HDR Photography
The move to Hartford has offered me the opportunity to capture this time sequence (like the ones I took in Kentucky and the North Country) with a dramatic view of Travelers Tower over the course of a day. If the image appeals, it’s also available as a dynamic wallpaper for macOS that will change your desktop with the time of day.
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Moving to downtown Hartford, Connecticut placed this view just outside my window. I used to look across the city to Travelers Tower (the illuminated building at right) from my dorm room at Trinity College; 15 years later, I realize it shone like a beacon because it was being actively lit from nearby rooftops. Perhaps that’s a good lesson for life: the achievements that stand out don’t do so by accident, but because of conscious effort.
As a child, I had this recurring dream of flying above my small Connecticut town. (Blame too many viewings of The Explorers.) The magic of actually rising above that town (with a drone) makes even the bare trees of early spring look romantic.
Big changes are coming to the world of Decaseconds: Next fall, I’ll be returning to Trinity College (my alma mater) as their newest physical chemistry professor.
I took this picture of Trinity’s chapel, framed by foliage, as I packed up my car to leave at the end of my interview. Though I didn’t yet know what I do now (I’m going back there!), the warm breeze and familiar smells and satisfaction of a successful interview left me with a sense of calm, comfort, and peace.
Bright Saturday morning sunshine warms Salisbury, Connecticut and make the town ski jump flash in the distance at the left of the image.
Neal Stephenson’s “Fall” suggests that that pattern of one’s childhood hometown is patterned deeply into the brain. This picture captures pretty much everywhere I could get to on my own (i.e., on my bike) when I was seven years old—so, basically my whole world at that point.
This particular acute crossroads in Salisbury, Connecticut is home to the White Hart Inn, and it turns out that it’s photogenic in just about every season.
As a child, I dreamed of flying over my home town—viewing all of the familiar paths from high above. Visiting that town last weekend, I was able to photographically make that dream a reality. The forests where I hiked and the town ski jump are all laid out before the drone’s lens.
While I was a student at Trinity, all of the lighting on campus was from orange sodium vapor lamps. The transition to white LED lighting has made a dramatic shift in the feel of the place at night, but the golden hue of the chapel here provides a little nostalgic taste of the one-time colors of the place.
The building density of an urban campus like Trinity College’s makes for lots of retaining walls and stairs and additional structure. A well-designed campus is a delightful place to explore.
Trinity College’s “concrete jungle” of dorms have some surprisingly cool architecture for utilitarian dorm buildings.
Though much of Trinity College’s campus has switched to white LED lights, this section still has the orange sodium lights I remember from my days as a student.
Jarvis B was my dormitory during my freshman year at Trinity College. Before it was renovated into quads, it was once a block-long hallway of architectural weirdness.
The first warm days of the spring immediately put me in mind of summer nights.
Trinity College’s Long Walk was my home for four years, and I still find its warm evening glow to be comforting.
Decaseconds 