Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse

Author's Comments

The breakwater is the photograph here, more than the lighthouse itself. Nine hundred feet of granite blocks set in a slightly uneven line, and as you walk out, the perspective changes with every step. The lighthouse begins as a distant white cap and grows into something more substantial as you close the distance. I have come to think the most interesting frame is not from the end of the breakwater but from somewhere two thirds of the way out, where the granite leads the eye and the lighthouse sits in the middle distance with Fort Gorges behind it on its own small island. Late September, an hour before sunset, the harbor going gold and the working boats moving in for the night. That is when this place earns its keep. The light comes in low from the west and catches the white tower against water that has gone deep blue, and the fort behind reads as a darker shape with its own weight. Layers. That is what you are after here. The granite is uneven and at high tide the spray reaches the lower blocks. I have slipped on this breakwater more than once and so have most of the photographers I know who work this coast. Wear something with grip. Bring a longer lens than you think, because the compression flattens the lighthouse and the fort into a single composition that the wide shot cannot quite achieve. The wide shot is worth making too. Both versions tell different truths about the place.

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