Oh, The Places You've Been

Time to get silly for a minute. For a change - har har. One of those last few posts from the 2004 Maine Lighthouse Excursion and Symposium For Two featured a shot of my car chasing a bunch of lobster traps, and it reminded me that I have other shots of that car's adventures (and those of her predecessor). Photographically -- well, what can I say? They're pictures of cars. Mostly. Above, [Maris] shoots a Norfolk Southern grain train in the yard at Lexington, Kentucky in 1998. We put 30,000 miles on that blue Chevy in one year.

Skip to 2000. Here's the Baby Car watching the westbound Capitol Limited at Boyds, MD.

Skip a ahead - a lot - to December 2009. Our cars, shivering and muttering great streams of frigid profanity under the first of eleventy major snowstorms. Boo.

Skip back. To 1998. Oh, just do it, please. Now we're in Kentucky, near the Cumberland Gap. We had pulled over to photograph wild turkeys, but those turkeys can move, as it turns out.

Skip ahead again. Please? An encore presentation. It's more about the bridge (Barronvale, in Somerset County, PA - 2001) than the car, but I like how the car looks as though she's been told "stay," and she's being a very good car indeed.

See that "road" that goes into the woods to the left of the frame? Pictures can't do justice to that passage, somewhere in western PA in 2001. A seriously jacked-up Jeep with those big fat off-road tires would have been a more appropriate conveyance for that, but the Baby Car is nothing if not intrepid.

Scoot back just a year. I know, I know. I'm sorry*. This is the substitute baby car that the insurance people provided for our 2000 Florida Keys honeymoon - following the smooshing of the real Baby Car in Florida City (barf), just a couple of miles from the start of the Overseas Highway. This was truly an infant vehicle, too - like 25 miles on it when we picked it up.

In the Lower Keys the following year, here's the real Baby Car, almost as good as new and thoroughly enjoying the Sunshine State. Splash, splash!

Flash-forward to 2007. Happy Valentine's Day, Baby Car. Have some icicles. Boo.

That's better. Riding the ferry from Okracoke Island to Cedar Island, North Carolina in 2007. Wait 'til you see the lighthouse pics from that trip. You probably won't have to wait long.

Until next time - stay warm, friends.
-J

* I'm not really sorry. :)

Portland Head Light - If Only There Weren't People Here

Well kids, we have reached the end of the Maine 2004 photos. We are all about the famous Portland Head Lighthouse, this time. Yeah, eight shots of one lighthouse seems a bit much, even to me, but [Maris] and I love these photos and this amazing place so much, it was impossible for us to narrow it down any further. Enjoy! Above, while [M] shot from the north side of the tower, I waited for this shot, captured in a 2-second window of people-lessness.

This is what the lighthouse is there to keep ships from smashing upon. Beautiful and deadly!

This, too. It's not even high tide or particularly rough on this early-June day, but the surf on the rocks was loud and impressive. That's Whaleback Light, in the distance. [Maris]'s shot.

The calendar shot - the fruit of [Maris]'s patience and expertise on the north side.

The close-up - [Maris] captured a sense of the tower's height, the weathered siding on the keeper's house and a bit of ocean. Nice!

Another [Maris] composition, taken as she worked her way back to where I was perched, totally patiently awaiting the departure of the unsightly other people. Again, Whaleback Light is in the distance.

Got it! And a nice wave-break on the big rock, while the rest of the cove was green and quiet. Now where's [Maris]?

Yes, there are people in this shot. I had just hit the lady in the pink with a dart, hoping that she'd get woozy and go sit down in the gift shop - out of my shot - but I put too much tranquilizer in the thing and down she went. My bad. Incidentally, I don't know why the flags are at half-mast. Ronald Reagan died the next day. Premonitory flag arrangement?

((HEART))

This is one of our most favorite places on earth. People or no people, it's hard to take a bad photograph here. We look at these photos, six and a half years after they were taken, and we get lost in them. Maine, and Portland Head in particular -- truly, the way life should be.

Thanks for hanging with me through the Maine stuff. Plenty more to come, and we haven't even gotten to the digital stuff, yet...

Of Nubbles And Goat Islands And The Number 100

100th Post Lighthouse Celebration Extravaganza Time!!

Hello, and welcome to my 100th photo blog post! I know - pretty exciting! We're nearing the end of the Maine 2004 photos. I've shuffled the order a bit, so that I can make Portland Head Light the finalé, next time. First, we have this stuff. Above: Goat Island Light (via the 500mm reflex lens), near Kennebunkport, ME.

One last jaunt down the Kennebec River for a sunlit 500mm shot of Doubling Point Light.

Here's Whaleback Ledge Light, at the southern tip of Maine.

Here's Portsmouth Harbor Light, in New Castle, New Hampshire.

And here we have Portsmouth Harbor AND Whaleback Ledge Lights. Whoopee!

After a long, hot, massively mud-puddly hike, we were still a couple of miles from Wood Island Lighthouse. Here's the 500mm shot. I think I could live there.

One of Maine's most famous lighthouses is Cape Neddick's Nubble Light, near York. The two shots above (first one by [Maris], second by Joe) required an hour wait for two minutes of sun, with a wall of storm clouds offshore. Totally worth it.

Finally, a quick stop on our way out of town the next day, to shoot this perfect little island again, this time under a blue sky.

Next up, Portland Head perfection. Thanks for sticking with me this far. Here's to the next 100 posts...

The Sun Returns To Maine, Just In Time For Portland

After three days of springtime fog, drizzle and gloom, our June 2004 excursion along the coast of Maine turned sunny as we reached Portland. Good timing, as most of the more photogenic lighthouses are from Portland south. Above is the Portland Breakwater Light.

And [Maris]'s shot, complete with context and barge and reflection and whatnot...

...while I was busy shooting this cool fire boat. The vessel to the left is ferrying two fire trucks across the bay.

Another [Maris] masterpiece of composition.

Through a window in Fort Preble, this is Spring Point Ledge Light, with a thorough restoration in process.

Spring Point Ledge, with Fort Gorges in the background.

Springpoint Ledge and the little piece of heavy equipment that could... sit there next to it. Looking cute.

Finishing up, with storm clouds still moving away from the area, this is Cape Elizabeth Lighthouse.

I couldn't decide which shot to use from Cape Elizabeth, so I used them both.

Up next, I might have to post twenty pictures to convey the perfection that is Portland Head Light (yeah - the one from all the postcards and calendars and screen-savers)...