I post photographs here from time to time for those who are interested in a bit of the story and the locations behind the pictures.

I shoot most of the photographs on on Martha's Vineyard.

If you would like to buy a photo, you can click on the link below the picture.

All of the photographs I have for sale are available at FineArtAmerica.

If you are thinking about using these photos without permission, don't. I'm protected with PIXSY


Christmas Light Painting

13 seconds @ f/22
Each year, the town of Oak Bluffs dresses up Ocean Park for the holiday season. It makes a great opportunity for light play, opening the shutter and letting the lights paint an image.

Old Marine Hospital

8 seconds at f/25
6 seconds at f/20

1/60 second at f/3.5 (flash)

I got to go inside the old Marine Hospital in Vineyard Haven with my friend Chris Pettit and shoot the abandoned operating rooms, wards, hallways, and lots of other creepy stuff. Soon it will be the home of the Martha's Vineyard Museum, but for now it's a very interesting place. Lots of patterns, urban decay, and old, old relics of another era. It wasn't like shooting a sunset.


Harvest Moonlight at Quansoo

30 seconds at f/22
This is a 30 second exposure of the Harvest Moon casting light on the ocean off Quansoo Beach. My friend Erik Albert organized a bonfire on the beach, and it was a magical night. The waves were actually quite high, but the long exposure blends and smooths the light. I was surprised at the number of people who liked this image.

Sad Kingdom

1/320 second at f/11


I spent a long, sad weekend in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, where I grew up. At times like this, the shutter is a release for me. When I concentrate on making good pictures, I can forget about everything else for a while.

Wynton Marsalis at the Tabernacle

1/80 second at f/4.5
I got a dream assignment this week. I interviewed Wynton Marsalis briefly on the phone, then got to meet him and listen to a two hour jam session at the inn where he stays when on Martha's Vineyard. He is a tremendously talented, very humble and likable guy. At the concert Saturday evening with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, I got this wide shot from just off the side of the stage. The Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs is a wonderful venue, and Wynton Marsalis spoke about it in my interview. He loves the feeling of community in this place.  Wynton Marsalis sits in the trumpet section at the back of the orchestra, so despite my best attempts to wrangle a spot where I could get a shot of him playing his horn, I didn't get much. No disappointment, it was a real thrill of a weekend.

The Zipper

8 seconds at f/13
I had a fun night shooting long exposures at the Martha's Vineyard Agricultural Society Fair.  With a lot of people walking around, I was careful to avoid the dreaded tripod crash by keeping one hand on the sticks at all times.  This shot reminds me of the Spirograph toy I used to play with as a kid. 



I love the pattern and color in the picture below, but it's not recognizable as a carnival ride.



Martha's Vineyard Cloud

1/320 second at f/9
I was out shooting a boat race, when I noticed this cloud. It took the shape of Martha's Vineyard for just a minute, then morphed into Nantucket (just kidding).

Purchase this photograph, or at least see what it looks like as a note card.

Farr 40 North American Champhionship Regatta

1/250 second at f/11

I spent a great day on the water shooting the Farr 40 North American Championship Regatta. This shot is a bit of a cliche, lots of people have made similar pictures, but I like it. That third boat from the port side is just screwing up the spacing a bit. I got reacquainted with Daniel Forster, who I met years ago on an assignment. He is a terrific photographer and I learned a lot just watching how he positioned the photo boat. He was very generous with his knowledge. In addition to a great day for making pictures, it was a great day of racing. First photo boat I have ever been on that had its own chef. Below are some more pictures.






Sophie's Reflection


1/100 second at f/7.1

Finally, the gray, gray weather broke. For the past three mornings, I have been up early in hot, sunny, weather with no wind, zipping about Vineyard Haven Harbor trying to catch boat reflections. I got such good reaction to my red boat shot, I want to use the same technique, focusing on a small part of the boat that illustrates pleasing lines and a reflection.
Sophie is a gorgeous 90 foot wooden sloop, in the harbor for the past two summers. I got several shots, and I like this one best.

Purchase this photograph.

Below is another shot.



Richard Donahue, Boston Pops

1/80 seconds @ f/5.6
This is Richard Donahue. He is an MBTA police officer who was shot in the confrontation with the Boston Marathon bombers in Watertown. It's really a miracle he survived. On the Fourth of July, my daughter Becky and I went to the Boston Pops show on the Esplanade in Boston. We went, in part, because we thought it was important to defy the fear that terrorists aim for. Richard Donahue was a guest conductor, leading the orchestra in a rousing rendition of "Shipping Up To Boston" by the Dropkick Murphys. It doesn't get more Boston than that. Never Boston Stronger. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.  

He turned around to see the crowd for only a few seconds, and for once, I was ready. I nailed the shutter and fired six frames per second. Good thing Nikon has good auto-focus, because I could see absolutely nothing through the tears.

Vineyard Haven Super Moon

2 seconds at f/5

This was a 54 hours before optimum time to shoot the Super Moon. I was on my way to the Ghost Channel to take advantage of a very low tide. Spent 2.5 hours there standing in the water, got no shot. (OK, 45 minutes of that was fishing.) I shot this on the way there, about 3:50 a.m., from Eastville. The moon is not quite full, and the amount of moisture in the air gives the moon an orange tint, but it also makes the edges fuzzy. I spent a total of 5 minutes on the shot. It turned out OK. Go figure. I spent the next two days chasing the moon, thwarted entirely by fog, clouds, fog, and more clouds.

Girls Fly Fishing

1/320 seconds at f/13
OK, I don't think this needs much explanation. But I'm glad I live here.

Cold Front, Comin' Through.

1/13 second at f/7.1
A very bizarre sky on this night. A very well defined front moved across Vineyard sound, with the sun setting in a slot just below it. I couldn't quite capture the sunset, but this photo evokes the feeling of power and energy in the storm.  I like how the water reflects the dark and light in the sky.

Cedar Tree Neck Sunset

15 seconds at f/22
I ordered a variable neutral density filter but I couldn't wait for it to arrive so I experimented a bit, by shooting with a polarizing filter and holding another polarizing filter in front of the lens. Doing that cuts down the light coming through the lens, which allows for much longer exposures. All motion, like the water in this image, smooths and blends. I was way, way trespassing for this shot, but don't tell anyone.

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Red Boat

1/250 seconds at f/8
It has been a very frustrating month, with a lot of rain, and dull skies. A 24 hour gale lashed the harbor until late afternoon, then the sun came out and there was not a breath of wind. Believe me, two hours before this shot the water was an angry froth and this boat was getting tossed around like a toothpick. This image is simple, with primary shapes and colors. People seem to like photographs that look a bit like an oil or acrylic painting.

Purchase this photograph

Full Moon Over East Chop



I was happy to see one of my FineArtAmerica customers bought some note cards with this image.
http://fineartamerica.com/saleannouncement.html?id=d168bf0057aa53ebc754c2dfc9f05bae

Lettuce Be Friends

1/8 second at f/22
I shot this location three times. On the third try, I finally figured out it needed morning light. My new fixed lens resulted in a sharper picture than any I shot with my zoom lenses. Below is the picture I set out to make, but as is often the case, the picture in my head doesn't quite work, but something else does.

1/50 @ f/13


Beach Textures

1/250 seconds at f/8
Rosa Rugosa is in full bloom on Martha's Vineyard. I remember these wild rose bushes in front of our house where I grew up in North Danville, Vermont, They always delight, and signal a clear transition from spring to summer. Huge patches of them grow on the beaches, but they only bloom for about a week. I like the way the different textures of beach vegetation stack up from the roses to the sky in this image.

Vineyard Haven Fog

1/50 second at f/7.1
It has been three weeks since I've seen an interesting sky on Martha's Vineyard. We have had plenty of fog, however. I have made a few pictures, but not much to write home about. These two images are from January 2013.

1/50 second at f/9


Golden Sail on Menemsha Bight

1/200 second at f/16
I was waiting for the sunset at Menemsha, watching a great pattern of clouds fall apart before the sun could get down into the slot on the clear horizon. I had a wide lens on my camera when I noticed this sailor heading into the frame. I changed to a long lens just in time. This image represents pure joy to me.

Wet Wisteria Hysteria

1/125 second at f/3.2
Seems like it has been overcast for weeks and it has rained for three days. I decided to look at it as a challenge. Maybe it's good to get away from dawn and dusk for a change.  In any case, it smelled great photographing wisteria, lilacs, and dogwood flowers all morning.

Orb Wins Kentucky Derby

1/800 second at f/4.5
This is Orb, winner of the 139th Kentucky Derby, with Joel Rosario in the irons. Rain all day made the track sloppy, but it stopped about 45 minutes before post time, which helped me avoid testing the Nikon 7000 performance when wet.

I managed to scrounge a yellow plastic rain poncho. I looked like Big Bird without feathers.
I really need a faster lens for this kind of shot, but a lot of time behind the viewfinder has helped me understand how to push the camera when I have to. 

My vantage point was the winner's circle at Churchill Downs, where you can't see any part of the race except the finish. He is a striking colt, though not at all flattered by mud. At the moment he is the only 3-year-old on the planet with a chance to win the Triple Crown.

Maybe the best, and certainly the most loved turf writer ever, the late Joe Hirsch, always told us forget picking a winner, root for the best story. Joe would have loved this. Trainer Shug McGaughey capped a stellar career with this first Derby win for owners and breeders Stuart Janney III and Dinny Phipps.



Before Dawn at Churchill Downs

1/25 second at f/4.5
Tough shooting conditions before dawn on an overcast morning at Churchill Downs. A mix of tungsten light, and daylight (or lack thereof) are more than Nikon can handle. With a little cropping, this image turned out to be a nice composition.

Moet on Ice

1/250 second at f/14
I am at Churchill Downs for a free lance writing assignment from the Louisville Courier-Journal. The backstretch was a bust this morning, dark, cloudy, most of the Kentucky Derby horses worked in the dark. On my way to the press box, however, this champagne on ice caught my eye. It's 7:30 a.m. at Churchill Downs, it's 5:00 p.m. somewhere.


Blue Ice Forest at the Edge of Blue Ice Lake

1/320 seconds at unknown f/stop (manual macro extender tubes)

I like this bizarre abstract. No one can guess what it is. It is actually ice crystals in the bottom of my recycling bin. I noticed the ice crystals, and tried to preserve some in the freezer. That didn't work. I tried to hold a chunk of ice in my hand, and shoot with the other hand. That didn't work. By the time I figured out how to put the bin on top of my car with the morning sunlight at just the right angle, the crystals had melted a bit, and this is the result. The crystals look like a forest, but they are really just five or six millimeters high.

Ocean Park Gazebo

4 seconds at f/25
This is the wonderful gazebo in Ocean Park, Oak Bluffs, at dawn. Is there anything more small town America than a gazebo? Every other Sunday evening in the summer, the Vineyard Haven town band plays here, always winding up with a rousing version of Sousa's Stars and Stripes Forever. On the weeks they are not here, they are in Owen Park in Vineyard Haven, where I can hear the music from my boat in the harbor.

Location: Oak Bluffs, MA 02568, USA

Quansoo Reflection

1/8 second at f/20

Happenstance is a wonderful thing. I was at Quansoo (see previous image) when I saw two beautiful swans in a tidal marsh. I slogged through, but the swans were having none of it, and swam away. The water was still, and the sky reflected in the pond. I got this shot just as the sun dipped below the horizon. I'm not nuts about the colors, but many people like this photograph.

Location: Chilmark, MA, USA

Quansoo Sunset

1/25 second at f/20

Quansoo is a private beach, natural and undeveloped, with high dunes and crashing surf. Though beautiful, it is not usually interesting to photograph, just sand and  water in pretty much the same proportion a far as you can see. On this day, I walked behind the dunes through a fairly dry marsh, and saw these reeds just across a tidal creek. The reeds block enough light so the sun doesn't blast out the image, and captured the golden glow perfectly.


Location: Chilmark, MA, USA

Chicken

1/200 second at f/10
I made a picture of a chicken. I don't know why. But that is the greatest shade of red I have ever seen.

Old Wooden Groin

5 seconds at f/22
Old wooden groins like this are all along the northern shore of Martha's Vineyard, a mostly failed attempt to prevent beach erosion. State regulations now prevent any kind of structure like this in a coastal zone. Most of these groins are weathered and worn from decades of tides, which makes them interesting to photograph. The colors of a clear dawn never fail to take my breath away.

Island Theater

1/4 second at f/5.6
I was dodging rain showers, looking for some night shots in Oak Bluffs when I noticed the projectionist moving around in the projection room of the gritty old (and that's being kind) Island Theater. Using available light, mostly street lights, I had to shoot with a slow shutter speed, which produced a sense of motion with the blurred movie reel on the left. The reel on the right is perfectly sharp because it's not moving. Also notice the misspelling of the movie title. Batman would not approve. It all adds up to a picture that screams Oak Bluffs.

The post above proves I have never been able to tell left from right. I disagree with the whole concept anyway.

Ferry Bridge Sunset

1/40 second at f/4.5
The M/V Island Home was still in the slip in Woods Hole when the sky just exploded with color. A golden sunset in the west is reflected in the bridge windows, while the sky is turning a hundred shades of pink off to the north.
I'm sure the crew on the bridge thought I was nuts, jumping around on the chairs trying to get just the right angle before the colors disappeared. Eli Dagostino, a terrific young photographer, happened to be on the boat. I'm sure he thought I was nuts, too.

Dawn at Lucy Vincent Beach

30 seconds at f/22

This is the first picture I made that I thought might be of interest to somebody besides me. The long exposure gives the surf swirling around the rocks on Lucy Vincent Beach an ethereal effect. I am on this beach two or three times a week in the off-season. It's amazing how different each day looks, with the variables of light, surf, tide, and wind.
Erosion has changed it radically since I made this picture. Most of the rocks are gone, and a few new ones have washed up in violent ocean storms. The clay cliff on the left side of the picture has mostly fallen down in a pile of glacial rubble.


Zen Morning at Ghost Channel

8 seconds at f/16

I love this location and shoot here often. The light is always different. The rocks form an old channel that led into a harbor long sealed off by the shifting sand of the Martha's Vineyard shoreline. My friend Chris Pettit dubbed it the ghost channel. On this morning, the colors of first light were especially vivid, and the image evokes a feeling of calmness for me.

Governor's Light

13 seconds at f/7.1
This a long exposure of the M/V Governor, my favorite of the Steamship Authority ferries. It was a very gray morning, and I was about to give up on the light, when Governor came over from Woods Hole on a deadhead run, to load up with cars and head back to America. The harbor was quite still, which made the reflections interesting. It's not a post card photo.

Chappy Ferry Light

45 seconds at f/16

This is a very long exposure of the Chappaquiddick Ferry crossing Edgartown Harbor. The running lights paint the ferry's course across the swift channel. It took a little experimenting to get the aperture setting right.

Into the Fog

1/640 second at f/6.3

We get some fog on Martha's Vineyard, though not as much as Maine. It was really thick this afternoon in Vineyard Haven Harbor. I was hoping the M/V Martha's Vineyard would slide into position behind the schooner Alabama, and the shot came together for a few seconds. This was around holiday time, because Alabama is flying small evergreen trees from her topmasts. It's an old seafaring tradition that dates back hundreds of years.

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