Paul Howe 3/29/24 Paul Howe 3/29/24

A Nature surprise

Sometimes I get an unexpected visual gift when I am out taking photos of something else.This was the case last Sunday when Natasha I were out on Maple weekend in Maine. As we traveled inland from York Maine ice began to form on the trees all around us. Though the ice storm caused a lot of damage to the area with many thousands of people in Maine without power it was still beautiful.

When there seems to be a great photo everywhere I look I feel like I have to capture everything I see. I have to calm down from the visual overload and really look at what I am photographing so I don’t just take random photos. The world has been transformed by a weather event like an ice storm. Everything looks new. I have the same problem when I travel to a visually stunning new place.

As we walk to one of the sugarhouses the sun came out and the ice sparkled in the sunlight which made for some spectacular scenery that I hope I could capture and convey what I saw and was feeling at that moment walking on a road in Maine.

Paul Howe 3/26/24 Paul Howe 3/26/24

Maple Sugaring Time

I have photographed maple sugaring season many times and I am always challenged to find and new way to capture an image of making syrup from sap every year.

North Berwick Maine at the Chase farm is where I took my first photos. Steam coming from the vent in the roof snd ice on the trees made for a new and slightly different photo. The one thing that really stood out from a picture prospective was all light from all the windows in the sugar house that made photographing indoors a breeze.

Giles Farm in Alfred Maine was the next stop. Natasha and I had been here the year before and was not sure what kind of image I could make. I ended up with a few shots outside and inside the sugar house and basically did a standard shot of syrup being drawn off the evaporator. Nothing new but a record of what was going on that day, month and year.

We walked about a half mile to our next sugarhouse. The sun was warm and the ice storm the day before made for many nice photos before we arrived there. (Future blog post?)

Look-up at the ceiling of the sugarhouse at the 207 Tappers in Biddeford Maine, I saw the contrasts of the ceiling steam and light and captured some images. The walk back to the car was equally inspiring to take photos.

A couple of photos at our last stop at Harris Farm in Dayton, of people enjoying Maple weekend in Maine and I was good for the day and another year of a spring tradition in New England.

Paul Howe 3/22/24 Paul Howe 3/22/24

“The Cape”

Photographing on Cape Cod is always a different experience. The light is softer not as harsh, you can see into the shadows. Full sun, cloudy day, or somewhere in-between the light is more diffused. My guess is there is more moisture in the air and the light scatters.

The light was the same when my wife Natasha and I visited her aunt and uncle in West Dennis on Cape Cod a week ago. Friday Aunt Martha drove us to the Monomoy National Wildlife Refuse on Morris Island in Chatham. We walked on a trail that took us first through the woods that then opened up to a salt marsh. The trail went passed small ponds and grasses and we end at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean.

Atlantic Ocean, Monomoy Island,Chatham MA

I captured many images in the salt mash area watching the sun light come and go on the landscape before me on this partly cloudy day.

Later Natasha and I walked, and I took more photos, at the beach at Chatham light. The water was calm here, protected from the full force of the ocean by barrier islands, which made for some nice calming pictures.

The last photos I took were at the Chatham Pier. Everyone comes to the pier looking for seals, but the were no fishing boats unloading there catch for the day so the seals were absent. No seal photos that day but I did take a few photos of Turn Island Sanctuary just off shore.

Even though it was close to noon the light was still favorable capturing a few more images before lunch.

Paul Howe 3/19/24 Paul Howe 3/19/24

Beginning

I begin my first blog post on my adventures with my camera on the first day of spring 2024. Rising early to capture the sunrise at Sohiel Park in Cape Neddick home to the Nubble Lighthouse.

Arriving before the sun peaked above the horizon the first thing that caught my eye was a cloud already lit by the morning sun. After taking photos of the cloud I Moved to the other side of the park, where I waited with cold hands,(my gloves were back in the car),for the sun to rise in the East. I took many photos of the colorful sky before the sun rose above the rocks to light the day.

After many more sunrise photos and some of Nubble Lighthouse I then headed to Long Sands Beach in York for more photos of the sunshine lighting up another day.

I spotted and photographed a piece of driftwood on the beach lit up by the spring sun then headed home with new photos and new memories on a new day just beginning.