First snow of the season

Snow fell this week in North Andover, just in time for Christmas. Here are some pictures of North Andover's first snow covering.

Winter concert brings spirit of the season to N. Andover

(This is an excerpt of an article published to patch.com)
 
'Tis the season to sing and play at North Andover High School.

Aaron Goldberg conducts NAHS's Brass Ensemble

NAHS's award-winning band and chorus played in their first concert of the year to an audience of about 250. The concert featured the school's 66-member symphonic band and 63-member chorus, along with a number of smaller specialized groups.

"Music is meant to be heard," said band director Aaron Goldberg, "so it's great for us to be out here performing."  (Continue reading)

Wednesday ((SOT)): Horsing around

"A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Mister Ed."
                                                                                                          -"Mr. Ed" television show theme song

There were no talking horses at Methuen's Nevin's farm, but plenty of proud stallions and mares ready for their close-up.  That was the scene a few weeks ago when I pulled out my camera for a horse photo shoot.  Vanessa Wright, an equine photographer, taught me and about 15 others how to take the perfect "horse pictures."

Wright explained that taking pictures of horses is more than just "point and shoot," and that equine photography has its own special class.  I never thought of horse photography as a single field until I met my classmates.  Most of them specialized in horses, they either took photos at horse competitions or owned their own horses.

Most of the horses strutted there stuff in front of the camera as if they knew exactly what was going on.   Only one big black stallion shunned the cameras after a few minutes of shooting.  He quickly turned around with his rear end pointed straight at my lens, giving a big "grunt" as if to say "move along now."

The photo shoot proved a success, and I got to experiment with my new camera.  Some of the better shots are in the slide show below.

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Wednesday ((SOT)): Hello fall. Goodbye summer.

"I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house.  So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air."
                                                                                                                                                           -Nathaniel Hawthorne

Fall begins today.  If you're in the Northeast like me, take advantage of the colorful season before winter comes.  Here are some of my photos from this fall.