Snowy owls love the Boston airport. This man sends them away.
BOSTON — Every winter, Arctic snowy owls fly thousands of miles south to Boston Logan International Airport. And every season, Norman Smith drives less than an hour to try to snatch them up.
'I've seen a plane taxiing down the runway and the people looking out and seeing me with a bird,' said Smith, 73. 'They're like, 'What's that? What are you doing?''
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Boston Globe
13 hours ago
- Boston Globe
The best souvenir they ever got on vacation? A professional photo shoot.
Even as technology puts photography in everyone's pockets, travelers are increasingly investing in high-end, high-priced images of themselves and their families and friends on vacation. Companies including Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Sometimes when you go on a special trip, the selfie doesn't really capture what you're seeing, what you're feeling, or the magic of the city,' said Nicole Smith, who started Flytographer after hiring a photographer to take pictures of herself and a friend during a vacation to Paris from the job she held at the time at Microsoft. Advertisement Companies including Flytographer and Local Lens have popped up to connect consumers with local photographers around the world, who take memorable portraits against backdrops of iconic landmarks. Shown here, Florence. FLYTOGRAPHER 'People want to be able to remember their special stories forever,' Smith said. 'All I wanted to bring back from that weekend was a memory. I really wanted to capture the Parisian architecture. And that was the only souvenir I wanted to bring back.' Advertisement She said one person in a couple or a group is often expected to act as the photographer. 'There's someone always trying to take the photo and usually missing from it,' Smith said. In Colleen Simms's family, that was typically her. 'As the mother, I feel like I wasn't always in the pictures,' said Simms, of Cohasset. So she and her husband have also gotten into the habit of arranging for professional photographers on their vacations. 'The world is full of such beautiful places, and the backdrops just remind you: 'I was there'' — especially since she's now in the photos, too — Simms said. It isn't cheap. Photo sessions booked through Companies including Flytographer and Local Lens have popped up to connect consumers with local photographers around the world, who take memorable portraits against backdrops of iconic landmarks. Shown here, Honolulu. FLYTOGRAPHER There are other ways to find professional photographers to shoot vacations. 'You spend a lot of money and time going on vacation, then you come home and sometimes there's a letdown,' Simms said of the cost. 'You see those pictures and they're a reminder.' Advertisement Now she has a succession of photos of her children growing up, on vacations they've taken together to Ireland, the Amalfi coast, and other destinations. 'Every time we travel, my kids are, like, 'Oh, what's Mom going to make us do,' she said. But 'childhood is so fleeting, and to capture them each year, and in all these amazing places — the pictures become really special treasures of a moment in time.' Photos like these are much more than simply decorations on the mantle, agreed Crista Dix, executive director at the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester. 'They trigger an emotional response, a sense memory, a moment in time, whether they're digital or printed,' Dix said. 'It's a moment that you have in that image.' The museum is named for Arthur Griffin, a Lawrence-born photojournalist for Time and Life magazines who often shot travel photos. Those kinds of pictures in particular 'show what you do, who you are, where you go. And they can be passed on,' Dix said — unlike a T-shirt or another kind of souvenir. Companies including Flytographer and Local Lens have popped up to connect consumers with local photographers around the world, who take memorable portraits against backdrops of iconic landmarks. Shown here, Bali. FLYTOGRAPHER Few people still paste photos and ticket stubs in photo albums, but many now make photo books, she said. And while many phones take great photos for these purposes, 'there's something to be said for the viewpoint of an artist,' said Haley Price, managing partner of Local Lens. 'They capture the entire landscape of a place.' Local photographers can also offer restaurant and sightseeing recommendations. 'That's a key value to the service, Price said. Customers 'get to connect to this local. They can tell you about the city, their favorite spots, what to do, what not to do.' Advertisement That increasingly includes locations for marriage proposals, bachelor and bachelorette parties, couples on honeymoons, and others. 'The trend has been to commemorate something or celebrate something with travel,' Price said. 'This has been growing and growing. People who are looking to celebrate something, they're going somewhere.' And many want professional photos to commemorate it. Debbie Tseng and her husband got a Flytographer gift card as a honeymoon gift, and have continued to hire local photographers when they've traveled ever since — to Rome, Paris, Maui. Often they will use one of the resulting photos as their holiday card picture. The last trip was to Tokyo with Tseng's parents, during cherry blossom season. 'It was such a lovely memory for my family, and our photographer there was really personable and knew all the spots for the late-breaking cherry blossoms,' said Tseng, who lives in Cambridge. Companies including Flytographer and Local Lens have popped up to connect consumers with local photographers around the world, who take memorable portraits against backdrops of iconic landmarks. Shown here, Cape Town. FLYTOGRAPHER 'The greatest joys in life are the memories that you make with your loved ones,' she said. 'Material things can come and go, but what you hold in your heart most fondly are the experiences.' Especially as life becomes more crowded, Price said, 'the experience of the vacation matters so much.' And photos 'just kind of transport you back to that moment.' Woody Benson thinks so, too. He buys gift cards from the photo companies during Black Friday sales, even before his family has decided where to vacation next. 'We know we'll use it even if we haven't planned our trips yet,' said Benson, of Sharon. The resulting photos 'are sort of like our keepsake for the big trips that we go on.' For Greg Gray, there's even more to it than that. He and his husband are heading to Paris for their 10th anniversary; they also went there for their fifth, and had professional photos taken then. Advertisement 'We'll take pictures of each other a lot, but unless we do something like this, we don't have many pictures together,' Gray said. 'Selfies are what they are, but they're not that great. These photos show us how we've changed, and our lives together.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Boise to welcome ‘crown jewel' of hotels on Grove Street. What's coming?
The newest hotel in downtown Boise is edging closer to opening in an area that has seen a wild transformation since the COVID-19 pandemic. Construction crews, city officials, businessmen and developers celebrated a 'topping off' ceremony Wednesday for the incoming 15-story, dual-branded AC and Element Marriott hotel at 1011 W. Grove St. Attendees signed the final structural beam before a crane lifted it atop the building. The AC Hotel will offer a 'sleek, modern experience' with a European style, while the Element Hotel will focus on 'wellness, sustainability and extended-stay comfort,' said Mike Webster, the president of Eagle's Pennbridge Hospitality, which is building the hotels. The two hotels will be within the same building with a shared lobby. The 175-room AC will offer a minimalist experience, while all rooms in the 121-room Element will have kitchens and complimentary breakfasts. 'We think we're bringing something truly unique to the Boise market,' Webster said. The estimated $100 million hotel will include 296 rooms with 10 suites, 9,000 square feet of meeting space, a fitness center and an outdoor roof deck with a spa, barbecues and fire pits on the fifth floor. On the 16th floor, the hotel will include a full-service restaurant and bar called the Boise Post flanked by two rooftop decks. According to Tom Whitney, vice president of development at Pennbridge, the restaurant will use local ingredients in global dishes — such as a Thai larb salad with smoked Idaho trout or churros with Idaho potato flour. The restaurant will be open to the public, too. 'This will really be a crown jewel of the Boise hotel scene,' Whitney said. 'This property will be a landmark.' The building has been under construction for 17 months, and it still has about nine months until crews finish, Whitney said. The hotel is Pennbridge's 14th and its fifth in Idaho. The company's portfolio includes two hotels in Twin Falls, two Marriott hotels in Boise and the 10-story Residence Inn that opened on Capitol Boulevard in October 2017. The new hotel will 'be a great compliment' to the Residence Inn, said Tom Lewis, one of two principals and cofounders of Pennbridge along with Jared Smith. The building has been a long-time coming. The company bought the parking lot that filled the site in January 2020, according to Smith. Then the pandemic hit two months later, parking revenue went to zero, and the duo questioned what they were doing. 'The sun is much brighter in June of 2025 than it was in June of 2020,' Smith said. In that period, a wave of new hotels and redevelopment swept through downtown Boise — focusing heavily on properties surrounding the 11th and Grove street intersection where the AC and Element Hotel is going up. The 122-room Hotel Renegade opened on the northwest corner in May 2024, followed two months later by the boutique Sparrow hotel with 66 rooms on the northeast corner. Both Hotel Renegade and the AC and Element hotels filled former parking lots. Mayor Lauren McLean said the new hotels are helping link the core of downtown to other parts of downtown along Grove Street. 'We have seen so much progress and development right here in an area that was pretty quiet just a couple years ago at the beginning of COVID,' McLean said at the event. 'And it has come to life.' Cody Lund, the executive director of the Boise Centre, told the Idaho Statesman after the Sparrow opened that the city continues to see more demand than hotels have room for. The new Pennbridge hotel could make a dent in that demand, but local hoteliers say the city is still lacking a large-scale hotel with 600 rooms or more that could help bring in bigger conventions or events. The 296 rooms of the new hotel would get close, but not surpass, the largest hotel in the Greater Boise Auditorium District's boundaries: the Riverside Hotel in Garden City, with 300 rooms. But it would dethrone the largest in Boise: the Grove Hotel on Boulevard, with 250 rooms. Thought shopping malls were dead? This developer wants to bring one back to life As Boise area grapples with change, more homes get OK for busy transit corridor Harris Ranch could soon add businesses, shopping & food carts. What's the plan? A historic Boise home could be demolished over safety concerns. What happened?
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
The best Joshua Tree hikes for wanderers and wildlife watchers
Like many national parks, Joshua Tree National Park offers a wide range of trails at all levels of hiking expertise and ability. No matter which route you choose or time of year you decide to visit, always remember that this national park is a desert. Sunscreen, a hat, ample water, and a flashlight for night hikes are required even on shorter hikes. On longer jaunts, pack energy snacks, and a portable first-aid kit in case you have an unexpected run-in with a cactus or wildlife. Due to the lack of reliable cell phone service in the park, download your hiking route to GPS before setting off. Joshua Tree National Park is utterly oppressive during the summer when midday temperatures frequently hover above 100°F. Winter means cooler days (around 60°F), freezing nights, and the possibility of strong winds and even snow at the park's higher elevations. However, spring and fall are ideal for Joshua Tree hikes in the Mojave Desert—the blue skies, gentle breeze, very little chance of rain, an average high of 85°F, and a low of 50°F. Hiking in the spring also brings the possibility of catching the wildflowers in bloom, which usually starts in January or February at lower elevations and reaches a park-wide peak in April through June. 'October through May is our busiest time of year, especially holiday weekends,' says Donovan Smith, the park's public information officer. Entrance station lines are often longer, and parking lots can fill up as early as 8 a.m., according to Smith. So, get there early to hike one of the more popular trails. (Everything you need to know about Joshua Tree National Park) Easy Joshua Tree trailsThree short nature trails in the heart of the park—Hidden Valley, Barker Dam, and Cap Rock—are a great introduction to Joshua Tree's natural and human history. The these short hikes are a mile or less in distance and take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. Take the super-short walk from the parking lot to the overlook at Keys View. Just 0.2 miles in length, the loop trail leads to one of the most iconic panoramas in the entire National Park System: A mile-high vista of Coachella Valley with the Salton Sea, Mount San Jacinto, the San Andreas Fault, and Anza-Borrego Desert in the background. The view is especially enchanting at dusk when Palm Springs, Indio, and other valley cities sparkle with millions of lights. The trail is also wheelchair accessible. Intermediate and advanced Joshua Tree trailsThe eight-mile Boy Scout Trail into the boulder-strewn Wonderland of Rocks (a maze of boulder and rock formations) and the 36-mile California Riding & Hiking Trail—normally done as a two- or three-day backpack trip—are among the more challenging trails accessed from the Hidden Valley area. Great hikes in the Cottonwood area include the three-mile route to Mastodon Peak and the seven-point-five-mile trek to remote Lost Palms Oasis. And just off Park Boulevard, the three-mile, out-and-back trail to the summit of 5,456-foot Ryan Mountain renders bird's-eye-views of Hidden Valley, Queen Valley, and Jumbo Rocks. (8 family-friendly things to do in Joshua Tree) Several critters inhabit Joshua Tree's cactus and boulder-strewn landscapes. Most of them are small and well-camouflaged for the desert environment, and most are active after dark, making them hard to spot. Evolutionary biologist and National Geographic Explorer David M. Althoff, who studies insects in the park, says that many people view Joshua Tree and similar areas of the California desert as dry wastelands. 'But if you stop and examine the organisms living there, you realize there is a myriad of amazing creatures. As a scientist, I see these areas as great examples of how evolution can adapt organisms to some really inhospitable places (for humans at least).' Keys View, Wonderland of Rocks, and Queen Mountain north of Hidden Valley are the best places for spotting desert bighorn sheep, the park's largest mammal. (The best places to stay at Joshua Tree National Park.) Otherwise, it's a case of being in the right place at the right time. Given the fact that desert animals are more active at night, the best times to spot wildlife are dusk and dawn. Look for jackrabbits and roadrunners around campgrounds, ground squirrels around boulders, and lizards along just about any trail. Places with water and vegetation—the Oasis of Mara, Barker Dam, Desert Queen Ranch, and Cottonwood Spring—are best for birdwatching. Turkey vultures, kestrels, golden eagles, and red-tailed hawks are among the species that are easiest to spot without binoculars. No matter what creature you come across, always keep a safe distance. Not just for your safety but for the well-being of the animal too. And always look down when you're walking to avoid an unexpected run-in with a rattlesnake. (How to do wildlife tourism right and be a responsible traveler.) Eight-time Lowell Thomas Award winner Joe Yogerst has worked on more than 45 National Geographic books. He lives in With Nat Geo: Learn more about Joshua Tree National Park in the National Geographic Guide to National Parks of the United States Ninth Edition or National Geographic Complete National Parks of the United States Third Edition.
