Taking pictures is all about collecting light and the time of day that you do that can make a huge  difference in the resulting photograph. Lighthouses in the Boothbay Harbor region can be seen and photographed from some easy to access places that afford good look angles but at very different times of the day. The Cuckolds is best seen from the Newagen Town Landing in the later afternoon light, Ram Island Light can be seen from Ocean Point a little before local sunset and Burnt Island looks nice from the road to Spruce Point in the morning hours after Sunrise. A good telephoto lens is required to fill the frame for all of these lights when capturing from the aforementioned points. 

But there is another way to view and capture photos of the area lighthouses with a quality of light that is wonderful for photography - at daybreak. Lighthouses in Maine mostly face East and the best time to see and photograph them is in early morning light. The warm colors of the sun and the low angle of the sunlight are some important ingredients that can help us to make breathtaking images of our local lighthouses. And the best way to accomplish this is by boat - namely aboard the what is now the annual Sunrise Lighthouse Photography Cruise on the Balmy Days out of Pier 8. Saturday, Sept. 6 is the date for this year’s photography cruise that leaves Pier 8 before sunrise at 6 a.m. A cell phone camera is perfectly adequate to capture the really beautiful light that is bathed upon the lighthouses at that hour of the morning. Captain Bill Campbell maneuvers the vessel to afford the very best look angles of the lights to help the folks aboard to make their best shots.

The first lighthouse we usually see is Burnt Island Light with the warm glow of the morning light having just arisen over the horizon. Next we see the Cuckolds light followed by Ram Island light where we get both a silhouette view and a fully lit view with a rocky coastline in the foreground - again a view that is only seen by boat. And in the past couple years we have had the great fortune of seeing Pemaquid light with the morning light from the ocean.

If you like lighthouses and photography you do not want to miss this most unique opportunity to be aboard for this cruise. Photographer Mike Leonard, frequent contributor to the Boothbay Register, will be aboard to help with camera settings and to offer general photography help. 

Mike will be doing double duty that weekend as he is also running the DownEast Magazine Photography Retreat in Boothbay Harbor and, while the cruise is open to the public, it is included in the weekend retreat that he is conducting. Some openings for the weekend photo retreat are still available too should you want to take your photography skills to the next level.

I sometimes hear people say that they will do this photo cruise “next year” - maybe this is the year you take the opportunity to make your best shots?