Projects

Project 1:
Status: Active

California Lighthouses:

I have been working on this project for many years. I gave myself an assignment to photograph all the California Lighthouse. Of course it takes time to photograph them all. I never used to care about lighthouses. Matter of fact, I thought people who had lighthouse memorabilia were a little nutty.

Then a few years ago, I heard that the Pigeon Point Lightstation on the San Mateo County coast was doing an annual lighting of the original Fresnel lens. I looked some images up and was blow away from what I saw. They light the lens and about 6:00 PM, for the first five minutes they keep the lamp still, without the reflector. What this produces is 24 beams of light that radiate in a 360˚, so the result is amazing. If the night is partially foggy, the 24 beams show up amazingly well.

In 2008 I went for the first time to shoot the lighting of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse myself. I was blown away and hooked. It was at that time i decided I want to take photos of all the California lighthouse that still existed.

The best time to take these lighthouses is at dawn or dusk. Not all the light houses are functional, nor do they still let people onto the property. Even a few lighthouses are complete off-limits or are currently on government property and can’t be accessed.

Here is the link to my Gallery of California Lighthouses on my SmugMug site. I will be adding more as I finish processing the images. If you are a Lighthouse aficionado, I think you would enjoy seeing some of these amazing century old structures. All images can be purchased from the Gallery. I hope that you enjoy the images enough that you would like to purchase a print or two.

If you can’t link from above, copy and paste this link into your browser. http://thepixelhoarder.smugmug.com/Photography/Lighthouses/CaliforniaLighthouses/14339806_98f2mp#1061606542_yDghQ