Double-Decker

It took six months for me to see one of the older nicer looker double-decker buses.  There are tons of the new highly decorated annoyingly loud ones, but those are... well...annoying and loud.

Taking a trip down memory lane.  On memory lane.

I'll Tilt-Shift The World (or at least the majority of Belfast)

Got caught in a heavy downpour.  Had to hide my camera under my jacket.  Sadly, I was shooting with my homemade tilt-shift lens.  So that meant I also had to hide my massive and heavy 90mm Mamiya lens...and the bellows of a plunger.  But I got this...

 An old clock tower that seems like it may have also dealt with a severe storm or two in its life.

Out Of Focus

Having a subject that isn't in focus is normally an issue.  Sometimes, though, it's exactly what's needed to make the photo just different enough to be noticed.  I've been meaning to get a photo that would look good even though it isn't in focus.  I think I succeeded.

I went out with the goal of getting some good bokeh.  I did get some (look to the lights on the light posts) but it isn't the main subject.  This just means you can look forward to a shot where the subject is out of focus lights.  

Giant's Ring

Northern Ireland has its own henge...you know, like Stonehenge.  Our's isn't as big nor as popular, but it is still pretty sweet.  It supposedly has been around since 2700 BCE and has been used for burials and tombs...as well as horse racing in the 18th century.  The megalithic tomb in the center of the henge seems to be the main event...

The henge itself isn't too visible in the pictures, but the rounded feeling that the grassy area seems to create in the second photo is indeed from the circular henge.

Went For A Walk

We went for a walk today.  We do so daily.  Today we went down to the river as well as some parts of the city that we were yet to check out.  We came across what seemed like a River Dance flash mob...

One second they were jumping around like fish out of water...the next second they were just standing there talking as if it never happened.

Then we came across the area that is being used for Occupy Belfast.  No one was there.

Then, on our way back to our flat, old Albert entered my field of vision.  Apparently Albert is the name of this clock tower...

Birds, Their Nests, and a Carousel

Belfast's Christmas Market was host to the obvious and necessary baked goods, Christmas decorations and myriad types of ciders...but it also had a carousel.  This was taken on the 17th.

I came across an empty nest on the 18th.  This bird has flown.

Today, a big old magpie was sitting on a roof, visible from my main living room window.  I've been trying to get a good shot of one of these birds for a long time now.  They are extremely camera-shy, so for now this shall have to do.

As the Sun Rises

I work from my living room in Belfast.  It's pretty spectacular.  What isn't so spectacular is the winter daylight hours here in Northern Ireland.  The sun rose around 8:30am this morning.  It set right at 4pm.  That is not a lot of bright, light-filled hours.  Working during all of those hours makes it hard to get a daily photo... unless my subject is in my living room with me.  I'm sure as we get further into the winter months and less light is readily available, I'm going to have to make sure my subject is indeed in this room with me...today, though, I quickly ran out before I started to work...hoping that the rising sun would prove useful.

I know I have a similar rooftop shot, but this one has a sunrise as a background ...as well as the remains of a recent snow...and a steeple.

 I also came across this section of a brick wall which worked wonders for my urban panorama project.  I love the abstract feel of the rectangular painted portions.  I am also a fan of the fact that I could print this as a ten foot by thirty foot image...at a rather high resolution.

And last but not least.  Yesterday's urban alphabet was fine and all...but I was not extremely pleased with the 'S' that I came up with.  I found a much better one today.  Here it is:

Much better.

The Other Side of The Atlantic

AFOOT and light-hearted, I take to the open road,
Healthy, free, the world before me,
The long brown path before me, leading wherever I choose.
Henceforth I ask not good-fortune—I myself am good fortune;
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing,
Strong and content, I travel the open road.

 ...

Song Of the Open Road by Walt Whitman

I am alive.

Though it took me some time, I am now ready to go at this photo blogging thing...from Northern Ireland.
My wife and I made it here safely, made the apartment that we got into a liveable area, made our way around the city...to help us better understand our new home, and made our way to some interesting and beautiful places.  Here is the proof that we have been living in Northern Ireland for a week and a half...

(Also, due to a less "connected" lifestyle, I will rarely be online.  I will be uploading a week's worth of photography once a week...from a friendly cafe with free wifi.  Worry not, I will take at least one photo every day.  That photo will make it onto this site.)

So, the first of September.
We said our last goodbyes and made our way onto a plane.  It was an evening flight.  With the time zone change it meant we got to see the sunrise just a tad before we landed. These pictures are not of that sunrise.

It was the 2nd before we got to our apartment.
This is it.

By the time the 3rd rolled around we decided we should probably eat.
I figured what could be better than cabbage, potato, parsnip, and onion stew.  Pretty much anything.  But few things are more Irish.  So that was what I made.

the 4th was our first chance to really get out and enjoy our new city.  Luckily the 4th was when Belfast was holding a bike festival.  You know me and bicycles...I am a big fan.  So is Belfast.

 I got some action shots

Some model shots (they were on bicycles..I just focused on the upper torso)

and some strange shots

The 5th was rainy.
Most days are.
I have been trying to take my photos in the two or three hours that are free of rain.  The 5th did not have any free hours...So I took a picture of all the food that we had accumulated.  This should hold us for a few weeks.

There is a beautiful botanic garden that is a two minute walk from our house.  We go there frequently and read (when it isn't raining).  These plants are located in said garden.  This was on the 6th.

the 7th.  the evening.  Looking down a street, all the chimneys lining up.

The 8th was a beautiful day.  Which was really nice because we had decided to go to some castle with an awesome hike called the cavehill trail whether it was nice or not.  The castle and hike are rather close, just a half hour bus ride away.  And rather worth the ride.

The 9th, also beautiful, was another day that we were going somewhere whether it was beautiful or not.  We rather lucked out.  We went to the Giant's Causeway, an area rich in Irish mythology as well as geological wonders.

We then went to an island.  You had to go on a rope bridge to get to it.  Kristin surprised me by actually doing it.

This guy was sitting on the bench next to us at the botanic garden yesterday.  He intrigued me.  He was having a strange conversation with someone on his expensive phone.

And today.  the 11th.  This is for my mother.
This is my Belfast trashcan.  It looks like something exploded inside of it.

I've Lived Behind All Of Them

As the remaining days of living in this country decrease, my desire to photograph things that relate to living here increases.  This time it's things that pertain specifically to me.  I decided to take a picture of every door that I have lived behind since my family moved to Ephrata, PA about 22/23 years ago (yeah, I have lived in one town for that long...though I've lived in five different building in that one town).  I didn't photograph bedroom doors,  but I did include both the Royer's Building door (which is an apartment building) as well as the single apartment door that I lived behind inside of that apartment building.

It is rather crazy to think of the people that I have lived with in each building, and what it is that they are doing with their lives now.  It is even more crazy to actually really think about it: I realized that I work for the same company as half of the people that I have lived with (that I am not related to); none of the people that I have lived with currently live more than 20 minutes away; I have known everyone I have ever lived with for at least ten years; and really, the people I have lived with (with just an addition of maybe two people) are the only people I really care about seeing before I leave the country for a year. 

Here are those doors, in chronological order...

One Door To Another

The first one was the house my parents had built for my family to live in.  I spent 17 years there.  That one was a home.  After I started college, I decided to move out and live with two close friends, with my then-girlfriend/now-wife coming and going due to her own college life.  We lived in the Royer's Building, apartment 211 (the front of Royer's is the second picture, our apartment door is the third).  This is the building I was living in when I came up with my name for my photography project (the only empty space in the apartment building parking lot was always next to a guy whose license plate said HECTOR...and thus next2hector...the place I would park).  That apartment was so much fun.  We lived above a Chinese restaurant and I recall one night everyone really wanted to get food from it.  The only problem being that we had walked to our local Wal-Mart and though it wasn't too far away, it was ten minutes before the restaurant closed.  I was the chosen one that had to run all the way there, order everyone's food and wait for it to be made by disgruntled employees that had already cleaned the kitchen.  Also, our Christmas tree was covered in left over Halloween decorations from a dollar store since we were all poor.  It was the best we could do...also it was pretty rad.  Those two friends went to Japan for a little over a month and my wife and I decided instead of paying double for rent, we would move in with two other close friends (door four).  While living behind door four, we got engaged and while planning for our wedding decided we wanted to get our own place...enter door five...a tiny two story apartment with a single room on each floor.  The downstairs was a kitchen and a living room in one, and the upstairs was a bedroom and tiny bathroom.  The cost for heating the place was too much in the winter...so we turned the heat off.  We had a winter of ice cold showers and electric heaters under the blankets in bed with us.  We somehow survived and in doing so collected some awesome "early married life" stories. Soon, we started making a little more money.  And we got a cat.  So we needed more space...there was more space behind door six, so we made it our own.  We found out that we would be moving to Northern Ireland from behind this door and we have been slowly moving things out of door six since.  We are almost done with the moving.  We are almost ready for door seven.

From The Windows

Today I decided to use some nice window lighting to my advantage.  I am soon out of this country.. and in going, there will be some things I'll be leaving behind.  Things I really don't want to leave behind but must.  One of them is my Black Beauty Epiphone electric guitar.  Even though my acoustic is my preferred guitar, the electric has treated me quite well and I will greatly miss her.  I shoved her between two windows and let the natural light work its magic...

Black Beauty

Three fantastic pickups and a similar look to Neil Young's "Old Black."  Can't go wrong with that.  Now I just need an old Bigsby tremelo...

Take A Seat

This was taking place of my guitar while I was trying to get a good understanding of the lighting.  It didn't turn out too terrible, in fact, I kind of like it...so here it is.

Used Bookstore

There is a wonderful little used bookstore about half an hour from where I live.  Some close friends of mine introduced my wife and I to it many years ago, and we have made a point of going there first whenever we are looking for books.  The owner is an extremely sweet woman who is so quick to share some of her new and favorite finds and will tell you anything she knows of the books that you end up buying.  Somehow she seems to know a good deal about every book in her store (which is actually her house).
In that we are moving to Northern Ireland, our book collection had to be cut down significantly.  It was a horrible task that was really quite difficult, but it resulted in us actually acknowledging the good stuff that we have, hopefully making us more inclined to read those that we have not already read.  It also allowed us to donate about 150 books to our favorite used bookstore...this one...

Table Display

This is one of her rooms.  She put a bunch of books about Ireland on this table...in case we were interested in learning more about our destination.

Illuminated

Another room in her house has walls lined with bookshelves.  A little lamp illuminates the books.

Books

We couldn't leave without looking through her newest additions...and the old ones, too.  I ended up grabbing DeLillo's Mao II and Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad.  My wife grabbed a few as well, though I'm not sure what.

More Urban Alphabet

I figured I should probably finish up Ephrata, PA's urban alphabet before I leave it for...well...potentially forever.  I only have another 25 days left before the big move to Northern Ireland.  I must say, I am crazy excited.  Also, I realized that when I started this 365 photo project, without even knowing it, I started about 6 months before the day we leave.  I think its about 5 months and 20 days.  So I will have half a year in America and a nice contrasting half a year in Northern Ireland.  It will be quite interesting to go back and see what a busy day that requires a filler photograph in America is in comparison to a filler photograph in Northern Ireland...I assume filler there, if for no other reason than because I have never lived outside of the USA and thus will be amazed by everything, will end up being a lot better than even some of my good stuff here.  We shall see.

Urban Alphabet

More than halfway done...Hopefully I can finish it in the next 25 days.