Boston harbor islands on an overcast foggy slightly rainy day. With a small group of students, light remaining consistently diffused, we did the following, as best I remember:

Photograph freely from the ferry, leaving Boston, the inner harbor, more or less open water, landing on George’s Island.

Walk without photographing to the first spot, the shore to the south of the island, right side after landing. Talk about themes, light, summer light, water, sky, fog, rain, intersection of land and water. Look at the landscape photo book I used for illustrations, noting especially the water related imagery.

Walk along the water, over rocks, and choose one thing to photograph, do it in at least 10 ways, near-far, high-low, singly or multiply, off center-on center, etc. I searched for, finally found just the rock with its barnacles, plants, stripes.

And again, one theme, but while walking, find various manifestations of the theme and try different views. I chose rocks.

Altho my initial plan was to circumambulate the island, staying with the varying shore line, this proved impossible. The terrain was tortured. So we left the shoreline, soon reached the fort. Had lunch on the rock ledge overlooking the ocean. Fog and tide coming in. Mallards, cormorants, seagulls in abundance.

Then a shift to time oriented work. Find a position along the top of the fort, hold the frame on a scene that has something changing in it, and make a series of at least 5 exposures, time changing the composition. I used people and then leaves twittering in the breeze. This was difficult because so little was moving.

Next, a series of self portraits, choosing carefully the environment. I used various rooms, starting with the observation tower (where I’d received the inspiration), noticing the light, and then doorways and walls, finding this intriguing.

And end with free time, in the remaining half hour. After playing with floor positioned camera angles in dark rooms, I came upon various Spanish or Portuguese speaking people, men playing soccer, women cooking or chatting, tents in the background, and was sorely tempted to photograph them. But I couldn’t find a way. So I settled for some seagulls.

I’d omitted the blind faith walk after some objected that doing it where I proposed—the ledges—would be too precarious. I promised later we might try this, perhaps on grass, but then the moment never arrived.

Returning on the ferry, the group seemed tired. Altho it had not rained more than a sprinkling, the fog was daunting. Some mentioned fog as the highlight of the day, others the main challenge, some as both. After looking at the book, Boston Photography, I encouraged all to make a few more images. I tried, learned later, that I’d inadvertently left my camera on manual, with a much too high exposure, washing out everything. Maybe I was too tired, maybe I should have just enjoyed the ride back.