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black and white photography

Sailing with Schooners

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Here on Cape Ann with have a schooner festival every year. It’s a grand affair and it harkens back to 1928-1939 when schooner races happened regularly. This year the schooners Columbia and Bluenose 2, both replicas, one brand new and the other recently completely refitted visited Gloucester for the occasion. I was lucky enough to ride out to greet them on the schooner Ardelle. It was an incredible experience. Both schooners are magnificent.

schooner Columbia
The schooner Columbia sails by Niles Beach in Gloucester shadowed by a small Herreschoff designed sailboat.

When photographing sailing yachts it’s helpful to keep in mind some loose rules. If the yachts are large you need to show scale or their majesty is lost.

schooner Bluenose 2
The schooner Bluenose 2 before entering Gloucester Harbor

Try to shoot with a long lens to compress the field of view and only include a portion of the sail area. If you can see people on board it also adds scale.

schooner Columbia
The bow of the schooner Columbia crashes through a wave.

Showing action also helps to give a majestic view to large sailing yachts.

Schooner Columbia
The schooner Columbia enters Gloucester Harbor.

Adding context to the image gives the viewer a sense of where the yacht is. I was lucky here as as the schooner entered the harbor and we were behind and to the side which gives us some context with this image.

Ardelle and Bluenose 2
Passengers aboard the schooner Ardelle watch the Bluenose 2 sail by.

I also chose to tell a story by using a 21 mm lens and showing the passengers on the schooner I was on. Again showing context.

schooners Ardelle and Lynx
Schooner Ardelle owner Harold Burnham talks with passengers as the schooner Lynx sails by.

The 21 mm lens again pulls in another schooner going by and one in the distance all while the owner of the Ardelle Harold Burnham holds court at the bow of the Ardelle.

 

An Oregon Travel Tale (Part 2)

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The light was beautiful but as it got higher the sky it was time to start our tour of lighthouses in the horrible high sun. This part of the coast is gorgeous but the driving between locations is long. So back to the podcasts on our sons’ phones with hands on the wheel and back and forth discussions between two old folks and their close to thirty something sons. Heated discussions at times! But interesting never the less.


I have always wanted to see the entrance to the Coquille River. It has jettys on either side which are guarded by a lighthouse. If any of you know the crazy entrance to Newburyport in Massachusetts then you know exactly what I mean. It’s nuts! So much so that the Coast Guard practices going out of the mouth and over the huge waves with their forty footers. We watched one go out for a practice run it was crazy. The waves were huge. The other impressive thing about this location was the amount of driftwood everywhere. 


The beach on the right side was packed with driftwood. Truly amazing. We spent lots of time wandering on the beach and watching the huge waves crashing on the jetty and beach. Then we got back in the car for more driving and listening. More driving – ugh! The next stop was the  Cape Arago Lighthouse which is privately owned by Native American’s so it can only be photographed from far away. Kind of boring looking anyway.


After seeing this scene along the way we travelled up to the Umpqua River light which was beautiful but was not much of a photo in the mid day light. I can’t remember if I shot a photo of it or not. If I find one I’ll slide it into this post. They had a museum there and a great view of the entrance to the river. Then it was back on the road again. More to come in the next segment.

An Oregon Coast Travel Tale (Part 1)

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Ok, so what do you do when you travel six hours on a flight pull into the hotel exhausted and wake up the next morning to gray skies and fog? You pray it gets better! That being said praying kind of worked. 

Let me explain. We left our hotel with gray skies and headed for the fog enshrouded coast not knowing if the fog would hold all day – it did. What a disappointment. Our trip down route 101 along the coast was another six hours of not seeing much. The beautiful scenery along 101 was invisible to us as we sped by listening to pod casts our sons’ had downloaded on their phones.

We stopped every once in a while to make a shot or two of the fog covered shore or islands peering through the mist. We did not bother to stop at Cannon Beach as it was covered in fog. When we arrived at our destination on Bandon Beach on the south shore just below Coos Bay we were met with an overlook of incredible beauty but covered by fog. 

We decided to put long pants and hiking shoes on to climb down the massive set of stairs to the beach. We were met with incredible amounts of huge driftwood – wow, a B&W photographers dream.  The driftwood and fog made for some great images.


Plus there was no one on the beach, yay! I had a great time poking around the giant stumps. The fog started to clear a little as sunset approached but we only got a sliver of color. The next morning I was up early hoping for some nice light and I was not disappointed. 


The shot above is not my best one. I have three frames with the flock of geese in it but the thumb nails on my iPad are so small on import I could not tell which one I wanted. 


Walking around in the early morning light on the beach and on the bluff was great, the scenery was outstanding.


As the light rose and made it over the cliff face it was almost like alpen glow the way it just lit the top portions of these giant edifices. I met some nice photogs along the way who were participating in workshops. This the end of part one. More to come on a day of travel to shoot lighthouses in horrible light and another morning among the giant rocks!