Rye Beach and Beyond, and Just a Tiny Bit of Photoshop

Rye Beach Reflection

This last weekend was “Rye Beach Weekend”, my annual chance to mooch 

The  Timeless Cottage, From Years Past

off our friends Tom and Paula who, for four weeks, take a rustic cottage on Rye Beach, New Hampshire.  New Hampshire only has about 18 miles of frontage on the Atlantic, but Rye Beach is one of its prettiest stretches of sand.  The only problem is that the Beach is packed with overly developed Beach mansions. Our friend’s cottage is the only house that has not been torn down and replaced with a modern, four season houses.  The structure is rough, but the essential fact is that it is ON the beach and that is all that really counts.

Each year I get to visit with friends, eat great food overlooking the ocean, and look for new and interesting things to photograph at the water’s edge.

• Rye Beach Gallery

Rye Beach Roller

Photographically, this year was a bit of a challenge, the schedule was tight, and, from a photographer’s perspective, the weather was disappointingly beautiful.  The sky was mostly clear, with just a few thunder clouds in the evening, but not much of a sunset.  I prefer stacks of puffy clouds or darkly ominous overcast.  I found a good location to capture a nearly full moon rising behind the distant Isle of shoals, but a cloud bank completely blocked the show.  I did catch a nice reflection of the tall clouds on the wet sand and I waded out to capture the rollers crashing onto the beach.  In addition to freezing the waves with short exposures, I tried using my new Neutral Density Filters to cut the bright sunlight.  Despite the strong mid-day sun, I was able to flatten the surf with exposures of 15 second or more.  I could have done better if the sky was even a little overcast.

Rye Surf, 15 Second Exposure, 6 stop ND Filter

Perkin's Cove

Perkin's Cove Bloom

This year we planned to extend our coastal visit to include a visit to our friends Michele and Wally in York Maine.  We had an early dinner next to the Marginal Way in Perkin’s Cove, Ogunquit Maine.  The cove is a classic little protected harbor, mostly packed with working fishing boats and lobsterman.  The waterfront is quite touristy, but the harbor and the rocky shore along the one and one quarter mile long cliff path of the Marginal Way is a spectacular.  

Bait, Perkin's Cove

Nubble Light Refurbishing

Of course, being in York, I had to make a pilgrimage to the classic Nubble Lighthouse.  Unfortunately, this year, the lighthouse is being refurbished.  Scaffolding has been migrating around the structures contaminating the pristine appearance.  For our visit the mesh was around one of the outbuildings.  I could have tried to repair the damage in Photoshop, but, over the years, I have had many opportunities to grab clean images of the light.  This was a good time to let the repairs happen while I enjoyed the clean salt air and communed with the gulls.

Nubble Gull

The Sox

Friendly Fenway

The final leg of our trip was down to Cambridge and Boston for dinner with our daughter Abigail, and her new husband Grayson. Following dinner, we rushed off to Fenway to see the Sox drop a game to the Phillies.  Boston hasn’t been losing much this year, so why did they have to save one for us.  I always bring my little Canon SX 50HS to the games.  It is small enough to sneak in as a point and shoot, but its 1200mm zoom brings me close to the action.

Pomeranz Delivers at 1200mm

This year, our Rye Weekend extended out for five lovely days.  We didn’t get home until late Wednesday, which is why I am late with this week’s blog.  Now I have a bunch of stuff on which to catch up and the work on the studio is still inching along.  Who knows when I’ll get to my next article.

Tenders, Perkin's Cove

OK, I couldn't resist a little "quick and dirty" Photoshop
I stole the shack from another of my images

Jeffrey Newcomer

www.partridgebrookreflections.com