... i guess even i would admit that "chilling" is perhaps too mild a word ... freezing off our fingertips and a**es is a more accurate description of the sunrise at pemaquid lighthouse ... john and i scheduled this morning for a picture taking wanderabout ... after spending a half-hour digging my car out of the crusty snow mound within which it was enveloped, i drove to fairfield and picked him up ... it was only then we finally decided the direction and destination of our little expedition ...
... two thermoses of coffee later, after surviving icy roads, suffering numerous bone-jarring potholes, and managing to avoid the vehicles skidded into snowbanks along the sides of the neck road, we arrived at pemaquid point ... of course, after two thermoses of coffee i uttered my thanks to the town of bristol for keeping a porta-potty at the edge of the parking lot ... 10-15°f with a brisk breeze coming of the ocean, we began to freeze the minute we started taking pictures ...
... i decided to climb down the rocks to get a better view of the lighthouse ... there was a time i would just kind of hop across the pegmatite sills, but now, in this time of mature wisdom and bad knee, i was very careful on the treacherous surfaces ...
... john took what may just be one of my favorite pictures ever of me ...
... sharply delineating the outline of monhegan island, in a perfectly clear sky the sunrise was all the more intense in its brevity ...
... the clear sky made for somewhat less than dramatic compositions, so i amused myself by taking a self-portrait ...
"Above all, I craved to seize the whole essence, in the confines of one single photograph, of some situation that was in the process of of unrolling itself before my eyes."
HENRI CARTIER-BRESSEN
... such joy, to remember how i first took a picture from this spot over forty years ago ...
... more than just landscapes, i've come to find it most rewarding to bring harmony to place with person ...
... after a very nice breakfast at a diner we found on route 1, we drove up to whitefield, then parked in the mailbox turnout on kings mills road and walked in to take pictures at the river's frozen over fall line ... i experimented a bit with my ultra high-density filter and fancy remote release ... unhappy with the results and with my fingers way too cold to play around with all the teensy-tiny control buttons, i fell back into a more "normal" picture taking routine ...
... john caught me "assuming the position" ...
... looking at the contrast in this scene, from spectacular reflections on the snow to dark shadows, it's clear i'm become much more comfortable with the d7000's ability to capture an extended dynamic range ...
... i wonder, which came first ...
... risking a fall, i perched myself atop a guardrail to do another self-portrait ...
... since they'll be plowing the main lot tonight, after i returned to waterville i had to take my car back down by the river ... on the way back to my apartment i stopped to explore the railroad bridge over the kennebec river ... benedict arnold's first portage of his bateau on the ill-fated expedition to capture quebec city in 1775 took place between the telephone pole and the edge of the bridge ...
... i noticed that the telephone pole still has its original colored glass insulators ...
... it's hard to believe that in a few months i'll be able to take a sandwich and a thermos of tea and enjoy sitting on the rocks at the edge of the river below the far end of the bridge ...
... now, of course, is not the time for that ...
... in castonguay square across the street from my apartment i stopped to play for awhile with this metal bench ...
... the parking lot below my window is filled with the cars of people out to eat, many of whom, i'm sure, are actively fighting cabin fever ... time for me to find some supper ... what a nice day ...