A Personal Project--Photographing Lighthouses

This site has just been re-designed. I know, it looks almost the same, but that is what I wanted. I like the format, it is just that it was easier to re-write my code than to pull out some of the bugs! You may find, for the next week or so, that some links are not working, or there are no hyperlinks where there should be. I have just uploaded the updated files, and some of the code has to be added, subtracted, or fixed to make things work properly. It is mid-term, so that will take a while.

It has been an interesting summer. Most of my time has been spent working (to pay for university). Although I am now on holidays, and I am sitting on the deck at the cottage, with my Pismo, working on the web site. I have taken the ferry boat, M/V Sandy Graham, which plies between Cedar Point and Christian Island an estimated 200 times. The cost of which was an estimated 1000\\$. Expensive, but worth every penny. I estimate that I have put about 4000 kilometers on "my" car over the course of the summer, to leave me with a nice round polynomic number this morning, 222222.2 kilometers. And the car is still kicking! In terms of sailing--which as I eluded to above, has been rather sparse--I did a one night solo trip to Beckwith Island early in the navigation season. That trip was really uneventful, no wind! But otherwise pleasant. I also did a trip to rendezvous with the sailing vessel Cloud Chaser, a 67 foot steel hull, and her captain/builder and crew. That was really interesting, but left A Humming Bird looking dwarfed in some photos. Interestingly enough, it was my first time seeing a vessel with a Charlie Noble and a wood stove below (although I didn't have my flash, so was unable to take photos inside the cabin). In total, I have put about another 7 hours on the Honda, leaving me at a total of 15 engine hours. The repairs done on the boat this spring have held up very well (for more information on the repairs, and the boat, please see "About A Humming Bird"). I have also had many guests aboard, including friends from Germany, cousins from British Columbia,and the captain and crew of Cloud Chaser. Unfortunate though it is, I have not gotten to any lights at all this year!

I am a second year student in the Bachelor of Arts Photography Studies Programme at Ryerson Polytechnic University in Toronto, Ontario. I am from Toronto, but my family has lived in Pointe Claire, Quebec since 1989. For the past fifteen years, we have spent our summers at a cottage on Georgian Bay. I won't name the location, because it will become obvious later in the site, and also because we don't want any more people up there. This summer ritual, and the relatives who participate in it, has instilled in me a love for sailing. I am the owner and skipper of a 16 foot sailboat (a DS16, made by Diller-Schwill Yachts of Odessa, Ontario), A Humming Bird. Due to my interests in photography and sailing I set to work on a personal project to photograph some of the lightstations near my cottage, before they dissapear altogether. I made this site because I am concerned about the fate of Canadian Lighthouses. They are heritage buildings, important building blocks that helped shape Canada into what it is today. However, in this age of budget cuts, electronic navigation (radar, GPS, ECDIS), and amidst fears about the liability these sites cause the Canadian Coast Guard and the Government, they are at great risk of dissapearing altogether.

In recent years, the Coast Guard has taken to "modernize" so called "redundant aids to navigation" without consulting the communities in which they stand until after the fact. A prime example of this is Mosher Island, Nova Scotia. I first saw this photograph in The Globe and Mail, the one linked here is from another web site. The origional photograph is by Ann and Thom Drew. This practice continues, right under the noses of the Minister of Heritage and other bureaucrats, and they couldn't care less. These buildings are historical, and they should neither be getting destroyed nor being left to rot and decay. There are "Historical Lighthouse Preservation Societies" in the United States, and on the East and West coasts of Canada, but there isn't one that protects the lights of the Canadian Great Lakes. It is my hope that I will be able to get one started in the future, this site and my project are the first step towards this goal. The intent of this site is to educate the public about the history of the lights and--hopefully--to prevent, or at least stall off, their destruction. Enjoy it, and learn from it.

The background colour of this site is as close a match as I can get, in Hexidecimal colours, to the gelcoat on A Humming Bird. I don't know why I wanted to use it, but the colour seems to work well, so I did.

All Images on this site are the author's original work. This site is and its contents are COPYRIGHT 2001 by Dante McLean. Please feel free to browse, but DO NOT DOWNLOAD any of the images. If you wish to use the images for a "not for profit" purpose, please contact the author. He would be only too happy to allow their use, on the condition that he know who is using them and for what. Despite these warnings, if you want to link to my site please feel free! No need to ask. I would be happy to reciprocate if you let me know.

WARNING: THE WATERS IN THE AREA IN WHICH THESE LIGHTHOUSES ARE LOCATED ARE HAZARDOUS (WHY ELSE WOULD THERE BE A LIGHTHOUSE THERE?). THE WEATHER CAN BE UNPREDICTABLE, AND THERE IS NO SHELTER IN SOME CASES. IF YOU CHOOSE TO VISIT A LIGHTSTATION, PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOU ARE TRESSPASSING ON CANADIAN COAST GUARD PROPERTY. THE COAST GUARD CAN NOT BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY INJURIES TO YOUR PERSON, OR DAMAGES TO YOUR VESSEL. THE AUTHOR DOES NOT CONDONE TRESSPASSING, NOR WILL THE AUTHOR BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ACCIDENTS RESULTING FROM ANY ATTEMPTS TO VISIT THE LIGHTS. PLEASE HEED ANY WARNINGS ABOUT THE STATIONS ON THEIR RESPECTIVE PAGES. I HAVE SUPLEMENTED CHARTS WITH A BIT OF LOCAL KNOWLEDGE.