Unfortunately, when I turned the Canon 50D on, it said, "no memory card in me". Right, the card was in the 40D body, back at home....

So I had to take a break from photography. Having sat at a few Masters Series lectures from Maine Media Workshops these past few weeks, I was thinking about things the very successful photographers had to say. One had spent some time on "composing the shot", then waiting for something to happen.

Camera-less, I watched an 80' schooner come into Pulpit Harbor, under sail, to anchor. I would have snapped several frames, probably all would have been snoozers. The shot I realized later, came at one instant.

The black schooner was a heart stopping force of power as it reached in under startling speed. Then like a knife, the sprit cut a swath into the wind,...between a large motoryacht and a nearby sailboat. Everyone on the boats(including the schooner), were rock still and speechless in the eery soft hiss of the schooner under sail.

Then with the sudden jarring rattle and roar of a huge expanse of sails into the wind, the captain bellowed a command to crew, and in a blur they wrenched flaying headsails down. That was the moment!!!!

From the angle, it looked as though the schooner had mere inches off each deck(compressed more tightly by a longer lens). Spectators on the nearby boats had stone serious faces. But it was the action of the foredeck crew, their war like effort(think IwoJima and raising Old Glory), in the center of the frame, that was stunning.***

Next command sent the old fishermen anchor into the mud to be set a few seconds later by the big ships momentum.

Then, as the big schooner drifted back on her taught rode, as if in open invitation for any criticism, all of Pulpit Harbor was stone silent.

That's my photo. ***