maine vougue

i'll be honest, sometimes maine pisses me off.  the entire state photographs well.  it's like one of those lucky people who take great photos in any situation or outfit.

keep in mind this is coming from a guy born and raised in kansas.  a beautiful state in it's own right, but a state that makes you work for a great pic of her.  kansas has the ability to take breathtaking photos, but you usually need some dramatic lighting such as one of its world famous sunsets. kansas also has to be wearing a good season, usually looking best in late summer or autumn, but also dangerously beautiful in a late spring storm attire.  kansas is minimalistic, she forces you to focus on other items such as composition, texture or contrast. in the right photographer hands, kansas can be absolutely stunning.

now take maine, strutting down the runway all confident with her rocky seaside coastline, lighthouses, endless foliage, mountain vistas, wildlife, ocean views and cobble stone streets running through quaint historic new england villages.  she looks great in all kinds of light and seasons.  maine is the type of state that can be photographed unaware by the paparazzi wearing sweatpants and bean boots, stuffing her face with a lobster roll and still look gorgeous.

what got me started on this rant was a photograph i took recently of the pemiquid point lighthouse.  i walked down the coast, pointed my camera back to the lighthouse and got a beautiful shot.  as happy as i was with the picture, i'm very aware that a drunk monkey could have captured the same thing.  maine is gorgeous, that's all there is to it.

as much as i enjoy trying to capture maine in different and unique ways, i'll admit, sometimes i miss trying to make that little sunflower leaning against the wall look beautiful.

two gorgeous states with their beauty captured in different ways.

endless [new england] summer

this year maine was blessed with an extended summer with warm temperatures continuing well past the end of september.  during one of those late september weekends our friends invited us out on their boat to soak up as much of this late season sun as we could.  having experienced a maine winter last year we jumped at the chance.

it wasn't anything more than enjoying a few hours of sunshine from a the back of a boat and doing a little island hopping but it really did feel like a gift.  i'm learning [mainers] hold their summers to be very important and it was great to be sharing this warm weather appreciation in the company of good friends.

[fishing] with friends

if you've followed this blog for the past year, you'll know that boothbay harbor is one of our favorite towns.  we visited it for the first time a year ago, when my wife had to work the [fishing for fashion] event during the annual boothbay harbor festival.  when she was asked to host the event again this year, we decided the only thing that could make boothbay harbor better would be to invite four of our friends along. as the weekend unfolded, that assumption was correct.

as weekends with good friends normally go, two days together created a million little anecdotes and inside jokes between all of us, but one of the more memorable moments involved all of us on a boat along with a freak rainstorm.  halfway into taking the boat taxi into town we got drenched by a spontaneous deluge of rain.  we were all soaked from head to toe.  thankfully boothbay harbor is a tourist town with lots of souvenir shops which allowed all six of us to buy boothbay harbor hoodies and sweatshirts to have something dry to put on when we got off the boat.  so there we were, all six of us walking through town, enjoying restaurants, listening to bands and drinking at bars looking like a living advertisement for this fantastic city.

and i think we were all ok that.

[barn] party

when the group wants to go out, but one of your friends has to work...

you dress up!

this summer, our friend ted, had to emcee the "owls head transportation museums barnstormers ball!"  though he had to work, our little group thought it would be the perfect event to go to as well!  with the theme being, "gin and jazz" we all got dressed up in our roaring 20's best and headed up the maine coast.  the night was spent eating amazing food, swing dancing to an actual big band orchestra and gallivanting with friends against the back drop of biplanes and studebaker's.  gatsby himself would have been impressed!

what can i say other than the entire evening was the bees knees! although we were supporting our friend ted during "working hours" its little events like this that seem to bring a group of friends even closer!