This blog presents a challenge. The last time we put one up, we showed a part of a hull in Belize. Dave Robertson, one of our alumni, was the first to guess what it was. Congratulations, Dave! You were spot on.

Yesterday, our group got some great photographs. We were at one of our favorite piers, then went down the coast in the afternoon.

Arnie came up to me and said he found something quite bizarre that he wanted to show me. Arnie is prone to kidding, so I figured he was pulling my leg.

Well, no he wasn’t …

There are three twilights for each end of the day. Most people only know about one.

Civil twilight is the one most people call “twilight.” It is the time, morning and evening when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. In decent weather, you can see the brightest stars, the horizon, and objects on the ground quite clearly. During this twilight, you can see well enough outdoors to not need artificial light.

During nautical twilight, the sun is 12 degrees below the horizon. General outlines of objects on the ground are discernable, but the horizon is indistinct, and you really need additional light to do anything with any detail, such as checking your camera settings.

The third twilight, astronomical twilight, is the period when the sun is 18 degrees below the horizon. You can barely see any evidence of light from the sun, and it does not lessen the brightness of the stars. Flashlights or auxiliary light are definitely useful during this time.

We often photograph during nautical twilight as we did last night.

When people join us on the Outer Banks, the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse is often on their wish list, and this group was no exception. We got down there early enough to …

Springtime on the Outer Banks begins today, so I may not be able to manage a daily blog, and if I do, they will be short. Our hours are long, as they should be for a photographer. After all, we want to catch not only the first light before it breaks the horizon, but light at the end of the day.

When one thinks of the Outer Banks, one often has visions of lighthouses and Blackbeard, the famous pirate of Ocracoke. We can’t conjure up Blackbeard — although some say his ghost still roams — but we do visit lighthouses along this some-200-mile-long stretch of narrow, barrier islands off the coast of North Carolina. For our workshops, we only traverse 114 miles of the 200, but that 114 miles is …