If you visit Boston, you’ll see people walking aruond with boxes from Mike’s pastry. This is the original store in the North End. Even at 8:30 on a Saturday night, there is a line to get in. Once you’re in, there is another line. They have excellent Italian pastry.
If you go two blocks over, Bova’s Bakery also has excellent Italian pastry and I’ve seldom had to wait. They are also open 24/7 in case you get that 2:00 AM craving for cannoli.
I made the image above from the top of a parking garage near Boston’s New England Aquarium. It was made with my Canon camera.
I’d bought a new iPhone app called NightMode for low-light pictures and decided to make the same image with the app. I had some issues with the app when it got darker but it may be due to my not fully understanding how to use it. The NightMode image is below.
How do you think the two images compare?
I made this at the Converse building (headquarters?) on Lovejoy Wharf in Boston.
The entrance to Boston’s Chinatown
This ticket booth was at a former zoo / amusement park turned into a town park. It had been restored to keep elements of the area’s history. I like the dramatic look of this angle. The former ticket booth now has placards showing the park’s history.
This man was making constant adustments to this antique engine at a show this past spring.
I wnet to Fan Pier to take a picture of The Boston Harbor Hotel but the image of these flowers next to these benches came out better.
On Instagram, I’ve seen a lot of images with manhole covers in the foreground in sharp focus and a city scape behind them out of focus. I tried my hand at this the other night in Boston. It was not as easy as it looks. I made the top shot with my Canon. The one below was done on my iPhone and was much easier.
Often, the manhold covers are wet which adds reflections. The one above was wet from an earlier rain shower. Many photographers bring water with them to wet their manhole cover is mother nature doesn’t do it for them.
I once worked at the end of Federal Street. Not this end, the one that is behind you. The narrow street and tall buildings reminded me of a canyon before I ever saw a canyon in real life.
My work on a memoir about my time in El Salvador continues. I’m a third of the way through a second draft. The writing is better and clearer, but the word count is not going down as quickly as I’d hoped.
On the 19th, I’m starting a four-week online class called Memoir in Progress: Revision. It’s for people who have a partial or complete draft manuscript. The goal is to provide the writers with feedback to aid them in developing their work. It’s offered through Grub Street, a Boston-based creative writing center.
A writer whom I met through a friend suggested Grub Street. I was fortunate this was offered during the summer. My teaching schedule makes it difficult to do anything at night during the school year.
At first, I resisted the idea of a summer class. I didn’t want to give up any of my time after strictly following COVID precautions for a year. I want to take advantage of every opportunity I can to get out and do things.
But this is another opportunity, though of a different type. I hope it will lead me in a good direction with this project.
