Cape Spear Light

Cape Spear in Newfoundland is considered the most eastern point in North America.   At night you can look across the bay and see the lights of the capital city,  St. John.

The tall lighthouse on Cape Spear was built in 1955 and uses the dioptric lens from the original.

The original lighthouse began operation in 1836 in this small square building.  It is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador. A stone light tower was built inside to support the lantern room in 1850 after a storm lifted one side of the lighthouse several inches off the foundation. The original light came from a lighthouse from Scotland and used seven Argand burners with curved reflectors. The lamps and reflectors were on a metal frame which rotated to produce 17-second flash of light followed by 43 seconds of darkness.   The first fuel was sperm whale oil and seal oil, acetylene in 1916 and eventually electricity in 1930.  The original curved reflectors were replaced by a dioptric lens system in 1912.  A foghorn was added in 1878.

This was the second lighthouse in Newfoundland.  The first light was placed at Fort Amherst, the entrance to St. John's harbor in 1810.

Today, the interior has been restored to the period of 1839 and is open to the public, giving visitors a glimpse of the life of a light keeper.  Generations of the Cantwell family lived and worked at Cape Spear for over 150 years, maintaining this vital light for the mariners. A detailed history of the Cantwell family and the Cape Spear Light can be found at the Lighthouse Friends website.

I loved the parlor. I can really image the lightkeeper and his family spending time here.

The flag room housed the marine signal flags, an easy and universal way for ships and lighthouses to communicate important messages. 

Cape Spear is also a great place to watch for birds and whales.  During the summer, it is possible to see shearwaters such as Manx shearwater, Sooty shearwater, and Greater shearwater which are usually only seen far out at sea.  Other bird species such as murres, razorbills, skuas, and jaegers may be seen as well. While the humpback whale is the most commonly sighted whale, minke and fin whales are also seen.  Other marine mammals such as beaked dolphins, porpoises, harbor seals, and otters have also been spotted.

Cape Pine Light

Cape Pine Light is at the southern most point of Newfoundland.  Located along the scenic Irish Loop, it is a 5 mile gravel road drive off the main road to get there, but we were rewarded by seeing the only caribou on this trip.  With gray cloudy skies, shooting for High Dynamic Range (HDR) was a must.  I shot multiple exposures and hoped that post processing would give me a useable image.  I used Photoshop to merge the images and then Photomatix to do the tone mapping.  I then used Topaz products to brighten the reds and make it a more vibrant image.

Cape Pine, built in 1851, is still a working lighthouse.  It flashes white every 5 seconds and is visible for 16 nautical miles.  Michigan Tech has been using it as a pollution research station with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Science Foundation.

Just north of Cape Pine Line, we spent the night in Trepassey at a lovely hotel, the Trepassey Motel and Restaurant,  that included a dining room with views of the sea.  With friendly owners, good food and comfortable rooms, this would be a good place to spend several days and spend more time along this lovely coastline.

My 2011 Calendars

I am doing three calendars this year.  The cost per calendar is $15.00.  The shipping and handling starts at $2.00.  If you are a Texas resident, there will be sales tax added. If you are a friend that I see regularly, I will hand deliver your calendar and waive shipping fees.  

Here is my Texas Wildflower Calendar:

To get a better view of the sample pages, click on the image:

To purchase my Texas Wildflower Calendar, click here:

Here is my Lighthouse Calendar.

Click on this image to get a better view of the monthly pages:



To purchase my Lighthouse Calendar, click here:

Here is my Waterscapes Calendar 2011:

You can click on these, to get a larger view of the pages of the calendar.

To purchase my Waterscapes Calendar, click here:

Cape May

We spent 4 nights at Cape May.   I was enchanted from the first day.  We started the first morning at sunrise at Cape May Lighthouse. 

The lighthouse is tall and stately, and the beam still shines brightly.  

I always try to look around at my surroundings when I'm photographing. I noted the sky away from the lighthouse was filled with these lovely pink tinted clouds. So I'm playing with a composition taken before the sun was up, with the light shining and the pink clouds.  All true to what was there that morning, but I think this version still needs work.

After taking care of trying for dawn and lighthouse shots, I headed over to where the Hawk Watch was going on.  For several years, I've heard  and read about hawk watches. During the fall migrations, people pick places with high numbers of passing raptors and count them as they go by. Some are volunteers, some are paid.  It was on my list of things to attend sometime because you can learn so much about identifying raptors when you have so many passing over you in one day. But more importantly, you are surrounded by folks who really know how to identify hawks even when they are far away and only specs in the sky. 

While the day started sunny, there was a cloud bank coming in.

You could see getting larger and larger and filling the sky.

Before too long, it was dark and hard to see the hawks.

I did have a couple of people who were helping me identify the hawks and other species flying by. I think the most amazing thing was when the gentleman next to me spotted and identified a flock of blue jays just by the way the flock was grouping as they flew.  And . . . I had NEVER seen a flock of blue jays - only individuals. The tree sparrows also came by in large flocks and looked ever so much like a swarming bunch of gnats as they crossed the sky.  The raptor identification was still hard, but I saw a sharp shinned hawk, a Cooper's hawk, a merlin, and a peregrin that morning.

L'Anse Amour Historic Site and Point Amour LIghthouse

As we travelled south along the coast of Labrador, we had seen the L'Anse Amour historic site on the map. Since I am really interested in early man sites, this one captured my attention because it dates to 7500 years ago. As with many early man sites, there is not a lot to see - this was a special burial mound of an adolescent boy - special because there seems to have much ceremony related with the burial: The body was buried in a deep and wide pit, fires burned, food was cooked and weapons and tools were placed as offerings in the grave. A large stone was placed on the boy's back and a large mound of rocks were placed over the grave. The archaeologists believe that the elaborate detail of this burial means that this young man either had a special role or association with the tribe or there was something significant about his death. The site has been excavated and the human remains have been removed. Since the grave has been reconstructed, it loses a little of its historical sense for me - I always marvel when I see things still remaining from human activity so long ago.

I also knew I had a light house to enjoy - the Point Amour Lighthouse.

It was an overcast afternoon, and it looked like there was an event going on in one of the buildings. Lighthouses always need electricity so I explored trying to find a camera angle to minimize the distracting wires. As I was photographing I heard a noise coming from the sea, a harumph! I glanced over and a minke whale was feeding just off the shoreline, gracefully surfacing to breath. I was shooting with my landscape lens, so I didn't try to photograph the whale. Instead, I just enjoyed the magic of the moment, the quiet evening, the peaceful sea, and the amazing whale as it moved off into the distance.



I came back the next morning. The clouds were still covering the sky, but the light and clouds were still different than the evening before. While the whale was no longer hanging around, this lighthouse is still a peaceful and beautiful place to sit and enjoy the beauty around you.