Sunrise in Lubec
Prior to an early summer trip to Maine, I did a lot of research on places that I might want to take photos. One town that jumped out at me was Lubec — a town located about as far east as one can go in the continental United States. The town is small, only around 1,200 people, but features a nice harbor as well as a bridge to Canada’s Campobello Island. At the time of our trip, the border was still closed due to Covid…but there was plenty see in Lubec itself.
We drove there from Bangor, where we had spent the previous night after arriving on a late flight. This was my first time in Maine, and I could already tell I was going to like it a lot. When we arrived in Lubec, we walked around the small town taking in some of the grand old homes and the fishing-related buildings along the waterfront. I noticed a stand of lupines next to a shingled building, with a small lighthouse across the water — Mulholland Point Lighthouse — in the background. I immediately realized this would be an ideal sunrise scene. The lupines were still blooming, and I figured the rising sun would light them beautifully. I checked the angle of the sunrise to make sure I would be in the correct spot, and it looked perfect.
The following morning, I rolled out of bed at about 3:30 a.m. As one of the easternmost points in the United States, combined with being near the summer solstice, sunrise would be near 4:30 a.m. That meant getting on site by 4:00, or maybe earlier. Good light was starting as early as 3:30. Ouch!
As the sun broke over the horizon, the scene played out just as I had hoped. I used a small aperture (high F-number) to create a starburst effect with the rays reaching toward the lupines. There wasn’t a lot of color in the sky, but I think it turned out well:
I also photographed this same scene during daylight, with a nice blue sky. My wife liked that version better, so I may post that one in a future post.
