boston day

I made it out to the East coast and today I spent the day in Boston. Such a cool city! I was able to meet up with some other photographers in the area who I have just gotten to know a little through my blog and email: Keri Schimpf, James Federico, and Bob Pattison. We had lunch at Faneuil Hall:

It was fun hearing how they got into photography. We talked a little about the differences in the photography communities out here and in the West. It seems like people on the East coast are generally less open to sharing and talking with each other about their businesses. So these guys haven't gotten to know many other photographers, including each other (yet) and I was bummed to hear that from them. But hopefully these three can be super-heros and change all that!

Here's a shot of us that demonstrates well how NOT to focus:

Nice and fuzzy, huh? Ya...amazing that with four photographers together we couldn't get one shot of us IN FOCUS.

After lunch Keri, James and Bob gave me a quick tour of part of Boston and were huge sports as I acted like a TOTAL tourist taking photos every ten steps. I just think everything out here--the architecture specifically--is so beautiful.

Love the brick and cobblestone streets:

Old brick buildings:

And the accents. All three of them have one. And I didn't even notice it when I took this shot, but check out the "Connarstore."

We stopped by Paul Revere's house:

Here's Paul's neighborhood:

And Paul's beautifully hand-crafted window:

The sidewalk in front of Paul's house:

I thought it was interesting how all these old historical buildings were juxtaposed to things like this large Abercrombie ad:

And, can you believe it--while we were out walking around we ran into Ben Franklin! He was kind enough to let me take a photo with him:

While in Boston today I was also fortunate enough to be able to meet up with an old professor of mine from APU days--Bryan Stone--who now teaches theology at Boston University. This guy was one of my favorite professors. I worked for him a bit and did a summer program in inner-city LA with him and some other students; also interning with his wife. It's a long story. But he's great. And we've kept in touch but I haven't seen him for 5 years so it was good to catch up. He took me to this hole-in-the-wall pub that you had to walk down into (like Cheers) and there were only like 4 old guys in it. Here's Bryan enjoying his beer and popcorn:

He gave me a little tour of the campus--here's the beautiful chapel:

And I thought everyone should see Bryan in his natural environment--his office. Can you believe the books?

Crazy! You're probably wondering the same thing I always am every time I see them--has he read them all? The answer is "no."

So that's it for my Boston day. It was all I hoped it would be and more (the Ben Franklin part really put me over the top). Stay tuned for a whole week to come of New Hampshire fun!