Happy New Year!

Stoaty likes to post “a picture of the last light of the year on New Year’s Eve,” but I’m generally a morning person, so I like to shoot the first light of the new year.

I didn’t get out for a proper shoot this year, because I was geared up for snow removal (from a storm that didn’t materialize). So I cheated. I just stepped outside my door and took some quick snapshots of the high school across the street in silhouette, and then of the snow-bound football field. The brief exposure to the 5-degree temperature numbed my fingers and made ’em hurt like heck when they started to thaw.

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Deering High School at dawn on the first day of 2009

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Deering High School football field, imprisoned behind a chain-link fence on the first day of 2009

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Deering High, a closer look

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The other day, I found a link to one of those sites that “rate” your blog for you. This one came out as a “G,” I think, with a note that one post had used the word “shoot” once. I dunno how to talk about photography without using the word “shoot,” nor do I want to. Strange that a normal activity, like shooting (whether with a camera or weapon), could be the cause of concern to some. More PC intrusion in our lives.

Shoot.

This Is What’s Been Happening

Winter. In all its ugly, homicidal dreariness. It’s been a long, snowy one here, and every year my ability to cope with it diminishes.

Across the street, for the last two weeks, they’ve been working at clearing the snow off the new plastic athletic field. The huge price tag on it was justified by the claim that it would be used almost non-stop by various groups; now the crews are out desperately trying to make the field live up to the hype.

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Snow removal on Memorial Field

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Less than half the field cleared in almost 2 weeks. If we luck into some really warm weather, it might be ready for use sometime in April.

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Snow removal as seen from ground level

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Thanx for asking, Joan. You may see me next month as I roll by on my way to the Gulf. I need to thaw out before next winter strikes, around the middle of August.

Happy New Year!

Ok, I got lazy this morning and asked other people to choose which images from this morning’s shoot I should post. Here they are, with a minimum of comment, because another storm is moving in and I gotta finish my errands before the snow flies.

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Fort Allen Park at Dawn

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ditto

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ditto

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Fort Gorges and Lobster Boat on Casco Bay

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Fort Allen Park

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ditto

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Ooo! The colors!

I’m also too lazy to narrow it down to a reasonable amount, so y’all got a bonus today. Try not to remember all the days I didn’t post images.

It’s Back!

This is winter in Maine:

Every October, the sun retreats from my northern-exposure apartment. It’s a long, dark winter until I get direct sunlight through the windows again in February. Only a sliver, and only for a few minutes, but it’ll grow.

Here comes the sun! Yay!

Okay, technically it arrived about three days ago, but I couldn’t get a picture of it until this morning.

Does this mean I can stop being depressed, now? How about homicidal: can I blame that on the lack of light, too?

Hosta La Vista, Baby.

For the last two years, I haven’t cut off the flower stems of the hostas once they’ve gone by. I kinda like the look of the brown, empty seed pods:

This is what happens when it’s wicked cold and windy, and I’m too lazy to go out and shoot something worth posting.

More From This Morning

Spring Point Ledge Light in sea smoke just before dawn.

Spring Point Ledge Light and Fort Gorges in sea smoke at dawn.

It was even colder than it looks.

Heading Out To Work

Fishing boat moving through sea smoke at dawn this morning. That’s House Island in the background with Whitehead Passage at the right.

The Bank Sign (as it’s known locally) read -3. And that’s in Fahrenheit, not that pussy Euroweenie scale. My fingers got numb so fast, even on the first shot I couldn’t feel the shutter release button, but I kept going for forty-six shots over the course of an hour and a half. Man, did it hurt: my hands hurt, my toes hurt, my nose hurt. I loved it!