Beacon Light

I arrived at Brant Point just as the sun was beginning to light the fading night sky. The sky was transitioning through that remarkable range of color that only happens during the blue hour—deep purple overhead fading to coral and orange at the horizon where the first light was creeping in. The lighthouse beacon was still lit, glowing warm against the cooling tones of evening.

What drew me to this composition was the simplicity and the intimacy. The small lighthouse sitting at the end of its wooden walkway, the beach roses and dune vegetation in the foreground, the calm water beyond, and that sky performing its morning transition from night to day. Brant Point is one of the smallest lighthouses in the country, but its location at the entrance to Nantucket Harbor makes it one of the most photographed.

I set up to include the natural path created by the vegetation—letting the eye move from foreground through the mid-ground to the lighthouse itself. The light was emerging quickly, which meant I needed to work fast, balancing the brightness of the beacon with the ambient light in the sky and the shadows in the foreground vegetation.

What I wanted to capture was the peaceful transition of evening into morning at this iconic location - the moment when the working day begins, the lighthouse giving over its navigational duties, and the island settles into tthe dawn of a new day.