Steeple Chase
And now to late June and my venture up the ladders of Grace Community Church to the temporary scaffolding fora revisit of my From the Rooftops series. Here St. Michael's steeple appears to compete with Abbot Hall for height supremacy.
Old Town and the Harbor
One of my all time favorite images was captured in 2014 from atop St Michael's new steeple looking down onto Hooper Street and the close proximity of Marblehead Harbor. Eight years a a few blocks over, I captured this image from atop the Grace Community Church on a late June morning. The view is both similar and very different with similar houses and the close harbor beyond historic downtown (or Old Town) Marblehead. While I still love that shot from 2014, this was a fun one to capture.
From the Rooftops – St Michaels and Abbot Hall
Another image from my trip to the top of Grace Community Church where Michael Kehn is currently doing some much needed repairs to the steeple. With my harness on and rope attached, I was free to roam the temporary platform and found some interesting and unique views. Here you can see the new steeple of St. Michael's church juxtaposed against the rising facade of Abbot Hall with lush foliage hiding the houses and street below. While drones have made these shots easier to get, they have fixed focal lengths that make for limited compositional options. It's also nice to slow [...]
From the Rooftops – Old Town House
In the days before drones, I had a weekly project called From the Rooftops in which I found various rooftop vantage points around town for a new angle and perspective. Last week as I was driving, I spotted a new platform from which to capture historic downtown Marblehead and made my way up there with the guidance of the general contractor on Wednesday morning. The view was incredible from multiple directions and I'll share more in the weeks to come but I'm curious if anyone can figure out where this was captured from...
From the Scaffolds at Abbot Hall
Almost exactly six years ago, Abbot Hall was in the midst of much needed repairs and I somehow talked my way (with permission) to the top of the scaffolding that surrounded the building. This was before the availability of drones making such shots commonplace. Back then I recall sticking flyers under doors throughout historic downtown Marblehead hoping for a widow's walk or some other vantage point from which to find new compositions of this town. The view from the scaffolds at Abbot Hall did not disappoint - even if the light wasn't ideal. Here you can look down on Washington [...]
Abbot and the Rooftops at Dawn
Today's image of Abbot and the rooftops was taken exactly one minute before yesterday's view of Grace Community Church. I had been shooting from the back side of St. Michael's Steeple and kept alternating between wide and tighter views of Abbot Hall. As the sky reached its peak of pink color, I couldn't help but zoom out to capture the full extent of color in the morning sky as well as the rooftops interspersed with trees in this part of downtown Marblehead.
Morning Grace in Marblehead
Today and tomorrow's images come from my trip to the top of St. Michael's steeple and the beautiful dawn and sunrise which greeted us. Given the tight space, there end up being only a limited number of compositions available but the differing light of dawn and sunrise more than makes up for the loss in variety. I discovered this composition of Grace Community Church juxtaposed with Old North Church on a previous trip to this spot and couldn't help but shoot it again this morning. The soft pastel light of morning helped bring the entire scene together from the foreground [...]
Muffin Shop at Dawn
Back to the top of St. Michael's steeple for today's image of the Muffin Shop at dawn. I was moving around and around the top of the steeple on this October morning hunting for new compositions when I spotted this one of the Muffin Shop surrounded by a canopy of trees and backed by Marblehead Harbor and our lighthouse. I'm sure the employees were hard at work producing muffins for their early morning customers. I wish it was cold enough to catch a few wisps of smoke coming up from their kitchen...
Hooper at Dawn
On an early October morning, I met up with my friend Steve Clay at St. Michael's Church and the two of us successfully ascended to the top of the building's new steeple. This was my third trip up to this spot overlooking historic downtown Marblehead and I was treated to great colors and a prefect sunrise. I shared the sunrise view shortly after taking it but haven't had a chance to show any other images yet. During my very first ascent to this spot (on the scaffolding erected at the time), I found this composition of Hooper Street and its [...]
High Over Five Corners
In April 2012, I was invited for a flight in a Cessna over Marblehead. This was before the proliferation of drones and a chance to shoot from above Marblehead seemed like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Though we didn't stay up for long (turbulence got the better of me), we did make a few passes over familiar spots and I did my best to capture them. This image was taken while flying high over Five Corners. The intersection can be a challenging one for newcomers with its even numbered stop signs for an odd number of roads converging here. [...]