I woke up in time for the sunrise on Saturday, September 6th and made the most of it by driving down to Little Harbor. I lucked out with the pink sky reflecting off the calm water and creating a beautiful First Harbor sunrise. Even better, one of the lobster boats had its lights on as the crew got ready for a day out at sea. You can also spot two kayakers out in the water enjoying a morning row.
Yesterday's incredibly warm weather put me in mind of time spent last July 4th running around Marblehead capturing images of from the ground and air of the various 'watering holes' around town. I hit Little Harbor at what seemed like peak tie up with boats filling the harbor and plenty of folks in the waist-high water taking advantage of warm Summer days in Little Harbor.
We had thick fog enveloping Marblehead on July 21, 2014 and I decided to head over to Beacon Street to see what images awaited with boats moored in the smaller harbor. I happened upon one boat named Amby's Bop and decided to capture it with only the faintest outline of Brown's Island visible in the distance. Imagine my surprise when I zoomed in later and found the photographer Ulrike Welsch's name and number written inside the boat's hull.
For each of the past few years, the First Harbor company has launched their small boat carrying a Christmas tree into the waters of little harbor. I've shot the tree with the moon rising behind it and with snow falling around it. Last night, the rain cleared and a dense fog advisory came out which offered a new vantage point for me to shoot the tree and boat. I arrived to find the dinghy heavily weighted down by rainwater and lucked out with the Peach family showing up to pull the boat ashore and empty a few buckets of water [...]
From the same outing (and same location) as last week's image of the blue dinghy comes this one of a boat seeming to be playing the waiting game before being put into the water of Little Harbor. Though with how late it is in the season, the boat may have just been taken out. I've never actually seen this movable crane in action before. I'm curious what it looks like when it moves out into position...
An overhead shot of this intensely blue dinghy seemed a nice way to end the week. I found this boat tied up in Little Harbor on Labor Day weekend.
On the Fourth of July, I set about shooting aerial images of various beaches in Marblehead as the hot, humid weather seemed to bring out the largest crowds I had witnessed in those spots. I had actually started my day scouting out shots from the ground and hit upon this scene in Little Harbor just after noon. I have seen Little Harbor fill with boats in the summer but never to this extent. I shot several frames including varying compositions but favored this one with the American flag flying from atop a crane while people walked between boats in the [...]
This weekend was a scorcher and just about the only place to get any relief from the heat was on the water. With that in mind, I decided to fly my drone over a few spots in town including Brown's Island. In year's past, I had noted how the harbor would fill with boats at high tide (many tied together) and quickly came to resemble a (milder) version of Lake Havasu. With the drone flying high above, I was able to capture the scene of various boats anchored or tied together off Brown's Island with some sunbathers on the small [...]
Today's image comes from a dawn outing at the end of October 2016. I was stuck on a name for this image until I zoomed in and read the name of the boat with the red hull - Stormy Weather. I couldn't help but play with that name in the title to share this beautiful pink-orange dawn over Gerry Island and First Harbor.
Last week, I had gone out to Fountain Park to capture the full moon rising over Fort Sewall and the homes along Little Harbor. As I waited for the sun to set, I noted a soft glow on the houses facing the harbor and then saw a small motor boat and a kayak enter the frame. I captured this shot just as both were crossing over the light reflecting in the still waters. It's funny how different this image appears from the moonrise of last week with a nearly identical composition but with a change in light and focus for [...]