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I am three days into an 18 day solo road trip to, around, and home from Nova Scotia Canada and already finding it difficult to do everything I want to. This blog post keeps rolling through my head, but until now I haven’t typed it onto a keyboard, but I will try to briefly recap.

The first day (14th) was simply a driving day as I quickly said hello and goodbye to Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and into Connecticut. Whew! One interesting tidbit – I have welcomed Spring again! In Virginia the dogwoods had dropped most of their blooms, and tulips and cherry blossoms have been gone over a month, but I was delighted to see dogwoods in full bloom in New York, and lots of cherry blossoms and tulips in Maine – Deja Vu!

On Wednesday I moved through Connecticut, Massachusetts and into New Hampshire for my first stop in Hampton Beach, mostly to assuage my curiosity rather than for photographic potential. Nubble Light in York, Maine was a “must see” stop before continuing up the coastal highway through villages (Cape Neddick, Ogunquit, Wells, Kennebunkport, Old Orchard Beach). The prize at the end of this day’s journey was Portland Head Light which I scouted for my sunrise shot, and caught some images of the two lighthouses in Cape Elizabeth.

I am staying two nights in Portland to give myself two chances to capture Portland Head Light that is best captured at sunrise. This morning I was up at 4:30 and on the road by 5:00 so I did see sunrise, but not early enough for that wonderful purple-pink light before dawn. Tomorrow I will head out even earlier. The sky was also a bit of a disappointment – there was fog that instantly lifted with sunrise, then just a beautiful cloudless blue sky. A photographer wishes for clouds in the sky, and dramatic weather. Time to stop typing and start showing pics!

Two variations of sunrise the first morning.

The image above was taken just as the sun peaked above the little bit of cloud cover on the horizon at 5:24AM. The image below was taken 13 minutes later at 5:37AM. What a difference a few minutes can make for a sunrise/sunset! The third image of the lighthouse was taken at sunset and wow – what a great cloud-filled sky to catch the color!

Out and about in Portland

This guy was just standing on the post adjacent to where the ferry launches in Portland. At first he was wearing his backpack, but when I asked what was in his pack he pulled out this clown. Hmm…. is this a new thing (flash mob style) to do?

Beautiful setting for my dinner on the deck at the Portland Lobster company.

A fun image on a gorgeous day – the lighthouse is on a little island and I wish I had been able to shoot from a location to provide more separation between the little red building in front and the lighthouse, but the point leading up to the island lent itself to only this zoomed-in view.