![](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/psnp.info\/p4td_\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/DSC06708-1.jpg?resize=904%2C603\")
Nubble Light, Cape Neddick, Maine<\/p><\/div>\n
“If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light!” Jesus<\/p>\n
This shot, and others I took last Friday at Nubble Light in Cape Neddick Maine (or York Beach if you prefer), inspired a poem…at least in part about photography. I include it here since it tells at least the first part of the story.<\/p>\n
I took a loop south today to photograph
\nNubble Light off Cape Neddick, one of
\nthe closer of the iconic Maine Lighthouses
\n(Goat Island Light in Cape Porpoise is
\ncloser, but nearly as photogenic). Nubble
\nis a place I take every new camera within
\nthe first month I own it…it is a scene that
\nforms a baseline in my understanding of
\nimage quality…a reference for comparison…<\/p>\n
I know, who cares? I am enough of a geek
\nto say I do…and geek enough to brave the
\nOgunquit traffic on a Friday to get to
\nthe cape and stand on the rocks and shoot
\nthe Light that I have shot, what, 50 times
\nbefore…from all angles. Some days the
\nclouds are great behind the Light (today
\nwas one of them), some days there is drama
\nin the way the waves drive up the gap
\nbetween the cape and island, sending spray
\nfountaining in the foreground (today the
\nsea was as flat as I have seen it, and the
\nwater in the gap lapped gently at the foot
\nof the rocks as though they edged a pond).<\/p>\n
But always there is beauty in the way the
\nold home and the tall light, the picket fence
\nand the brick pump-house, the cable car
\nlines draped across the gap, stand up against
\nthe sea, stand fast and sure, stand as an
\nicon of the struggle to wrest a living from
\nthese northern waters…from this restless sea…<\/p>\n
and catching a bit of that beauty, that strength,
\nis the challenge that keeps me, and a hundred,
\n(several hundred on a good day like today) other
\nphotographers with every kind of camera coming
\nback, again and again, to the Lighthouse on the
\nNubble, off the tip of Cape Neddick…I admit, most
\ndo not have my interest in image quality, but they
\nall recognize a quality image when they see it.<\/p>\n
And the second part of the story? If you did a count of the number of Christian Churches with Lighthouse in their name, it would, without doubt, amount to thousands…perhaps a hundred thousand or more around the world. It is such an obvious metaphor for the work any church worth its salt (and that is, of course, another reference from the words of Jesus) is supposed to do in this world: to hold up Jesus, the light of world, to turn anyone with eyes to see away from the rocks of this life and bring them safe to shore.<\/p>\n
But Lighthouse is also a great metaphor for what each of us is supposed to be in this world. If your eye is generous, your whole being is full of light…and that light shines out just as the light of God shines in. Each of us should hold up Jesus in our faces so that those around us know at least that someone cares enough to warn them of the rocks, and stands as a reminder\u00a0that there is an alternative. Our bodies are lighthouses, or should be. Each one of us who claims the name of Jesus.<\/p>\n
So, stand up tall on the line between the sea and shore, and shine brightly today, and every day. Happy Sunday!<\/p>\n