4th of July–Stonington, ME

I got to spend the 4th of July working, and then taking pictures.  Stonington had fun for the 4th – food on the docks, and fireworks… I met Shannon Stapleton, a photographer who works for Reuters on the dock.  We talked photography and the Island. 

This wonderful rainbow appears often over the water if its been foggy and clears or raining because of the way the sun catches the water crystals in the air.

The theme this year was: PIRATES!

I’ve been working on blur and focus – my new camera works different my old one – finding that balance has been interesting. 

Light, shadows, colors and details.

I have a thing for doors.  Like this one. 

I have never taken pictures of fireworks before.  So I googled.  I do not have a trigger bulb release.  I had to use a 2 second delay with means I had to time the shots out really well.  Or, leave it to luck.  I think it was 50/50

I played around with zooming in and out – the challenge in that is – focus. 

Beauty Everywhere…

Source: Beauty Everywhere…

Beauty Everywhere…

There is beauty in everything – in every fleck of rust, in every curve of a bottle, in every color of glass, in every line of a table, in the way the light shafts of the angle of a door knob…. There is beauty everywhere….

 

Settlement Quarry and Edgar Tennis Preserve

Two days without rain saw me running out after 8hrs on the road and taking sometime to hike!

The quarry is a good hike (1 mile is round trip) and can be more – it was raining on and off – if you’re a rock hound, and want to see the MASSIVE amounts of granite that this place produced it’s a must see while in the Stonington/Deer Isle area.

The Edgar Tennis Preserve is a great hike – I headed for the furthest of trails (there are others and I’ll have to go back another time).  There is a pink granite beach, an old cemetery, and the trails are knotted with tree roots, the ground worn away by many feet and their passage to these wonderful little spots.  This is really a must see – best at low tide, I went at high tide, due to work – but will go again at low tide the granite beaches are GREAT!

Barred Island

I ended up with a shorter day today – so I decided to

skip the gym (you know many of my blogs start off that way!) – and hit up Barred Island – It’s a mile in and a mile out – you  MUST go during low tide and you’ll have 2hrs before and 2hrs after (the hike in is about 45 mins)

The trail is worn, the earth bare to the snarled roots of the surrounding trees. 

Then as you come closer to the shore, feet and time have cut a swath of earth away and revealed the granite beneath – making for a solid walk way to the beach

Then – the beach – at low tide you’ve got about 2hrs before and 2hrs after the “low point” of the tide.  You can walk over to the Island and explore it – along with the shore – it’s a great view – I’d love to hit it up at sunset – but not having to walk back thru that trail at deep dusk

It’s a real fun walk, you’ve got sand, rocky area, lovely huge granite rocks – and nothing like that great sea air.

Beach Time

I decided to skip the gym one afternoon, and go running around on the rocky shores of Sand Beach.

Not the sunniest day, but cold and gorgeous (Its April!)

Birds of a Feather

As I was doing paperwork one afternoon, this guy was fluttering around making sure I was doing my job, I guess!