After all the years of traveling to Maine with Peter Mehegan shooting his “On The Road” show with the Chevy, I have never gotten tired of pointing my lens to the north. Whether we were capturing Maine’s rugged coastline with its magical lighthouses to the Great North Woods where bald eagles can be seen riding the winds and wildlife roams free, it’s all beautiful. This trip to Rangeley with my producer Sangita was no different.
Anyone that has had the opportunity to cast a fly at a landlocked salmon or a brook trout understands the importance of Rangeley because fly fishing history was created there. People traveled hundreds of miles to be able to enjoy the crystal clear waters that surround this small town. I have been to Rangeley a few times throughout my life and I have watched the town change over the years but it never loses its ability to attract new people as well as welcome back the families that have visited for decades.
Artists and photographers love this area because it offers so many different types of visuals. You can be standing in downtown Rangeley and watch fully loaded logging trucks rumble by and in just a short walk, you can find yourself in areas that look like it has been untouched by human hands. I remember having a conversation with an older gentleman up in Alaska a few years ago while on a shoot and he told me that the only other state he would ever move to is Maine because it is still untamed in many ways. The Rangeley area proves his point.
As the warm air temperatures of summer slowly come to an end, it just means that a new beginning is about to take place. The colors of fall are now among us and I can tell you that as a photographer, this is the season I wait for all year. It’s just magical, especially when my job is to capture images with a high definition camera. Brilliant gold and red leaves framing a deep blue sky is what I am looking to find. If I can add a stream in the foreground and a mountain in the background, then I found the perfect shot. Soon those beautiful colors will fade away and fall to the ground letting us know that winter is at our doorstep. When that happens a whole new palette of color appears and we will be back on the road again to cover the Maine Streets and Back Roads of New England.
