Woodstock VT: The Countryman Press, 2004
$17.95
Why I Stopped Worring About Looking Like a Tourist
Deep in the dead of winter, it seems to me a prime requirement of an interesting book at this time of year is that it offers an escape from our frozen landscape, short days and long nights, and the woes of cabin fever. With that yardstick, The Photographer’s Guide to the Maine Coast succeeds. There are enticing suggestions for road trips and beautiful color photographs, many of them boasting brilliant, benign landscapes of Maine including beaches, boats, blue skies and water and flowers in bloom. If you’re tired of snow removal, icy surfaces and all the other inconveniences, hazards, and complications of winter, this book can transport you somewhere else, away from all of that, at least temporarily.
The concept behind this book is an interesting one. The authors tackle the Maine coast in sections, describing what they consider the most photogenic spots in each. They tell you what seasons, what tides, and what times of day are best for what kinds of shots. They also advise where to park, walk and eat, and what precautions to take. There are useful technical suggestions as to camera light settings and shutter speeds. As its subtitle suggests, the book is a guide to “where to find the perfect shots and how to take them.”
What is a strength of the book, however, is also a weakness. The authors’ clear preference is for classic landscapes and calendar-type images. Anyone who knows Maine knows there are many more subjects, including portraiture, that would be intriguing, aesthetic and quintessential as well. But demonstrating admirable consideration and restraint, the subjects they suggest are all in the public domain. They speak, more than once, to respecting privacy rights for both property and people and to observing postings for environmentally vulnerable, off-limits areas. The book’s sensitivity to non-invasive photography is unimpeachable, although it does lead to promoting fairly well known places. But with limits come worthy challenges, as any adolescent can attest. So, the quest of camera buffs can become, for example, not the finding of a lighthouse, harbor or historic house but what composition to give it, what interpretation. And of course it’s always fun to go up against the experts and compare perspectives; what you’ve discovered and would recommend, what you agree or disagree with of their suggestions.
The book shares the enthusiasm, appreciation, and expertise of professional photographers along with examples of fine work. A literary gem it isn’t. There are some clichéd phrases that repeat often enough to get hackneyed, and I tired of comments that grew cloying with repetition as I — the reader — was told by the authors what I will do or experience or say. It was gratuitous advice I didn’t feel I needed.
For visitors, the book offers useful suggestions for finding some of the prettiest public spots on the Maine coast. For locals, it just might make you more aware of the beauty of a location you are lucky enough to see so often that you’ve stopped noticing. Either way, the book can open eyes to spectacular scenery and its potential for artistic interpretation and pure sensory exhilaration.
Tina Cohen writes from Amherst, MA and Vinalhaven.