We only had a few miles in New Hampshire this afternoon until we arrived at our motel. So instead of lighthouses we now have covered bridges! We visit Mount Washington tomorrow, where the forecast is for 50 mph winds and a temperature of 30 with snow and ice. Yikes! 🙂
We visited Quoddy Head State Park today, location of the Quoddy Head Lighthouse as well as the Easternmost Point in the US. That gives us the two easiest of the four, along with Key West. The Northernmost and Westernmost Points are a bit more challenging. 😉
Naturalist/guide on our boat cruise: “You often see these V formations with one side longer than the other. You know why that is? More birds on that side.” 🙂
We got a little wet and a lot chilly on our ride around the Desert Island Narrows, but saw 4 more lighthouses (I’ve spared you the photos), some seals, some harbor porpoises, lots of birds and some beautiful clouds. The overcast skies made for some nice photo-friendly lighting. Something for everyone!
We took a harbor cruise out of Bar Harbor today – 4 more lighthouses! During the cruise our captain arranged (likely pre-arranged) to rendezvous with a lobsterman as he was tending his traps. We got to see him pull 6 out of his trap. Our guide told us that the solo lobsterman probably tended on average 150 traps a day. That’s a lot of lobster! There are lobster traps everywhere – every harbor is dotted with their buoys.
These guys will probably be on someone’s plate in the near future!
We’re off on another adventure today, but here is a quick shot from yesterday’s travels. Maine continues to impress and amaze!
Kathy and I joined several hundred of our closest friends this morning to be the first people in the US to see the sun. I took a bunch of photos and some of them turned out OK. But it was mostly about the experience of being there, and we were there. And yes, Kathy joined me in arising at 4am to make the trek to the top. She didn’t want to miss it any more than she wanted me to miss it. It was worth the effort, for sure! 😉
Reservations are required for sunrise, and they are limited. I managed to book mine months ago, and I was glad I did. In a perfect world I would have wished for a few clouds on the horizon. But it wasn’t too cold, it wasn’t raining, and we could actually see the sun. So it was as good as we might have hoped for!
We visited Marshall Point Lighthouse near Saint George, Maine this morning. As it turned out, there was a group of people doing a photo shoot for an upcoming LL Bean catalog. We stood around and watched for a while. It was quite interesting to see how much work goes into just one photo in a catalog or on a website. Beautiful location for a shoot, however! And the people were all very friendly. The guy in charge talked to us for a while and complimented me on my camera.
Kathy & I are enjoying a little downtime this afternoon before we pack up for the short drive up to Acadia National Park tomorrow. It’s been on and off cloudy and rainy, but still a good day for getting out with the camera. I love working with a prime lens when walking around town, and used the 35mm 1.4 for this shot. It’s pretty nice in color, but I’m excited to actually have a B&W version that works for me.
Tired of lighthouse photos yet? Not me!
When I started thinking about photographing the Maine coast, naturally the first thing I thought of was lighthouses. In anticipation of a day just like today, I purchased a variable neutral density filter. Today was my first chance to really try it out. It seems to work best on cloudy days and with long-ish lenses. It makes a mess on my wide-angle 10-24 lens except at the most gentle settings, darkening the corners dramatically. Works pretty well on the longer end of the 16-80 but works really well on the 55-200. I got a little buffeting from the gusty winds but a 3.5 second exposure like this one worked pretty well. I processed it using the Classic Chrome profile in Lightroom instead of my usual Velvia-based preset. I think it shows the raw power of the wind and surf.
We were very glad to have been on the water yesterday and on land today! Gusty winds and rough seas would have made for an unpleasant journey today!
We visited Pemaquid Point Lighthouse by land today. It’s not nearly as imposing but still pretty. Kathy stated it well when she said “from the sea you understand the context and purpose of the lighthouse and why it is there. From the land it is more about the structure itself.”