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Seacoast photo project

New Hampshire Seacoast

I've recently begun working my way up and down the New Hampshire Seacoast photographing the natural and man made landscape. I've started a Flickr photoset to chronicle these adventures.

Nothing personal

Screenshot of DSCC oops email

Dear DSCC,

Do email marketing much?

Candlelight stroll at Strawbery Banke

On Sunday, half a dozen photographers from New England Photo Expeditions met at Strawbery Banke in Portsmouth for the museum's annual candlelight stroll. I took the opportunity to experiment with high dynamic range (HDR) photography. The image of the Tyco Visitors Center below is a composite of three bracketed exposures processed in Photomatix Pro. It attempts to capture the range of detail in highlights and shadows that cameras (at least the kinds of cameras we mortals own) can't record in a single exposure.

Tyco Visitors Center at Strawbery Banke

I'm not a big fan of the overprocessed and unrealistic looking HDR images you can see all over the photo sharing Web sites, but a more understated image like this one appeals to me. I'll be trying this again.

The Great New Hampshire Ice Storm of 2008

IciclesThursday night and Friday a really impressive ice storm battered New Hampshire and the governor declared a state of emergency. Two days later, over 300,000 households are still without power, including ours. We're also missing our landline phone and internet services, and there's no reason to believe that any of this will be fixed anytime soon. Fortunately, we built our house shortly after another impressive ice storm left parts of the region without power for 23 days. As a result, we've got a 17 kW diesel generator out beside the garage that's been keeping us nice and toasty. I've been staying in touch with people using my cell phone, but Verizon's voice service doesn't work inside the house (weirdly, the data service does) so conversations tend to be limited to the length of time I can stand to sit outside on the porch. If you're comfortably situated, too, please join us in contributing to the American Red Cross, whose disaster services are being stretched thin caring for hundreds of people across the state.

Update: We got everything back Monday evening, but 70,000 New Hampshire customers are still without power.

Fort Williams Park

Seascape at Fort Williams Park

Today I attended the Maine Flickr Meetup at Fort Williams Park on Cape Elizabeth, south of Portland. Though it was a snowy Sunday I had a great time, took a few pictures I like, and made a lot of new friends. Maine is a photographer's paradise. I'll be going back for more.

The sound and the fury

Cannon firing

Royal Irish Artilllery
American Independence Festival
Exeter, New Hampshire

I spoke with the major earlier in the morning and asked permission to be as close as he felt was safe. It paid off in this shot.

The Straight Talk Express

Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman getting off the Straight Talk Express in downtown Exeter, New Hampshire.

Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman getting off the Straight Talk Express in downtown Exeter, New Hampshire.

Hummer H3 at the Waterloo Bridge

Hummer H3 at the Waterloo Bridge

New Hampshire Photo Expeditions took a tour of covered bridges in New Hampshire. I wasn't getting many good shots, so it was time to add some props. This Hummer driven by one of our members seemed like just the thing.

The best movie comedies of all time

@mikedoe on Twitter asked for a list of “the 23 best movie comedies of all time.” Here’s my list in alphabetical order. I got it down to 25, but can’t bear to toss two out.

Airplane!
Animal House
Annie Hall
Arthur
Being There
Best of Show
Blazing Saddles
Chicken Run
Clerks
Dr. Strangelove
Duck Soup
Fargo
A Fish Called Wanda
GalaxyQuest
The Goodbye Girl
The Graduate
Groundhog Day
Life of Brian
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Network
The Princess Bride
Sleeper
This Is Spinal Tap
What’s Up, Doc?
Young Frankenstein

I agree with Fergus

Kudos to NH Republican chairman Fergus Cullen for calling in to NHPR’s The Exchange this morning to argue for the inclusion of third-tier candidates in the final presidential debates before the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday. It is not for ABC or Fox, argues Fergus, to decide who’s in and who’s out before NH voters themselves have spoken. He seemed particularly aggrieved that sitting U.S. Senators Joe Biden and Chris Dodd could be watching the debates on TV instead of participating.

Fergus sounded so sincere in his media criticism that I didn’t even mind the not-so-hidden agenda: the more air time given to candidates who are unlikely to be the Democratic nominee in the fall, the less voters will hear from front runners Clinton, Edwards, and Obama, one of whom is almost certain to be.

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