I was fortunate to welcome 2016 from atop St. Michael's new steeple and come away with several images from this unique location. I've shared a few looking out towards the harbor and looking down Hooper Street. As dawn's light broke free of the thick clouds near the horizon, the cupola of Grace Community Church was illuminated briefly. I quickly switched to a vertical orientation and captured this close up view of the cupola with soft light in the distance.
After sharing some relatively warm images this week, I thought I would go back to February 14 and the arctic conditions that made for an incredible display of sea smoke. I finished shooting from Fort Sewall toward Marblehead Light and ducked back into my warm car to make the short trip over to Doak's Lane. From there, I shot Gerry Island and then Brown's Island engulfed in smoke. As a relative newcomer to Marblehead (we moved here in 2008), I don't think I'll ever lose the sense of awe I feel when seeing smoke rising from the ocean.
While I've shared a few images from the night of February 21st, this spot is where I spent the majority of the evening. It had been another of the 50+ degree days that seemed to fill most of this Winter and I had left for Fort Sewall to capture the sunset. On arriving at the Fort, I decided to walk to its far side and found wave after wave coming into Little Harbor between Fort Sewall and Gerry Island. As it was low tide, rocks dotted the foreground below and one patch of ice clung to the rocks facing open [...]
The recent run of warm weather has put the Summer season firmly in mind and made me long for evenings where the sun sets after 7 and does so over a harbor filled with boats. Today's image was taken on August 18 at 7:26pm as hazy conditions contributed to a red sky at night. I decided to shoot this as a tighter image with little sky over Abbot Hall but with a subtle reflection in the water surrounding boats on their moorings.
February 21st ended up being a very productive day with great light affording new compositions of Gerry Island (coming Wednesday) and this view of the great tree at Fort Sewall. While I've taken photos from this spot before, I don't recall ever including General Glover's plaque in the frame. As the sun set, it lit up the plaque (as well as a house on the Neck) and I composed this image to include the benches looking out over Marblehead Harbor and the tree backlit by a beautiful Winter sunset.
On February 21st, I headed to Fort Sewall to chase what was shaping up to be a nice sunset and to capture the moon rising behind the great tree. As luck would have it, the clouds had moved into a perfect position to reflect and accentuate sunset's golden light and I ended up with a number of keepers from various locations at the fort. This image represents the peak of the golden light that illuminated Childrens Island and the Neck. I had been shooting over Gerry Island when I spotted the clouds and quickly found a position from which I [...]
Exactly one year ago, Marblehead was buried under feet of snow as wave after wave of snow storms added up to a record setting Winter. As we make our way through the mildest Winter in memory, it may finally be time to share some of those images of snow captured during the Winter of 2015. On Wednesday, February 25th, I made my way around town to try to capture images that could convey the incredible snowfall that had descended on Marblehead. As luck would have it, a fresh coating of snow had fallen the night before and I was able to [...]
With past outings to capture sea smoke, one issue that has come up is that the mist rising from the ocean usually forms a thick band of fog at the horizon blocking any hopes of accompanying sunrise color. On Sunday, February 14, I arrived at Fort Beach to find the sky turning pink as pillars of sea smoke formed in front of and behind Marblehead Light. I captured several frames before the sun rose above the fog bank but this image of a sea smoke sunrise may be my favorite of them. You can see the light of the sun [...]
I shared an image of the nearly full snow moon last night taken from Fort Beach and commented that I had little hope for capturing the full moon tonight. As luck would have it, I finished up work right at 5pm and was able to make it down to the State Street Landing by 5:29pm - 4 minutes before the moonrise. I found two photographers already there ready to capture the beauty of a full moon rising over Marblehead Light and made my way a bit further down to see if I could line up this single boat out in [...]
The unseasonably warm weather this weekend made Spring feel as though it was just around the corner. As the warm air began to give way to slightly cooler weather this week, I spotted the chance for a good sunset and decided to head out to capture the scene from Fort Sewall. Before I left, I noted that the nearly full moon was due to rise at 4:30pm (an hour before sunset) and thought I would aim for a shot of it as well since I wouldn't get the chance tomorrow night. I arrived at Fort Beach and found thick clouds [...]