Taunton Green 2014
I made a trip over to the “Green” and used my new camera for the first real time. I’ve been snapping pics around the house but this was my first real photo excursion. Maybe it was me and that the camera is still a bit unfamiliar but I don’t think I really captured the beauty of the display this year. But I promised to share so here they are. The theme is Frozen loosely based on the Disney movie.
The big tree is crooked. I doubled checked and it wasn’t me it was the tree. 🙂
In this era of political correctness where formerly mainstream concepts have to take a “back seat” to the minority out of “sensitivity”, I am proud of my City of Taunton. Since December 1914, the city of Taunton has provided a large annual light display each December on Taunton Green, giving it the additional nickname of “Christmas City”.
Taunton Green 2010
Each year a banner proudly proclaims “The Christmas City” over the display in the center of town. The display includes angels (gasp), and a nativity scene, (What!), a menorah, and even Santa Claus and to the best of my knowledge there has not been any complaint. Everyone I know looks forward to the Lighting of the Green. Every year, no matter the theme, the paths are lined with lighted Christmas trees, and families stroll the lighted paths.
Taunton Green 2011
It’s beautiful. Soft music, Christmas Carols, is piped in playing in the background.
Taunton Green 2012
For the last several years, since I got interested in photography, I’ve made it a point to photograph the Green in all of it’s Festive Glory.
Taunton Green 2013
This is a time when Santa Claus is banned from school Christmas parties…oh sorry Holiday parties, and other towns change the name of the December School vacation from Christmas Vacation to Winter vacation. Everyone is so afraid to offend instead of fostering understanding, tolerance and mutual acceptance.
Christmas trees are a pagan symbol but they have been embraced as a symbol of Christmas, a melding of different faiths. Beautiful decorated fireplaces are a tradition in many homes but the Yule Log was borrowed from the Wiccan celebration of Yule before it became associated with December 25.
I am happy Taunton stands by its tradition and I hope it will continue for many years to come. I hope someday people of other faiths will not feel so threatened by a Christian holiday that they can embrace the festive beauty of the season and enjoy it too. You don’t have to be a Christian to appreciate the colorful lights and artistic displays.
Taunton Green 2014
I have no wish to offend my Jewish, Muslin, Buddhist and Wiccan friends or any other religion I may have missed but I will end this post in the spirit of the season.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
I’m just sitting here while the tile guy grouts the tiles. He has his radio on for music to work by. Good station. Music to sing along to 🙂 (Maggie May, City of New Orleans, etc. I never was any good with titles of songs)
The problem is I can’t get anything done with him in the kitchen. I can’t finish unpacking boxes so I can’t clean because the boxes are everywhere . Â The cats are enjoying them..the boxes that is.
I’d be embarrassed to take a nap so I am playing on the computer.
I have many , many errands to run but doesn’t look like he’s going to be done anytime soon. I guess I’ll be really busy tomorrow.
Having spare time online can be very expensive.  I ordered some heavy winter clothes online. I hope they fit. I am justifying the purchase because I really need some warm outdoor clothes.  I want to be warm if I go out looking for wildlife to photograph. A good example are the snowy owls of Duxbury Beach.
I’ve gone over there a couple of times only to be beat back by the cold wind off the ocean. Every winter the snowies migrate down from the Arctic. Some are just passing through but some stick around. The Snowies that detour to Logan Airport are trapped and released on Duxbury beach so usually it’s a good spot to find them. Most of my photographer friends have had success getting shots but I always let the cold get to me. Maybe now I’ll be able to stay warm long enough to get my shot.
Having just spent way too much money I moved on to other internet searches. When my AAA magazine arrived there was an article about Amtrak Vacations. Using the article as my guide I found the website and the brochure. Some of the trips sound like cruises on land! And they are priced accordingly still the idea intrigues me. Have any of you been on an Amtrak Vacation?
I found one that was pretty reasonably priced and had departure dates that would work with my schedule. Â Called “Riverwalk to the French Quarter”. Â 7 days for about $1200.00 per person. It starts in San Antonio where you tour the Alamo and get to visit the River walk. Then you board the train for the trip to New Orleans. So now I just have to be sure I have someone to share the trip with. I didn’t see any single rates.
We’ll see if my sister is willing to give it a try.
Maybe I should call this post “be careful what you wish for”.
After I had been using my D3000 camera for about a year I began to get a little frustrated with its limitations. Oh there were ways to work around them but I came down with a bad case of camera lust.
At the time Ritz Camera was still around and I spent some time playing with a Nikon D7000. It seemed to have what I wanted. It could be set to automatically bracket for HDR and it had a place for a manual remote trigger. Those were the 2 biggies I was interested in at the time.
But time passes and I never seemed to get the money together. Then Ritz closed. More time passed and I spotted the D7100. I didn’t run into much buzz about the D7000 any more so I began researching the 7100. I wanted it it but there is something to be said for wanting things from afar.
The opportunity arose this weekend for me to pick up the D7100 for a very reasonable price and I jumped on it. I couldn’t wait to get it home and charge up the batteries.
By the time the first battery was charged it was dark so I plunked myself in my recliner with the camera to play. The first thing  that threw me a curve was that I was taking pictures but nothing showed up on the live view.
I thought I was doing something wrong. Now if I had looked in  the instruction manual I would have seen (in about 5 minutes or less) that to view the photos you need to push a little arrow and Voila! there they are.
Now I went searching for the histograms and (Shame on me) a way to get out of auto. The dial was 2 tiered and I had no idea what those choices were!
My oh my it will be awhile before I’m as comfortable with this baby as I was with my old entry level D3000. I have my work cut out for me.
By the end of the 2nd day I had managed to get all my settings in the camera and managed to get to the aperture and shutter modes so I am making progress but it still feels a bit like a struggle.
Practice Shot of Rocky taken from across the livingroom
Like I said, be careful what you wish for. I’m going to have quite a learning curve on this one!
