Anniversary Countdown

My parents will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary on August 15th. They are having a big party and the invitations went out while I was away in Maine. I've been a scanning fool over the last couple of months - scanning old family pictures. I'm working on a slide show for the anniversary party. The scanning came in handy for the invitation too. Everyone seems to like it.

More From Maine - a Lobstah Town

We spent several days in New Harbor, ME on the Pemiquid Peninsula. In addition to the nearby lighthouse (coming in the next post), this lobstah town offered many photo opportunities. Click on any image to see it larger.

I'm playing with some new software to manipulate my images into "art." Not that my photography is not art ... it is!!! But I like this look too. The building on the water to the right was Shaw's - a place where I ate lobstah several times!!! Mmmmmm melted butter!!!


We got permission to shoot on a private dock in Back Cove - across the harbor from New Harbor. I went there twice so watch for more images from this area.


Photography isn't always about the big scene. Sometimes is is all about the details - in the case of Maine, it is the ropes and buoys.



You just never know what you are gonna find around the corner - lobstah fishing is one dangerous profession - especially when the local lobstah mafia has you in its sites.

Maine Photo Tour - The Beginning

It will take me a while to process all the photos I shot. Here are just a few from my recent photo tour to Maine with John Barclay and Dan Sniffin. As always, click on any image to see a bigger version. Enjoy!!!


After the usual hellos and slide show and pep talk by John and Dan, we were off for our first shooting of the trip. To Pt. Neddick in the York Beach area and the "Nubble" Light. It took me a little while to get into the shooting frame of mind. Others shot this a little later for some killer long exposure shots. I wasn't in the mood for that and this is one of my best shots from that evening. I have played with a new Photoshop plug-in for this one - Topaz Simplify. I like the Topaz programs and will be playing with them a lot more.


The next morning it was up at some crazy hour - we left our lodgings, The Higgins Beach Inn, at 4 am for sunrise shooting at the Portland Head Light. Since it was rainy, the sunrise was not so spectacular but it was "cool" nonetheless. The roses were lovely - especially with the water droplets on them.


After Portland Head, it was off to the Zig Zag light at Spring Point.


I was hoping to see some Canadian Thistles on my trip. I missed shooting them at home - went to seed and now they are gone. One of my photo co-horts kept telling me that she saw thistles but they were clovers. I liked how they looked here against the old fence post.

After Spring Point we were going to head over to the Bug Light but it started to rain so it was back to the inn for breakfast and a nap until we left for the next site, New Harbor.

More coming in the upcoming days ...

In Memory of Casey Clines

Back in December I shot my friends Jed and Michelle's wedding up in Baltimore. The ceremony was performed by Casey Clines. Although he worked as contract staff at my office, I had never met him. And that was my loss because he was an interesting character. Sometimes when you call someone a character, you don't mean it in a good way. Well, I do. He was friendly, charming, irreverent - my kind of guy. I found out yesterday that he died over the weekend. I will miss the unexpected interactions that I had with him since we met back in December. I'm sorry that I did not know him better. I know that he will be missed.

These are a few of my shots of him from the wedding. From what I hear, they seem to capture his spirit.



This shot is my favorite. Casey specifically asked me for a copy of this shot of him with the bartender. It seems to fit.

Weekend HDR Workshop with John Barclay & friends

Eastern State Penitentiary - Abstract, originally uploaded by Nadia McIlhany.

Last weekend I went on an HDR photography workshop with John Barclay and my photo gal pals to the Philadelphia area. We started out at Eastern State Penitentiary. We had the opportunity to go into areas of the prison that were not open to the public. One cell block was a drippy, watery mess - COOL. Another was drier but long past its prime. It is hard to imagine what life was like in the prison - to spend day after day - week after week - month after month - year after year - in these concrete cells.

This image - an abstract - was the wall in one of the old cells. What you can't see is that this wall had pretty much detached from the other walls and light was streaming in around it.

After the prison we went to a graffiti area near the Delaware River. I'm not sure that I could get there again. And the second day of our workshop was spent at a place called Fonthill. I will be processing images for a while.

Click on this image to see others in my Flickr Photostream.