Rockport, Massachusetts

I didn’t visit Rockport by chance. If you’re thinking I wanted to photograph Motif#1, the most popular building in America painted by landscape artists, It’s not true, but let me explain….

I had made the trip out to Gloucester and Cape Ann to capture “Ann’s Eyes”. The twin lighthouses on Thacher Island. The Thacher lights are the last fully operational twin lighthouses in the United States. Being just a few hours away in Massachusetts, I headed north on a warm spring day a-hunting. After locating my prey, I was deflated when I realized that I was going home without the image. My 300mm Canon didn’t have the reach, and access to the shoreline is a no- go. Private homes that restrict shore access have gobbled up all the real estate that would have given me a possible shot of my quarry.

I ventured as far as Rockport. While in the tourist mecca, I navigated a gauntlet of tourist attractions along Bearskin Neck. This spit of land is a crowded mix of local art shops with works by painters, T-shirt shacks and little stores selling more kitsch than you could possibly carry home.

Realizing I would have to return one day with my kayak, I gave up the quest. As the crowds thinned at the end of the day, it was obligatory to get a photograph of that old (rebuilt) red shack in the harbor. Someday soon, I’ll be back to look into Ann’s Eyes.

Note: The photograph above has not been edited or manipulated. ( I didn’t even add the seagull.