Whaling City Camera Club planned an outdoor photo meeting focusing on Black & White photography. After their online club meeting a few days before, it inspired me to try Black and White photography again. I usually focus on color when taking photos, occasionally having one photo speaking to me for B&W. I walked around with my camera club members, socially distencing while taking different photographs. One of my favorite shots is taking this sleigh that decorates this park in the middle of the town around the holidays. Another is a light bulb surrounded by a plant displayed in a window. What captured my eye was the reflection in the light bulb of the buildings in town.  I am entering two of these photos in the upcoming Street Photography competition run by the WCCC club in late January 2021.

To finish the last month of 2020, I had a chance to visit Provincetown, MA. This small town at the end of Cape Cod has so many friendly people. Several of them told me all the best places to visit in downtown and it was the perfect day to go exploring. Not only did I get to see the ocean, I saw Cape Cods famous Lobster cage christmas decoration and huge sand dunes. I felt like I was in another country sanding in the middle of the sand dunes. I recommend visiting this place once the season is busy again.

The month of November was both my birthday month and beginning of the holiday season during a pandemic. For my birthday, I visited a new event that came this year to the Franklin park zoo, Boston, MA. The Boston Lights Event showed not only zoo animals, but a variety of sculptures to walk under. Some were a huge japanese lantern archway and a lite up shark. This was definitely an experience that I was happy to attend.
Later this month, my photography job sent me to Martha Vineyard for two days. Despite it pouring rain the whole trip, I got some free time to explore some popular towns such as Chilmark and Edgartown. Here is where I roamed the empty offseason streets. Hopefully I can come back to the island during the busy season to experience what it is like filled with so many people walking around.   

October was busier than ever for me. I continued taking senior portraits indoors with studio lighting and also took photos outside in the colors of the leaves. In the middle of all this, I spent a weekend driving three hours to a town called Shaftsbury, Vt for a wedding. This wonderful couple planned a costume/star wars themed wedding in the middle of the fall. Despite the pandemic happening, the few people they invited to enjoy this event, had fun dressing up for the occasion such as a plague doctor. Some of my favorite wedding photos were from this day, and I am looking forward to photographing weddings in the near future. 

In September, I was currently busy working for a photography studio where I focused on seniors portraits and children. I was only going to work most of the time this month. One day I had off, I drove to Royalston, MA where I hiked a waterfall trail during the changing of the leaves. I invested in a new tripod, which I spent an hour photographing different exposures and angles of the first photo below. When I was driving home from my trip, I found a lake area called Tully Dam where I spent some time watching the several people canoe along the lake. 

To end the month of August, I spent a day trip in the far corner of Massachusetts in the Berkshires. I drove to Mount Washington State Forest, not to confuse you with Mt. Washington, and hiked a few hours up a mountain. The view was breathtaking the view was clear for miles and the weather was perfect to go hiking in. I have not climbed many mountains, but I would definitely come back to this trail again in the future. 

Spent another day on Cape Cod visiting Falmouth, MA. This town is known for an unique trail called The Knob. Here you walk a few miles passing a few mini beach areas and a forest to reach this destination. This place has amazing views of the sunset and a calming walk along the beach with not many waves in the bay. While I was walking along the beach, I discovered someone left a trail of rose petals to a romantic heart on the beach for their lover. The petals and roses were still fresh at 10am, so someone took the time preparing for this surprise early in the morning. There are plenty of outdoor trails, a famous lighthouse spot and fun activities for children in the area to explore. I focused on photos from The Knob below. 

West Island, Fairhaven, MA.

I attended a Milky Way photoshoot meetup with the Whaling City Camera Club last week. On my bucket list, I have always wanted to photograph the stars. Earlier this year I upgraded my equipment and during the last few months I have been studying photography. Every week, I spend a few hours reading a book or search a topic online in order to learn more about my career. I tried out my new skills visiting West Island where I spent some time photographing the area before sunset. Two hours after the sun went down, I shot a bunch of photos of the milky way at different angles. This meetup was a great experience for me and taught me how to better photograph the stars.

Many people enjoy Cape Cod to spend their vacation on the beaches and enjoy the towns. I have lived in Massachusetts for 25 years and the one place I only visited a few times is the Cape. 
I decided to have a Cape Cod photography trip and visit a few places on my bucket list. I got up at 5am and drove 2 hours to my first stop, Eastham. I wanted to take photos of the Nauset Lighthouse with the early morning light and capture some unique clouds above. I then explored the nearby beach to take photos of some birds and objects that caught my eye. Before leaving, I did not forget to check out the Three Sisters Lighthouses before running away from all the mosquitoes that lingered in the early morning.
I took a detour to a nature trail down the road called Red Maple Swamp Trail. Once I parked, I tried to catch up to a group of kayakers leaving for their morning swamp tour on the cape. I felt like those photos did not come out that great because they were already too far away to photograph, but I looked around me to capture the area such as a person unloading kayaks off his car. 
Last stop, I drove to Chatham to capture another lighthouse in the area. I arrived with fog around the lighthouse and took a long walk to a place on the beach called Ship Skeleton off Cape Cod. I stayed for only a little while since I arrived when the sun was almost at its peak in the sky. 
All the lighthouse photographs I entered in a Cape Cod Lighthouse photography contest by the Whaling City Camera Club.

Eastham, MA

Red Maple Swamp Trail, Eastham, MA

Chatham, MA

 A few weeks ago I drove to Jamestown for the day. Here I was meeting up with a few Whaling City Camera club members for a photography meetup. I made it my goal for 2020 to explore places in New England that I have on my bucket list. Jamestown has been on my bucket list for awhile and joining a few club members made the adventure more interesting.
One place is called Beavertail Lighthouse that is located in south Jamestown. Here I not only explored the park area next the ocean, I had special privileges to visit the top of the lighthouse. Currently the top of the lighthouse is closed to the public because of the current pandemic, but the person in charge of taking care of the lighthouse allowed us few photographers to see the breathtaking view from the top. While walking around the park, I focused on capturing other people visiting the area and what is unique about Beavertail. On top of the lighthouse, I took a few photos of the area from above and the lighthouse light.
After visiting Beavertail, I drove down the road towards the center of Jamestown where a stopped at Windmill Historic District. The windmill is also closed for the season, but I had a chance to take a few photos from the road before heading home.