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...