Massachusetts
On Friday I toured around various parts of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
This the famous Plymouth Rock, which Pilgrims landed on in 1620.
A replica of the Mayflower, called the Mayflower II. The Mayflower is the ship the pilgrims fleeing religious persecution in England came over on.
These are the tombs of 2nd President John Adams and his beloved wife Abigail at the Church of the Presidents in Quincy. The church is so named, as the only church with two US Presidents buried there. Unlikely to occur again, unless George HW and George W Bush are buried together – but we probably won’t know that for 40 years or so.
The US flag has 15 stars and 15 stripes reflecting the number of states of the union when Adams was President.
John Quincy Adams was the 6th President and is next to his parents. His US flag has 24 stars reflecting the new size of the union. The number of stripes was back to the original 13 by then, as they realised too many stripes was not going to work.
This is the house John Quincy Adams was born in.
And next door to it, is the house his father John Adams was born in.
This house is known as Peacefield, also known as Old Home, and was the main home of the Adams Family. It was built in 1731.
And I also popped into Salem, home of the witch trials. In total 19 people were executed for witchcraft – 14 women and five men. In addition one man was crushed to death by heavy stones, but this was as part of his interrogation!
July 4th, 2009 at 3:55 pm
great locations, very jealous.
But i really think you need a new camera, or to tweak the white balance settings on your current one, all your shots seem to come out murky.
i suggest something like a canon G10 or one of the panasonics with a leica lens going down to 1:2.8 might be worth looking into.
In fact anything with a lens that shoots at f1:2.8 is going to be a huge improvement. That far open means you won’t need flash so much indoors and allows shots in museums etc that don’t allow flash to come out ok.
Of course all of your destinations might coincide with murky weather? But that doesnt explain why the inside shots have the same feel.
[DPF: As I said in another thread, my Panasonic camera battery is flat and despite visiting eight camera stores, there are no spare batteries or chargers for it, so the photos are from the Blackberry]
July 4th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
In addition one man was crushed to death by heavy stones, but this was as part of his interrogation!
Was he excercising his right to remain silent?
July 4th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
DPF: Is there any chance you can you get up to Alaska and get the goss on Palin?
July 4th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Those damn Muslims, instead of cutting his head of in a French Christian manner they crushed him to death.
Good Christians would never have done the above
July 4th, 2009 at 5:17 pm
In addition one man was crushed to death by heavy stones, but this was as part of his interrogation!
Not quite. It was part of his plea – he was being asked whether he plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. If he admitted guilt he would have received a lesser sentence. If he denied guilt, he would have been found guilty and executed. So in refusing to plea, he was making his own statement.
Plea bargaining in the states, I assure you, has come a long way since then…
July 4th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
The US flag has 15 stars and 15 stripes reflecting the number of states of the union when Adams was President.
It may be the angle, but it looks to me as though the flag has 13 stripes, the same number as the current flag – one stripe for each of the original 13 states of the union.
[DPF: I counted - it was 15]
July 4th, 2009 at 5:59 pm
When ever I hear of Plymouth Rock I think of Malcolm X’s quote
“We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock, my brothers and sisters – Plymouth Rock landed on us!”
July 4th, 2009 at 6:33 pm
Of course a better criticism to make about Plymouth Rock is that it became engrained as the founding settlement in american minds only after the civil war. Before then the founding settlement was Virginia, now taboo due to its slave history.
July 4th, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Did you flip that plymouth rock over and check for pauas??
July 4th, 2009 at 10:51 pm
So you’ll be in the US for Independence Day – how cool!
July 4th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
didnt see the other thread
at least you had the blackberry!
I get so frustrated with camera batteries, i have 3 panasonics and they all take different batteries – at least the canon SLRs have sort of standardised (until you get to the Eos 1s).
my worst photo experience was easter island with an old canon film camera, i didnt know the auto light meter was on the blink until i had the films developed – all dark and gloomy.
July 5th, 2009 at 8:55 am
They built the houses to last in those days,
July 5th, 2009 at 10:42 am
the man who was being crushed had been tricked into testifying against his wife. As penitence for his guilt the only thing he said was “more weight”.
July 5th, 2009 at 4:02 pm
Re: camera batteries
I stick to the same system with compatible batteries. I also carry several batteries (and generally 2 SLRs) when travelling. Some optional grips also use AA batteries ( the Dynax 7 in my case).
Having a good low light lens helps with museum shots- e.g. http://chthoniid.zenfolio.com/img/v6/p257713464-5.jpg (Xi’an and terracotta warriors, no flash). ISO 800 and f2.8 if you care about such things.
But the rule when travelling with camera gear is to get somne redundancy built in (preferrably with reliable gear). If you’re stuck in the Sepik in PNG, nobody is going to fix it if it gets damaged, lost or stolen. I tend to have backups of a lot of gear with me.