There once was a photographer from Nantucket...

For my final project, I'll be doing some of my shooting Wednesday-Saturday in Nantucket.  It's a nature photographer's dream, teeming with seabirds, natural, unspoiled habitats, the peaceful sound of silence during the Thanksgiving season, and beautiful sunsets.

I checked out Nantucket Red in preparation for my trip.  Bill Hoenk, a professional photographer who is based in Nantucket during summers and Pittsburgh during the off-season, does some nifty things with infrared photography on the island.  He started off as a waiter at the Chanticleer (a fine-dining establishment that brings in quite the clientele) one summer, and like so many others, fell in love with the place.  He received his photography training at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, where he was introduced to the technology of infrared photography.

His stuff is pretty good.  It feels almost as if it has a gothic touch to it, which decidedly isn't my thing, but nonetheless gets me thinking about ideas I can shoot on the island.  The windmill is a famous marker on Nantucket and oft-photographed, but I've rarely seen it look like this.

Brant Point Light is also a familiar marker for those who have spent time on the island.  The delineations between sea and sky show up very well in this infrared shot, but in some ways, the lack of blue makes an island purist like myself cringe a little.

As  I mentioned in a previous blog, I'll also have the privilege of getting to shoot some aerial stuff (as long as the weather holds, knock on wood).  Let's just hope that it all works out and I can have some different material on presentation day in photography class than the rest of my classmates.