617 in East Boston, revisited

617 Images and Boston Attitude held another Boston Photo Meet (#bosphotomeet) in East Boston - this time on the other side of Maverick at Piers Park in the Jeffries Point neighborhood.

Was great to meet everyone - some faces from last meet, and some new folks.   Even people who were not with us - we just assumed anyone with a tripod was with our event.  :)

Rick was taking some model shots

Folks staking their spots for the sunset.

Ambient light, ISO 8K.   Love my Nikon 750.   :)

We even had a few brides at the pier for their wedding photographs

We had an amazing sunset, and some great shots were taken by all.

Sun setting over the North End/Charlestown.   Zakim bridge on the left.

Sunset from the pier, with a non-photographer enjoying the view.

But there are only so many Boston sunset photos you can take.    I spent some additional time taking other photos of the area.

Local art

Something fishy on top of a local marina

A container ship docked in South Boston

Containers being unloaded at Conley terminal

Various sailing craft out on the harbour

Red sails make this schooner look more like a junk out of place

And some really big ships, as vehicle carrier Liberty made it's way through the harbour to Subaru pier in Charlestown on the Mystic.  Not sure the sailboat could claim the right of way when you have a ship that can't stop on a dime.

A vehicle carrier arrives in Boston, big enough to block half the skyline

Even an abandoned railroad tunnel,  one of the two portals from the old Boston, Revere Beach & Lynn railroad.  (South portal - I couldn't get to the open north portal on this trip...)

BRB&L old South portal

Many photos also lended themselves to Black & White conversion.   I enjoy using B&W to show the viewer more about a photograph, emphasizing mood and structure and not relying on color alone to carry the image.

B&W can make buildings stand out

Custom house and surrounding buildings

or turn a cityscape into a mood shot.   The sunset/twilight sky lighted the buildings up just enough you can tell them apart, but it was dark enough to for the office lights to show up.

Boston Skyline

Dockside warehouse shut down for the night with a few single lights providing security - and some interesting neon artwork....

All's quiet after dark

Finally, what was once a lively promenade during the day becomes eerily quiet after the sun went down (and a chilly breeze came up).   

An empty promenade

It was a great night, and I look forward to the next 617 event.    And a plug to D'parma, where we stopped for a bite after the shoot for some amazing Italian food.   for a great dinner afterwards.   Perhaps that's why 617 heads to Eastie so often.  :-)


You can keep an eye on 617 Image's Facebook page for the next event if you'd like to join us.

All images from this (and the previous 617 shoot) can be found in my Flickr album.   

617 in East Boston

In late July I joined on line personalities 617 Images and Boston Attitude for their semi-regular photo meet-up.  A way for local photographers of all levels to meet and greet;  share tips and experiences and, of course, to take some photographs.   I missed the Zakim shoot, and the threat of rain almost cancelled this one, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to do some night shooting in the city.

This meet was at LoPresi Park in East Boston.  A brand new park, not too far from Maverick subway station.   This is an area of East Boston what is pretty industrial (faces Chelsea Creek), but has lots of new development starting to move in.    Here we have the Eddy, new apartments that abut the park, set to open in about a month.

The Eddy, as seen from the end of LoPresi park pier.

Given the view these units will have, it's not surprising this will be the next area to see construction.

The view of Boston as you enter Lopresi Park

It was a fun evening.   Slowly everyone gathered on the pier.  Was hard to miss the group - pretty much anyone with a camera was joining us.   We chatted with each other while snapping photos of the city skyline.





The failed rain showers turned out to be a blessing in disguise.    There was a small break between the horizon and the cloud deck.   For a few minutes the sun shone through and turned the world a bright orange.

Everyone lines up on the pier for the city sunset

I got a lot of sunset photos of the city and skyline, but also tried to be a little creative.  I zoomed into the sunset and played with the exposure to capture the sunset itself while letting everything else go to black.  It worked well, and I got some great photos.

Charlestown seemingly on fire from the brilliant sunset.

Once the sun had finally set, time for some night time shots of the Boston Cityscape.    Well, lots of photos of the city - when you're out there for an hour or so, you end up taking a lot of photos.   but it got me to play with different settings, different zooms and basically taking the time to have some fun.

The worst part was - we were on a dock, and I had my light-to-travel-but-not-too-heavy tripod.   Any time anyone walked on the dock there were slight vibrations when I used the zoom lens.   So while I got a lot of nice shots, not all of them were the best in focus.

Boston After Dark

Always love the Custom House

To my surprise they had set up some light painting for the evening.   This is when you leave your camera shutter open for a long exposure, then wave a light source around in some manner.    You catch the light trail in the camera.   Can be harder than it looks, depending on what you want to paint.

Took a few attempts, but we got our "617"

Ad you can tell, it took a few times to get 617 correct.  Kevin painted this by using his phone flashlight to draw each number.   Of course, he has to draw them backwards and in the opposite order.  And he has to do it in a timeline manner - my camera was set to 20 seconds in order to expose the city correctly;   so if he drew too slow, we wouldn't catch it all.

next was burning steel wool.    Put steel wool inside an egg whisk.   put the whisk at the end of a string and spin it around.   You not only get a circular pattern, you get some nice sparks flying out.

Better than fireworks?

Cropping for just the sparks made an interesting image

After shooting we grabbed a quick late night bite at D'parma, right down the street from the shoot.   Very nice - I'll have to hit it again.  (sautéed clams were amazing).

Thanks to 617 Images and Boston Attitude for hosting the event.   I met a lot of new folks and had a great time.   And caught a view of the city I had never seen before.   (and got my butt out of the house and finally did some night shooting).  Search the interwebs for the combined hashtag #617attitude for other peopels photos form this (and other 617) events.


See all my photos from this shoot at my 617 Flickr Album.

#617attitude pic.twitter.com/uoXdztTD6p

— Andrew J. Schneider (@ndrewschneider) July 24, 2016

Another photographer caught your truly (baseball hat) chatting with a fellow photographer