One Photo: Eerie Morning At Pumpkin Island Lighthouse

The Pumpkin Island Lighthouse no longer operates as a commissioned lighthouse, and has been privately owned since 1933 when it was decommissioned and sold to the highest bidder for $552.  It has been in private hands since then.

If you google it, or go to Wikipedia, you’ll find some interesting stories about the early lighthouse keepers.  It’s entertaining.

Funds for its construction were approved soon after the U.S. Coastal Survey recommended in 1852 that a lighthouse be built to mark Eggemoggin Reach, which is between the mainland and Deer (and Little Deer) Isle, Maine. The original structure was built in 1854.  I’m not sure what it actually cost but Congress approved construction costs of $3,500 in 1853.  If it was like government projects today, I’d have expected them to have spent every penny of the appropriated amount. John Tibbetts (sounds like a great old Maine surname, doesn’t it?) was the first keeper, at an annual salary of $350.

This image was taken from quite a distance on a foggy morning with my lens fully zoomed in at 600mm equivalent.

"Eerie Morning, Pumpkin Island Lighthouse, Maine"

Panasonic GX80/85 plus 100-300mm zoom @ 300mm (600mm equivalent)

Hand held 1/640sec, F5.6, Auto ISO320

Processed in Lightroom

One Photo: Schooner "Lewis R. French"

This is the 64-foot schooner "Lewis R. French", out of Camden, Maine. Launched in 1871, she is the oldest commercial schooner in America, and was recently designated a National Historic Landmark. I took this picture from the shoreline of  Penobscot Bay after the schooner exited Eggemoggin Reach. I love that name. It makes me think of egg nog.

This shot was taken during a summer trip to Maine.  I first posted it in August in color on Instagram. But I’m now thinking it looks better as a black and white image. I like the contrast created by the dark (water and masts) and light areas (sales and whitecaps), and the sky is basically grey either way. Perhaps if the sky were a bit more interesting I’d vote for the color version.  

Schooner Lewis R. French

Panasonic GX85 and 100-300mm zoom at 300mm (600mm equiv)

1/1000sec, F8, ISO250

Processed in Lightroom 

One Photo: Out For The Morning Run

This lobster boat is heading out for its morning run.  It makes sense to get an early start while the sea is calm and the day hauling traps can be long.  This photo was taken in August at 5:15 a.m.

The main subject looks better when seen on a big monitor.  Here unfortunately I can only display at 800 pixels wide and very compressed (downsizing from about 5,000 pixels wide).

"Lobster Boat"
Olympus E-M1 plus 12-100mm zoom at 100mm
(I could have used something longer)
1/250 sec, F4, ISO 1000

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. 

A Few From Bass Harbor, Maine

Bass Harbor, Maine has a rather large lobster boat fleet.  It is a working fishing harbor on the "quiet side" of Mount Desert Island.  These images were taken on the Bernard, Maine side of the harbor.  If you are here in the summer around 2 p.m. lobster boats start returning to the harbor with their catches.  On the pier (not Thurston's Pier shown here) we saw a large refrigerated truck waiting.  A block and tackle arrangement hauled up the lobsters in plastic crates and bait was lowered down to the boats for their next trip out to the traps.  

The harbor is a great place for photography, as is the Bass Harbor Lighthouse.

For your dining pleasure in Bernard is Thurston’s Lobster Pound.  It is open for lunch and dinner, 11:30-8, from Memorial Day through mid-October.  Their tag line is so good I wish I had a bumper sticker: “Thurston For Lobsters”.

All the photos below were taken at Thurston's:

Thurston's Lobster Pound

One Photo: Backlit Lobster Boat

This image was quite a surprise to me.  I wasn't sure I liked it at first, but a week or so ago I posted it on Instagram and Facebook anyway. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people liked it and took the time to comment.

I do enjoy taking backlit photos from time to time, as they are challenging.  However, in the back of my mind I keep hearing my father instructing me not to aim toward the sun.  The trouble with that is that if you avoid shooting into the sunlight, you miss the shot!  Especially with digital cameras, isn't it better to "take the shot" than to not take the shot.  You can always dump it later.

I do actually find the lighting on the inside of the lobster boat attractive, or at least appealing.  What you see here was helped by the Shadows Slider in lightroom as it otherwise would be a bit dark in there.  But it's the reflections off the water that annoy me, as being distracting.  Nevertheless, most of the comments on Facebook were about how they liked the sparkles on the water.

Backlit Lobster Boat

Panasonic GX80/85 with 100-300mm zoom @ 228mm

1/2,000sec, F5.6, ISO 200

In Lightroom I made ample use of shadows slider

and added some dark vignetting

One Photo: I just emailed this photo to LLBean, 50 years after its purchase

One Photo:  I just emailed this photo to LLBean, 50 years after its purchase

Boots for my birthday!  This is a photo of my classic LLBean “Hunting Shoes”, bought fifty years ago this past week, on my 18th birthday. I was a freshman in college “just up the road a piece” from the LLBean Freeport store. That was the only LLBean retail store back then. 

Because it was open 24 hours a day, we college students loved visiting it at all hours.  I remember that the sales people wore plaid flannel shirts and had Maine accents.  Mostly I remember camping, fishing, and hunting gear. Some clothing was also available, but none of it was the “fashionable” clothing that is sold today. 

The Freeport store today occupies the same spot in town… plus some.  But it has been so significantly redesigned that it is hard to remember how it was set up way back when.  I do remember a long set of wide stairs that brought you up to the one-floor showroom on the second or third floor.  I may be imagining that the first (and second?) floors were for warehousing or even manufacturing (shoes?).

I remember fifty years ago this past week, as a newly minted 18 year old,  taking my birthday money to Bean’s for boots. This is the pair I returned with. Not a winter goes by that I don’t wear them. They are my favorite boots for snowblowing and shoveling.  The leather uppers are still in great shape. I have replaced the rawhide laces several times. The bottoms are a bit slick and ought to get re-soled. I’m guessing that LLBean still provides a resoling service. My workaround for the slick soles is to pull on a set of YakTrax, which work like adding chains to vehicle tires.

All I can say is it’s amazing how fast fifty years has gone by.  Life seemed so simple back then as a student in Maine.  Jeans, flannel and wool plaid shirts, hunting shoes, no cell phone, no calculator, and pay telephones that swallowed quarters.

"LLBean's Maine Hunting Shoe" 

Purchased in 1967

Panasonic GX80/85 and Olympus 12-40 F2.8 @ 40mm

1/60sec, F5.6, ISO200

Olympus 36R flash via TTL

Pastel Colors At Sunrise

A 6:00 a.m photo at the edge of Penobscot Bay, Maine, moments before sunrise.

I generally like sunrises with a bit of drama, such as cloud formations that pick up the morning colors.  But I nevertheless found this more subtle sunrise to bring to me a certain calmness and tranquility.  I think it's all about the range of colors here, and the gentle gradients created by the shifting colors and tones.  It makes me think of pastels... and orange sherbet.

Olympus E-M1 with 12-100 F4 zoom @ 54mm
1/10, F4, ISO 400

After this image, the colors began to fade and I thought the show was all over.  It was my time for a second cup of coffee and I put a couple of more logs on the fire in the cabin.  But 45 minutes after this shot, I looked out on the water again, this time just to the right of the small sail boat, and saw the scene below, with the starboard side of the lobster boat facing east into the sun.

Panasonic GX80/85 with 100-300mm zoom @ 162mm
1/200sec, F5.6, ISO300

One Photo: A Glass Of Ice Water

We were having a candlelight breakfast at the Mulberry House B&B in Bath, Maine.  The presentation of all the food is beautiful there; however, this glass of ice water caught my eye the most on this particular morning, with the back lighting coming from a candle behind the glass.

"Ice Water"

Panasonic GX80/85 with Olympus 14-40 F2.8 zoom @40mm

Aperture Priority with Auto ISO

1/100sec, F2.8, ISO 320

Vignette added to darken the background