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Fly - Lake Sebago, Maine

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Canoeing in Lake Sebago, Maine

In early September I joined about 40 other Aurora photographers for the annual photographers meeting at Sebago Lake, Maine, about half an hour west of Portland. The gathering takes place on the western shores of the lake at Camp O-AT-KA, a boys camp owned by the family of Aurora photo editor Peter Dennen. The meeting is designed to allow contributing photographers and the Aurora staff to get to know one another, as well as to discuss the state of the stock photo industry and the company’s place within it. There were also one-on-one portfolio reviews with editors from PDN, Sports Illustrated, Aurora Select and former National Geographic editor Rich Clarkson, who is pictured after the jump telling one of many entertaining stories to the attendees in the cozy central lodge where most of our official gatherings took place. After the scheduled meetings the group had time to enjoy the lake and socialize over some fine local beer. There’s something about both of the Portlands that makes for great microbrews. There was plenty more too, including great meals prepared by the camp staff (check out that paella!), tug-of-war, soccer, swimming and jumping over campfires. While I didn’t do that, I did make sure to take a few dips in the lake. The water was cold, but refreshing and calm and not so bad once you were in for a minute or so. It was getting out that hurt. Overall it was a great and worthwhile trip and I was glad I got the opportunity to meet the staff and so many fine photographers.
I didn’t really take a lot of pictures there, but here are a few I liked, starting with a fly that landed on a fellow photographer’s head as we were arranging ourselves for the official group picture. This trip kicked off 10 days of travel around the northeast with Erinn, who was at her aunt and uncle’s place up the road at Bar Harbor during the three days I was at the meeting. More photos from the rest of the trip will follow.

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Lake Sebago

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Erinn and I just returned from a brief-but-great couple of days at Joshua Tree National Park. We arrived Wednesday night expecting to have trouble finding an available campsite, considering Memorial Day weekend was just around the corner, but were happily surprised to find the place practically deserted. On the advice of friend and national parks guru Ian Shive, we decided to camp at Jumbo Rocks campground, a beautiful site in the middle of a huge field of giant boulders, which we later learned were made of monzogranite that, in the form of magma, had forced its way up beneath the darker upper crust composed of gneiss (nice) rock. Erosion eventually carried away the gneiss, revealing the coarse, sand-colored boulders below that now make up large sections of the northern part of the park and, like a playground in the middle of a large sandbox, provide a welcome relief to an otherwise barren landscape. After picking the ideal spot and setting up our tent we made a fire and got down to the business of grilling hot dogs, but not before taking half an hour to marvel at the density of stars above and taking a few photos. In the interest of full disclosure, the image of Erinn beneath the stars is a composite of 3 separate exposures taken from the same spot, which was the only way I was going to be able to bring out those stars and get a good exposure on her without using a flash. For more photos and text click the link below

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