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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.

Don’t let lousy weather keep you indoors

During my workshops one of my mantras is practice. Always have a camera with you whether it be your phone, a good point and shoot or your regular camera. There is no excuse for not having one of them with you. Practicing looking for compositions should be something you enjoy doing whether you happen to make an image or not.

This week the weather report was awful – rain for the whole week. I was not looking forward to sitting in the house banging on the computer.

So on Monday with the drizzle and fog I headed out for a morning walk to see what I could find. It turns out I found quite a bit of interesting things to photograph.

 

Practicing hyperfocal distance is an art form. The Fuji system shows you a hperfocal distance scale with a blue bar that shows what’s in focus and what is not at every aperture. Very useful. Everything in this image is tack sharp front to back.

After I walked around the waterfront I managed to find some more great images along the way.

A person waiting in the fog for the bus with blooming jonquils.
A shop window filled with Rockport coffee mugs waiting to be sold.
An finally left over faux Easter flowers hanging out of a mail slot on a door.

When I got home and let my dog “Kodak” out it was still kind of drizzly and when he came back in he was a little soggy looking. I had the camera with me and I immediately thought I could get a great shot of him looking back out the door with some great background separation. B&W is quite often a great option for this type of photo.

Lousy weather is no excuse to not get out there and shoot. It just might be the opportunity you were looking for to capture a great image.

Gussy – A Photo Story

A couple of weeks ago a student of mine from New Jersey discovered something she did not know she had. A talent for capturing personality. The student, Lisa Olsen, was up in Gloucester for a three day Cape Ann Photo Tours experience. On our first day after a beautiful sunrise we headed over to Rockport for the morning ritual of lobstermen leaving the harbor. As it happens quite often when traveling we stopped to talk with one of them, “Gussy”. He is quite a character and  talked with us for a few minutes about his bait and what the herring gulls dislike. As I talked with Gussy, Lisa was busy making shots of his many animated expressions.

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Gussy – Photo and © Lisa Olsen

As you can see the name of Gussy’s boat is “Gussy’s Girls”. The light was beautiful in the early morning and Lisa came up with some great shots. What she did not know was that she was telling a story with each image.

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Gussy – Photo and © Lisa Olsen

As Gussy got ready to climb down the ladder to his dinghy he motioned to the gulls as they flew by saying “not today, I have salted herring” because you see herring gulls hate anything salted.

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Gussy – Photo and © Lisa Olsen

Gussy was still talking and laughing with us as he sculled out to his boat using an oar that was held together with duck tape. You have to love his self made work dinghy, no oar locks and only a notch in the back to scull with.

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Gussy – Photo and © Lisa Olsen

As he got farther out to his boat we moved to an area where we could watch him go out for his day of lobstering.

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Gussy – Photo and © Lisa Olsen

The perfect shot to end this little story as he heads out for a day on Sandy Bay. Travel story telling photography does not have to be extensive it just needs to have the small pieces that pull it together. A beginning, (character intro), a middle (anchor images that pull your story together), and an end (an image that pulls it all together). Lisa has done that with five images. Short stories like this are perfect for adding to your travel book at the end of a photography trip.

 

Check out my krwilliamson blog about using the Sony 20mm pancake lens here