Some pink!

this man was posing for photos with anyone who was interested... only the back of his gilet was black..... and his heels were quite high!! this was on the gay parade in amsterdam, beginning of august. and now its september already.... days are starter to be shorter again, and since yesterday it became noticeably colder... it might be that summer is really over now... buuuhhh!

today is theme day, and the theme is... pink! at first i wanted to show our living room (again; we made quite some changes), but looking at the photos it all looks still too messy, we really first need to tidy it (at least) a bit. 

for the other pink participants, go here!

Photoshoots everywhere!

this past saturday we walked through the public garden in boston... it was very sunny and warm, and so there were many photoshoots going on. at least 2 or 3 weddings, an engagement.... etc etc. (and ofcourse the general tourists taking pictures of all the nice things/sculptures and whatnot thats to be seen in the public garden). i didnt know, but i learned that people even do photoshoots when they get engaged! then its in more casual clothes, but the poses are often far from casual (in my opinion).

anyways, this saturday the number of couples being photographed by at least 2 photographers (or more) was almost a bit annoying.....

Police car

somehow (unattended) police vehicles have a huge attraction on young people (i feel very old writing that), numerous times now i have seen scenes like the above. why? because its fun to have your picture taken in some weird pose with a police car in the background? because if there would be an officer inside the car it would be totally unacceptable? i dont know! whenever there is a parade or whatever going on and a lot of policemen are present, people also often ask to have their picture taken together with the officers. they usually oblige. passersby see that happening, and immediately ask for the same. i dont think this happens that much in the netherlands... :)

the girls above were really crazy. i managed to capture them at their most decent pose, somehow... when someone saw me taking their pic as well, he said; "yep, their real classy...." this was on st patricks day, back in march. the brown bag on the ground most likely contains a bottle of alcohol of some sort...
we are back to wearing jackets, and its a little rainy...

Summer time

this was last week, a view of the brick desert, about which i wrote before. to the left is the city hall (behind the 2 people in white). this is only part of the brick desert, its perhaps twice as big as you can see here... ? i like the 2 buildings further back, which are both round, like the road (what was there first? the road or the buildings? i guess the road). if you take that street, you will eventually reach the boston common and park street. when i took this photo, it was a little chilly, but today it was very sunny and rather warm again. i was very much in the mood for an ice cream, but the closest provider (mc donalds in this case; i like their sundaes with caramel!), did not have any! buuuhhh. then we went to the lab where they have an ice cream vending machine (never saw that before), but it only took dollar bills, which we did not have. i was very disappointed. perhaps the universe was trying to tell me that i should not eat unhealthy stuff... hmppf.

summertime started here. that was kind of a surprise, an hour less! actually, they dont call it summertime in america. in proper english they do, and in dutch ("zomertijd"), but in american english they call it "daylight saving time". whatever, i like summertime so much better! now if i only could have had that ice cream...

Three sisters

posing for their mom, next to the apple store in new york. they were really posing, as you can see. and all so perfectly dressed... too bad i had the wrong lens at my camera when i saw them. it was so awfully crowded also. we went to new york because i wanted to see rockefeller center with the christmas tree and fifth avenue with all the decorations. but it was all so terribly crowded! policemen were guarding the lights and closed off the street with policetape when the lights turned red. complete organized chaos. you could hardly stop to take it all in, or someone would bump into you. ofcourse the real new yorkers also had to show that they were annoyed and clearly sighed and aarghhhed and pushed people aside to show their haste and that they had to go somewhere really important right NOW and all those stupid tourists were very much in their way in their city.... funny... i was glad we had spent the entire morning in the more quiet streets which were in fact more interesting than this area! but! we didnt really see it when it was dark, so perhaps then it would have been more impressing...

Complicated pose

after sitting in the bus for several hours, we walked from chinatown to washington square park in greenwich village. when getting out of the bus, i realized it was a little colder than i expected and dressed for. brrrr. but still, i was defenitely wearing more clothes than the lady above!! i think they were taking pictures for some yoga-advertisement or so... altough to me it did not look that natural...

i just went to my beloved wikipedia for some more info on this park. its very big, and has quite a history! there used to be a native american village nearby, and they also owned this land. until the dutch (bad dutch!) attacked and drove them out. they did more bad stuff, as you can see here. until 1797 it was farmland, and then it became a burial ground (it was not yet part of new york at that time). in 1826 it became the washington military parade ground; a public space where volunteer militia companies responsible for the nation's defense were training. only in 1849 it became a park.... the remains of around 20,000 bodies still below ground....

Four girls

its late already and im a little lazy; so i just picked the picture that i still had open form yesterday! the sea of flags was a photo opportunity for many.... these 4 little girls had to pose a few times before their father was satisfied with the portrait...

tim picked me up from work and said we should goto the movies. and so we did... this time it was woody allen's midnight in paris. and i liked it a lot. funny, too... just a movie you should see rather than that i tell you about it.. :)

Charlestown photoshoot

tim picked me up from work in charlestown. it was suddenly rather sunny out and not too cold, so i wanted to test 2 filters i bought yesterday. slowly i am finding out that taking pictures is no magic, you just need some stuff.... ;) but especially you need objects. there were some desolate buildings, some graffiti. pretty standard. pictured it all, and then we drove off to go home. turns out right on the other side of the building there was a photoshoot going on! while driving by i took some photos, which were all crap... :( only this one is kind of ok. but it is missing the girl watching with a little dog. and its missing the red ballerina-shoes that were on the ground, most likely the ones the girl being pictured was wearing before she got into those impossible high heels...

taking pictures takes time, patience, a steady hand and.. you need to think before you shoot! too bad i usually realize that when at home, going through my pics, and they all turned out.. not exactly as i wanted.... perhaps if i were a magician i could construct the entire scene as i wanted from the 5 crappy pics i took... hmmm, maybe better next time!

Posing with...

santa! as opposed to the previous time (my goodness, was he really there already at november 7?! and wow, is time running by quickly...), now many parents wanted their kids pictured with santa. not all children were happy about it, some were crying and some could not be made posing with santa no matter what, he remained a big scary bearded man in a red suit. but look at the boys above (twins, i presume), there is so much pride in the way they are standing there! it was really fun to observe... (it was also fun to see that santa has some kind of ass-problem.. when he got up i could see he had a special kind of pillow on which he was sitting... :D)

Posing proudly

when obama was in town, they released an enormous amount of police officers into boston. they were their charming macho self.... great. as for example those guys with bikes above. they were just standing there, displaying their cool.... suddenly there was this girl that asked whether she could get her picture taken with them and with some small gestures they made clear that that was fine. else they remained as they were.. the girl put herself in front of one and posed until there was a picture that they were happy with. ofcourse, when they did it, suddenly everyone else dared doing that too, so several pictures of people with cool cops were taken..... 

at least they were useful for something.... i guess....

Christmas tree!

this is at faneuil hall, the most touristy place in boston. today was the "tree lighting ceremony", which lasted from 11 in the morning until 6.30 in the evening (what did they do?!! was hanging all the lights included in the ceremony?). yes, now there are many, many lights there (this is only a small part). the tree is impressive, at least to me! and i guess to the little girl in the photo.... (she was posing for her mom, but her mother took soo many pictures that she obviously got bored)

there are now 25,000 lights.....

i guess from now on there will be more and more christmas decoration around, and its not even december!

Ducks again!

the day started out pleasant, although grey. so we had a long walk and i insisted on seeing the ducklings once again. sitting on a bench nearby for a while, i observed that every child did the same; starting from the last duckling, they touch and sit on each and every one of them (there are 8 small ones), until arriving at the mother duck (above). this all is accompanied by many pictures taken by the parents (and/or strangers). and you can see that every child feels they own the duck, at least as long as their interest lasts... :) all the duck's heads became shiny from all the touching... :) (the sculpture is there since 1987)

this time the little boy was enjoying the ducks and posing for his mom (left), but then this lady needed the big duck for photoshoot with dog. she put a christmasribbon around the duck's neck, and then the dog was put next to it and husband with big camera took pics of dog & duck. all the while directing Lily (dog) to remain next to duck and look at the camera..... buuughhh... why? are those pics their christmas cards? or.. ? is there a dog/duck connection im not aware of (with ribbon?)? i found it ridiculous.....

anyways, this sculpture is from nancy schon and i just found out she made quite some public sculptures. interestingly, the "make way for ducklings" has a duplicate in moscow; it was a gift from one president's wife (barbara bush) to another (raisa gorbachev). (so thats what bored first ladies do!) cool detail: also in moscow the ducklings are placed on old boston cobblestones.

Already, really?

this morning we went to a mall close to our house. we actually both were not in the mood of buying or looking or fitting... but we went to the used bookstore, my favorite shop in the entire mall. you can get secondhand books for only 2 or 3 dollars; so thats how we fill our (free) bookcase! 

wintertime started this night here in the US, a week later than in the netherlands, so we were too early in the mall! apparently it opens at 12, but we were there at 11... :) had some time to wander around and saw my first santa claus and enormous christmas tree! oh my, already?!! he is arranging himself in the best position in front of the camera; because here you can sit on santa's lap and have your picture taken! for only (ugh) 24 dollars you get 2 photos, or something. the lady taking the pictures looked up at us a little disturbed, when we were taking some pictures, and later i saw there is an explicit notice that you should refrain from photographing santa with your own camera. bbbuuuggghhh! santa was actively waving at all little kids coming by, but i didnt see anyone that wanted their picture taken (you could also get a keychain, or ready-made christmas cards....)

as you all know, of course, santa claus is phonetically related to the dutch "sinterklaas", which arrives somewhere in the first half of november, and leaves, while throwing around candy and presents, at the 5th (or was it the 6th?) of december... we also have santa claus, but we call him "kerstman" (christmas-man).

Many dream...

.. few manage it. (actually that is a sentence from the book im currently reading, it is said when the main character's house is on fire and he says "there is a dog as well. stuck in the house unless she's learned to fly". it is a book by annie proulx, postcards. i didnt read much american literature before, but i am catching up pretty well, currently. i like this book and writing style, it gives me a good view of the american life, although rather dark..).

above was last sunday. this area is around the place of "our" favorite supermarket. it is a run-down, industrial area. it was actually the first time we went somewhere solely for the purpose of taking pictures. it was not much of a success, i wasnt happy with any of the pics i took. i liked the building above, but the car was in the way... a little later i saw why it was parked there; they were having a photoshoot! while i took a pic of the scene, the mother of the model asked whether i wanted to take a pic of her daughter as well.. then she told us that they are originally from brasil, and that they (she?) hopes that her 17-year old daughter becomes a real model. however, a professional photoshoot was sooo expensive, so now a friend was taking pictures of her. in the end she added; ah, yes, if she would make it... then i dont have to work anymore!!!

Another lady

i think her glasses are sooooo old-fashioned american! this was close to the public library in boston, and she "forced" her grandson (i assume) on a picture.. :) (and she was not posing for me..! i just also took a pic)