Only a few hours after capturing yesterday's image of opening day at Gatchell Park, I headed across the causeway to shoot the boats racing for the Jackson Cup. This annual tradition takes place on the last weekend in April but will be missed this year as the yacht clubs remain closed with COVID-19 restrictions in place. There's nothing like watching the brightly colored sails criss-crossing in front of Abbot Hall, the BYC and other familiar spots across the water.
With warnings of wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour, today's predicted storm put me in mind of this outing on March 3, 2018 when a raging storm hurled waves across the causeway. In this shot, you can judge the height of the splash over as it rises higher than the lamp posts on the causeway and you can make out one of the structures on Tinkers Island in the distance. Even the causeway had white caps on this wind swept day.
And today's shot had an even longer wait. Captured on April 23, 2014, I had visited Hammond Park on this morning and found very subtle fog floating over the waters of Marblehead Harbor. I spotted this whaler on its mooring and then waited as the first light of this spring dawn painted the sky and water is pastel orange color.
Today's image was captured on March 18, 2016 representing a four year wait for its debut. I remember heading out on this spring evening and finding a picture perfect scene before me as I stood at the Pleon Yacht Club pier. I captured various compositions as the clouds moved and the light shifted. In this one, I wanted to focus on the emptiness of the harbor with a single sailboat moored in front of Abbot Hall.
On Friday March 13th, I chased a passing storm and ended up on Front Street from where I started off shooting a tight composition of the lighthouse and Neck with some waves breaking on the rocks of Fort Beach. I later zoomed out and captured the full view including the missing Great Tree and shared that image earlier. I came back to this image this weekend after my first week 'off' work. As a part-owner of our Allergy practice, I have not been off at all. We have tried to pivot to telemedicine all while grappling with the very real [...]
While I was out shooting from the Neck on Sunday, I kept hoping for something dynamic to break up the otherwise still scene of boats on their moorings. As luck would have it, only 10 minutes after capturing Tuesday's image, this boat came back into Marblehead Harbor after finishing an October sail. I imagine conditions were near perfect with cool, crisp air and a brisk wind. I was thrilled with the sailboat adding that dynamic element and even more so by the clouds shifting and exhibition their own flow in the sky above.
On September 2nd, I chased some promising clouds out to Ferry Lane but the promised lightning show never materialized. Instead, I decided to find some interesting compositions in the blue hour shortly after sunset. I took advantage of the clouds and still conditions to capture this view at mid-harbor of boats filling every mooring and the Eastern Yacht Club shining across the water.
September 4th was quite the photo outing with this first stop along Corinthian Lane paving the way for a later outing at Crocker Park that would yield some instant favorite images. When I first went out at 5pm, it was to catch a break in rain showers and some interesting clouds that I had spotted overhead. I drove across the causeway and then glanced left as I drove along the Neck finally deciding to pull over along Corinthian Lane. I arrived just as another storm was approaching and, with the broken cloud cover, the sunlight was broken up into sun [...]
When I captured this image, I hadn't been out in nearly a month. It seemed like I was making up for lost time when I went out twice on Sunday, Sept 1st - this time to capture golden sunlight reflecting off boats filling Marblehead harbor. The clouds that held such promise earlier in the day had all but disappeared at this point so my hopes for a strong sunset were dashed (little did I know I would witness an incredible sunset only a few days later). Still, it was nice to be out with a camera at the dock in [...]
After nine years of capturing images of Marblehead, I had yet to find a good angle for a shot of the Marblehead Yacht Club. When I finished taking shots of the harbor on Sunday night, I turned to find this scene before me. I'm not sure if it was the low tide, the flag flying in the breeze or the light behind the club, but the combination of those and the launch boat made me grab for the camera and capture this shot. You can make out some patrons enjoying dinner on this unofficial last weekend of summer.