Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse
I love to photograph lighthouses! There are approximately 700 lighthouses in the U.S. and 57 of those are in Maine. On a recent trip to Maine, I made plans to photograph several lighthouses, some I hadn't shot before and some I'd shot a few times. In this blog, you can click on any image and you'll see a larger size of the image.
Sometimes I'm asked why I'll shoot something that has been shot so many times before. My feeling is every photograph of a subject is different in some way. And, this couldn't be more true when you have the pleasure of shooting along the Maine coast. The weather impacts the lighting and the lighting is always different every time I return to a location.
The image above is Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. It's probably one of the most photographed lighthouses in the world. It's located in Acadia National Park near Bar Harbor and I go there every time I'm in the area.
Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse
The above image, also of Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse, shows a completely different mood than the first. Both images were shot near sunset. At the time of the second image, it was foggy so there was no sun.
Portland Head Lighthouse
Another of my favorite lighthouses is Portland Head Lighthouse located just outside Portland in Fort Williams Park, Cape Elizabeth. This photo was taken about an hour before sunset and as you can see this photo has a fair amount of drama in it, thanks to some cool clouds and great light. I really like to have a little drama in my images while staying true to what the scene looked like when I was there.
Portland Head Lighthouse
In today's world of digital photography, there's more to it than just the photography. While taking a photograph is without a doubt the most important part of the photo process, post-processing has also become very important. Regardless of what you use, whether it be Photoshop, iPhoto, or something else, we all do some level of post-processing with our digital images before they are complete. In this image, all I did was use Photoshop and OnOne's black & white plug-in to create a black & white version of the image above. For me, the look and feel of the image is completely different even though they are basically the same.
Pemaquid Point Lighthouse
All the little towns in Maine are so picturesque and it's hard to not spend a lot of time in one place. My recent trip to Maine was the first time I had been to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse. I was hoping to get to Pemaquid well before sunset. However, the light was falling fast and Pemaquid was a bit down the road. After finally arriving, I went down on the rocks to get this shot. The tide was out which was good but you can see it was dusk and I had missed the sunset. This image turned out fairly well despite missing the sun. There was very little post-processing involved in this image. As I came back up the rocks, I found a nice surprise.
As I came off the rocks and started wandering around the side of the property, I came upon the lighthouse keepers cottage. It was small, very plain, and I don't think there was any part of it that was plumb to the land or any other part of itself. All of this made the cottage a fascinating subject. So, I shot away. The final image is a black and white, except for the selective color of the porch light.
Pemaquid Light Keeper's Cottage
Pemaquid Point Lighthouse
I finally finished shooting the keeper's cottage and made my way around to the lighthouse entrance. By this time it was pretty dark, so much so that I had a difficult time focusing my camera on the lighthouse. I couldn't be sure if I was getting my shots in focus or not and my flashlight was in the car, far enough away that I didn't want to go get it. So, I waited for some folks to leave who were parked pretty close behind me. As they got in their car, I asked if they'd mind turning on their headlight's high beam so I could lock in the focus. Once they were gone, all was good. The starburst of the light was created by stopping the aperture down to get a better depth of field, which I thought I needed due to my inability to focus! :)
Tenants Harbor
The first morning, my plan was to go to Marshall Point Lighthouse. Some of you may remember the Marshall Point Lighthouse from the movie, Forrest Gump! Sometimes when you're on vacation, it's tough to drag yourself out of bed early enough for a sunrise shoot, but you don't get those shots lying in bed. So, I was up early and on my way to Marshall Point. As I was driving along, I realized I wasn't going to make it to Marshall Point in time for sunrise. Just as I realized how my poor planning had done me in again, or so I thought, I came upon Tenants Harbor. I quickly stopped and Tenants Harbor became my sunrise shoot for the day. The nice thing about being in Maine, it's pretty easy to improvise and find things to photograph when your original plan doesn't work out.
Marshall Point Lighthouse
Shortly after sunrise, I made my way to Marshall Point Lighthouse. It looked just like in the movie but was much smaller than I expected. It's located off the beaten path and it took me a few wrong turns and back tracking to get here. I don't think you'd get lost and wind up here by accident...but it'd be rather fortunate if you did.
It was low tide so a lot of the surrounding rocks were exposed. For a different perspective, I made my way out on the rocks for a different look at Gump's light (see below image). One thing about these rocks in Maine...they're not very forgiving if you happen to land the wrong way on one! :)
Marshall Point Lighthouse