Looking up a flag pole across from my apartment
If you are anything like me, you walk around your community with a camera and take pictures when the mood strikes. I shot the above photo one day when looking for unique perspectives. If I’m writing in your language, keep reading because I want to make your photography notorious.
Note: Scroll below if you don’t care where I live and why this is an important backdrop to this blog post.
I live in Newburyport, Massachusetts, about an hour northeast of Boston. I moved here in September 2007, a month after accepting a then-position in city hall, where I worked in the mayor’s office. I’m active with numerous civic and environmental groups, not to mention the North Shore Web Geeks. I’ve accomplished much over the past two years, but the most exciting is I was elected last month to the city council; my 2-year term (my first time in elected office, and a lifelong dream) starts January 4.
Newburyport, with its population of 17,000, is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and is situated at the mouth of the Merrimack River. Ship building was a booming industry in the 1700s and 1800s, from privateers to whalers to clipper ships. Maritime trade was so important that a United States Custom House was erected to assist with foreign trade, and the U.S. Coast Guard was founded here.
The Wikipedia entry for the city references many notable residents over the years, from President John Quincy Adams to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison to politicians, scientists, and explorers. Many wealthy landowners’ homes continue to dot High Street; the Federalist and Victorian architecture is considered to be among the finest examples in the country.
With its rich history behind and all around me, I roam and photograph…
My Newburyport sets on Flickr include jousting canoers, a Mister Rogers-like train ride around a pond, newspapers for sale at Richdale’s convenient store, a Civil War memorial in a city park, an outdoor scene setting up for an expo, and Old Hill Cemetery.
Over the next week, I will rummage through my favorite shots — and take some new pictures with my Canon SD 1100 digital camera — and upload the best of the best into the Home Sweet Homepage Photo Contest, which Microsoft is running for its Bing search engine. Over a series of rounds, the winning photo will be featured on Bing.com on January 6, 2010.
The below image ran tonight:
Bing homepage photo
Key to Bing’s photo contest is to upload those civic pictures that exude where you live, so much so that a casual visitor to the search engine will click around to learn more — and hopefully, want to visit. Isn’t that the point of having anything on a website and indexed on a search engine, so people can learn more about your brand?
There’s also the element of fun and intrigue. Imagine if your photo is picked to be featured and your mayor learns about it; you could be presented with the keys to city hall for the day and be the subject of a proclamation!
I mentioned there are voting rounds. Submit your photos soon, for finalists will be announced on December 15, with the winner and his or her photo chosen on December 21.
I ask my Newburyport friends and acquaintances (and now, constituents) to submit their photos. I ask my readers to share their communities, too. If your photo is selected by Microsoft and Bing, let me know?
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Those are amazing pictures, I love the pictures on Bing
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