And so it begins…

These two photos were taken from my house on Saturday afternoon in Medford, outside of Boston. I cannot get over how HUGE this storm is — the center of it is still down in North Carolina, and we’re already seeing the start of it up in Massachusetts!

We’ve been getting ready for a couple of days, but this morning my landlord and her husband came over to help us finish preparing the house. He cleaned out the gutters, and she helped us close all the storm windows. (To close mine, we had to take on a beehive in the corner of my window with only a hockey stick and some air freshener. That was fun.)

Right now, my car is in the driveway within shot of a tree and a telephone pole. I’m going to try to move it to a covered garage in the area tomorrow morning, but it might just have to stay put: right now, the garage isn’t planning to open to the public until after 70 mph winds are supposed to hit us, and there is no way I’m walking home in that, lol!

Hang on, East Coast!

The nice thing about moving to France after college is that, by comparison, everything afterwards seems so much easier

It’s been a long week without Internet, but it was finally installed today, so I can post these photos from Monday! The drive up wasn’t too bad, aside from how it began raining the moment I crossed the Massachusetts state line. That didn’t seem to bode well, but it let up by the time I got into my house, and I was able to unload the whole car that first night.

Since then, I’ve just been unpacking my room and the kitchen and watching a lot of TV on my laptop while I waited for the Internet to be installed.

Speaking of which, there are many things I miss about France, but there are times when I’m really really glad I’m back in America.

Like when I need an Internet connection.

In France (as you may recall), I had to go to the office in person, lug all the equipment home myself on the tram, wait several weeks for the first appointment with the technician in which he told us the line was faulty, get my landlord to sign an authorization slip, make another appointment with the technician… and finally got working Internet one month later.

In America, I called Comcast on the phone, got their earliest appointment, waited three days for the technician to show up with everything he needed, discovered the line had to be rewired, watched the technician rewire it on the spot, and voila! had working Internet one hour later.

So congratulations, Comcast — I’m sure I’ll complain to high heaven about you in the months to come, but at least you’re faster than the French.

(Then again, Whole Foods does not know how to properly bake a baguette, so…)

Moving day!

Guess what I’m doing tomorrow?

Moving to BOSTON! (I’ve been waiting months to say that.)

My car is so hilarious right now, pictures can’t do it justice. There’s barely space for me inside, and somehow tomorrow morning I have to find room for one more bag of clothes and my laptop. Um. We’ll see how that goes…

A walk through Annapolis

If you’ve been watching the news, you know that the weather’s been pretty miserable around here lately. Yesterday it finally improved slightly (by which I mean it was only in the mid-90s and was slightly less humid) so I finally made it down to Annapolis for a photo walk.

Although I brought my DSLR, I ended up deciding to just work with my iPhone. I’ve been looking at a lot of people-focused street photography recently, and my goal was to practice photographing the people that I came across — something I thought I could do less conspicuously with my iPhone.

Of course, my walk went nothing like I’d planned. (Spoiler alert: there are no real photos involving people in this post. Well, except for my feet — my frequent subjects whenever I’m procrastinating. I mean, they may not be particularly exciting… but they’re always there.)

First of all, Annapolis on a Tuesday afternoon, as it turns out, is an unfortunate choice for shots of people. There were very few people out and about, all of whom were dressed pretty conservatively and liked to make eye contact as you passed them. I think I need a bigger city where people ignore each other.

Second, it was hot. 95 degrees might be cooler than 115, but it’s still pretty damn uncomfortable. So I wound up cutting my walk much shorter than planned. (Of course, now I’m thinking, “Why didn’t I focus on that? Stake out water fountains? Look for packs of legs in shorts?” Lesson learned: next time I’m setting out with a plan.)

Lastly — and I didn’t realize this one until I got home — after awhile, I sort of… forgot about the people. I did what I always do when I’m exploring a new place: I got sucked into the architecture, and the history of the buildings, and the atmosphere, and started focusing on the details that caught my eye. And that wasn’t a complete loss — I got some photos that I really like. But I don’t think it gives you a complete picture of the place.

Then again, maybe that’s a tall order for one photo walk.

It’s not about the camera

The images above are just a few of my favorites from the last two months. They were taken in three cities on two continents, outside schools and monuments, inside bars and churches.

One thing they have in common is that they were all taken (and edited) on my iPhone 3GS — that is to say, on a 3-megapixel camera phone without a flash.

My interest in “iPhoneography” was awakened several months ago after a conversation with a friend who was shopping for a new camera. Her burgeoning interest in photography had led her to begin to look seriously at digital SLRs for the first time, but she wanted to know if they were really worth the price.

When I thought about it, (and this surprised even me, given how frequently my Digital Rebel is attached to my hand) my answer was… no, not necessarily. An SLR can be a great tool if you have a firm grasp of the technical aspects of photography and want more manual control over your photos, but it’s not by any means the key to “better” photography.

In many ways, in fact, they can really be a hindrance — they’re bulky and fragile, which makes them difficult to carry around and can inhibit you from pulling them out at a moment’s notice. In the time it takes to adjust your settings, your shot can disappear. Perhaps most frustratingly, their presence is obvious and intimidating to some people, which can make it very difficult to capture comfortable candid moments.

And they’re a distraction for the photographer, too. Although it’s easy to forget, adrift as we all are in an endless sea of marketing ploys designed to sell the latest gadget, photography is not just a science; it’s an art form. Creating compelling images requires us to train our eyes, not just to memorize settings and cough up the bucks for more megapixels every year. In no other field would we give more credit to the tools than to the people using them, so why do we chalk up “good” photography to the camera? Cameras don’t shoot people — photographers do.

I’m not saying there aren’t benefits to more advanced technology; I still shoot with my DSLR all the time, and I love it. But to really improve as a photographer, I think there are times when we need to step away from the technology and embrace the artistic, mental aspect of the process. I like shooting with my iPhone because it limits my options and challenges me to focus exclusively on composition. There’s no zoom, no flash, no choice for me but to physically respond to my surroundings: seeking interesting light, moving in closer, and adjusting for a better angle, because my photography is about my relationship with a subject or a place — not about my camera.

I just got back from a week in Ocean City with the extended family. What a blast! We celebrated the fourth of July, my grandmother’s 75th birthday, my cousin’s engagement, another one’s MBA… it was a great week, and a great chance to catch up after a year away.

Last days in Stuttgart

I’m finally back in the U.S. now, but I had a great last few days in Stuttgart with my parents and my grandmother, who arrived for a visit just before I left. On Friday night, we went downtown to Stuttgart for a great German meal and then drinks on Königstraße outside the Joe Cocker concert. I got to hear him play some of my favorites (mostly Beatles covers) while sipping wine and people-watching… all of my favorite European activities rolled into one!

On Saturday, my last night, we stayed local and had dinner at a biergarten in our town. I don’t know how on earth I managed to eat that whole schnitzel, but it was yummy! Oh well — now that I’m back in the States, the beach diet can commence.

Just a few iPhone snapshots from my last week in Strasbourg. It was so hard to say goodbye to the city (and especially to my friends!) but part of me is also really excited to get to Boston and start my graduate program. For now, I’m staying with my parents in Stuttgart, but in four days, I’ll be on my way! I can’t wait!