Scott Lyerly

Mar 15 Photo

March 15th, 2016

Given that we are pet owners once again, I find I’m looking around at all the things that need to get picked up and tucked away so that they don’t become chew toys.

I found myself seeing old things that I hadn’t looked at in a long time. Case in point, the picture above. This is a bar we have in the house. It’s an old piece of furniture that I got from my parents at one point as a hand-me-down. As you can see, the front of it is a little wrecked.

You see, several years ago, we had cats. Two of them. They were my wife’s before we met and they came as part of the packaged deal. I really grew to love those two furry menaces. They ended up being borderline lap cats as they aged. But in their youth, they were, shall we say, active.

The scratches on the front of this bar are from their rear claws as they tried to gain purchase while jumping up onto the bar. I suppose I could have the bar refinished, but truth be told, I like the way it looks.
Mar 14 Photo

March 14th, 2016

What I’d rather be doing tonight instead of working out…
Mar 13 Photo

March 13th, 2016

View from the balcony of the church in the center of town. Taken with Hipstamatic with the Zytlus wide angle lens attached.
Mar 12 Photo

March 12th, 2016

Nothing fancy today. Just a perspective shot of Target from the Starbucks embedded at the front of the store.
Mar 11 Photo

March 11th, 2016

“What are you looking at?”

We recently got a dog. She’s still a puppy, somewhere between 11 and 12 weeks. Normally she doesn’t stand still long enough for pictures. This morning I caught her looking up at me, doubtlessly wondering what the hold up is for heading back inside.

Paitence. For both of us.
Mar 10 Photo

March 10th, 2016

Sometime you’re standing there, minding your own business, waiting with your kid for the morning bus, and you look up and see the trees and can’t believe how tall they are, especially compared to the kids waiting for the bus, and you get that sudden feeling of just how tiny we humans are in the world.

This was one of those mornings.
Mar 9 Photo

March 9th, 2016

In honor of the warmest March 9 in Boston’s history, I bring you a picture of a Christmas light.

Well, sort of.

Today was in fact historic for Boston weather, as the temperature hit 75 degrees today. Which is fine by me. We’ve been fairly fortunate this winter, having not had a lot of snow. Then again, given last winter and the winter before that, we were kind of owed a milder winter. And with today’s temps, we’re starting to feel like maybe spring really is right around the corner.

One of the ways we decided to survive this winter was to embrace a Norwegian concept called koselig. It loosely translates as “cozy”. It basically involves making your home as warm and friendly as possible. This can cover a lot of ground. From extra blankets to candles, from warm slippers to wine, from friends over for dinner to fireplaces. One of the many ideas is to have as much warm light as possible. Makes sense if you think about it. Norway is pretty far to the north, and the days get super-short up there. So more light is a great way to ward off the long dark nights.

This year, in an attempt to survive another long New England winter, I strung white Christmas lights around the ceiling of the downstairs. I also hung a string of the “icicle” lights in the front window. The effect has been noticeable for us this year, making the downstairs feel a little more magical than in years past.

So today, in honor of the coming end of winter (and hopefully we’ll avoid any late season snowstorms that we’re prone to), and in anticipation of the coming spring, I’m offering up a close-up shot of one of the lights.

Taken with the Ztylus macro lens, cropped in Snapseed.
Mar 8 Photo

March 8th, 2016

I love how this one turned out. This is simply a shot of some trees along a path where I work, with the sun partially obscured by one of them. What makes this one different is that I used my sunglasses as a filter. Literally, just holding up my sunglasses in front of the iPhone camera lens and “snap”. The result is a strangely lit, almost ghost-like quality to the trees. Completely unedited or post-processed.
Mar 7 Photo

March 7th, 2016

I’ve started re-reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman. It’s an utterly enthralling book and this is my fourth or fifth time through it. I read it for the first time about seven or eight years ago and it surprised me how much it stuck with me, especially since I’m pretty ambivalent about some of Gaiman’s other works. I was “meh” about Neverwhere, couldn’t get into Anansi Boys, and thought the Graveyard Book was good if not ridiculously derivative. (Then again, Gaiman made no bones about how the Graveyard Book was heavily inspired and influenced by Kipling’s the Jungle Books, so I should be more tolerant–but I’m not.)

But American Gods? One of my favorites of all time. To a certain degree, I felt I learned more about America than I had ever known just by reading an Englishman’s fictional account of a road trip taken by a couple of guys, one of whom may be a god.

The cover of the book is a highway stretching off to the horizon through the plains, touched by the fire of a lightning strike during a storm. As I went for a walk today, I took my book with me, as I usually do. I read while I walk, but pay attention to where I’m going as well, trying to make sure I don’t end up like Stephen King. I look up occasionally to check where I am, that I haven’t veered into the street, that I’m out of the way of the passing cars.

Today, I looked up at one point and saw the above picture. It’s a stretch of road bending down a hill. There were two guys walking along it. I quickly took my phone out and snapped the picture. I tinkered with it about in Snapseed (cropping) and Hipstamatic (filters). The result is a picture that reminds me of the book I’ve started to re-read. I’m good with that.
Mar 6 Photo

March 6th, 2016

As promised, two for today.

The building where my daughter takes ballet is one of those old repurposed brick warehouse buildings that you find all over Worcester. It’s got some great brick work, and has all the issues you’d expect an old brick warehouse to have (leaks, drafts, etc).

I snapped the entrance to the building, which is up a short flight of stone steps and into an alcove of sorts, embedded in which is a large heavy wooden door. One of the things that really caught my eye was the use of stone at the top of the columns before the brick continued up into the arches.

I toned down the colors uses the Formulas app to give it a muted, vintage feel.