Sailing Ship Moccasin at Long Point Lighthouse

Posted on October 29, 2021 by carlotta

Sailing Ship Moccasin at Long Point Lighthouse

I have recently been back to Cape Cod for family visits and responsibilities. While I was there, we spent the day on this beautiful wooden boat that belongs to my son’s friend. He has lovingly restored it and has sailed it up and down the coast from Maryland to Cape Cod.

We set out with our picnic on a warm October day, heading across the harbour to Long Point, the spit of sand that forms the very tip of Cape Cod.

One of the aims of the sail, apart from having a lovely day out, was to get some good photos of the boat. I had an idea of trying to recreate Edward Hopper’s iconic painting The Long Leg. The problem with this plan was that the direction of the sunlight was wrong (it was in front of us, instead of shining across from the left), the wind was wrong (there was very little of it), and we were at a different lighthouse (the one in the painting is a few miles further along the back shore).

So, instead of The Long Leg version 2, here is Sailing Ship Moccasin at Long Point Lighthouse.

Long Point at low tide is a favourite sunbathing spot for seals. We found around 50 of them basking in the sun as we sailed past. If you take a look here, you can see them in the second photo in the gallery.

With Lewes Bonfire coming up next week, don’t forget that my book of Bonfire Portraits is still available to buy. You can find out more about it here.

I am still hard at work binding more copies of my latest book sea shore. It is a collection of 29 of my landscape cyanotypes and two poems written by Sara London. If you are interested in buying a copy, you can order directly from my website.

All my hand-printed cyanotypes are available to buy. Information about purchasing my prints and all of my photography books can be found here.

Bringing New England to Old England

Posted on August 26, 2021August 26, 2021 by carlotta

Bringing New England to Old England

I will be showing this cyanotype of a church that is just a short walk from my home on Cape Cod, in order to bring a touch of New England to my East Sussex Artwave exhibit. Built in 1827, it is a handsome white clapboard Greek Revival building and the oldest church in our tiny town of Truro.

I have been experimenting with ways of printing my cyanotypes at larger sizes than the 30x40cm that most of them have been so far. One method is my multi-panelled prints. This works well for landscapes and organic, textured closeups, but doesn’t feel right for architectural photos.

The enlargement process is complicated by the fact that I need a structure to suspend several ultraviolet lights over my plates while at the same time giving an even exposure. I have finally figured out a way to manage this so that I can print up to 40x60cm.

This photo of the Truro Congregational Church is one of the first prints I made at this larger size. Of course you can’t tell from the scan that it is larger, but take my word for it, it looks great!

As I mentioned last time, I will be launching my new book sea shore at our Artwave show and will be exhibiting landscape images from the book, as well as showing a range of cyanotypes from my architectural documentary projects.

If you are in the Lewes area over the last three weekends in September, I hope you can stop by. I will be exhibiting with the painter Kelly Hall again this year and you can find us at St Anne’s House, 111 High St, Lewes, BN7 1XY. Opening hours are 11-5. You can find information about my new book here, and can contact me if you would like to pre-order one. All my hand-printed cyanotypes are available to buy. Information about purchasing my prints and books can be found here.

A tale of two home towns

Posted on June 10, 2021June 10, 2021 by carlotta

A tale of two home towns

I came back yesterday from a long-overdue trip to my other home town of Truro, out on the end of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. I caught up with family and friends who I have been unable to see for many months because of Covid, and I swam at my favourite beaches – the ones I grew up on.

When it came time to return to Lewes, I took the ferry from neighbouring Provincetown, across Cape Cod Bay to Boston. There were raindrops on the ferry windows and clouds shimmered over the expanse of sea. Leaving by water always feels like the most appropriate way to depart from this peninsula stuck out in the Atlantic.

Travel bans over the past 16 months have heightened my sense of the complexity of being from more than one country. As much as I love and belong in each place, I never lose the connection and longing for the other. Covid restrictions have reminded me of how lucky I am that I can usually travel easily between my two home towns. I know this is a privilege denied to many around the world.

More of my landscape photography can be found here. All my hand-printed cyanotypes are available to buy. Please get in touch for more information, and also if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

The ultimate fish story

Posted on March 4, 2021March 5, 2021 by carlotta

The ultimate fish story

Many years ago, before I moved to England, I lived in the little costal town of Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod. This photograph is from that time and the scene it captures is the stuff of legends.

That is a prized bluefin tuna that had wandered inadvertently into the harbour and was spotted from shore. A little boat was rowed out to it and an epic battle ensued between man (actually two men) and beast that lasted hours. Eventually beast tired before man and it got dragged slowly to shore. You can see here that it is still alive and thrashing crazily.

I wish I could recall how much the tuna sold for. As I remember, it went to buyers in Japan and the amount seemed astronomical at the time. But it was the story of the heroic struggle in the harbour that we all dined out on for weeks – for years even.

You can find more of my photographs of people doing interesting things here.

Please get in touch if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

Where land meets sea

Posted on February 2, 2021 by carlotta

Where land meets sea

I have to admit that work is a tad slower than I would have liked during this third and open-ended lockdown. To keep myself busy, I have been working with my hand-printed cyanotypes again. This shot was taken at sunrise on Cape Cod during my visit last October.

I am making plans for two more cyanotype books. (My first one, about Lewes Bonfire, can be found here). One book will be photographs of the sea – mostly stormy.

The other will be photos of the plants, sand and rocks to be found where land meets sea. I will be binding them myself as limited editions. I am still working on exactly how I will do this – I’ll keep you posted! More of my cyanotypes are here.

Please get in touch if you have a workplace, an event, a celebration, a portrait or a building project you would like to have photographed.

Festive greetings!

Posted on December 23, 2020December 24, 2020 by carlotta

Festive greetings!

Wishing you all the very best for the coming year and may it be immeasurably better than this one. Here’s to once again being able to meet and hug and be together without fear and anxiety. Hopefully that time is just around the corner.

I wanted to send you a nice wintery photograph to celebrate the season.

I wanted to post an appropriately wintery photograph to celebrate the season. I took this last December on Cape Cod and it was chilly, but not so much so that it stopped me jumping into that still clear water – and convincing my friend to come in with me. It felt magical, immersed in the sea with the snow swirling in the air. Don’t worry, I didn’t stay in very long. You can see many more of my landscape photographs here.

Tag: Cape Cod