It was a great feeling, and perhaps one I'll have to work at finding again.

Pruning the Grapes

Backlit closeup of a grape From Nature

So it's that time of year, again. Time to prune the grape vine and make ready for another year of delicious green concord grapes which magically ripen on September first exactly. This year, perhaps I'll even manage to do something more than just bring them into the office. Wine is still a bit out of my league, but I suppose I could make jam or jelly.

My neighbor is a wonderful Portuguese auto mechanic who offers, every year, to trim the vines for me. I'm not sure if he does so because he just enjoys it, or if he just can't bare to see the vines left un-pruned.

Anyway, I have to go. Just wanted to share my thoughts on this beautiful spring day. The photo is from last year, taken with my point-and-shoot SD1000 in digital macro mode.

Construction at MIT: Part 3

As you can see, I'm just thrilled with this building. It's in the perfect spot, and I get to watch it being constructed, piece by piece. Every night before I go home, I look out of the window at it, and appreciate the fact that generations of MIT students who come through here after me, will have no idea how cool this place was. To them, it will just be yet another building with a number. Hopefully, a few of them will find this blog and consider how much work went into it.

I leave you with this parting shot. Someone crossed the street while I was taking a long exposure, and it really worked out perfectly.

Construction at MIT: Part 2

I came out of the office one night to find a planet (Jupiter, I think) over the street and the whole building lit up by internal ligthing, shining through the canvas pannels that they drop over the steele skeleton. Very cool looking, and just too tempting a picture not to take.

Construction at MIT: Part 1

MIT is building a new building on their Cambridge campus, right across the street from the building that I work in. I've now taken several pictures of the project that I think are worthy of sharing. This first one was taken at sunset, and shows the crane hovering over an empty work-site.