MaineSight

A few weeks ago, I visited the two Maine Huts that the August MaineSight workshop will be located at. I had the good fortune to meet John and Cindy Orcutt, who were caretaking at the Flagstaff Lake Hut. John is an Architect (and excellent Photographer!) and Cindy is a Landscape Architect, and together, they designed the Flagstaff lake hut and its grounds. John gave me a personal tour of the good photographic spots in and around Flagstaff Lake. John and Cindy also told be about a funny but true aphorism they called the “three f’s of Photography”.

These are the three things (that begin with the letter ‘f’) that get in the way of outdoor photographers: Food, Family, and Friends. As nature photographers, we want to be outside when there is the best light—sunrise and sunset—and this is usually around the time we want to eat some food: breakfast and dinner. Getting up early, means that if your family is along, taking care of kids also interferes—or at least means that your spouse has to be willing to take over that role. And friends, well, they want to stay up and visit with us, and you’ve got to go to sleep early to get up before sunrise.

Fortunately, sunrise is pretty darn early in Maine at this time of the year, and breakfast doesn’t really interfere. Here’s a photograph I snuck at 6 am this past weekend when my family was up  visiting family and friends in Blue Hill, Maine:

I’m always struck by the wonderous green when trees first leaf-out in the spring, but this picture also carries a feeling of deep or original intimacy as the three leaves gently rest against each other as they all grow together from the same branch.

A view of Flagstaff Lake from the Birches Trail peninsula a short walk from the Maine Huts & Trails Flagstaff Lake Hut. This is where days 2 and 3 of the August 7-9 workshop will be held.

Tomorrow is my last class of the semester, and I head off to Poplar Stream Falls Hut and then Flagstaff Lake Hut for Saturday night. I’ll be scouting out good spots for the August Photographic Workshop that Rick Holt and I will be teaching. I hope the steady rain stops and I get some breaks with just overcast. I think I’m bringing an umbrella.

The photo below is totally unrelated to my trip, but I thought I’d post it anyway. It was taken last summer at Popham Beach on a spectacularly foggy morning.

Popham Beach, Maine