Lunch at The Harbor Cafe, Stonington, Maine

Lunch at The Harbor Cafe is another one of our traditions when visiting Stonington.  (In my last post I wrote about our visits to the wonderful Dockside Books & Gifts, another tradition.)

The cafe is open year round and seems to cater to both tourists (in the warm months) and locals (in the cold months).  Open from 6am to 8pm, they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner.  We pretty much have the same thing whenever we're there... lobster rolls and pie.  Four-berry pie is shown here.  Berry pies seems very appropriate for Maine, but once I went for their wonderful coconut cream pie.  I'm looking forward to doing that again!

The cafe is located right on the main street and has a slight view of the harbor.

Dockside Books and Gifts, Stonington, Maine

Each trip we take to Stonington includes a visit to Dockside Books & Gifts.  It’s a one room shop right on the harbor and at one end of downtown Stonington.  We like to park in the municipal parking lot on the other end of the downtown area, making a nice walk through the town to the bookstore. It’s location has an unobstructed harbor view and the store is chock-full of goodies.  

There is a surprisingly large selection of books about Maine and Laurie never leaves without another cookbook from a Maine author and a few books for the grandchildren.  I like to pick up a souvenir Maine mug from time to time, though our mug collection at home is getting way out of control. 

The last couple of years the owner has been talking with us about selling the store and retiring to Camden. Stopping at Dockside Books & Gifts has become a tradition, do if it is sold I hope it doesn’t change. 

Stonington Harbor, Maine

I am always amazed when I can "stitch" two or more pictures together in Photoshop.  This is due to nothing on my part; the software does all the work.  Here are two overlapping pictures which were both taken with a wide angle lens (24mm equivalent).  There is not even a hint of a seam between the two blended images. 

The result is a mini panorama. Yet by sticking the two overlapping pictures together (overlapped by about 1/3) it doesn't "feel" like a really wide angle shot.  I think that is because when you use a lens with a wider field of view than 24mm to capture this scene with a single shot, you begin to get some perspective distortion.

This image was taken at 1:30 pm in the month of October.  The sun was not as high as it would have been in the summer, but a lot of books would nevertheless say that mid-day is not a good time to take pictures because of harsh shadows.  Well, I say forget about that rule.  The best time to take pictures is when you have a camera in your hand.

Click on the image on my Web site (at the link below) to get a view closer to the size of your monitor:

http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/p715859337/h1a3f4b7d#h1a3f4b7d

Stonington Harbor, Maine

 

Living on the Outside: Uncharacteristically of me, a little bit of social commentary

When seeing this image in Stonington, Maine I couldn't help but equate it to humans.  How frequent it is that people feel safety only within their own comfort zone and with others of similar interests, and in this case similar appearance (as with hair styles, clothes, cars, ... not to mention so many other things like age, ethnicity, race, nationality, and religion).

And just like the yellow dory, people who are different are often excluded from the "in" group.

I think it is interesting, and one point I want to make with this image, that the "excluded" may be far more "beautiful" (and with people I don't mean surface beauty) than the "included".

Click on the image on my Web site (at the link below) to get a view closer to the size of your monitor:

http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/p715859337/h2c487ac#h2a63c284

Living on the Outside