May 31

If I were a superstitious person -- or any more superstitious than I already am, I should say -- today would have been very auspicious indeed!

My friend Keith and I went roaming today, half in search of photo ops and half just getting out and enjoying a pretty Sunday afternoon. Near the JFK Library, after walking by the bay, we came onto a secluded little garden area. I looked down, because I will look for four-leaf clovers in any patch of clover I happen to see, and spotted this pretty little specimen.

Afterward, between rain showers, we caught sight of a rainbow from Castle Island and then another one over Boston from Memorial Drive in Cambridge.

With all these good luck omens today, I should have bought a lottery ticket!

151/365 -

May 30

My photo walk today was less of a walk and more of a car-based meander.

It was a great day here in Boston, with temperatures in the high 70s but low humidity. Puffy white clouds floated in the clear blue sky while I drove around this afternoon. Nobody was available to hang out, so I went it alone and ended up having a really good time.

From Memorial Drive in Cambridge, I went over to Bunker Hill Park in Charlestown, then to the Charlestown Navy Yard, before driving over to Castle Island and capturing some shots of airliners taking off.

It was there, on the fishing pier, that I looked over my shoulder and caught sight of the stunning sunset behind the Boston skyline. No question -- this was going to be my Photo of the Day.

150/365 -

May 29

Next month, I'm going to be teaching a photography workshop for teens at the West Roxbury Branch Library.

My friend Anna is the Young Adult Librarian there, and in response to a request from one of her students, she asked if I could present this workshop. Originally, it was going to be in the fall, but for budgetary reasons (their fiscal year ends June 30th), they were able to bring me in much earlier.

Above is the flier I've been working on to advertise the event. The library -- read, Anna -- offered to do one for me, but I'm so particular about these kind of things, I thought it best to take care of the design myself. And I'm nearly happy with this one (as you might be able to tell from the scribbled notes in Sharpie all over it). I have a little less than a month to get the workshop materials together, so it should make for an interesting experience.

149/365 -

May 28

The Global Positioning System, a constellation of satellites circling the planet, is often my saving grace on car trips. This is my second GPS unit, and it is a Godsend.

I don't get lost easily. That's not a tribute to any navigational skills you might imagine I have, but more of a result of the fact that I don't often leave known routes. Pre-GPS, when I drove any distance, I usually had a road atlas or Google Map directions. These were fine until you got turned around, missed a turn, or were in a town the atlas/directions didn't cover.

Fortunately, with portable GPS receivers programmed intelligently with directions, waypoints, and attractions, it's almost impossible for me to ever get truly lost. And that, my friends, is a good thing.

148/365 -

May 27

You have to admire the lawless insouciance that inspires a driver who's earned a parking ticket to casually crumple it up and toss it in the gutter with his other litter.

Having earned many parking tickets in my life -- and suffered the consequences of untimely payment of same -- Careless Charlie's casual tossing aside of the ticket suggests to me that he's not from Boston. Back Bay does get a few tourists now and again, so it's quite easy for them to run afoul of the labyrinth of parking regulations and overlapping jurisdictions that hold sway over Boston's precious few on-street parking spaces.

As for the littering ... well, that's just inexcusable.

147/365 -

May 26

I'm feeling better, and since I arrived at work early this afternoon (which is almost unheard of), I took my camera out and took a walk around the block.

This flowerpot on West Newton Street caught my eye because it only has two flowers in a pot obviously designed to hold many more. It has to be deliberate, though, as it stands alone in a small brick forecourt, and the flowers are healthy and well-tended.

Some places definitely need a little bit of greenery in them to make them feel alive and vibrant. The two flowers, standing proudly, certainly have a dignity about them. Better to show restraint than to get attention for overdoing it.

146/365 -

May 25

This is not an actual photo of the day, but one of my alternates taken on May 23rd. I thought it was an appropriate reminder that Memorial Day is not just a long weekend, the unofficial start of summer, and the time to begin backyard barbecues, but a time to remember lost loved ones -- particularly former military personnel.

I wasn't able to get a photo yesterday because of illness. I think I gave myself food poisoning, and in the course of all that, I pulled some muscles in my back, stomach, and pelvis. I didn't get any sleep on Sunday night, either. Yesterday, there was just no chance of me bringing out my heavy camera bag and looking for something to photograph.

All in all, 144 days in a row of having something to show (142 photos, two screencaps) is a pretty good record. Now I have to see if I can finish the year with no more failures to perform.

145/365 -

May 24

We've had a stormy day here today. It's funny; a stormy day in New England is an entirely different experience than a stormy day in the midwest.

Getting a photo of a stormy day is something of a challenge. Lightning comes so quickly that it takes a lot of effort, dedication, and no small amount of luck to get a photo of it. Rain is just difficult to capture clearly. However, the raindrops falling earlier this afternoon were big, splashy drops, so I was able to get some interesting shots of the rain hitting my front steps (shot from the relative dryness of a covered front porch). I particularly love the splashes created by some of the drops as they hit.

144/365 -

May 23

The City of Boston is holding a small Memorial Day observance tomorrow at the Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan. Boston purchased this cemetery 140 years ago, and offers veterans and dependents free plots here. It is also the site of a memorial dedicated to all veterans.

I drove by this afternoon and was struck at the sight of all the freshly-planted flags. Each flag marks the gravesite of a veteran. It is a moving sight.

Getting this photo of the day was very difficult. I couldn't -- and wouldn't -- cheapen such a moving sight by merely viewing at it as camera fodder. I tried many angles, including close-ups of individual stones and shooting the memorial without the gravesites, before deciding on this shot of some of the graves, with the memorial standing guard in the back.

143/365 -

May 22

For most of the six or so years that Pogo (my dog) and Pretty Boy (my cat) have lived together, they've pretty much ignored each other. Occasionally, the cat would hit the dog, and the dog would snarl at the cat, but once done, they went right back to the status quo: pretending the other animal just doesn't exist.

Boyfriend and I have caught them not ignoring each other more and more lately, as Pogo becomes more infirm. Today was the best; I got out of the shower to find them not only sharing our perpetually-unmade bed, but touching each other.

Once Pretty Boy realized I'd seen him, he took off for another room in the house. Pogo, going blind and nearly deaf, simply slept on.

142/365 -

May 21

As I was driving to work today, I was behind this cyclist for a couple of blocks on South Huntington Ave. It got me to thinking about commuting to and from work on a bicycle again. While today's photo doesn't have the whimsy of April 13th's, seeing this guy did bring to mind the same ideas.

I was hit by a car while riding my bike in late May 2007. That put an end to my cycling commute for a while. I ditched the damaged bike and haven't replaced it yet, though I've been giving it some real thought. Boyfriend offered to let me ride his bike, but it's a racing bike and probably a little too small for me to ride comfortably for any length of time.

I'll work on getting a bike sometime this summer, and hopefully will dodge cars more successfully than in the past.

141/365 -

May 20

Spring has finally brought warmer weather to Boston, and a noticeable decrease in the number of blooming flowers I see. My allergies rejoice at less pollen in the air, and I love the warmer weather (I much prefer heat to cold).

As I walked to work from my parking space today, I glanced up at a window box on Garrison Street and noticed this strikingly bright little geranium dressing up the foliage on display. It's either the first or the last of the season's flowers there -- either way, the little red flower stands out in a sea of green leafy beauty.

140/365 -

May 19

Vacation is over. It's time to get back to the routine, which includes walking the dog and going to work. Good thing the building where I work is photogenic.

After having what was one of the busiest, workingist vacations I've taken in a while, I'm back to the usual routine at home. Realistically, this means getting up late, having a very unhealthy breakfast before nearly being late to work, then bickering almost good-naturedly with my doorman, Ennio, before settling in and doing my job, which is best described as keeping a building full of wealthy people happy.

Oh yes, it's good to be back.

139/365 -

May 18

Behold the Railsplitter Covered Wagon, a tourist attraction in Lincoln, Illinois, and according to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest covered wagon in the world. It's 40 feet long, 12 feet wide, 24 feet tall, and weighs five tons. Abe, seated on the front, reads from a law book; he's 12 feet tall.

Personally, I'd like to see the horse they found to pull the thing.

This is actually a great example of the kind of tourist attractions that used to line Route 66, the "Mother Road." Lincoln is on the historic route, and its Route 66 heritage is a big part of the city's tourist appeal.

138/365 -

May 17

Driving through central Illinois, the views of distant farms and fields of corn is pretty common. It can look pretty desolate in spring, but this fertile land will be bountiful by the end of the summer.

This photo, hastily snapped from the shoulder of Interstate 155, is one of the few photos I've taken this weekend that aren't of my close friends and family. This vacation has proven to be busier than I could have expected, and while I'm not complaining -- it's been a remarkable experience -- it did make me think about this project.

In Boston, I'm very familiar with the city and especially the areas I frequent. The challenge of doing the POTD is in finding new and interesting things among the utterly familiar surroundings. One would think that traveling to a new place would present ample opportunities for this kind of project, and in the past it certainly has. This trip, though, where I've been kept quite busy, I just haven't had the time to really concentrate on the experience. Even the opportunities I've had to get good POTD photos have been less than satisfying; I'm going to try to get a better photo of the building with the insurance agent, realtor, and gun shop owned by the same family, right next to the hearing aid store immediately adjacent.

I certainly don't mean to make it sound as though I'm not happy about this; I am very intensely pleased that my friends have made so much time for me, and that it's been such an enjoyable experience, and I wouldn't change a second of it.

Tomorrow is likely to be another dicey photography day, as I'll be driving and flying and sitting around airports for the greater part of my waking hours.

My challenge in planning future trips is going to be setting aside time for sitting by myself, for doing both the touristy things and the off-the-beaten track things, and to make photos of what catches my interest whenever I can.

137/365 -

May 16

It's been a day of academic accomplishment in Lincoln, Illinois today. Ruth's family had a big celebration today because of all the graduates. From left to right:

Shannon (Ruth's daughter) completed eighth grade, an accomplishment Ruth takes particular pride in because Shannon is homeschooled.

Jimmy (Ruth's father) received his college degree today, almost 30 years after he began working on it. He didn't have the benefit of a high school education when he started, so this accomplishment is doubly impressive.

Whitney (Ruth's niece) graduated from high school and will start college on Monday. She's camera shy and, judging from the speed with which she plans to get started on her own higher education, a glutton for punishment.

Ruth received her degree in the same ceremony as her father. She hasn't been working on it for as long as Jimmy has, but she's justifiably proud of the accomplishment of getting her degree while homeschooling children and working full-time. I suspect her biggest desires are to get lots of sleep and rest.

Between the graduation, the cake, the party, the photo ops, and hanging out with friends, it was a busy day. I'm glad I made it here.

136/365 -

May 15

My travel plans left me with a day of ... well, nothing to do. With my friend Ruth working and the kids still in school, I literally had nobody to entertain and no place to really do it. So I went for a photo walk.

Taking the photo walk was a dicey proposition. A line of storms came through yesterday and more were coming today, so I had to get out while it wasn't raining and the light was okay. I drove out to the airport and the Heritage in Flight Museum, which was closed. Their website is still under development, and their answering machine doesn't state the operating hours. It's a completely volunteer-run operation, but getting real information is tough. The planes parked outside are totally accessible, though, so I snapped some photos.

Then I drove over to the architecturally-significant Logan County Courthouse (seen here). It's a little more than a century old, and according to wikipedia, it is, "considered the second most architecturally spectacular surviving historic courthouse in Illinois' 102 Counties." It's a pretty building.

And I went down a remaining abandoned portion of historic Route 66, to the site of a former bridge over Salt Creek. The concrete piers of the bridge are still in place, and it's a nice walk down.

The sky began darkening around then, so I put my camera away and hied back to the hotel to relax a bit. I'd promised to take Ruth's kids swimming tonight, so a nap was in order to brace myself for herding three loud teenagers. That was an adventure in itself, albeit one that yielded no photographic evidence.

135/365 -

May 14

It has been a long day of travel.

Fortunately, after all of the kerfuffle that accompanied my planning this trip, the actual travel part went smoothly enough. I got up early, and Boyfriend got me to the airport with time to spare. The flight was on time, and landed early in Chicago (even though we had to wait for our gate to open). The rental car is fine, the drive was long but uneventful, and the hotel is clean and comfortable.

If the rest of the weekend is as pleasant, this trip will prove to be well worth it.

134/365 -

May 13

I'm getting ready to go on my vacation and I've been so busy, I was scrambling to get a photo of the day today. I was snapping photos of my GPS unit (out of desperation) when Jake and his human, Diane, came home. I had my camera in my hand while Diane petted Jake, and caught this remarkable moment of contentment between them. Jake is one very happy and very loved puppy dog. He really is a sweetheart.

Occasionally, a photographer has an "aha moment," where everything comes together perfectly for the shot. This is the perfect example of the phenomenon.

Please note: I will be traveling over the next five days, so blog updates may be delayed by a day or so. I promise, though, that I'll be out there shooting. --Travis

133/365 -

May 12

As I drove home last night from work, I noticed that the moon, low on the horizon and peeking from between clouds, was strikingly beautiful. This was in Jamaica Plain, and there was no good vantage point to pull over, pull out my camera, and get a photo.

There's also the problem of getting a good photograph of the moon. It's tough when it's almost full, because it's so bright and the sky is so dark.

I turned right onto South Street near Forest Hills Station and found a gap in the trees through which I could shoot the moon. This was half manic inspiration and half pragmatic photographer; since the moon was low on the horizon, it would work to silhouette the trees if I positioned myself right, and since I wasn't likely to get a crisply clear, perfectly-exposed photo of the moon (especially with the clouds lit up all around it), those silhouettes were what was going to make this shot.

This shot was taken at 12:28:10 am, the last of a series of shots. As soon as I saw it on the camera screen, I knew I had the Photo of the Day for today -- with 23½ hours to spare!

132/365 -

May 11

I've been planning to go out to Illinois to celebrate my friend Ruth graduating college for several months now, perhaps even as long as a year. Unfortunately, every time I got my plans somewhat set, something happened to put them in peril.

The first big obstacle was in March, when my old computer bit the dust. Buying a replacement, which was pretty important to me, put a big dent in my savings. I was on the cusp of canceling my trip then, but I was able to change my plans sufficiently (cutting two days off my trip) to make it financially feasible. I still wasn't certain I could afford it, but I kept working on my savings plan, and finally, on April 21st, I bought my plane tickets. No going back -- or so I thought.

Then the Commonwealth of Massachusetts stepped in. I missed paying my excise taxes in 2008 (don't ask me how, I don't know), so I had to pay them -- pronto! -- to renew my car registration. The computer was a financial boo-boo compared to the surgery I had to perform on my budget to make this trip work. For 10 days I thought I wasn't going to be able to make the trip, because I simply didn't have the money when I needed it -- a classic cash-flow problem. I get paid during this trip, but I needed money before payday.

I planned. I schemed. I plotted. I considered driving out to Illinois -- an 18-hour trip each way. Perversely, driving my own car is more expensive than flying and renting a car out there, but from a cash-flow perspective, I could almost afford it. I looked at flying -- the airline tickets were already paid for -- and staying in an inexpensive airport hotel for a night, picking up my rental car on Friday, after my paycheck was direct-deposited. I downgraded my hotel in Lincoln to save about $100 over four days. It was all borderline at best.

A friend asked me about my plans, so I mentioned to her all of the hoops I was jumping through because of cash flow. Out of the blue, she offered to lend me the money I needed. Wow. I considered it over the weekend, and yesterday, accepted her offer. So the trip, which had been tenuous at best, is back on.

Honestly, this trip has come back to life more often than Shirley MacLaine. I'm just glad it's back on.

131/365 -

May 10

Boyfriend and I had a date this afternoon.

We're both Star Trek fans, so the release of the new movie is good news to us. Boston wasn't fortunate enough to be one of the early release cities for this film, so this weekend was the first chance we had to see it. And even though it's the third day since its release, the theater was still packed. For what it's worth, we both enjoyed it immensely.

I won't go into a movie review here, nor will I give away any spoilers. If you're a Star Trek fan, though, go see the film for yourself -- and hopefully, you'll enjoy it as much as we did.

130/365 -

May 09

It's been a long week. I embraced the arrival of the weekend and the lack of anything urgent to do, and spent the day doing nothing.

Then I remembered this blog.

I grabbed my camera and went off on a "photo walk." That's where I go and take my camera and photograph whatever catches my fancy. I meandered by the commuter rail station and decided to work with leading lines, since railroad tracks are the obvious and most-cited examples. Looking at the picture, you'd never realize you were within the Boston city limits.

It was an easy decision to take this photo. I'm rather pleased with how it turned out.

129/365 -

May 08

I was walking -- rushing, actually -- out my door today when I caught sight of this unusual-looking plant in the front yard. It's a Bleeding Heart, a kind of plant I had never seen before. It's quite pretty.

I've had two predominant reactions to flower photos on this blog. Some people say, "Oh, another flower photo," in a disdainful tone, and others go, "Oh, another flower photo," but in a much more enthusiastic tone. I've been fortunate this year that my landladies have done such a great job landscaping the yard. It seems like there's another color of tulip coming up every week. On pretty days it makes me feel good to see all the beautiful flowers, and on bad days, I feel a little better for having been around such beauty.

I promise, late next week will bring some new and different photos to the Photo of the Day blog. I'm leaving for vacation in Illinois, so something other than commute photos and flowers will be featured.

128/365 -

May 07

So yesterday, water main work near my house prematurely cut off my attempts to finish washing my clothes. Today, police activity near the laundromat where I dry the washed clothes (our dryer is dead) nearly prevented me from finishing the job.

I'm not sure what the story was, but I did see the police escorting these two folks out of the parking lot and into two separate cruisers. They moved the cruisers blocking entry to the laundromat parking lot a few moments later, so I made the block (it's on a one-way street), pulled in, and dried my laundry (albeit 45 minutes later than I planned).

Honestly, I'm almost ready to conclude these are signs from God, and that He doesn't want me doing laundry anymore. Unfortunately, nobody else (including the Almighty) is likely to buy that one.

127/365 -