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Alongside of Route 191 in Cooper, Maine, lies the family plot for the Creamers.

I’m not usually one to skulk around cemeteries with a camera unless the statuary is notable, as in the case of Cave Hill in Louisville. But every now and then, you can pass by an alluring small plot that commands attention. They are often near the road and off the side of a small farm, and they tease with a story that you’d likely never hear unless you know the family.

In this case, thanks to the resource of the Internet, we know that Otis, off to the left there, died in 1860 at the age of 22, almost 23, and was the son of Thomas Creamer. Winslow, also a son of Thomas, died a little over a year later at the age of 19. Poor Phinemas on the right didn’t make it much past 6 years. A daughter of Thomas, Hannah, passed just short of 29 years old.

It caused me to wonder why these siblings all passed away at what we would consider today to be such an early age; how Thomas and Emily could possibly cope with having their children precede them, all in only four years time. Was it a rampant virus? Was it the long Maine winters? Something more nefarious, perhaps?

It was a family. Perhaps that’s all we’re entitled to know. But there is a story held in a few square feet at the side of a remote Maine road – a remembrance of people who were born into a time that was surely much more strenuous than we’re accustomed to today.

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In northern Maine, far beyond the tourist-laden coast and southern cities, is a place called Grand Lake Stream, renowned for its trout fishing. While it’s fairly remote and not at all built up, people come from all around the world to fish here.

Too bad we don’t fish.

But, we did have a couple of great nights at a local ‘camp’, staying in a waterside cottage. We spent the days wandering around, taking in the local sights. I’ve always loved the concept of boathouses, especially older ones such as these, and they take me back to some of my earliest memories of New England.

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Click on the image above to see it larger in a new window on my Waterscapes Gallery.

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When on an extended camping trip, one’s next move is usually determined by the weather. In this case in northern Maine, with no internet access or NOAA weather radio reception, we weren’t sure whether or not to stay another day.

The sunset told us to stick around a while… which we did.

This was taken during a superior sunset from Dunn Point at Lily Bay State Park, on Moosehead Lake, northern Maine. During that time, we were visited by ducks, beavers, loons, and one very curious red fox.

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For this image, I combined outputs from two different HDR processing programs, HDR Efex Pro from NIK Software, and Photomatix Pro 4. HDR Efex Pro did some wonderful things for the water and mountains, but Photomatix Pro brought out the drama in the sky.  Using these two outputs, along with the shadowmapping process (see tutorial section), I created a decent composite. A few adjustments were made to desat the sky, smooth out the water a bit, and Topaz Detail and Topaz Adjust were used to bring out some of the finely structured, subtle details here and there.