For centuries lighthouses have served as navigational aids to warn seafarers of danger. In New England, we are lucky to have about 200 lighthouses to visit. This blog is about some road trips to lighthouses in Massachusetts and Maine. Hope you like the photos.

Nubble Light

The first lighthouse I visited was the Cape Neddick Light (aka. Nubble Light) which is located on Nubble Island off Cape Neddick Point in Maine. This lighthouse is about a 1.5 hour drive along Route 95N from Boston. Hence, I had to get up around 4.00 am in the morning in order to get to this location in time for sunrise. It was an early start, but when I arrived at the Nubble Light I was greeted by a beautiful sunrise that backlit this lighthouse in brilliant fiery red, orange and yellow colors cast against a cloudy sky. Was lucky to capture this scene, since the intense colors only lasted for a few minutes. I remember shaking my head with amazement, as this scene unfolded in front of me.

As the sun continued to rise, I quickly looked for new compositions. Decided to change lens from 24mm (which was used to take the first photo) to a 70-200mm lens for a tight 75mm shot of the lighthouse. By now, the sky was illuminated with a soft hue of blue, purple, pink and light orange colors. Was really cool to see the intense yellow light of the rising sun along the horizon. To give the photo some depth, it was exposed/processed so details in the foreground shadows were visible.

Continually looking for different angles, I decided to walk several hundred feet away from the Nubble Light in order to find an interesting foreground with the lighthouse in the background and the striking clouds overhead. Used the 24mm lens for this shot in order to capture the composition I had in my mind.

Boon Island Light

Looking for additional compositions I noticed far out to sea another lighthouse. At the time the photo was taken, I didn’t know the name of this lighthouse, but when I got home I found out that it was the Boon Island Light, which is the tallest lighthouse in New England. Boon Island is about 6 miles off the Maine coastline, so used the 70-200mm lens with a 1.4x extender to give a focal length of 320mm for the photo above. As I was composing the photo, I noticed some birds flying into the frame, so quickly pressed the shutter button. It wasn’t until I saw the photo on the computer screen that I realized the birds flying into the frame gave added depth and interest to the photo, since it looks like they are flying towards the lighthouse. Also, the contrast between the blue sea and yellow horizon really enhanced the silhouette of the Boon Island Light. I guess sometime you are lucky in the photos you capture.

Scituate Lighthouse

The next day went for an afternoon drive south of Boston to the Old Scituate Light (aka. Scituate Lighthouse) located on Cedar Point in Scituate, Massachusetts. For this photograph walked along a seawall so I could get some of Scituate Harbor and the rocky beach in the foreground.

Pemaquid Point Light

A couple of weeks later, my wife and I went to Acadia National Park for a few days vacation. Along the way we visited the Pemaquid Point Light which is located at the end of Pemaquid Neck about 70 miles NNE of Portland, Maine. This was the first time I’ve been to this lighthouse and was amazed by the striking rock formations along this part of the Maine coastline. The photos above were taken during the middle of the day, but I will definitely be back for sunrise and sunset photos.

Thanks again for spending your time reading this blog about roads trips to some of New England’s beautiful lighthouses.