Short Photo Post

As advertised, this is a short post... but I highly recommend you go and look at the photography of Jimmy Chin, my recently-discovered favorite nature photographer.

Check out his photography here.

Welcome, Fall Equinox

I'm still in a Summer mood and I can't shake the feeling.  Maybe it's because I didn't take my usual end-of-summer vacation this year.  Anyway, this is a problem, because the Fall is upon us, and Fall is the most beautiful season in New England.  This blog post is a photographic attempt to force me into a Fall mood.  If this doesn't work, I'll just need to take a long hike somewhere with colorful leaves.

(from photonix's flickr photostream)

Today is also, coincidentally, the Fall Equinox.  The night and the day are the same length now.  

(pumpkins from marthastewart.com)

There is music in the meadows, in the air --

  Autumn is here;

Skies are gray, but hearts are mellow,

Leaves are crimson, brown and yellow;

  Pines are soughing, birches stir,

And the Gipsy trail is fresh beneath the fir.

There is rhythm in the woods, and in the fields,

  Nature yields:

And the harvest voices crying,

Blend with Autumn zephyrs sighing;

  Tone and color, frost and fire,

Wings the nocturne Nature plays upon her lyre.

        -- William Stanley Braithwaite, "A Lyric of Autumn"

(from Susan Nye's blog)

Here is Norway in the Fall:

(from about.com)

The look of Norway in the Fall is rather different than New England, but it is still beautiful.  I miss Norway.

While looking at pictures of Norway, I also came across this one.  More wintery than Fall, but man do I want to climb that mountain in the background.  I want to climb the icy ridge with crampons on my boots.

(from this Tromsø tourism website)

Back to Fall photos.  I like this one because it looks magical:

(from Yamata Orochi's deviant art page)

I think one of the keys to getting into the Fall mood is to embrace the colder temperatures.  I am still acclimated for Summer.  Once I remember how to love the cold, perhaps then I will be in a Fall mood.

(from esywlkr's flickr photostream)

Happy Fall.

Boston Blizzard Photos

Snowy blogging time!

The Northeast is in the middle of a storm right now.  It hit around midnight last night.  Pretty much all the snow in these photos was been dropped in the last 15 hours.  I ventured into the blizzard for a walk, and here's what I saw!

Near the home, my housemate Karl's car and assorted other things:

The street I live on:

Everyday things covered in snow:

Columbia Street, by the basketball court:

Chunky snow:

The always-delicious Dosa Factory, still open for business in this weather:

Tunnel to Central Square:

A strangely-empty downtown:

Near the Park Street station:

Boston Common:

Not pictured: the suspiciously brown-tinted ice covering the Charles River.

The gym's closed due to weather, so I guess I'll go shovel snow for a half hour.  Stay warm!

Bonsai Tree Photos

A Zen interlude...because it is fun to look at tiny trees.  I love some of the detail on these trees, and how realistically old and gnarly they look despite their small size.

 (from Mike's flickr photostream)

The above photo, and all subsequent ones that are from Mike's flickr photostream, are from an exhibit in Portland, Oregon!

 (from Chris Guise's flickr photostream)

 (from Rob Shenk's flickr photostream)

 (from cowtools's flickr photostream)

 (from Cass Chin's flickr photostream)

The above photo came with the quotation, "The game of bonsai is like a swordfight..." which I think is pretty great.

 (from Chris Tank's flickr photostream)

 (from Mike's flickr photostream)

 (from Johann Dréo's flickr photostream)

 (from inajeep's flickr photostream)

 (from Flatbush Gardener's flickr photostream)

 (from cowtools's flickr photostream)

 (from publikaccion's flickr photostream)

 (from Flatbush Gardener's flickr photostream)

 (from Daniele Prati's flickr photostream)

 (from Bart's flickr photostream)

 (from the Wikimedia commons, courtesy of Sage Ross)

Happy holidays!

 (from Peter Hellberg's flickr photostream)

Photos of the outdoor climb

A couple weeks ago, I posted about my experience rock climbing.  I finally got some photos from one of the guys I went climbing with, so I thought I'd share them here.  Photos of the climb are courtesy of Michael Collins.

Here are a couple pictures of me climbing the easy 5.4 or 5.5 climb.

And a bit further in the climb:

The thing on my back is my chalk bag!  It keeps me from slipping off the rock due to sweaty hands.

This is the chimney that I was talking about climbing.  It was rated a 5.7.  I love to climb chimneys:

The manly leg in the photos is, of course, not mine.  The cool thing about the chimney climb is that you could brace yourself on the back wall from time to time, giving you something to push off of as a counterbalance.

Finally, here is a photo of me climbing my Great Nemesis of the day, the difficult 5.8:

You can see me as the tiny little person at the top of the wall.  (Proof I got up there!)  This photo does a good job of illustrating one of the things I love about rock climbing.  That wall does not look like a natural thing for humans to be climbing -- humans are not supposed to climb up walls like geckos!  It's really cool to do something that is just not quite normal for bipedal mammals.

The rope on the left of that photo was the rope for the chimney climb.

Finally, here is a photo of Angela, our trip leader, trying to work past a tough move with a crazy undercling:

This is where we climbed.  Pretty. :)