My friend and all-around good guy Rick MacDonald organized a flatland jam in East Bridgewater this weekend. There was a good turnout of riders (more than I expected) and it was great seeing friends I haven't seen in years, not to mention meet new people.

Of course, I took photos of the riding — highlights can be viewed on Facebook, but I also put all 150+ photos on Shutterfly if you can't get enough.

I haven't posted here in quite a while, so I'm late to publicly wish my brother and new sister-in-law congratulations on their recent marriage. We all had a lot of fun, I was honored to be part of it, and the kids even took part (hey Jeremy, where's the box with the rings you're supposed to be carrying?).



Also, instead of a first dance, the new couple fittingly rocked out instead:

Dick Maul's Bike Shop held a contest at Skater's Edge in Taunton, MA today. It was great seeing some old friends and a lot of fun shooting BMX again (it's been a long time). Here are some shots from the contest:

While cleaning my office today I came across an old photo my uncle took when he brought my brother and me to our first game at Fenway Park. On August 14, 1983 the Sox beat the Royals 4-3 in the first game of a doubleheader.

I don't have any specific memories of the trip to Boston or the game itself. But what I still remember to this day is walking through the tunnel to our seats: The greenest-green field and the impossibly white uniforms (of the Red Sox, not the Royals' blue pajamas) were amazing for me to see, and still is today.

The photo shows Brian and me taking it all in before the game started. Thanks again, Rick!

If there's one thing I've learned from photography, is that you don't always know what your best shot will be. Sometimes I spend a lot of time planning and setting up a photo, shooting multiple photos from various vantage points, only to be disappointed by every one of them. Then other times I'll shoot a one-off photo without thinking, and that ends up the "winning" shot.

This is evident looking at my photos on Flickr. Some of my most popular photos ("popular" meaning highest number of views and favorites) weren't planned. One July 4th we watched the Boston fireworks from the top of the Museum of Science. When we were leaving I put my little point & shoot camera on the wall and took this shot of the Zakim Bridge in the distance:



I didn't think much of it — and I still don't particularly like the photo — but Flickr members sure seem to like it. Even more so was my cousins' wedding cake, which was near a window and I happened to notice how it looked while the sun was setting:



I think it's important for me to always be practicing and learning to the point where things become second nature. So when a perfect unplanned photo opportunity presents itself, I'm ready for it.

I've never really been a fan of HDR images. There are a lot of examples on Flickr; some really boost the colors to near-cartoon levels, and others push their photos to a have a more dreamlike look. While many are interesting, I don't want that look for my photos, so I decided I didn't like HDR.

Well, like I ask my kids to at least try something once — "How do you know you don't like it if you've never tried it?" — I decided to give HDR photos a legitimate try. So yesterday on a trip to Plymouth I took my tripod and did some shooting while Jill did a little shopping. New England winter photos probably aren't the best to play with colorful HDR photos, but it did show me something: a more subtle use of HDR can really enhance photos — especially those with big variations in light and dark areas — without having to push it to overly-unrealistic looks.



I put some of my HDR photos on Flickr. I'll keep experimenting — especially when the colors of spring arrive — but I think having another photo tool available to me is a good thing to have, and I don't have to push it as far as some photographers do. (I agree with a commenter who said that too much HDR makes the technique the subject of the photo, rather than the actual photo subjects.)

If you're interested in creating HDR photos, check out this how-to.

There's a cemetery down a street that we really enjoy visiting. It's old, picturesque, and has some great old trees. It's very peaceful and relaxing to stroll around or just hang out under them. (Sidenote: we might accidentally be raising some "odd" kids who like cemeteries: often when we drive by one, they often exclaim "We should visit that cemetery sometime!")



I've taken a lot of photos there but I have yet to capture the feeling the place has on me, and I was starting to wonder if it was possible to ever really do it. But this weekend I was playing around with Lomo effects in Photoshop, and I liked the effect it had on one of my recent cemetery photos. I'm not quite there as far as taking "the" photo yet, but I like that I'm making some headway.

My uncle got tickets to yesterday's game, and the seats were great: up in the State Street Pavilion along third base side, looking down on the field. It was very cool seeing a game from up there, and very cold in the shade on a windy April afternoon. He also let me borrow his zoom lens, which let me get some pretty good shots:

As always, The Big Picture has some amazing photographs, this time of The Inauguration of President Barack Obama. The third one -- a satellite photo of the National Mall -- really gives you a "holy crap!" shot of the number of people there.

I've been wanting to get back into shooting photos lately. The recent snowstorms provided a good subject, but my dislike of cold + laziness kept me inside. But I really have to keep practicing, so I had the kids show off their favorite stuffed animal while I played with the off-camera flash.

Last week we took our first family vacation (to the White Mountains area in New Hampshire) and had a good time, despite some rainy weather. Some photos will eventually end up in my Flickr photostream, but if you're into looking at people's vacation slides (and who isn't?!) you can view them here.

A friend was able to get us some great seats to the Sox-Rays game this past Sunday. Even though they weren't the "good" company seats, they were the best seats I've ever had at Fenway (two rows behind the photographer's well).

Because there was a good chance of rain (which didn't happen) I didn't bring my SLR and just used my point & shoot to get some shots from the game.

Well, at least two-thirds merry...

While digging around old files for this site, I came across two somewhat creepy photos of me. First is one I created years ago for reasons that escape me now, and it sorta looks like Jeremy:



The second was a creation that Jeff did, combining me and Jakob Nielsen:



(If you know me and know who Jakob is, you know why this is funny beyond just the goofy morphed photo.)

Speaking of Jakob, I somehow missed this page which is pretty funny: Jakob Nielsen’s Usability Fighting Styles.

Not to bore anybody with all 80+ photos from our vacation in the Bahamas (out of the 240+ I actually took), I put a few select shots on Flickr.

I added a new photo slideshow thing on the Photos page using JonDesign's Smooth Gallery, combining it with the SimplePie RSS reader to display my most recent Flickr photos.

An entire new site design coming soon ... just have to work through some wacky CSS things.

The kids' websites have been updated with new photos from this summer: Amelia | Jeremy

You might already know that I'm a fan of sidearm & submarine pitchers. Yesterday Jill & I took Amelia to Fenway Park (for her first time) to see "Futures at Fenway": a doubleheader of Sox minor league teams Lowell Spinners and Pawtucket Red Sox.

We only stayed for the Spinners game (who won 3-1), but it was cool to see (a) Jonathan Papelbon's younger brother Joshua close out the game with a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the save, and (b) that Joshua is a submariner. Check the photo of him above: people's arms just shouldn't bend that way. Anyway, I'll dig it if he makes it to the Red Sox someday.

Amelia got some new umbrellas for her birthday, so she and Brian tried them out.

I keep getting asked for them, so here they are: more Jeremy photos!