Wishing you nothing but happiness in 2012.
-Dave
New Year’s Day 2012
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Hugo
Last evening we took the kids to see Martin Scorsese’s film Hugo, based on the book by Brian Selznick. It was the single most enjoyable movie watching experience I’ve had in a very long time.
My son tends to lose interest in movies about halfway through so I was skeptical about a two plus hour long film. I could not have been more wrong. He was into it. I saw the beautiful look of joy on his face during the funny scenes, and a look of awe during the breathtakingly beautiful ones. I saw him stressing over a particularly nightmarish scene, only to be relieved when things turned out OK.
Hugo is a masterpiece.
It’s the kind of film that makes you love cinema. For two plus hours I was not in a theater in downtown Baltimore—I was in Paris in the 1930′s and it was breathtakingly lovely. Not only were the sets, costumes and the actors great, the story was just as robust and it drew me in.
See Hugo for your kids, but see it for you as well.
ABOUT THE PHOTO
I always have my camera with me these days. I recently bought the Fujifilm X100 for its compactness and image quality combined. So far, so good. This little camera has a lot of great qualities and only now am I discovering its deep, gorgeous RAW files. I took this shot hand-held, manually-focused in almost complete darkness and converted to black and white to mimic the look I would have achieved with Kodak 3200 T-Max film. NOTE: Manual Focus on the X100 sucks. (Shutter speed: .5 second | Aperture: 2.0 | ISO 3200)
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Larriland Farm | Apple Picking
I’m going to make this post brief. My wife wrote a beautiful piece about our apple picking trip to Larriland Farm and as they say, I couldn’t have said it better myself. There are more of my photos on her post as well. Here are a few that I think capture the day the way I remember it.
Enjoy.
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30 minutes in Cambridge | Leo’s Place Diner
I’m sitting at Logan International Airport after a brief stay—I arrived last night—in Boston. I was on the Harvard campus this morning shooting and interviewing a brilliant researcher. After the job and a cappuccino at Peet’s Coffee, I needed some food.
I didn’t want chain restaurant food and figured right off Harvard Square I should be able to find something with character. Enter Leo’s Place Diner.
Though I didn’t partake in either, apparently this place is known for their breakfast and an incredible selection of root beer. These are two of the finest things in life so that alone makes this a quality place.
The top photo is not Leo. It’s Raffi Bezjian who took my order and whipped up the food. We didn’t get to chat much but my guess is he’s a character. When I asked to photograph the couple in the window he replied, “Sure. Not me?”
Check out Leo’s Place. You might even spot a celeb like Ben Affleck.
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Nostalgia
I love this photo of my daughter. It reminds me of one my father took of me when I was a kid. I was in the back of his cream color VW Beetle.
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Nags Head | The Lighthouse
On the drive back from our daytrip to Ocracoke we stopped to see the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. It was the highlight of our day. The day was hot and full of long hours in the heat. Arriving at the lighthouse to find only three or four cars in the parking lot was a relief. We had the place practically to ourselves.
Standing in the ever-growing shadow of the lighthouse, the warm summer air cooled around us and time stood still. Our two families were really in the moment. We weren’t thinking about how hot the day, or how long the drive. Instead we just stood in awe of the monolithic, spiral-striped lighthouse—the toy-like stripes mocking its height and drawing your eye up at the same time.
At the end of that day, our detour to Cape Hatteras as it turns out had nothing at all to do with seeing the lighthouse. But just as it’s been doing for over 140 years, it guided weary travelers—in this case to a place they could just be.
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Nags Head | Ocracoke
One last photo from The Ferry to begin this post on Ocracoke. We made the looooong trip to Ocracoke during our vacation to Nags Head, North Carolina. It’s something we’ve been talking about doing for years, but it always seemed so far. And guess what: it is!
By the time we reached Ocracoke, we were hungry and I was beginning to need food in a very desperate way. Let this be a lesson for you to bring food on this trip.
We arrived and immediately went for our lunch at Dajio. This place was awesome, and had the very best tasting chicken tenders we’ve ever tasted. We decided to sit at the bar in order to avoid the wait, and what a cool bar it is. Great beer on tap, and a very laid back, Outer Banks atmosphere. Imagine Jimmy Buffet, without any Jimmy Buffet/Margaritaville to ruin it.
We then walked the island (you can do that—the town area is small!), stopped for sweets at the Albert Styron General Store—they even sold Nehi Grape Soda—before returning to The Slushy Stand for Espresso, Ice Cream and a seat to cool off. Did I mention it was sweltering? Think mid-90′s.
All in all a fun day, and if you read my previous post about The Ferry, you know that as far as I’m concerned the boat ride alone was worth the trip.
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Nags Head | The Ferry
While in Nags Head, we decided to take a day trip to the Outer Banks island of Ocracoke. Read all about the island at my wife’s site. There’s some interesting info and tips for other day trippers there, along with more of my photos.
But this post isn’t about Ocracoke. It’s about the Ferry that gets you there and back—for free! Just call me Cap’n Dave. Being aboard the craft (nice lingo, eh?) was really pretty enjoyable. Of course, it’s basically a floating parking lot, but being on the water still carried a certain romance.
I shot starboard, port, aft and fore and loved every minute of it. Take a look.
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Nags Head | The Beach House
This year’s trip to Nags Head was different from every other beach vacation we’ve had. We finally stayed in a beach house. The experience was wonderful and ruined us for hotel stays at the beach. It was simple and yet so sophisticated at the same time. We had bedrooms for each of us. The kids could go to bed and the adults could stay up a bit longer. What an amazing concept! (My wife and I have traveled to Atlanta, Belgium, Orlando and countless other places, always putting the children down for bed only to isolate ourselves in the hotel bathroom until they fell asleep. You can’t get much less sophisticated than that.)
In The Beach House we cooked our own meals, had great coffee every morning, laundered our clothes ourselves (imagine that) and washed dishes. Not only did we have all of these conveniences, we experienced what it would be like to live at the beach full time—a personal aspiration of mine.
In The Beach House, the kids entertained themselves making friendship bracelets, playing Angry Birds on an iPad and yes, they even watched a bit of television. Hey. It was their vacation, too! The youngest of our crew took her naps (see her sleepy, beautiful face below) while the older kids busied themselves with activities that bridged the gaps between visits to The Beach.
Some views of our modest—yet perfect in nearly every way—Beach House.
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Nags Head | The Beach
Ah, the beach. I was raised on family vacations to the beach—mostly Ocean City, MD. It’s known to Marylanders as the ocean. Mystical, eh? I can assure you that it was a pretty great beach back when I was a kid, but I can’t vouch for it these days. I haven’t been back since senior week in 1994. The highlight as a kid was the boardwalk. I remember spending quarter after quarter on video games. There were more arcades than french fry joints.
Nags Head, NC is something different, though it has also changed a lot since I was a kid (it’s gotten much more popular and populated) it still has a charm about it. It’s a laid back beach. I can imagine living there year ’round. Our family has gone there for two years in a row, and I can see it becoming a habit.
Last year, my son spent most of his time buried in the sand—both literally and figuratively—while my daughter stayed in ankle-deep surf. But lo and behold what a week with friends can do. Each of the girls played off of the other’s increasing bravado and fearlessness, and the boys did the same. No doubt, there were tears. Each kid got wiped out by a rogue wave at least once, but they reentered the water undaunted. I was very, very proud.
My son caught his first wave without any help from me. Here are some beach shots. More posts from the trip to come…
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