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Maine Lighthouse Tour with Kirk Williamson and Bill Fortney

All I can say is wow! The light, the locations and the people were absolutely fabulous! My co-leader Bill Fortney drove up from Kentucky and helped me lead a merry band of photographers along the coast of Maine from Kittery to Owls Head! Here are some of the images that I made along the way.

Bill and I along with one of our participants checked out Nubble Light early on Tuesday before the tour began. 6 stop dark cpl slowed the water at 1/5s. B&W conversion in Silver Efex Pro.
During the tour we went back to Nubble near golden hour and a puddle on the rocks gave our group this wonderful reflection of the lighthouse.
Whaleback light off the coast of Kittery taken from Great Common in New Castle New Hampshire. What a treat to have a guy on the bow trying to get the roller furler working as a wave was breaking at the lighthouse. Fuji X-T3 with 70-300 and 1.4 x TC.
Portland Head Light and Ram Island Light line up at sunrise with a seagull flying through the frame. Fuji X-T3 with 70-300.
Pemaquid Light is always special but the images look the same after awhile. I have made this shot before and I’m not sure I like the deep shadow on the right.

 

The Bailey’s Island lobster shack is iconic. You can almost never make a bad shot of it. fuji X-T3 with XF 16-80.
Our group getting the best angle at Pemaquid Light.
Interesting Maritime Americana at the Hotel Pemaquid.

 

Owls’s Head with the rain about to start. I love this tree.
The daisy’s were in bloom on a rainy day at Marshall Point Light.
A gaggle of lobster buoy’s create an interesting reflection.

 

Bill Fortney gives the lighthouse tour a thumbs up.

Bailey Island Maine Lobster Shack

Maine is such a huge state it’s almost impossible to see every part of it. One place I have never visited is the Bailey Island lobster shack. This island is located south of Brunswick and Harpswell and is a quintessential coastal Maine location. The main resource is lobstering and it is in evidence everywhere. A friend showed me a photograph of a lobster shack that sits out on a rocky point in Mackerel Cove on Bailey Island.  I knew right away I had to photograph it. This proved to be a little more difficult than initially thought. It was low tide and the access was very tricky. From the road I had to climb over a guard rail and down a steep embankment to get onto the tidal plain. But it was worth it. The sun was in and out and I had to wait for the right light before making the photograph below.

Luckily the rocks and seaweed added a foreground element leading up to the shack. The calm water added just the right element, a mirror like reflection! I now have several wonderful images of this iconic lobster shack and can’t wait to bring our tour group up here in June. There were many other fabulous images around Mackerel Cove. One of them was this derelict lobster boat which was pulled up on the beach at the head of the cove with the name “Full Throttle” which was appropriate for an abandoned boat.

Cape Ann Photo Tours will be leading another group up to Mid Coast Maine in September so be sure to click the link and check it out. This tour takes in Boothbay to Camden which is a pretty large area. If we have time we might even make it down to Bailey’s Island. My co-leader for this tour is Jim Scouletis a well know photographer here in Massachsetts check out his website here.

Early Evening Sail

Lannon
A nice sidelight highlights line and the bow of the schooner built in 1997 by Essex boatbuilder Harold Burnham.

I love bringing my camera along when I go out sailing. My wife and I went out for a sail on the Thomas E. Lannon for a beautiful evening on Gloucester Harbor. We had a nice light breeze to off-set the heat of the day. I did not shoot a lot of images but the ones I did I like quite a bit. So often I find myself converting images around the water to B&W. I don’t know why but for some reason I love the look of B&W maritime images. The wonderful tones in the low light of early evening are such a joy to work with.

Lannon
Capt. Tom Ellis talks with passengers. I love the look of the line weaved around the binnacle.

I chose to bring my Fujifilm X-T30 with the 10-24 f4 which gave me the opportunity for shots of sails and things with the ultra wide, like the shot above with the binnacle in the foreground.

Lannon
Block and tackle. The weaved line around the mainsheet block and tackle caught my eye.

In the stern of the schooner this mainsheet block and tackle with the line woven around it was an interesting subject and I was looking at it all the time. Finally near the end of the sail I made a photo of it.

Lannon
Sunset was not great but it did spill over onto the eastern shore of Gloucester.

The sunset never did work out great but it still added to the horizon on the eastern shore of Gloucester. It was a great sail and I’m looking forward to doing it on the Ardelle and Adventure near the end of the month.