Tag Archive for 'cars'
A squall erupted yesterday as I was taking pictures on Beacon Hill. This is one of the few shots I managed to snap before frostbite started to set in.
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I arrived back home to Boston from London Thursday night with my colleagues. I regret that I couldn’t post any photographs while I was away but I did find the time here and there to snap some shots. We made two stops in England. The first was in Warminster which is a tiny town 100 miles southwest of London. There isn’t much there except a military base, a few pubs, and the ancient yet classy Bishopstrow House Hotel… which is just that, a house. One would half expect a horse drawn carriage to be parked in front of its door if it wasn’t for the BMW Z3 that sat there in its stead. Ancient, yet elegant, its form is a prime example of the class you normally read about in Harry Potter. The entire building is covered in vines and most of the driveway leading up to the house and the parking lot are made of dirt.
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At first glance I was somewhat worried about what the inside would look like, but my fears were unfounded as I stepped through the door to find the most beautiful lounge I have ever seen. Everything, though old, is in top notch condition. I felt like I had stepped through a doorway in time and into another world. Think Hogwarts, but cooler. In the lounge are a bar and Christmas tree both positioned in such a way that they perfectly complement each other - the towering bar on one end equally matched by the towering tree on the other and both lit up in such a way that simply beckons you to pause for a drink…
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And what a place for a drink. Though I didn’t have time to order one, I was perfectly content photographing the selection available. More than the selection though, it’s the way in which it was presented that really caught my eye. I’ve seen some pretty cool bars before, upscale and modern, with mirrors and blue lights everywhere. This was not one of them. This bar screamed simplicity and class. And coming from someone who normally prefers only the most modern of offerings, that means a lot.
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So the tree and the bar are both nice, but I’ve left out my favorite part… the fireplace positioned directly across from the two. Perpetually burning the stock of firewood stored to the left, the fireplace not only warms the entire room with its heat, but with its light as well which serves to enhance the already present soft yellow glow emanating from the light fixtures above. Positioned on either side of the fireplace are two tables with chairs that are in all likelihood considerably older than myself. But with age their comfort has somehow been enhanced. With time, their inexplicable power to hold you there admiring everything around you, made stronger. Again… simplicity and class are the name of the game.
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Last, but certainly not least we have the staircase leading to the chambers above. It would be inappropriate of me to call them rooms as they exhibit far too much class for such a title. And while the chambers are certainly nice, its the paths one must take to get there that I find most interesting. The house is like a maze and I got lost multiple times trying to find my room / escape to the outside, but the scenery along the way was just like the rest of the house… simple and classy. This staircase was one of my favorites, even though the only reason I happened upon it was because I was lost. In actuality my room was on the first floor, but while trying to find my way back to the lobby I mysteriously found myself on the second floor… don’t ask.
And that concludes the Warminster portion of this trip. I would have liked to take more photos outside (we passed by Stone Hedge on our way to the hotel), but the incessant rain prevented me from doing so. Stay tuned for the London portion of the trip where we depart from the old and classy and enter the ultra modern and sophisticated.
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I said in my last post that the photo I was posting would be the last one from Boston for a few days. That’s before I stepped outside and realized that Boston just had its first snowfall. Such a thing necessitates at least one photograph, so here it is… and I’m off to work.
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I’m going to be in the UK on business for the next few days and I’m not sure how much time I will have to post, but I will try my best to continue posting remotely… with some UK pictures most likely. But for now here’s one last picture from Boston. The one, the only… Fenway Park. I used a polarizing filter for this shot and in doing so you’ll notice that the right side of the image was made brighter. Normally this is bad practice, but in this case it makes Fenway look lit up even in daylight, which I thought was sort of interesting. I hope you enjoy it. And if you frequent the standing room only section pictured above, don’t feel bad, as the city is standing right there with you… yeah I know, that’s not the best consolation, but the beer is.
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I was so incapacitated from food that I neglected to post any photos over the past few days. But I’m back now with some seasonal photos to share. This one was taken right outside my door on Beacon Hill in Boston. I think it is one of the last fall shots you’ll see from me as the trees have become extremely bare. You wouldn’t think so from this shot, but it’s one of the few trees still left with leaves… beautiful ones at that.
Fall betrayed me this past weekend by raising temperatures into the 80s with around 100% humidity. My friends called me crazy for wishing for cooler weather, but I’m a firm believer that fall should be fall. Interestingly enough, they’re not the only ones still wishing for warmer weather. Some of the flower patches around Boston, once white, pink and red, have been replaced with new flowers of the fall variety. I have nothing against flowers and I definitely think they look nice, but flowers should not look this spectacular this time of year. So for today’s post I’ve written a little something about letting go… I extrapolated the subject matter quite a bit, so don’t think that it’s all about flowers 
Patchwork
Why do people hold on so dearly to things meant to pass? Is it fear? Is it love? Or is it some jigsaw puzzle of both that we arrange piece by piece so that we may bring order into our lives? Does this order even buy us happiness, or does it preoccupy us with its quest as we incessantly mash our puzzle pieces together until they are dull and frayed? We hold on to so many things in life - habits, people, objects, seasons, emotions, thoughts, behaviors, pleasures, desires… and the list goes on. Some of these things are indeed conducive to happiness, but holding on to any one of them leads to pain and suffering. Is it any surprise, then, that when we try to put them all together the resultant product is a hodgepodge of ill-formed logic and emotional distress? Most of us today would agree that knowledge is power, yet with the advent of knowledge and technology, depression and unhappiness have run rife.
Where, then, should we look for the answers? Should we turn to God? No, for by now we are all well aware of the dangers of preaching the validity of one man’s God over another. Should we abandon knowledge and technology altogether in a grand revival of the dark ages? Should we let go of everything to the detriment of ourselves and our neighbors? Surely we have evolved out of such practices for a reason, but we have also evolved into other practices which were never meant to be. When we are not holding on, trying desperately to construct our life, we worry that we may lose it completely. We compare and cross-reference everything to ensure we have the best car, house, spouse, etc. But in doing so many of us have lost track of who we are.
I propose a different solution. Letting go - not of responsibility and accountability, but of self. Our egos have grown with our knowledge and pushed us further away from each other. While we were once dependent on our neighbors for survival, today we put up fences to keep them out. Why? Do we love our privacy, or fear our neighbors? Too much energy is focused on the “right” thing to do and the attainment of the “perfect” life. But perfection is an illusion that has grown with the ego of man. Let it go, let it all go. Be spontaneous, be unpredictable, be the moment, and for God’s sake, throw your puzzle pieces on the floor so you can play twister… it’s way more fun.
Fall Roots
Here are a few more shots from the same day as the Boston Public Garden photos taken on Beacon Hill. I could take photos of this damn hill all day it is so picturesque and I’m certainly not the only one as the streets are crawling with tourists and other photographers like myself this time of year.
The Joys of Boston Parking
This first shot is a tribute to all that is the wonderful experience of parking in Boston. Those who have ever driven through Beacon Hill know that finding a free parking spot is about as likely as lightning striking the same spot… five times. And even if you do find one it has likely been vacated because it will be turning into a tow zone the next day due to some very, very cryptic street cleaning schedules (first and third *insert day of the week here* of every month, second and fourth *insert day of the week here* of every month). I can count on two hands the number of times I’ve found parking on this hill, and I’ve been living here for a year now. Most of the time I just give up and drive to my parent’s house (not even in Boston btw) or I find a meter… or if it’s after 4 PM I can park in my garage (full time parking in the garage would cost me a whopping $450 per month). It seems as though the owner of this sign had a few run-ins with parking-spot-seekers like myself. My guess is that one too many people parked in front of this guy’s driveway. And apparently one parking-spot-seeker thought the sign a tad too elitist and decided to write profanities over said sign (if you must see what it says you can look at the full sized version, but it’s quite offensive so I don’t encourage anyone to do so). I post it here only for comic relief.
Flowery Alcove
This particular street on Beacon Hill is undoubtedly the most gorgeous, as flowery trees like these ones pretty much engulf the buildings. I setup my tripod in the middle of the road to take this shot, but that’s ok because the streets are so narrow that it is impossible for cars to drive any faster than 3 miles per hour and so I would have had time to pack up my tripod, put away my camera, and fly to Paris well before a car would have ever come close to hitting me. Anyway, I digress - The owner of this alcove is a very lucky person. Imagine waking up to the sight and smell of these flowers every morning then walking down this street to go to work…
Flower Sills & Car Grills
Flowers on the right, cars on the left (notice no free spots) and a completely uneven brick sidewalk absolutely rife with the imperfection that makes it so beautiful. If there is a place that looks any more like Europe in the US, I’d be hard pressed to find it. I am convinced that there are some sort of chemicals emanating from the streets of Beacon Hill because it is nearly impossible to walk through them without smiling at every person you see. People are just friendlier on the hill, I love it. Dog owners even pick up their dog’s “dirt” and put it in a plastic bag. You won’t see that in Europe!
For my Boston readers out there, I recently discovered a Boston based blog / fun news site of sorts that has been linking to my site occasionally. Upon perusing the site a bit more it turns out that it contains some very interesting content. I can relate to a lot of the topics being posted and if you live in the Boston area I’m sure you can too. Check it out HERE.
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