Capture This Photography
NJ Lighthouse Challenge 2006-Sea Girt Lighthouse
Posted by Laurie (New Jersey, United States) on 12 November 2006 in Architecture and Portfolio.
Sea Girt Lighthouse is yet another lovely Victorian style lighthouse in NJ. It is located in a section of the NJ coast that was once aptly known as Wreck Pond. During the early 1890’s some estimated 92 vessels were foundered in the vicinity of the Manasquan River, which prompted the building of the lighthouse.
It was completed and lit on December 10, 1896. It covers the area between Barnegat Light and Navesink Highlands. It flashed a red light once every second which was visible 15 miles out to sea. The lighthouse keeper had to wind the clock every 7 ½ hours to keep the signal working.
It was changed to a white light in 1901 and then electrified in 1915. A radio fog beacon was added in 1921 to aid ships approaching NY harbor.
The Coast Guard took over the lighthouse in 1936 and Sea Girt became an important Coast Guard Station during WWII in order to patrol the waters for German U-Boats. The following is an account from one of the “coasties” who spent his tour of duty in Sea Girt.
"Pearl Harbor had galvanized America and the Coast Guard was striving to train kids to man the ships and stations. Help was needed fast, as the German U-boat fleet was swift to move in on America's unprotected coasts and shipping. The beaches were patrolled by men on foot and sometimes with dogs. A constant radio watch was kept and tower was always manned by sailors with binoculars. They would see the flash of light, hear the terrible roar of a tanker being blown up by torpedo attack and all they could do is report and watch. The beach was littered with ship's wreckage, rafts and fuel oil. Later I often wondered if anyone ever remembered the cold, wet, anxious nights and chilling dawns the men endured."
By the end of the war the lighthouse was obsolete and in 1945 it was taken out of service. It was sold to the town of Sea Girt in August of 1956. It had been used by some community groups, but gradually deteriorated and became unsafe. In 1980 the town was faced with the decision as to what should be done with the old dilapidated lighthouse.
The prospect of losing the lighthouse spurred a group of citizens to form a committee to save the lighthouse. The group obtained a 25-year lease of the property and immediately began the work to raise the funds, and rally the community to save the lighthouse. Much of the hard work was done by the people from the community.
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This lighthouse is beautifully maintained inside and out. The woodwork on the interior absolutely gleams. The furnishings are authentic to the period and they are wonderful.
I wanted to include a shot of the interior of this lighthouse. I was not allowed to use my flash and I loved the glow of the natural light that flooded into this room. I especially liked the glow that was created on the top of the desk by the thick glass that was on top of it. It must have been a great place to get work done. I did the shot of this room in color and black and white and as usual (for me) the black and white won.
This was the only room I managed to get a shot of since the lines to access the tower were down the hall and stairwell and we didn’t have the time to wait and explore it too much more. It’s another lighthouse I will revisit in the future.
Some of you asked questions on my previous post. I answered them in the comments section of the post. I am happy to answer any questions you have.
To answer some of the most commonly asked questions I will do so here.
When I shoot I usually try to envision the final result even before I click the shutter. This doesn’t always happen but it is a general “rule” I follow. For example; I knew that the mule shot was going to be black and white right from the start, for some reasons that I detailed in the comments on that post. I shoot in RAW so all my shots are color to begin with and I convert the images in PP.
I almost always use Gradient Map in layers to convert to black and white. I usually start that process in RAW conversion by boosting the contrast in ACR and then using Gradient Map in layers. I then sometimes do a little curves adjustment if it is too dark or too light. I would say that is the method that works for 95% of my black and white conversions.
For all my images, I always switch the color mode to LAB color and look at the lightness channel to see if I think they would benefit from sharpening and only apply modest sharpening in the lightness channel. I then convert back to RGB color mode. That is usually the final step in PPing.
Occasionally when I look at the lightness channel in LAB color for a color image it will scream “I should be black and white!” At which point I will then go in and process another version in black and white and compare the two.
I save as a PSD and if I need it for a post I do the JPG conversion and save it as a separate file. This way I always have the RAW, and a PSD file. It may not be the most efficient method but I will be doing all my own printing in the near future and I think this method will work ok, although I may change my mind.
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