Moment: First Light
Cape Spear
We had spent the vast majority of our week in Newfoundland and Labrador photographing birds. That was fine. Actually, it was more than fine. It was the primary purpose of our trip. (I was there with 8 other bird photographers.)
And I am thrilled that we were there to primarily photograph the birds of Newfoundland & Labrador, specifically Northern Gannets and, of course, the Atlantic Puffin. For several days we criss-crossed the province with the explicit goal of photographing these beautiful birds on their breeding grounds.
And we did.
And my Lightroom catalog is filled with thousands of images to prove it. :)
When we could, my friend and fellow seacoast photographer, Shirley would sneak in a landscape image among the flurry of bird images. The province was so beautiful, to leave without photographing some landscapes would have been a travesty. That being said, it was secondary to the primary goal of photographing birds. Yet, like two elementary kids sneaking around at recess, Shirley and I would scamper off to photograph a landscape whenever we could.
While this was all good, these were literally drive by opportunities. There was no homework done, no forecasting of weather conditions, no sunrise or sunset considerations. These were literally, “well we’re here, let’s get the shot” shots. And, that’s not a bad thing. For example, the shot of the dory will be in my 2026 calendar. The reality was, however, that landscape photography was second to bird photography on our trip.
That all changed toward the end when, after unsuccessfully waiting for a Stellar Sea Eagle to appear, I was Jonesing for a real, honest to goodness, landscape photography moment. Don’t get me wrong, I love photographing birds, but I was kinda done with them for that week. I wanted to photograph a landscape.
And so, four of us in the group chose to scout out Cape Spear Lighthouse, in St. John’s, Newfoundland while others chose to wait for the Stellar’s to arrive (which it eventually did). Located on the eastern most point of Canada, the Cape Spear Lighthouse is oldest surviving lighthouse in the province and offers unprecedented 360 degree views of the Atlantic Ocean to one side and the inlet to St. John’s Harbor on the other.
Our scouting trip was at sunset, which isn’t the best time to photograph the lighthouse. While the light is front/side light resulting in a bit of drama on the lighthouse, the real shot is in the morning when the sun rising off the Atlantic Ocean create a dramatically backlit image of the lighthouse. That being said, it was great to familiarize ourselves with the location and we were able to observe not only a pod of dolphins, but a mama humpback with her calf breaching several times. In fact, of all the images created by the group on the trip, Shirley’s image of the humpback breaching in the warm glow of that night’s setting sun might be my favorite.
Early the next morning as we ventured to the lighthouse. Did I mention it was early? The alarm went off at 3:45 AM.
Our scouting trip the night before to get a lay of the land was really helpful. Taking the time to explore in daylight meant I knew where I wanted to stand and how I was going to get there, in the dark of the early morning. After parking the car and grabbing my gear, I marched up the path and to the steps to find the location I scouted the night before, and man, what a moment. I captured a bit of it on my iphone…
To say it was special would be doing a disservice to the term “special”. With fog lifting from the inlet leading to St. John’s, the high thin clouds over the horizon, and the warm glow of the day’s rising sun, the conditions were absolutely perfect for one of those sunrises that you dream about as a landscape photographer. Add to that the fact that our party of four were the first one’s there, the distant sound of the harbor’s fog horn, and soothing trills of the Savannah Sparrows waking up the bushes around us, and we were awash in the soothing peacefulness and tranquility only found at the Eastern most point of Canada, one half hour before the day’s first light. Capturing the image and preserving that moment was just a matter of pointing my camera in the right direction and ensuring that my exposure was correct.
The moment itself took care of the rest.
Tony- The aerial image of the puffins over the water for me is the stand out photograph among many other great ones. Was that a difficult shot to make? 🙏