More Lights On The Subject

Before we get into some Key West fun, I have a couple more batches of pre-2000 lighthouse photos, starting close to home with an early morning 500mm shot (above) of Sandy Point Shoal Light in the Chesapeake Bay off Sandy Point State Park, MD in 1998.

Even closer to home is the "lighthouse" on the Potomac River at Fort Washington, MD in 1999. Oh, it's still a navigational marker, still has a light and a bell on it, but come on. I kid. We've seen lesser towers than this one. By the way, that brownish hue near the top of the first photo is NOT muddy water - it's a light leak. My beloved Minolta. :( Also, the splendid composition in the second shot comes to us courtesy of my very own partner in artistic crime and everything else, [Maris].

This is a lighthouse photographer's nightmare. The Drum Point Lighthouse has been beautifully restored and moved from its home on the Chesapeake to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons Island, MD. The people crawling all over it are just a fact of life in the Summer, so we kind of had no choice but to include them in this 1998 shot. {dark, dark muttering}

Yes, I know you can hardly tell that this is even a lighthouse. It is Jones Point Light, on the Potomac in Alexandria, VA in 1999, and the better shots, in which its cupola is more visible, were victims of the aforementioned dreaded light leak.

Not all lights were built in permanent towers on land or rocks. There was also a fleet of lightships, which stood guard over nautical hazards, often in locations too deep to allow construction of permanent lights. This is [Maris]'s 1999 photo of the Overfalls, now residing at Lewes, DE.

Looking like a big black jungle gym, the Reedy Island Rear Range Light still stands over Taylors Bridge, DE. Or, it did in 1999. I assume it's still there.

Back soon with some more assorted flora and lighthouses, then it's off to The Keys!