Things To Do:
- Duck Tours – Make this the first stop on your trip. You will get a humorous behind the scenes tour of Boston from both land and sea.
- Harvard Square – If you are seeking academic inspiration or just a good place for lunch and people watching visit Harvard Square. Just don’t plan browsing the library. If you want to learn something about the place, take the student led tour. I think it’s free?
- Freedom Trail – Word of advice….make it your own adventure.
- Cheers – Norm!
- Sox Game – No matter who your team is, if you are a baseball fan need you need to see a game from the Fenway bleachers.
- Boston Photo Walking Tours – Due to the weather we never made it. However, it looked appealing for the photography/tourist minded.
List As Magic - Boston Photo Map : By no means is this an exhaustive list. There is a lot more to explore in Boston and I hope to get back someday to do so.
View Light As Magic – Boston, MA in a larger map
I was raised in Somerville & Arlington (3 and 6 miles from DT Boston). Worked at MIT after biz school and really enjoyed your shots on the Charles. Left ’89 for San Diego. I miss Boston terribly!
If you get back to Boston, you must take 2 full weeks for a New England blitz.
Cape Cod is best either May or Sept. to avoid the crowds. If you want to ride, get a bike in Falmouth, MA and ride the paved-over RR tracks down to Woods Hole. It is a great ride and mostly flat. From Woods Hole, take your bike onto the ferry (@ 45 min.) over to Martha’s Vineyard (or a 2-1/2 hr. ride to Nantucket).
However, Nantucket is often very windy and sand can whip and sting your legs, so I imagine it would not be a good thing for your lenses (speaking of the beaches).
Going north from Boston, you have all kinds of great coastal areas. Crane’s Beach has awesome dunes. Salem, MA is a nice town too. Gloucester and Rockport are very pretty, especially in the late spring. The old industrial mill buildings in Lawrence, Lowell and Haverhill lend themselves to a lot of creativity, especially for B&W.
Portsmouth, NH and all the way up to Camden, ME and beyond are truly a photographer’s delight and I especially love Mt. Desert Island (about a 6-hr. ride north of Boston).
I used to live on the Lexington/Arlington line right off Massachusetts Ave. Of course, there is tons of history there going up into Lexington and Concord, etc.
Vermont is another wonderful area.
If you have time, Montreal is a 6-hr. drive also. If you are really energetic, Quebec City is an 8-hr. drive from Boston (the one place I neglected to get to).
The New England states are small but the surprising thing for tourists is the diversity in the landscape. You’ve got the rocky shores from Maine to north of Boston, the fine white sands at many beaches (like Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester) or the nice areas on Cape Cod. Lots of lighthouses also. My uncle grew up in the Nobska Point Lighthouse in Falmouth/Woods Hole.
If you do return to the Boston Area, email me and I’ll give you a bunch of places that are very picturesque. I’m one to avoid crowds. You can get lovely shots late Fall and even in the Winter. Sometimes after storms, I’d walk the beaches and the white snow-capped dunes were stunning against the rough ocean and mist and dark clouds.
ChrisKing
Sequim, WA (Olympic Peninsula)
Thanks Christine!
This is great information and very generous of you to leave here. Hopefully others can benefit from it. I will surely email you if (more like when) I head back to the North East. Actually, I will email you if I am headed to the Olympic Peninsula as well. I would love to get out there to sea kayak the San Juan islands.
Thanks again, and I am glad you enjoyed the photos!
Take care,
Justin