Paul's House Diary

Following the last JR408 session, I went to Best Buy, used my hefty tax refund, and purchased a new camera and laptop. I was inspired, per usual, by that class, specifically our guest speaker Adam Gaffen of UniversalHub, to commit to making a worthwhile, readable, and visually appealing blog. If I’m to best serve this blog in performing its intended functions, quality images must accompany my quality text.

So until there’s real quality text, here’s some of my first pictures I took screwing around with the new camera outside Best Buy!

Assuming that the gallery I inserted is in the order I uploaded the pictures in, the first thing you should be seeing is an intricate marble facade from the Church of Christ, Scientist at Mass Ave and Huntington in the Back Bay. One of my favorite complexes in the city, and easily one of the most photogenic, this is a close up of one of the main doorways fronting the Mass Ave side of the Church. The original church was designed in a traditional stone-masonry style with stained glass windows in 1896 in the style of traditional Anglican or Protestant churches found in the British Isles and Western Europe. In 1906 architect Charles Brigham came along and designed a domed basillica-style addition that dwarfed the original Mother Church, making it one big-Mother of a Church. The surrounding plaza was designed in the 1970’s by an associate at the famed architectural firm of I.M. Pei, known in Boston for creating our tallest structure, the Hancock Tower (designed by Henry Cobb of Pei’s firm) as well as various buildings throughout the city that are categorized as being in the Modern style – function and simplicity paramount, little to no room for ornament or excess.

This contrast in design styles is what makes this plaza so photogenic, as you can see in the next picture (again, assuming the gallery uploaded correctly). This is the colonnade designed for the plaza in the ’70’s that runs parallel to it’s reflecting pool. Instead of the detailed ornament and carving that is found on the facade of just one doorway on the newer addition to the Mother Church, comparably stark and plain angular columns create a strip that plays with the plaza’s lighting to create a visual feast of a completely different palate but of equal depth and detail in design.

This whole plaza displays a Boston of three era’s in each of it’s incarnations – the secular and Puritan-minded Boston found in the simple original church building, the wealthy and worldly Brahmin Boston displayed in the tribute to “high art” in architecture as displayed in the Mother Church addition, and the “Modern” Boston of the the 20th century forever affected, and in other cases scarred, by Urban Renewal. So as a starting point for this blog, I think the Christian Science Center is ideal for my first small foray into photo-blogging.

The next picture is me testing out the camera from my seat at Dillon’s on Boylston Street. After a few tries, I realized the streetlight on the right in this picture wasn’t helping, but I really liked the angle. I played with zoom and eventually produced the fifth picture in the series. It still kind of suffers from lighting issues, but I like the angle and perception. I’m quite the amateur, so please give me constructive critiques.

The fourth picture was me working on my zoom. This is a building on the corner of Mass Ave and Comm, I think it’s the Harvard Club. I was across the street on the sidewalk and tried to zoom in on its’ cornice and mansard roofing, which I just realized then was lit up. I practically took it crossing the street and I’m pretty satisfied with the outcome.

The picture with four happy people sitting on a couch is me and my room mates. You don’t need to know them, though they are great, but we took this playing with my timer, new tripod, and flash. We turned all the lights off and pretended to be serious. So naturally Marvin, the big-tough Marine second from the left, has a huge grin. I can’t say I learned anything from this photoshoot that came through in this picture in particular, but I think we all look pretty good and you readers should be jealous.

The final picture is of the toilet from the Model Cafe in Allston. I have nothing else to say on the matter except it’s a great bathroom worthy of pictures.

The new camera is nothing fancy; a black Sony Cybershot with 12.1 mega pixels and 4x optical zoom. Bundled with the tripod, memory card and fancy Swiss case, it was relatively cheap (less than $125). I could’ve invested in something more professional, but until I can harness the basics of urban photography I’d rather practice on something more basic and rent a Nikon from school if need be. Also, I don’t trust myself of other riders on the Green Line to provide the care needed to justify any larger investment.

The info on the Church plaza was found at http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM39WE, the wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_Church_of_Christ,_Scientist, but mostly at my favorite forum, archBoston.com.

Up next on the blog, along with retooling the site further and organizing a bunch of content, I have two new posts in the works. One is a critical analysis of the Rose Kennedy Greenway in response to a recent survey conducted on Boston.com. The next is a little analysis on a visit I had to Bukowski’s Tavern in Inman Square. I won’t give away any more (I’m sure you’re on the edge of your seat), but they will be entertaining and informative.

Let me know what you think of my pictures, my post, and please give me constructive criticism and feedback.