Bridge
I usually shoot full frame with a 2:3 aspect ratio. When I crop, I use 2:3 as well. Pretty much everything I present is in that 2:3 aspect ratio. I know many photographers crop to the subject and use whatever aspect ratio suits the situation. I respect that choice. But I find that working within a fixed aspect ratio provides a constraint that makes me think harder about composition in general. That’s just me.
But… like anything, there are exceptions: panoramas, for instance. I occasionally shoot images that I intend to stitch into panoramas. In those cases I crop for the subject.
The above photo of the Powder Point Bridge in Duxbury was not stitched. It was a single shot. But in this case I decided that the subject matter called for a pano crop. I guess rules are made to be broken.
The bridge is a local landmark and has been photographed many times, including often by my fellow Duxbury Camera Club members. It’s been shot at sunrise, sunset, during auroras and in all types of weather. There are some really beautiful photos of the bridge out there. I decided it was my turn to take a swing at it and I thought I would do something a little different, maybe something a little more austere. And this is my shot.
Taken from Pine Point Pl. at 220mm, using a Leica SL3 and Sigma 150-600.
Farm Shoot
This month’s DCC photography field trip was to the historic O’Neil Farm in Duxbury, Ma. Lots of interesting animals, none of whom were inclined to cooperate with focusing or framing. Love those goats, though. Real personalities. They remind me of some of the old men around town. Here are my shots at the farm.
Plimoth Patuxet
Another field trip by the Duxbury Camera Club, this time to the preserved community and museum at Patuxet in Plymouth Ma. It was a warm early spring day with harsh sunlight, so not the best conditions for a photo shoot. But we did our best. Here are some of mine.
Under the Golden Dome
Our latest foray with the Duxbury Camera Club was to shoot up on Beacon Hill. We spent an afternoon in the Massachusetts State House. Here’s a gallery of some of my shots.
Staff were very open to our group shooting away and one of the security folks even opened up the House Chamber for us. I used the Leica SL3 with a Sigma 35 f1.2, as well as the Viltrox 16mm f1.8. The Sigma is a little big and heavy but both lenses performed well with the interior shots.
Museum of Industry
I haven’t posted anything. for a while. But now I have a few photos to post. This group of images is from a Duxbury Camera Club field trip to the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham, MA.
It’s a cool little place. I tried out my new Viltrox 16mm F1.8 on the SL3. (It’s a really sharp and fast wide-angle, with very little distortion. It performs well with the big sensor on the SL3 and gives the Leica lenses a run for their money on image quality.)
Blue Hour Workshop
As part of Duxbury Camera Club programming, I recently joined a photography workshop put on by Dave Long. Dave is a local photographer known for his vibrant landscapes. This workshop was a sunset and blue hour exercise set on Cape Cod, at the Nobska Lighthouse and The Knob, a peninsula on Buzzard’s Bay.
I hadn’t shot at either location so it was a good opportunity to get out with the group from the camera club and to get a little shutter therapy. Dave was a pleasure to work with, providing a good blend of guidance and tips, appreciated especially by some of the less experienced photographers in the group.
For gear, I brought the SL3 with a 24-90 and 90-280, but I particularly leaned on the Sigma 14-24 for the wide shots. I had the Travel Tripod too, but used it only on one long shot of the lighthouse. I also brought ND filters but didn’t use them at all.
The post-sunset sky was kind of a dud but the Canadian wildfire smoke did give a little warmth to the setting sun, so there was some color, at least. Here are some of the shots I managed.
Concord & Lexington
The April 2025 Duxbury Camera Club field trip was to the towns of Concord and Lexington on the heels of the 250th anniversary of the historic battles. It was a beautiful spring day with maybe a bit too much direct sunlight to be ideal for photography. But I shot anyway. (None will be heard around the world, I’m sure.) An enjoyable day nonetheless. Click through the header photo for more images.
Duxbury Camera Club November Field trip
This month we headed up to the Metropolitan Waterworks Museum near Cleveland Circle and then to the Lars Anderson Auto Museum. Interesting locations and a good day out with the group. Both places were good spots for detail and object study photos. Here are a bunch that I took.
Provincetown Afternoon
Another day-trip with the folks from the Duxbury Camera Club; this time to Provincetown. Even in the off-season, the streets were teeming. I took a few shots around town and some out on the beach, but focused mainly on individual street portraits downtown. Everyone I ran into was friendly and cooperative, including Shane, a local fisherman, and the ladies at the Lobster Pot. I hope I did them justice.
Camera was the Leica SL3 and I mostly used the Sigma 35mm 1.2 Art Lens.
Infrared
Last month I attended a presentation by Silvana Della Camera on infrared photography hosted by the Duxbury Camera Club. I can’t say I had much interest going in. Infrared photography always seemed like a gimmick to me.
But I found the presentation interesting and compelling. So much so that I sent an old Nikon D800 in to LifePixel for conversion to Infrared. I chose the 590nm conversion.
When the camera came back I struggled to get anything useable out of it. Focus was a problem. I knew that normal autofocus wouldn’t work properly because infrared light strikes the sensor differently than visible light. I tried to focus manually using Live View but it was hard to see the image on that dim, old LCD. I missed focus most of the time. Also, some of my favorite lenses were showing hotspots, a common issue with infrared and some lenses.
As I was on the verge of giving up, I dug out some old lenses from the basement and tried them. And this time I tried something new: using autofocus while in Live View. Strangely it worked. When I thought about for half a second it made sense. No mirror.
Now, back in business, I downloaded some IR white balance profiles for Lightroom and took a YouTube crash-course on IR processing and channel swapping. I’m struggling to get anything as good as I’ve seen other photographers produce, but it’s a work-in-progress.
I”m still not convinced that IR photography isn’t a gimmick. But maybe that’s because I haven’t quite figured out how to apply it yet. So I’ll keep at it for a while to see if what happens.