David Griffin Photography

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Category Archives: Community

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OAR’s 2nd Annual Film Festival

February 17, 2010 – 3:09 pm

Mark your calendars and purchase your tickets – the second annual OAR Film Festival is scheduled for Wednesday, March 3rd, at 7pm, and promises to be an evening of humor, adventure, and inspiration.

Last year we packed the Fine Arts Theatre in Maynard with an amazing debut event and we expect to sell out this year as well.

The OAR Film Festival is part of the touring Wild & Scenic Environment Film Festival and we are pleased to bring these fantastic films to our part of the country.

For more information about the festival and how to purchase tickets, please visit the OAR web site: [url]http://www.assabetriver.org[/url]

Tickets are $12, and I encourage you to purchase them early as we had a sell-out crowd last year.  There will be light refreshments and lots of door prizes as well.  It’s a great way to spend a Wednesday evening and hope to see you there.

OAR Environmental Film Festival - March 3, 2010

By Dave | Also posted in Environment | Comments (0)

2009 WAVM Telethon Favorites

December 16, 2009 – 4:37 pm

The WAVM Beacon Santa Telethon raised close to (and, by now, probably over) $32,000 for local families in need.  This was a 40-hour live television show produced by high school students.  A difficult task for professionals, they showcase a variety of local talents in conjunction with an auction.

What follows are a few favorite photographs that I took during the telethon.

(Above: Mark Poulin, of HELP!, performs on stage on Friday evening.)


Each year Mr. Vic brings his young music class to sing some holiday songs.


A member of the Maynard Community Band gets into the spirit.


Mark Malcolm, children’s librarian at the Maynard Public Library, hosted a talent show and led the kazoo orchestra.

Connie and Vinnie Stigliani perform as part of the “Tap ‘n’ Tones”.

Violinist Jagan Singh accompanied Liz Pekkala in a Studio A performance of Christmas music.

Members of the famed “Senior Shakers” perform on-stage.

One of Miss Tricia’s dance studio students performing a ballet.

Laura Pratt belts out a tune performing on-stage with True West.

One of our more popular local hip-hop artists, T-Nova, performs on-stage Saturday night.

At 10pm on Saturday the Toy Auction gets underway.

One of the telethon hosts, Nick Jacques, singing in Studio A.

Here’s a good chunk of the team that made that $31,899.10 total possible.  Seven hosts and their tech crews, who work in shifts to keep the 3 television studios and radio station operational during the 40-hour event.

The hosts have a little fun after the telethon winds down. (L-R: Samantha Howell, Jason Schomacker, Emily Witham, Nick Jacques, Rachel MacGillivary, Joey Tyler, Katrina Kohlman).

For way too many other photos of the telethon head over to: [url]http://wavm.org/telethon09/gallery.html[/url]

By Dave | Also posted in Events, Photography | Tagged , , | Comments (2)

Kicking off the 2009 WAVM Beacon Santa Telethon

December 12, 2009 – 12:43 pm

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In our hometown of Maynard, MA there are a number of holiday traditions, and the WAVM Beacon Santa Telethon pretty much tops them all.   The student-run WAVM radio and television station, based at Maynard High School, produces a 40-hour telethon each December.  This year’s telethon kicked off last night at 8pm and I’ll be documenting the event.   Here are are few highlights.   The full galleries are updated during the telethon at the WAVM web site.   After I’ve had a few hours sleep next week I’ll publish a “best of” set on my community page.

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Telethon host Katrina Kohlman reviews the donor board before the telethon starts.

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The kickoff band was Maynard’s own Beatles cover band “Help!”, celebrating their 20 years of great music.

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Studio B is a busy place.

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Kaleigh Mangerelli did a great acoustic set in Studio B.

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Adult volunteer Anita Hill helps a WAVM staff member who will be taking bids over the phones.

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One of the highlights of Saturday mornings for many past telethons has been Mr. Vic and his music class.

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State Representative Kate Hogan stopped in and presented the WAVM staff with a proclamation honoring their hard work to help those less fortunate in our communities.

The telethon appreciates donations and you can bid on hundreds of auction items.  The program is also streaming live on the web so even if you don’t have local cable (TV-8 on Comcast and 28 on Verizon Fios) you can tune in to the program.

By Dave | Also posted in Photography | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

2009 Maynard Christmas Parade

December 6, 2009 – 8:20 pm

I think this might be the 43rd annual Christmas Parade in Maynard.  It was started in 1966 (give or take a year) by Philip Bohunicky (aka Fleepo the Clown).  Phil was inspired to create the parade based on a memory he had of a parade he watched as a young boy (he had snuck out of the orphanage with a friend to watch the parade).  The parade started with a big red fire engine, and, to this day, the parade begins with a series of fire engines from Maynard and surrounding towns blaring their sirens to the (general) delight of the kids along the way.  [I should note that Phil passed away in 2004, but the parade continues as a Maynard tradition.]

Way too many more photos of this event are available at: [url]http://community.dmg-photography.com/2009-christmas-parade[/url]

The Maynard Area Auto Club provides a number of classic cars for folks to ride in.


The parade’s Grand Marshall was Celtics great Jo Jo White (1969-1978), who owns a restaurant in our little town.






The local American Legion had a wonderful float commemorating the men and women from Maynard who are currently serving in the Armed Forces.

I haven’t yet figured out the high school band’s theme for the parade…

I can’t resist a couple of technical notes…

The parade starts at 2pm and heads east down Main Street, loops around downtown, and then returns.   This means when everybody is fresh and happy they are backlit and when they are tired and cold they are bathed in gorgeous afternoon winter light.   It’s all just rather cruel.

Cameras were Canon 1D Mark 2 with the 70-200mm f/2.8L and the Canon 5D Mark 2 with the 24-70mm f/2.8L.  Aperture priority for the first (backlit) stage, and manual exposure for the 2nd (nicely lit) stage.   I shot some handheld video clips at the beginning of the parade, but it looked horrible so I trashed them.

By Dave | Also posted in Photography | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Veterans Day – Nov 11, 2009

November 11, 2009 – 3:59 pm
















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For an expanded set of photos from Maynard’s 2009 Veterans Day Parade please visit my community site: [url]http://community.dmg-photography.com[/url]

To all that have served and are serving today, thank you.

By Dave | Also posted in Events, Photography | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Maynard Downtown Trick or Treat

October 29, 2009 – 5:54 pm

The Assabet Valley Chamber of Commerce sponsors an annual Downtown Trick or Treat here in Maynard and I volunteered to take some photographs for them.

The police close down Nason Street and the little hobgoblins prowl the sidewalks of downtown soliciting treats from local businesses.  Some of the businesses just hand out candy at their door.  A couple really get into the spirit and dress up their shops. It’s really a great and safe way to have the kids experience Halloween.

It’s hard to get good candid photographs, but here are a few of my favorites.  If I do this again next year I think I’ll wear a costume too – a bright orange vest that says “Photographer”.   The full set of photos can be found in my Community gallery: [url]http://community.dmg-photography.com/2009-maynard-trickortreat[/url]




By Dave | Also posted in Photography | Tagged , | Comments (0)

Maynard Prints on sale at Gallery Seven

October 27, 2009 – 9:28 am


Attention Maynardites / former DEC/Digital Alumni / and former/current Millrats of all stripes … just in time for the holidays: some familiar, and perhaps not so familiar, images of the town.

Our sleepy little town of Maynard, Massachusetts has a lot of history and character and I’ve tried to capture some of it in a set of prints that are exclusively available for purchase at Gallery Seven right here in Maynard on Nason Street. We are lucky to have a number of excellent frame shops in the area (Star Framers in Stow comes to mind), but having one in downtown Maynard has been a real treat.  Nick and Kelli are friendly and talented people and they can put these archival prints into the perfect matte/frame combination for you.

The images include views of the Town Clock, the Mill Pond, the Mill Street Bridge, and the Assabet River.   The initial set of prints in the store are on Ilford Gold Fibre Silk, my favorite paper.  If the size in the store isn’t what you want, just ask Nick or Kelli and we’ll get a custom print made for you.  We’ve done our best to make these prints affordable (under $100) – a great value for these hard economic times.

Gallery Seven is worth a visit even if you don’t select one of my prints.  They always have a great art show on the walls and a fine selection of photographs and artwork from area artists.







By Dave | Also posted in Photography | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Photography workshops at the Great Escape

October 3, 2009 – 9:00 am

Today I’m leading a couple of workshops at the Girl Scouts Great Escape at Camp Wabasso in New Hampshire.  The Great Escape is where Girl Scout Leaders in the New England area get together to exchange ideas and learn skills they can incorporate with the scouts when they get back home.  It is a lot of arts and crafts — and I’m taking a shot at teaching the craft of photography.

My first workshop centers on connecting to nature with photography: camera use, environmental field ethics, tripods, etc.    I will spend some time emphasizing how simple point-and-shoot cameras can be used to take great photographs (a definite nod to Chase Jarvis’s concept of “the best camera is the one you have with you”): enhancing their image-making capabilities with simple and inexpensive tools such as a bottle-cap tripod, flash diffuser, and using the self-timer as a “cable release”.

The second workshop is on post-processing: getting images into your computer, basic edits, sharing (email/web/facebook/etc.), and a bit of printing.

The foliage should be pretty good… here’s hoping the weather cooperates a bit.

Photo: Mill Street Bridge, Assabet River, Maynard, MA.  Canon 5D Mark 2, 70-200mm f/2.8L, 115mm, 1/15 @ F/13, ISO 200.  Relatively minor Lightroom tweaks for exposure and contrast.

By Dave | Also posted in Environment, Photography | Comments (0)

Waning Days of Summer on Lake Boon

September 24, 2009 – 6:44 pm

I had to get out of the house and do a little bit of photography.  I have a tiny project for our local state representative that I’ve had on the books for a while, waiting for the scenery to perk up.  So I headed out to Stow and did some shooting.  I ended up at Lake Boon and what unfolded over the next hour had “end of summer” written all over it.  It was a warm autumn evening and folks were still enjoying the lake as the sun creeped slowly to the horizon.

One of the great benefits of the new breed of DSLRs is the ability to shoot video and I took the opportunity to capture some of the quiet scenes that came by that evening.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  (Click the HD button for better quality if you’ve got fast internets.)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es1YUOFg1V8[/youtube]

By Dave | Also posted in Environment, Photography, Video | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

The 23rd Annual Assabet River Cleanup

September 20, 2009 – 5:16 pm

A collision of projects has kept me from posting some articles on recent events.  Last Saturday, September 12, the Organization for the Assabet River held its 23rd annual River Cleanup event.  Over 100 volunteers braved absolutely drenching conditions as the skies opened up from time to time the entire morning.  We had teams in Westborough, Northborough, Hudson, Maynard, Acton, and Concord.

A more comprehensive set of photos I took during the event are online at:  [url]http://community.dmg-photography.com/2009-assabet-cleanup[/url]

Here’s a team from the fine folks at Intel in Hudson.  Year after year they come out to do some of the dirtiest work on the river (about 10 minutes after this photo was taken it started to pour).  It must be some kind of therapy from working in cleanrooms all day or something.

And this is why we’re doing what we’re doing  (note the bubbles in the background from the downpour):


Scenes from Concord.  I was asked if we were going to cancel because of the rain.  I replied “we only cancel for ‘named storms’”.  :-)


Another corporate team that started a few years ago is from Raytheon.  Each year they seem to crank up their involvement and we couldn’t be happier with folks so willing to get soaking wet with the goal of pulling trash out of the river.

For more photographs from the event visit:  [url]http://community.dmg-photography.com/2009-assabet-cleanup[/url]

For more information on the Assabet River and what you can do to help restore it to health, visit the Organization for the Assabet River’s web site.

My thanks to OAR’s Julia Khorana, all of the river cleanup coordinators in the six towns, the DPWs of those towns, and, of course, EVERYONE who came out to help!

By Dave | Also posted in Environment, Photography | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)
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