The last photos of the year. I’ve always wanted some good Turkey photos. I still do. I found this flock of Turkeys the other day in someone’s front yard on a busy road. I was fighting with low light, moderate distance. Dodging traffic and trying not be intrusive on the animals or the neighbors, this was the result.
I’m hoping that you have a Happy and Prosperous New Year! May all your dreams come true starting tomorrow.
Caught at the right moments, the sky turns a wonderful blue after the sun sets. Cool nights and calm winds can produce some great images when you get out after dark.
The fish don’t care what the weather is, but the Gloucestermen have to go out when the government lets them. Here is the Voyager coming home in a snow storm in February 2011.
Last August, I caught the Touch of Grey tending lobster pots off of Dogbar Breakwater.
The keepers are banded and sorted.
The pots are loaded with fresh bait and set for another day.
I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas. This has been a wonderful year with many new blogging friends from all around the world.
I just want to take a moment to thank you all for stopping by, many of you check in every day. I know this because I’ve been stopped on the streets of Gloucester many times by strangers many times telling me that they look forward to my photos every morning. Throughout the year there have been many comments to the same effect.
Friday is archive dive day. Here is a one of my west coast buddies I photographed exactly two years ago in the hills out side of San Jose, California.
Gloucester is a great place to winter over if you are a Purple Sandpiper. They are quite common on Dogbar Breakwater, and can be spotted along the rocks along the coast on Cape Ann.
Yesterday was a choppy day on the harbor. Yet, the Gloucestermen still go out and make a living.
But it could be worse. Here is the Midnight Sun returning from fishing on December 31, 2009. I’ll bet they got the coffee pot brewing.
If you are ever on the west coast, you may encounter some rather unique looking gulls. This is the Heermann’s Gull. They are unlike any other. Easy-peasy.
There has been a couple of Razorbills off of Fort Point here in Gloucester. This one was spied on Friday afternoon hunting in his winter plumage.
Here is a lobster float with a Razorbill to give you a size comparison.
This inspired me to dust off some of the photos I took in last May in Canada. These Razorbills are in their breeding plumage.
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I’m digging into the archive, going deep to September 2010. It was Schooner Festival Weekend, Hurricane Earl stirred up the harbor a bit, but it wasn’t much to fuss about. We had some waves coming into the harbor making shooting from a small boat challenging. Here are three shots that never made it to the blog.
If you are just coming into this series, for the last few days I have been posting the progress of the sunset as seen from Eastern Point in East Gloucester, Massachusetts. This is the final post. 
If you haven’t seen the other photos, they started on Sunday’s post and ran through to today. This is the final photo from the shoot. I hope you enjoyed the series as much as I have bringing it to you.
If you are just coming into this series, for the last few days I have been posting the progress of the sunset as seen from Eastern Point in East Gloucester, Massachusetts. This is the final post.
If you haven’t seen the other photos, they started on Sunday’s post and ran through to today. This is the final photo from the shoot. I hope you enjoyed the series as much as I have bringing it to you.
As I said yesterday, I needed to get off Dogbar Breakwater and around the light to get the stunning cloud formation in the same frame as the light.
But this isn’t where I need to be. I got to stop shooting and get around to where the action is!
Continuing with the Saturday photo shoot at Eastern Point, the sun is completely down. That is Boston on the horizon.
There are some nice colors developing opposite the sun.
But I’ve got to get off of this breakwater, because I need to get those colors in the first photo in the same frame as the lighthouse. I’ve got to move it or loose it!
Continuing with yesterday’s Eastern Point photo shoot, let’s move ahead a little further in time. The sun is dropping over the horizon. That’s Boston to the left and a day boat coming home with it’s catch.
Looking away from the sun, the yellows that we saw yesterday have faded from the white lighthouse. The colors are starting to load up in the background sky.
At this point, the wind is biting, the fingers are stiff and the ears are stinging. Are we done yet? No! Check in tomorrow!
The light was uninspiring all day yesterday. But at this time of year, the sun comes up when I’m in the shower and goes down just before I head home from work. By the time I get home, I might as well be shooting black cats in a coal mine.
So I have to get in a lot of production during the weekends so that I have enough blog fodder to keep it fresh. Yes, I post every damned day. Why I decided to do that, I do not know. I could change the rules and post once in a while, but where is the challenge in that?
At 3:30 I decided to head over to Eastern Point. I grabbed my gear and headed out the door. It’s always a crap shoot when the sun goes down. It helps to be able to read the weather. Something told me to get out there and Eastern Point would be the place to be.
As I got out to Easter Gloucester, I saw a sundog to the east of the sun. It would be an excellent shot if I could get the sundog in with the lighthouse. Yes, I visualize a lot of photos on the way to a shoot. I think about the posts and how to present them. It would be cool, I could call it Eastern Point Sundog from Dogbar Breakwater.
When I arrived on the scene, this was the view of Boston from Dogbar Breakwater. The sundog had faded but I knew where I needed to be…
…I needed to be out on the breakwater. As you can see, I always go out on the seaward side of the breakwater onto the rocks. That way, your shot doesn’t look like everyone else’s. And if you’re willing to go out on the breakwater in the beginning of winter with the wind blowing and your finger frozen to your tripod, you can get a shot like this.
Keep checking in this week. You will see other photos from this shoot.
I was able to get some shots off of a pair of Bufflehead over by Eastern Point Light. The lighting was prefect for picking up the colors off of the male. Bufflehead are our smallest duck, measuring in at a whopping 13 inches. They are so small that they get lost in the waves.
One must ask, “From where did the name Bufflehead originate?” I have three independent resources that state in one way or another that it is from “buffalo” + “head” because of the comparison of the “remarkable shape of the head to that of the bull bison or buffalo.”
The usage started around 1731. It just goes to show that drug use was rampant in the 18th century.
But nevertheless Bufflehead are wonderful little ducks and very shy. Their comfy zone is about 10 feet further than my lens can reach.
This is the first time that I’ve been able to get good shots of the drake with his iridescent head.
Another factoid that I picked up on. The Bufflehead Bucephala albeola are in the same genus as the Common Goldeneye and Barrow’s Goldeneye. My big-boy waterfowl book warns against confusing this with other Common Goldeneye. (Okay, I’ll be sure to keep my binoculars clean.)
Now I know you are all wondering why Bucephala albeola. Well, I’m going to tell you.
Bucephala is from Gr. bous, “ox or bull,” plus Gr. kephale, “head”; for the shape of the head and not for the famous horse of Alexander. B. albeola; L. albus, “white”; L. –olus, diminutive suffix; “little white head,” which is appropriate as the predominant color is white.
Now if you’re interested, I’ve got some pretty good shots of a female that posted a while ago. Check them out.
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