Tag Archives: photography

Kenduskeag ice scapes

“Are you ready?” asked Phil Gibson, my neighbor and Tennessee native.

“Yup,” I replied.

“Ok, 1, 2, 3” he counted.

On three, the shutter of my Canon 5d Mark lll clicked off and echoed through the hundreds of pounds of sharp, pointed ice that was hanging over my head.

Immediately, I started firing off a round of flashes trying to evenly back light the massive icicles from where I stood in the cavern that they created.

The camera shutter was set to 30 seconds, so about half way through I carefully crept to the other side of the ice cave, slipping across the ice with every step. There I began firing of flash bursts trying to light the other side.

When it was all done, we had our shot.

The photo was the start of a long-term project about the Kenduskeag Stream that I started working on. The goal is to show a collection of images from the stream over several months. The final product will hang in my gallery, the Feulner Gallery and Studio. My other goal is to raise awareness about the stream, its beauty and its potential as a recreational spot.

Only minutes from Bangor, the stream runs directly through the city. Trails connect the stream from downtown and meander past stunning cliff edges and stream access points. As someone who has walked those trails several times, they’re not maintained as well as they could be and are frequented by people who decide to either sleep along the streams banks or leave their trash in various heaps.

The stream is a treasure and hopefully our work, as dangerous as it might be sometimes, will help to keep it protected.

Scenes from Searsport

 

Searsport, Maine is a small community between Bangor and Belfast. Nestled on the northern section of the Penobscot Bay, it’s known as a town built by sea captains.

Photographer Gabor Degre and reporter Abigail Curtis recently covered a story about the town’s struggling future and its residents’ resiliency to change. 

As a photographer, dropping into a town to illustrate a story like this can be difficult. You have to get a feel for a town and people you’ve never met and you have to share with readers an entire story in just a few frames.

Here are a selection of photos from Degre’s take.

Cuba, through the eyes of BDN’s Bob DeLong

In April 2000, the Bangor Daily News sent photographer Bob DeLong to Havana along with reporter Gordon Bonin to accompany a group of Maine educators organized by Let Cuba Live on a one-week tour of Cuba. The trip happened about the time of the famed Elian Gonzalez international custody battle. Gonzalez was the 6-year-old Cuban boy whose family in Miami tried to take custody of him while the U.S. government and his father battled to keep him in Cuba.

Nearly 15 years later, Cuba and the U.S. have vowed to re-establish diplomatic relations, which were originally tainted by the Cold War cuban missile crisis. 

During his visit, DeLong took photos of children playing baseball in the streets, where roosters also roamed. He showed a country full of color and decaying Spanish architecture.

BDN cartoonist George Danby, who worked with DeLong, said he was usually relaxed and quietly observant while shooting. Danby said he was in the background, but always with a keen eye, looking for a photo that wasn’t obvious and unusual.

“His photography was always a part of him.” Danby said.

DeLong retired from the paper in February 2002 after 22 years as a photographer for the BDN and a total of 34 years with the company. Just a few years later, he died of an illness at the age of 68.

Former Bangor Daily News Executive Editor Mark Woodward was quoted in DeLong’s obituary as saying “Bob DeLong was the epitome of the professional newspaper photographer.”

Bob Delong 1833.jpg
Bob DeLong, courtesy of Monty Rand

5@50 December 15, 2014

The weather was warm today and folks were strolling, rather than scurrying, as I shot this installment of my 5@50 series.  Two men and a woman were skateboarding in Congress Square. The sky was blue.

If you remember, I’m shoot five photos a week with my 50mm lens in Portland: no crazy cropping or Photoshopping. So, far I’ve posted each set of five from a single walk through the city. I haven’t saved any pictures to publish later. I pick five from what I shoot and erase the rest.

I’m thinking I’ll do this for a year and then see what I have. Maybe I’ll have a show in a gallery.

We’ll see.