Last Day of the Year

Boston, MA 123111 A gaggle of Canada geese displace a seagull as they land on the Charles River, a friendly feline vies for the attention of passersby from his South Boston store window display and a florist loads a truck with white-feather center pieces for a new year- motif wedding later on the day. (Essdras M Suarez/ Globe staff)/ BEHIND THE SCENES: This is the first time in about five years where I am not scheduled to work the late shift on New Year's. Therefore I am going to miss all the preparations for Boston's First Night celebration, its parade and the fireworks. It really is okay since I get to spend time with my lovely wife instead at a friend's restaurant. Anyway, I only had one official assignment today and it was to photograph a restaurant in South Boston. I took it upon myself to look for features since I know the latter are always well appreciated by the photo editors. Sometimes these kind of photos also known as "no-stories,""stand alones," "enterpise photos," or simply "features" are hard to come by if you look too hard but sometimes like today they are everywhere you look. It is in days like this one, I appreciate even more what a great job I have when the world around me is my visual playground. TECH STUFF: two cameras: Mark- IV, Nikon D3, 24-70mm 2.8 Nikon lens, 70-200mm 2.8 Canon. ISOs 400 to 1,000. Speeds from 1/80th of a second to 1/25oth of a sec. Apertures 2.8- 5.6.