I usually discard photographs with lens flare but I like this happy accident. I was photographing in infrared and panning the turkey buzzard when it happened to fly near the sun.
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It has been many years since I created infrared images. I recently got the urge to take black and white IR images. The good thing about Infrared is that It likes high noon sunny days when I would not normally take photographs.
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Nantucket Christmas trees that line the roads are all decorated differently every year by various organizations.
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Christmas is a magical time on Nantucket. A tall lighted tree always stands at the top of Main Street.
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I always make my trips from Nantucket to Middlebury Vermont in the winter and early spring. This time I made the trip in summer. What a difference. Shrubs, bushes and growth everywhere. From a photographic viewpoint I prefer the landscapes with frost and mist. I hope my schedule will allow for a late fall and fall visits
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Furling the topsail on the Shenandoah. No safety harness, only a foot rope. Old sailor's saying "One hand for yourself, one hand for the ship".
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I spent 4 days on the square topsail schooner Shenandoah. She was built in 1964. She is108 foot with no auxiliary power. Her hull form, rig, anchors and all materials of construction closely adhere to 19 century practices.
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Photography is all about Light. What fascinated me on my first summer visit to the Lofoten Islands, Norway was the fact that the sun did not set. It approached the horizon but did not sink below it. This photograph was taken close to 1:00 am.
Read MoreWindy Day
Nantucket is an island in the Atlantic 30 miles away from the mainland USA. As a result it is often subjected to very high winds. With a video camera it is relatively easy to capture the motion and sound of the ocean waves; the howl of the wind. But I have always found it much more difficult to capture all this with a still photograph. I tried to capture some of this in the attached photograph. By capturing a cresting wave with the wind blowing a spray off the top I hope I captured an indication of the wind strength.
Read MoreCelestial navigation
I tried photographing the night sky for the first time this week. I learnt a lot. I need to explore during the day for interesting objects that I can use as foreground. I decided to invert a photograph of a sailboat and merge it with the star shot.
Read MoreGreat Point Lighthouse
I have photographed this lighthouse many times but never from this viewpoint. Many thanks to John Beale who took me on my first circumnavigation of Nantucket island. Its surprising how few seals are on the beach. In winter the whole beach is covered with seals
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A morning walk
There has been snow almost every day on Nantucket this winter. I took this photograph early in the morning this week. A wind was blowing ice and snow off the trees but it was too fine to capture on film; however it did have the effect of softening the image.
Snow Ruts on the Moors
I was disappointed with the first snowfall for this year (see my last blog), But I did not wish for Storm Juno . I tried to photograph the Nantucket moors two days later but I got stuck in the snow before I got very far. The undercarriage of my jeep could not clear the snowdrifts. This is somewhat an isolated spot, not a good place to get stuck. I managed to showel my way out after much hard work. The only photograph I got was this one.
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Dusting of Snow
I have been looking forward to photographing snow landscapes on Nantucket again this year. I was excited when snow was forecast earlier this week. However, we only got a dusting of snow but I decided to go out and see what I could do.
This was taken from Altar Rock which is almost the highest elevation on Nantucket. It was the overall lighting and the clouds that motivated me to take the photograph. There is some softness in the foreground, so I should have used a smaller aperture.
Camera: Nikon 800 Lens: Nikkor 28 -300mm
Settings: 1/200 sec @ f8 ISO 100 tripod used
Nantucket Holiday Boat Lights
These boats are arguably the most photographed objects in Nantucket, especially at this time of the year. However, I could not pass by without photographing them once again.
Season's Greetings to all the viewers of my website and a special thank you to the people that collected my work this year.
Leonard P Zakin Bunker HillMemorial Bridge
Custom House Tower - Boston
Construction of the Custom House was authorized by U.S. President Andrew Jackson. It was completed in 1849. The tower was added in 1915 and made it Boston's first skyscraper. The structure sits on reclaimed land. Before land reclamatiom was done in the middle of the 19th century Boston's waterfront extended right to this building. The tower is 496 ft (151m) tall and is currently Boston's 17th tallest building.
The photograph was taken on October 30 a couple of days before Daylight Savings ended. As indicated on the clock (which is 22ft across) the time was 5:20 pm. The tower was in the shadow of a tall building but the setting sun light up Logan Airport which is in the background.
The Lynx at Brant Point Nantucket
The original Lynx, an American privateer, fought in the 1812 war until she was captured by the British. England was, at that time, engaged in a fierce war with French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. In order to stop neutral nations trading with France, the British seized ships and searched them for British sailors whom they then impressed into the British Royal Navy. The French also behaved in this manner. This action caused the Americans to declare war on England but not on France.
At this time the Royal Navy was "Master" of the seas while America had a navy of only 17 ships. To compensate for this disparity the United States licensed private merchant ships (called Privateers} to attack British merchant ships. A privateer was essentially a licensed pirate ship.
The original Lynx made only a single voyage before she was captured by the British in 1813. The British had a tradition of taking the lines of captured ships and it was mainly from these lines that the replica was built. She was launched on July 28,2001
The new Lynx is operated by the Lynx Educational Foundation which is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to hands-on educational programs.
She visited Nantucket during Race Week (August 9 through August 18). In association with Egan Maritime Institute 4 Nantucket High School students joined the Lynx for a week long educational voyage when she left Nantucket.
The evening of July 30 was perfect for cruising Nantucket harbor and watching boats ( including the ferry) sail in and out of the harbor.