2019 New England Reflections Calendar

Benefiting the Monadnock Conservancy

With the fall foliage season fading away, the time is overdue to get people thinking of there 2019 calendar(s).  Actually, October is late to be pushing out my New England Reflections Calendar, but there are two important factors that make this year’s calendar especially desirable.

The Calendar

First and as is always true, my 2019 calendar is the best I have ever offered!  It is difficult to choose the pictures for the calendar, but I am excited about the image selection and, once again, how beautifully they have been printed by Silver Direct. 

As always, my images focus on the Monadnock Region and southern Vermont.  Pictures include lots of flowing water (four pictures), ice coated Harrisville during the crippling 2008 December storm, spring flowers, and intense autumn colors along a road in Chesterfield.  I always include at least one animal picture, and for the 2019 calendar, it is of new-born lambs at Harrisville’s Mayfair Farm.  This year’s seacoast picture captures sunrise at the icon Portland Head Lighthouse. In November 2017 we saw a spectacular “Super” moon and I managed to capture the moonrise over Mount Monadnock. 

You can see some of these pictures here, but for the full collection, check out the 2019 New England Reflections Gallery on my web site.

The Cause

For the first time, this year, all the proceeds from my calendar benefit the great work of the Monadnock Conservancy. The Conservancy is a nonprofit land trust for southwestern New Hampshire.  Since its founding in 1989 the Conservancy has protected nearly 20,000 acres, including farmland and open spaces.  This is a wonderful group of hard-working conservationists who have been strongly supportive of the New England Reflections Calendar.  

Monadnock Conservancy Staff

It is refreshing to partner with folks who have enthusiastically taken on the work of distributing and promoting the calendar.   Even if you don’t like the calendar, please consider supporting this excellent organization to any extent you can but remember the New England Reflections Calendar make a great gift for family and friends, anytime, but especially during the holiday season. What better gift than to promote the protection of the natural beauty of our amazing corner of New England.

Where are the Calendars?

The calendars are widely available.  We are still working on expanding their distribution, but here is a partial list of the quality local establishments who have agree to carry the calendar.  You can also get one or more from me, or from the Monadnock Conservancy.

• Creative Encounters Keene
• Flowers on Main- Keene  
• Hannah Grimes- Keene
• May Fair Farm- Harrisville
• Monadnock Imaging- Keene
• Sharon Arts Center Peterborough
• Toadstool Keene
• Toadstool Peterborough
• Jingle Christmas Store, Westmoreland
• Westmoreland General Store, Westmoreland   

Monadnock Conservancy
15 Eagle Court, po box 337
Keene, NH 03431
603-357-0600

Jeff Newcomer

www.partridgebrookreflections.org
603-363-8338

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

Portland’s Six Lighthouses : A Gallery

Portland Head Light

Portland Maine has six Lighthouses protecting its rocky coast.  This week, in a blog article for the New England Photography Guild, I highlighted each of these beacons.  Radar and GPS have revolutionized the process of coastal navigation, but, especially for smaller craft, they have not replaced the importance of Lighthouses in lighting the way to safe harbors.  Photographically, New England’s lights are one of my favorite subjects whenever I get back to the coast.

Check out my Guild article for details about each of Portland’s six Lighthouses.  They range from the isolated and abandoned Rear Range Tower of the Twin Lights, to the majestic Portland Head light, arguably the most impressive example of New England’s coastal beacons.  Here, To supplement my article, I have collected a few more of the many images of these lighthouses that I have captured over the years.

You can check out the locations on my map and follow the GPS locations.  I decided to tour the lighthouses from south to north starting with the most challenging ones to approach, the Twin Lights.

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1-2)  Twin Lights, Cape Elizabeth

43.5643N, 70.1989

Only one of the two Twin Lights is still functioning and both are on private property.  Both were built around 1828.  In 1924, the government dismantled the West (Rear Range) Tower.  It is closed off and now is a private residence.  The other light is closer to the shore and, although it is still operating, it can’t be closely approached.  

Rear Range Tower - Inactive

East Tower - Active

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3) Portland Head Lighthouse, Cape Elizabeth

43.6232N, 70.2079W

The Portland Head Lighthouse was commissioned by President George Washington and completed in 1791. It is the oldest lighthouse in Maine.  Sitting heroically on a rocky point extending toward Portland’s main shipping channel, it is easy to see why it is the most photographed lighthouse in New England.

Obviously, it is one of my most photographed Lighthouses.

 

 

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4) Ram Island Light

43.6314N, 70.1876W

Across the entrance to Portland Harbor from Cape Elizabeth and Portland Head Light, is Ram Island Lighthouse.  Built in 1905, It sits precariously on a ledge that threatens the northern side of the harbor channel.  The lighthouse can be photographed from Fort Williams Park with dramatic images often including Portland Head Light in the frame.

Distant Ram Island Light

 

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 5) Spring Point Ledge Light

43.6499N, 70.2255W

Located next to the Campus of Southern Maine Community College, Spring Point Ledge Light was built in 1897 to mark a dangerous Ledge which lies to the west of Portland’s main shipping channel.  Originally built on a caisson in open water, in 1951, the lighthouse was attached to the mainland with a 600 foot granite breakwater and can be viewed from the beach or breakwater.  

 

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6) Bug Light

43.6556N, 70.2349W

Little Portland Breakwater Light, which is also called “Bug Light”, was built in 1875 to mark the entrance to Portland Harbor. Bug Light Park includes a memorial to the New England Shipbuilding Corp shipyard.  During WW II, the massive yard constructed over 200 of the Liberty Ships that were so crucial in transporting American industrial output across the Atlantic.  Now, all that is left is a skeletonized bow,  representing one of the ships.

 

 

 

Liberty Ship Memorial

• Portland's Six Lighthouses
  (New England Photography Guild Article)

Jeffrey Newcomer

www.partridgebrookreflections.com

603-363-8338