Cape San Blas Lighthouse

Minutes after that last lighthouse-turned residence, we found ourselves at the Cape San Blas lighthouse, which watches over the southernmost point of the panhandle of Florida.  The early morning light and clear sky worked perfectly with this white steel-frame tower.  They have a cute little gift shop, too!

One tree holds it down while the other one tickles it.

Here's the requisite 35mm film shot.  I don't know if this is my photo or [Maris]'s, but I like the warmth of film.

Ah, the joys of access!  I love shooting this type of lighthouse from right here.

And here.

And here!

Cupola!

All that, and a little palm tree, too.

And we'll see you next time, with [Maris]'s favorite light from Gulfapalooza 2011.  And maybe a train.

Port Saint Me!

 And we're back!  Where was I?  Oh yeah.  Gulfapalooza 2011.  October.  Florida panhandle.  This was a really, really good day.  I'm still a little groggy from 30 days of Camp NaNoWriMo so I'm starting off slowly.  Here's my next home - although I would imagine that its current residents might have something to say about that - St. Joseph Point Lighthouse, near Point St. Joe, Florida.  The light and lens are long-gone, but it is now a beautifully-restored lighthouse on the Gulf of Mexico.

 

 Butterflies! Ridiculously uncooperative creatures.  Pretty, though!

 Of course, the crabs were totally cooperative.

 Okay, if I can't buy the lighthouse, maybe this little build-to-suit island is on the market.

 Ibis?

 Seeing pines and palms together always intrigues me. I have no idea why.

 Lone palm, watching for hurricanes or exploding oil rigs.

No, Camaro, it's not what you were designed for.  Relax - a little sandy off-road driving won't kill you!

Thanks for enduring a picture-free June.  More coming soon!

Pensacola Light At Dusk

 October 2011.  Gulfapalooza continues.  We got to the Naval Air Station at Pensacola, Florida with about an hour left before closing time at the lighthouse grounds.  The light was perfect.  Above, the tower from the west side.

 Cupola!  Tall lighthouses can be tricky. Get too far away - your view will be obstructed, while staying too close will result in a severe upward angle.  Pensacola Lighthouse is very tall.

 

 Clear shot of the cupola, with a bit of the massive Fresnel lens visible.  So.  Tall.

 The beach is awesome, here.  You can't just shoot the lighthouse and leave without going down to the water.

 The tower in the waning light, shot from the beach.

 Tiny bird footprints in rippled sand.

 One last look at the tower.

Gulls!

Thanks for stopping by!

The Challenges of Mississippi and Alabama

 We did manage to find the clouds on our lighthouse-hunting tour of the Gulf Coast - Gulfapalooza 2011 - but only for about half a day.  Probably should have stayed an extra day to shoot Biloxi Mississippi's charming lighthouse in better light, but we had no idea how long the rest of the lights on our list would take.

 I actually kind of like a lighthouse against a stormy sky.  Lighthouses were invented for such weather.

 Cupola!

 This graffiti-covered concrete beacon by no means counts as a lighthouse, but we needed to kill some time in Biloxi to give the clouds a chance to move on.  So, here you go.

 The only Alabama lighthouse we had a chance of shooting lies a couple of miles offshore, at the mouth of Mobile Bay.  Without an aircraft or a boat, the best vantage point from which to photograph the light is Fort Morgan.  

 Forts are cool.

 ...and spooky.

 450mm lens and all, this is as close as we could get to the light.  That's an oil rig, to the left of the tower.

 One of the light's original Fresnel lenses, at home in the fort's museum.

 And another.

Next up - the Florida panhandle has some photogenic and accessible lighthouses.

Not Sure What's More Tchefuncte - The Boat, The Light Or Walking In Ryan Reynolds' Footsteps

October 2011. We crossed Lake Pontchartrain from New Orleans to the North Shore - 23 miles; one of the longest over-water bridges on earth - to shoot the Tchefuncte River Lightouse (on B&W 35mm film, above). We found a very cool spot which, unbeknownst to us at the time, had been a movie set.

Just across the cove from the lighthouse, this abandoned push barge served as the backdrop to the scene in the "Green Lantern" in which Ryan Reynolds' character finds himself drawn to the site of Abin Sur's wrecked spaceship. It's a strange and spooky scene.

Even the ruins of the pier are creepy.

The broken chunks of concrete wouldn't be spooky on their own, but in context...

The light at dusk. It is midway through a major restoration. The tower is finished. Hopefully within the next couple of years, the pier and keeper's house will be fully restored, as well.

The next morning. Even in the sun, it's a sad and broken scene.

And nearly transparent.

Dragonfly! (yes, I need a macro lens)

Spanish moss!

With framing!

Fully-zoomed.

The road from Madisonville, LA to this point is probably only about five miles, but the last one is pretty rough for a car not made for 4-wheeling. My car made the trip just fine (in first gear for most of it), but she is NOT amused.

Bye!

New Orleans: A Tale Of Two Lighthouses

Sometimes, when you're hiking through the tropical jungle, you stumble upon ruins. Sometimes, those ruins are a once-vital old lighthouse, long-neglected and now surely haunted. This cute little tower, in need of some serious restoration work, is the Port Pontchartrain Light. The shot above is black and white 35mm film.

Its vines look a lot like a leafy green sash.

The windows and lens are long-gone and its ironwork is rusted, but the cupola still makes for an intriguing image, set against a perfect October sky.

From another vantage point. [Maris] and I wanted to take this lighthouse home and put it in our backyard. We didn't, though.

One more shot, before I confess...

... that the Port Pontchartrain Lighthouse sits not in the middle of some forsaken overgrown jungle, but in the middle of a field on the campus of the University of New Orleans.

That's Lake Pontchartrain on the other side of that wall. Not sure if the wall is intended to keep out the lake itself or those palm trees peeking over the top, but either way - it works!

The cupola again, from a higher vantage point. So empty. Kind of sad, really.

And here's the other New Orleans lighthouse - or, the site of New Orleans' other lighthouse. The New Canal Lighthouse was knocked off its foundation and nearly destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but it was taken away to be restored. The groundbreaking for the new foundation took place a little over a month ago, but they still need more money. Click here to read about the restoration efforts - or to donate!

That's all for now. Next up, a lighthouse that watched Ryan Reynolds filming "Green Lantern" - from a distance.