On February 16th, I headed out to capture the full moon setting behind Abbot Hall but stayed for the sunrise to capture the view of dawn's early glow over Abbot, the Boston Yacht Club and houses lined up around them. You can just make out a hint of purple in the thin clouds near the horizon that had enveloped the moon as it set. More interesting is that beautiful glow coming off the buildings.
Last week I visited the newly renovated Fort Sewall for the first time in well over two years. It's amazing to realize just how much the fort has changed since we moved to Marblehead in May 2008. Early on, I had captured a favorite shot of a tree in a blanket of white snow in front of the red doors. That photo still hangs in my home office but the tree fell years ago and the doors have since been painted white. Then there was the great tree that succumbed to a storm in August 2019. After a major renovation, [...]
I headed out on the morning of March 20th to capture the moon setting over Old North Church and lucked out with a nice shot of the sun coming up over the Atlantic as well. With those images captured, I turned back toward town and spotted this familiar view of Abbot Hall and the houses surrounding it. As the sun came up, it shone its first light on Abbot Hall bringing out the brilliant red color of its brick facade. Without boats in the harbor, Abbot Hall was able to dominate the composition and the subtle pink-purple hues of light [...]
Today's image comes from November 14th and an attempt at capturing a supermoon setting behind Abbot Hall. Before the moon had dipped low enough in the pre-dawn sky, I found this composition of Abbot Hall lit by its spotlights standing over houses and the BYC with its red and green lights aimed at Marblehead Harbor. The moon entered this scene 10 minutes later but I decided to switch to a horizontal view at that point thus removing the BYC from the frame. The light on Abbot had also dimmed in that short interval making this shot all the more interesting for [...]
I feel very fortunate to have been invited back for my second year at the Boston Yacht Club's Harbor Holidays event. It seemed like a great time to share this image taken on June 3, 2013 and never posted to the site. I had gone out on this day to capture the tradition of firing a cannon at sunset. Before the cannon fired, I couldn't help but capture this view of the full facade of the Boston Yacht Club. You can also make out Abbot Hall tower in the distance. I will be at the Boston Yacht Club on Saturday, [...]
I often neglect the backside of Abbot Hall in favor of capturing the tower and its clock. On a recent outing with a super wide lens, I tried to find a new composition for this very photogenic building. By shooting from the back and incorporating the path as a leading line, I hoped to draw the eye in and allow the viewer to take in the beautiful architecture of the building. Have a great weekend and Halloween!
On Thursday, I shared an image of Abbot Hall, Old North Church and the new St. Michael's steeple captured on a recent dawn morning. This composition was what really brought me out on that day and it could not have happened without the help of three people. Ulrike Welsch is a phenomenal local photographer and I happened upon her image of Abbot Hall and Old North Church juxtaposed so that it wasn't clear which was in front of the other. I commented in the prior post that I learned the location of this shot from Uli but was dismayed to [...]
I can't imagine a better start to the day than capturing this image on a perfect morning in Marblehead yesterday. The road to this shot was long and convoluted - I hope you don't mind a bit of a backstory... A few years ago, I happened upon an image by Ulrike Welsch of Abbot Hall and Old North Church juxtaposed so that one couldn't quite tell which was in front of the other. The composition was nothing short of brilliant and I tried in vain to figure out where it was taken from. Fast forward to a recent Farmer's Market [...]
As I made my way around town on Saturday scouting out locations for the lunar eclipse, I found myself staring up at the familiar facade of Abbot Hall. I had come up Atlantic Avenue headed toward Abbot Hall to check angles for the projected path of the moon and I realized I had never captured an image of Abbot Hall from this vantage point. The appearance of Abbot Hall after a slight turn on Atlantic Avenue (and the similar one when turning onto Washington Street from Pleasant) seems to be one of those odd moments where I know that Abbot [...]
As sunset neared, I drove up Washington Street, wondering what new compositions the ultra wide lens might offer me. One of the limitations of capturing buildings is that any angles off center introduce perspective shifts causing buildings to appear to fall back or loom overhead. At 11mm on a full frame sensor, the full height of Abbot Hall could be captured even from this vantage point below it. I took advantage of that and included the blue sign proclaiming Abbot Hall to be the home of the Spirit of 76 painting. Enjoy the Weekend!