After capturing the view from atop Fort Sewall, I made my way down the stairs and stopped short when I noticed the s-curve of the fence. I decided to use the curve as a leading line which would draw the viewer into the image taking in the new trees planted as part of the renovation before heading off to the distance with boats on their moorings and sunset light in the evening sky.
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, [...]
This is one of those images that I like as much for the circumstances in which it was taken as the final image. We had gone out to meet our former neighbor (and kids' surrogate grandfather in town) at the BYC for a dignhy ride around the harbor on a warm early summer afternoon (June 20th at 3pm). Not 5 minutes into the ride, he offered my daughter take the helm and she piloted us around under his direct supervision. I was there to shoot images of Marblehead from the water but spent as much time shooting them piloting as [...]
Last Saturday, we headed out with our former neighbor for a dinghy ride around the harbor. As we made our way around the fort, I couldn't help but grab a few images with great light and clouds positioned perfectly above the outcropping of land. With COVID-19 restrictions and the cancelled fireworks show, it really is perfect timing for Fort Sewall's huge renovation. I can't wait to see it when it reopens.
Look what I found when digging through unpublished images from past Junes - that old tree at the Fort! At the time I didn't think much of this shot with a simple composition split between the tree and a solitary sailboat on its mooring. At the time, I was using the tree to help balance the focal point of the sailboat. Now, seven years after the image was taken in June 12, 2013, the view of the Giving Tree with its full canopy steals the eye and is a wonderful reminder of the majesty of this now lost symbol.
I hadn't been back to Fort Sewall since the day after the storm that took down large pieces of what I affectionately called the Giving Tree. I had woken up early this morning for a different shoot after noticing the Hotel Marblehead's new paint job (watch for that shot tomorrow). I finished shooting from Pleasant Street and was disappointed in the lack of fog or a nice sunrise and was all set to turn back home when I decided to continue down to Fort Beach and see what had become of the tree. Last time I turned onto Front Street, [...]
Since moving to Marblehead in 2008, I must have made the drive up Front Street toward Fort Sewall hundreds of times. Last night as I drove up, I felt like I had been punched in the gut - the tree at the edge of the Fort was broken. There are lots of trees at Fort Sewall but I bet you knew immediately which one I was talking about. The great canopy of Marblehead's Giving Tree was instantly recognizable from land and sea as one looked out toward Fort Sewall. It has formed the focal point of many of my images [...]
One more shot of the full moon that rose on the first day of Spring. I had decided to shoot the moonrise from Fort Sewall and was really hoping it would appear low on the horizon to frame it behind Childrens Island. Thick haze forced me to shoot a different composition which I was happy with and, after capturing the shot, I decided to head back to my car. On the way down the hill, I kept looking back over my shoulder and stopped in front of Fort Beach when I spotted the moon positioned behind the great tree at [...]
Shortly after moving to Marblehead, I captured my favorite image of Fort Sewall with I found the red arches and this tree perfectly coated in fresh snow. I entered that image in the Marblehead Festival of Arts in 2008 and realized too late I had misspelled the title as Fort Sewell. Too late to change it, the photo was rejected - it still hangs over my desk at home. I returned to Fort Sewall during each snow storm to try to recapture that scene with a better camera and without the snowbank that always bugged me but never found the [...]
In the past week, my wife and both kids have celebrated birthday - needless to say, I haven't had a chance to shoot lately and especially not the recent full moon. Thankfully, I captured several images of the Harvest moon that rose on October 4th and haven't had a chance to share them yet. I had decided to capture the Harvest Moon from along Front Street. I started off at Lovis Cove and then walked along Front Street toward Fort Sewall as the moon rose in the evening sky. At this point I had stopped at Fort Beach to take [...]
