i was going to go watch the boston marathon today. i didn't go last year because of bad weather. the last time i went was 2022. i used the blog entry for that date as a guide. that time i left by 11am, so that's what i was shooting for. in terms of equipment, i brought my 50-250mm lens and my wide angle lens. i also brought the insta360 X3 camera and the gopro. large bags are discouraged but i couldn't carry everything in my small mountainsmith lumbar pack so i had to upgrade to a messenger bag. temperature was in the 60's so i wore just a pair of navy chinos and a white polo shirt. i opted to take the fuji (like last time), which would get me there a little faster.
i ended up leaving by 10:40am. i headed to my usual spot, the 40km mark, right before kenmore square, at the intersection of boston beacon street and maitland street. i followed the charles river and crossed into boston via the BU bridge. it took a little over 20 minutes to get there. i had my gopro set to timewarp capture.
by the time i arrived the wheelchair division was just passing through. nice warm weather like today is actually bad for runners because it causes them to overheat. so i was expecting them to show up later than sooner. the first men runners didn't appear until about 11:30am. the first women runners about 12pm. i was trying something new today. normally i used in aperture priority mode set to f/8, for maximum clarity. but just recently i picked up a tip from an online sports photographer that he always shoots in shutter priority, with the shutter speed no less than 1/1600th of second. so that's what i've been doing recently, anything that moves, or shooting from inside a moving car. it causes my aperture to change, but it's worth it for sharp (non-blurry) photos.
marathons are hard to photograph. runners go by so quickly, and there are so many, it's hard to pick out a good subject. plus i showed up early to see the frontrunners, but there's a long time gap between them and the rest of the normal runners to show up. about 30k runners participate in the boston marathon. by the time i left, i only saw runners from the 10k field, would've had to wait another 30-60 minutes before seeing the 20k runners. i tried slowly my shutter speed so i could get a blur of runners. that didn't quite work because it was so bright out, the photos became overexposed. as i was about to leave my spot, i decided to use my 360 camera. i extended it on the 3ft pole and mounted it to the top of the metal barricade. it looked kind of weird, like i had an antenna.
there's something really graceful and beautiful about a runner's body. i especially like to capture them in profile, where you can see all their muscles at work. it's amazing how much endurance these marathon runners have. they've already ran 25 miles and are still running fast enough that it looks like they're sprinting. it's inspirational, makes me want to go running this week.
i finally left by spot around 1:30pm. i then went southwest down beacon street, towards the direction of coolidge corner in brookline. i mounted the 360 camera on the pole attached to my handlebar. i probably looked weird riding around with a pole sticking out of my bike. i rode gingerly, as the extension pole had a tendency to wobble, and i didn't want it falling over along with the camera.
i stopped a few times to get photos, until i reached coolidge corner. by then it was 2pm. i followed harvard avenue towards brighton-allston, all the way through harvard square to get home. it took about 20 minutes.
i gathered up my things and left for belmont by 2:30pm. my parents had already gone on a waltham supply run, hitting both costco and market basket. my father also went to the post office and mailed off their tax returns. my mother reheated some leftover noodles my father didn't finish for lunch.
i ended up taking about 1200 photos from the marathon. i didn't get many good shots, maybe a handful at most, a rather unsatisfying and disappointing outing. i also reviewed some of the 360 footage, it's going to take some time to edit them so they're presentable. 360 videos feel a lot like 3D photos, in that they're cool but not very easy to view.
i also got a tan from being out in the sun all day. it's an uneven tan, the top of my left forearm since that was the part of my body that was facing the sun, the left side of my nose. my dream is to one day have an even tan.
one of things i had to do today was water the grow room plants. i ended up moving all the jasmine plants outside so they can get some real sun. later i'd move them all into the sunroom, so they can be acclimated to the outdoor weather and eventually moved outside. without the jasmines in the grow room i was able to turn off one of the spiderfarmer led grow lights. i removed the other spiderfarmer light and put it underneath the gardenia. currently it still hasn't developed any flower buds yet.
too bad i was at the marathon today, because the nice weather (temperature actually hit the 70's) would've made for a great gardening day. i still got some outdoor gardening done though. those peas i planted back in march? they finally sprouted, 3 weeks later. it's the first full season where the raised beds are protected by a cage, so we made get a good crop of peas this spring. i also planted the swiss chard seeds i got on saturday. the seed packet only came with two seeds! i planted them in RB0, in a pile of cambridge compost. the last thing i did was fill up the birdfeeder. i was afraid all the sunflower shells underneath the feeder was going to kill the grass. it actually had the opposite effect. with so much bird activity around the feeder, the accumulate of bird poop has actually fertilized that patch of grass so it's greener and thicker than the surrounding lawn. next winter more birdfeeders!
for dinner my father made a sauerkraut stew, fill of enoki mushrooms, meatballs, and tofu. he also added some shrimps but i didn't eat any.
i returned home by 7pm. temperature was still in the 60's but with the setting sun it was starting to become cooler. thankfully i brought a pullover thinking it might get cold. it was warm inside the house though, and warm enough that the furnace never kicked in the entire night.
my oven light gasket arrived today. it came in a box when they could've just sent me the gasket in an envelope. unfortunately the gasket was a little small, and not as thick as the original gasket. i ended up forcing the gasket (which is really just a thin fiberglass ring) onto the glass and then screwing everything into place. i won't know if it holds or not until the next time i use the oven. i reassembled the oven, taping the schematic diagram back onto the bottom of the oven tray.
i finally got around to making my fermented hot sauce. i chopped up some hot anaheim peppers and garlic and left them to ferment in a fido jar for over 2 weeks. tonight i emptied the jar into a strainer and dumped all the fermented peppers and garlic into my small ninja food processor. i then blended everything into a sauce. when i process non-fermented peppers they remain chunky. however when i process fermented peppers, they get blended into a smoother sauce. the final result was a little watery though, and has a strong sour taste because of the fermentation. i'll bring it to the cafe tomorrow. periodically customers ask for hot sauce, which presents me with an opportunity to experiment with homemade hot sauces.
the hose on my waterpik broken tonight, developed a crack where the water would spray out. i went online in search of replacement parts and discovered a market of replacement hose/handle assembly. apparently they break so often, they're designed to be easily replaced. waterpik sells official replacement hose/handle assemblies, but it's $16 plus $6 shipping. there are various knockoffs on amazon, but many have bad reviews. i ended up going with the official waterpik replacement. i bought two to qualify for free shipping, and found a 20% off coupon for a final cost of $27.
tonight i'm finishing the last episode of fallout on amazon prime. i've been watching it in short segments, not because they're bad, but because each episode is so good, i don't want it to ever end. only 8 episodes total this season! although i read somewhere a second season has already been greenlighted.