At Rockport Harbor

Last Monday I decided to take advantage of the golden late afternoon light and went out on a photo tour to Rockport, MA on Cape Ann. Rockport makes for pristine Massachusetts photos destination and is small harbor village north of Boston that is still home to a few lobster fishermen. One can explore the harbor and wharfs or enjoy the many shops, galleries and restaurants on Bearskin Neck and Tuna Wharf. My goal was to photograph motif #1, so called because it is the most often-painted building in America. When arriving I slowly made my way out on the T Wharf where I captured my first images of motif #1. Small dinghies and their reflections caught my eye along the way. The Ocean Reporter, a 45-foot dragger boat was docked there as well, and I captured the detail of the boats' waterline with many fish swirling around.

Meanwhile the sun was setting a little further and the light was improving. I walked back to Main Street where there is a great open view of the harbor. The beautiful orange dinghy was anchored here; colors complementary with the reflecting saturated blue of the sky in the ocean water. Back on Main Street, walking around the harbor towards Bradley Wharf I started paying more attention to motif #1, the famous fishing shack. The view from Bradley Wharf is priceless. The tricky part was to cut out the sailing boat masts in the photograph. I was not going to follow the advise one fellow photographer was suggesting while she overheard my conversation with a local painter and gallery owner: Photoshop it! Instead I accomplished the removal of the masts by fully spreading out my tripod legs so that I could locate my camera very close to the ground. The only thing left was to wait for the light before I captured the below three images: motif #1, the red fishing boat and the reflection of motif #1; nearly from the same position.


The buoys, lobster cages and fishing nets provide beautiful compositions too and are not to be missed. Once the sun disappeared behind the harbor houses leaving the harbor in complete shade I moved on and drove back towards Boston along the sea shore. I was planning on checking out the Twin Lights but missed my turn and just continued. At Brace Cove in Gloucester I pulled over to take my last photograph of the day. Despite the many bugs bothering and biting me I set up my tripod, exposed long enough to allow for panning my camera across the Brace Cove, capturing this abstract seascape photograph of this most beautiful sunset.