Inspired by Steve's daily photos out of London on his blog Shadows & Light, and now that I have an iPhone, I thought I'd try to catch some of my city. I usually take close-up photos of things, so I want to pull back and show the surroundings.
Last night, biking home down the Greenway bike & walk path in the dark (it was a fairly warm 30ºF / -1ºC), I stopped to shoot a kids' hockey game through the chain link fence.
Not very good photos, but I like how the coach calls the kids together for a huddle, and then they fly away, like pigeons.
What the photos can't capture is the sound of skates on ice--a friendly sound I heard every winter growing up, skating on the lake or at city parks.
This isn't a city park: organized soccer games are held in this field in the summer, sponsored––you can see their signs––by big businesses.
It's fairly rare to see kids playing old-fashioned baseball these days, but winter sports remain the same.
Hockey's an expensive game though--you need a lot of gear--and this is a well-maintained ice rink. People do play pick-up games on the nearby lakes--the city shovels rinks on the ice--all you need is skates and a stick.
Or, come to think of it, you don't even need those things--people play broomball in their winter boots, with kitchen brooms to guide the ball on the ice.
They bring their own shovels to clear the lake ice of snow--though you can see by the patches of grass in the top photo, we've had weirdly little snow this year.
Last night, biking home down the Greenway bike & walk path in the dark (it was a fairly warm 30ºF / -1ºC), I stopped to shoot a kids' hockey game through the chain link fence.
Not very good photos, but I like how the coach calls the kids together for a huddle, and then they fly away, like pigeons.
What the photos can't capture is the sound of skates on ice--a friendly sound I heard every winter growing up, skating on the lake or at city parks.
This isn't a city park: organized soccer games are held in this field in the summer, sponsored––you can see their signs––by big businesses.
It's fairly rare to see kids playing old-fashioned baseball these days, but winter sports remain the same.
Hockey's an expensive game though--you need a lot of gear--and this is a well-maintained ice rink. People do play pick-up games on the nearby lakes--the city shovels rinks on the ice--all you need is skates and a stick.
Or, come to think of it, you don't even need those things--people play broomball in their winter boots, with kitchen brooms to guide the ball on the ice.
They bring their own shovels to clear the lake ice of snow--though you can see by the patches of grass in the top photo, we've had weirdly little snow this year.
While living in NH I saw lots of hockey out on frozen ponds. Love that sound of the pucks hitting the wood that would be used as the goals. Then every January would be the Black Ice hockey competition that was played outside with both sexes teams.
ReplyDeleteI used to see the young kids even playing in the street.
Love seeing street photos from other parts of the country and world.
Kirsten
KIRSTEN: Yeah, the sound of the puck hitting the wood boards! That's a childhood sound too--though I have to say, as a little kid I was very frightened of the big kids whipping pucks around---afraid they would skate into me or hit me with a puck. (Never happened.)
ReplyDeleteI have to get better at street photography--not sure if I can adjust my iPhone camera to get better details at a distance, or what...
But even halfway decent shots catch the feel of a place--I like to see them too (like the mini-tableaux street scenes you sent, with the cute toy rats!)
Lots of our parks have skates available...for rent? for free? Maybe depends on the park. I think our park, Bryant, has free use of skates. I keep meaning to go skating one day...
ReplyDeleteI do love the swishy ripping sound skates make.
This warmer weather has been terrible for our park people who try to make nice, smooth outdoor rinks out of soccer fields. I've hardly seen any skaters at all this year.