Introducing A Guide to Photographing the Coast of Maine
When, Where, and How to Capture the Best Maine Coast Locations
It’s finally here! After more than ten years of capturing the coast of Maine as a hobbyist, amateur, and professional photographer, I finally feel like enough of an authority to write a guidebook for you. For me, this is a love story. Visiting these locations are what inspired me to pick up a camera in the first place. I’m so grateful to live here, and I’m excited to share what I’ve found with you.
Each week, I'll be sharing 4-6 locations along the coast of Maine, and how to capture them. This guide will be for my paid subscribers only (thank you for your support!). If you'd like to follow along and see the guide as it evolves, become a paid subscriber today.
The guide kicks off with some background information about me and my practice in photography, and then shifts to some background about Maine, photo basics, and some hints on my favorite subject, weather! After digging deep into about 80 different locations from south to north along the coast, we’ll wrap it up with some power-packed lists of my favorite lighthouses, lobster harbors, sunrise locations, sunset locations, spots to capture a full moon, spots to see sea smoke, and more. Are you ready for this?
How I Got Here
I think a big part of what has made me so curious about Maine, and therefore an effective artist and photographer intent on capturing it, is the fact that I’m not a native Mainer. I grew up in Mississippi, and moved to Maine at age 16 when my dad got a job as part of the team decommissioning the former Maine Yankee nuclear plant in Wiscasset. I never had an inkling I would live anywhere other than Mississippi, so it was a huge surprise when Dad told us we were moving to Brunswick, Maine. Once we arrived, though, it wasn’t long until I felt more at home here than I ever had in Mississippi. I like to tell people that I never really fit in too well in the south, being more interested in books and nature than sports and church. That said, my entire family outside of the one I’ve made in Maine with my wife, who’s a native Mainer, and now our children, born in Maine, live in the south. I also come from a long line of proud southerners and know so many kind and amazing people down there. But, Maine really drew me in, and continues to do so.
In addition to the mentality and lifestyles in Maine, I was immediately drawn to the rocky coast and wooded paths, which were a playground to me, much like the lake I had grown up on in Mississippi. And, along with all of the new scenery, I had a whole new season to explore and enjoy, winter! So many new adventures were made possible just by adding a coat of snow and ice onto everything. Winter was a dream come true for this southern boy, and I’m still known to simply stand outside in the snow, look up, and marvel at flakes coming down from the sky. I’ve always felt that winter is the most beautiful and interesting season, and now with a photographer’s eye, that belief is even more reinforced.
It may seem like I’ve always been a photographer, but in truth I’m a very late bloomer to most everything, and that includes photography. It’s funny because my Dad and sister, and even my brother at times, were and are serious shutterbugs. My mom, although not a photographer, is also very creative and has a ton of soul that hopefully has been imparted on me. They are all huge inspirations. That said, I was always the one on family trips saying, “Awww… come on… do we have to take ANOTHER picture?” Yep, they won’t let me live that down!
I was 28 years old when I first picked up a camera with any serious intentions. At the time, I was tending bar at the Sea Dog Restaurant in Topsham. I was no longer a teenager, but an adult whose family had moved back to the south, while I stayed behind with my wife. After a brief and calamitous attempt at college, I had tried to make a go at a career in music while working various odd jobs in retail and food service. I really loved music, and still do to this day, but it was becoming apparent as I approached my late 20s that a career in music was not in the cards, and I needed to let that dream die.
It’s only in hindsight, but now I realize that all of the energy that I had been putting into music started transferring to this new hobby, photography. I guess I had to do something creative. Almost every day I’d go on walks near my home and bring along my new friend, the camera, and find interesting things to put four corners around. The act of capturing the beauty I’d seen around me and felt all my life was extremely satisfying. It didn’t take long until I was completely and totally obsessed.
With my wife working and in school at the time, and my own daily schedule revolving around nights at the bar, and with no children, I had a lot of free time. I loved returning from photo outings and organizing the images I had just captured into albums and finding the best ones. I also started editing the images by making adjustments to color and contrast, and experimenting with different digital effects to make the images look more interesting. Soon I was posting these on social media. In those days, before they were driven by advertising and algorithms, social media sites were actually a great place to share whatever interested you with like-minded people. I found that photography was a perfect vehicle for showing the world what I was finding, and an audience for my work quickly grew.
My bar patrons were also a captive audience. I remember coming in to work and pulling out my phone to show folks new photos that I’d made. Their positive reactions and encouragement gave me tons of good energy. They were my first customers, too. I remember one of them asking me for a print of an image I had shown, which was absolutely terrifying to me at the time because I had no idea how to create a print. It was major trial and error for a while, but I eventually figured out where to procure prints and how to prepare the files to create them.
At this time, I started reading every book on photography I could find at the local libraries. That was how I grew up learning, and proved much easier for me to follow than blogs or online tutorials. One of the first books that came to my attention was The Guide to Outdoor Digital Photography by Jerry Monkman. I felt like this book had been written specifically for me. I looked up to Jerry so much, and continue to do so. He’s one of the few full-time professional nature photographers in the U.S. working specifically around outdoor conservation, and is based in southern New Hampshire.
I also started networking with other photographers. The people I looked up to the most were right here in New England, photographing local subjects in ways that were extremely compelling to me. Like me, it was clear they didn’t feel the need to travel great distances or visit exotic destinations to find beauty. It was all around us, waiting to be found. Folks like Jim Salge, Susan Cole Kelly, and Moe Chen showed me some of the locations that I became enamored with, like Portland Head Light and the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but mostly they showed me that anyone can make compelling images if they just tune in to their own interests and curiosities. Their inspiration, combined with my own interests, led me to explore more of my own backyard, especially in locations like Brunswick, Harpswell, Portland, and then further up and down all of the amazing peninsulas on the way down east to Camden.
Within just a year or so of pursuing photography seriously, I had developed a large following and was attracting the attention of entities like Down East magazine, local businesses were using my images on their websites and hanging my work on their walls, and I was branching out into wedding, real estate, and commercial photography. People were ordering prints and my work was on display in locations like Summer Island Studios in Brunswick and Land’s End Gift Shop on Bailey Island. I was also invited to co-lead a Maine photography workshop by Martin Radigan, a photographer from Virginia with ties to Maine. It felt like it was all happening to me, as opposed to something I was working towards. I think my approach is still very organic in this way. I just follow my passion, make images, and then share them through whatever channels I think people might find it. For better or worse, the business side of photography is often an afterthought.
I still remember the call I got from the editor-in-chief of Down East, wanting to know if I was interested in being the next photo editor in 2016. It sounds ridiculous, but I told her that I would have to think about it. When I told my wife who had called, she told me to call back immediately and tell them I wanted the job. I guess in my own mind at the time, I was truly happy working as a bartender and making photos for myself, being my own boss. But, this was a chance to become a real professional photographer, and work at a magazine I had known about and enjoyed even since before I moved to Maine. Incredibly, my grandfather had brought old Down East copies back to us after vacationing in Maine, a place he held in great regard and visited frequently, long before we ever thought of visiting or especially moving here. The foreshadowing was only realized much later.
At the advice of my wife and photographer friends, I took the job, and spent the next 6 years working for the magazine, traveling across Maine and photographing extensively. While I was there, in collaboration with my boss and at their urging, I developed a thriving photography workshop and print sales program as well as sourcing all of the images going into each issue, their calendars, as well as custom publishing projects like guidebooks and sponsored content. It was a huge job, and when it got to the point where I was spending more time in the office than out photographing, and honestly, when I couldn’t keep up anymore, my superiors kindly moved me into the role of staff photographer and the photo editor job went to someone else. That gave me more time to be out in the field, where I continued to learn and grow as a photographer.
One of the photographer friends who urged me to take this job, and one I haven’t mentioned yet, is Michael Blanchette. Michael really helped me out immensely when I was launching my career by agreeing to co-lead photography workshops with me across New England. He was a true mentor and wonderful guide as he showed me the ropes. This isn’t something he needed to do, or probably even wanted, being retired after a very successful career, but he did, and I am forever grateful to him.
I left Down East amicably in 2022 to strike out on my own. I’m grateful for all of the opportunities that collaborating with such amazing people in a great organization. I continue to work with the magazine as a freelancer.
These days, it feels like I have less time for photography than ever thanks to a very busy home life with a 6-year-old and twin 3-year-olds. But, it’s still my full-time job, my passion, and my hobby, all wrapped in one. Did I mention I have a very, very supportive partner? My wife Kimberly puts up with a lot while I’m away for photography (and to be honest, when I’m home, too!) I’ve taken my camera along with me into everything I’m interested in, as always. I have many separate projects that I’m working on that haven’t seen the light of day yet. My practice of sharing everything on social media just after I capture it has changed substantially. I’m sitting on images that will take the form of a body of work sometime in the future, a strange and uncomfortable feeling, but one that feels right to me now.
I’ve also gotten really into hiking into the high peaks of Maine and New Hampshire in the winter. I love the beauty in extreme environments that can be found at elevation, and I really just love the whole experience of the effort it takes to get there, the journey. I also love the camaraderie, since I never hike alone, it’s a great chance to be with like-minded photography friends!
My photography workshop business has expanded to become a major component of my career. Often collaborating with folks like Kurt Budliger, Darylann Leonard, John Putnam, I’ve led or co-led groups across Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Cape Cod, and further afield in spots like Olympic National Park in Washington and Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah. This summer I’m looking forward to three separate workshops on Monhegan Island and a visit to the puffin colony on Machais Seal Island, in addition to other workshop offerings.
I also continue to have a large and thriving business selling prints, some of those online and to large institutions, but mostly ones that I create myself and place in gift shops up and down the coast. These prints, along with some larger pieces, will be coming to several art fairs in Maine in 2024, including Art in the Park in South Portland and Bath Heritage Days. I love meeting people at these shows!
I hope you see from reading this: I couldn’t have done it alone. I’m so grateful for the support and encouragement of many people along the way, and that includes subscribers here on substack. I'm looking forward to starting to publish this guide here, starting next week. This will be an incredible compilation of information for photographers out there, hopefully just the kind of guide that I would have wanted to read as I started my journey in photographing the coast of Maine. So forward this along to anyone you know who might be interested, and if you're not already, I hope you'll become a paid subscriber to be sure you see it all and to help me continue this work. Thank you so much!
Beautiful photographs of art might be a better term. As I read your piece I couldn’t help but think of another great Maine photographer Peter Ralston out of Portland. I fell in love with Maine through Heather Cox Richardson’s “Letters From An American” and her books. She spoke of Peter —and when I looked him up, I knew he was special. Today I see your work is equally beautiful and I’ll be enjoying each photo. Thank you!
Your description of your southern roots, but how Maine feels more like home, mirrors our experience of embracing Maine as our "real" home that speaks to us through every season. It just feels right! Wishing you the best with this new endeavor.