Searching For Meteorites and Helping Senior Citzens Find Love
On August 7th, 1823 an achondrite meteorite fell to earth and landed in Nobleboro, Maine. Locals thought it was a musket being fired. This was the first meteorite to fall in Maine, and only the second to ever fall in The United States, obviously at least since we started calling it The United States. Many years later a nice couple decided to get married in Nobleboro, at Duck Puddle Campgounds. They hired me to photograph the wedding and I agreed, even before knowing about the meteoritic significance. I didn't know about the meteorite until I hired my pal Nate to be my second shooter. Nate's day job is something complicated involving geology or environmental engineering or something, so he knows all about that stuff. He clued me in and I thought "I'm going to find that damned meteorite landing site and write a newsletter about it." Well, spoiler alert, I didn't find it. At least I don't think I did.
I tried to do some research but there wasn't much info. There didn't seem to be any landmark or visitor site for the meteorite. I did find the meteorite's listing on The Meteoritical Society database, which included coordinates for the crash site. It was out in the woods and looked pretty inaccessible. I decided to go searching for it anyway.
I left for the wedding early and entered the coordinates into Google Maps. The directions got me close and I saw a pretty large monument in the middle of a field and I thought "Oh cool, there IS a monument for the landing site, " but I got to it and I was confused. The large, stone sculpture looked like a small version of the Washington Monument, and it had an inscription - "Erected by the Maine Historical Society as provided in the will of Arthur John Clark Sowdon of Boston Massachusetts a descendant of Lieut. Col Arthur Noble 1913." Okay, cool, so who is that? Is he a meteorite guy? Is this about the meteor? What is this about? It doesn't seem to have any purpose other than that Arthur John Clark Sowdon stated in his will that they should put up this monument. It doesn't give any more info and Google doesn't seem to know that the monument exists. I was baffled. There was a little convenience store across the street and I went in to ask about the monument and the meteorite but the store crowded and the staff looked surly so I got nervous and left after using the restroom and getting a pre-wedding snack.
The confusing monument
The surly convenience store
Proof of the staff's surliness
The wedding was fun. Definitely had a cool party vibe. I terrified Nate at one point by being so swept up by the dance floor energy (I think the DJ was playing "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen) that I did my (now) patented camera flip, tossing my $5500 camera body in the air and catching it with one hand. I was out of control. Some highlights and party shots below.
On Tuesday I was hired to shoot a portrait of a nice lady for a senior citizen dating platform. I was so nervous! I knew I really had to do it right. I don't know how well I did. A rep from the dating site said they wanted "fun outside shots" but it was really nasty and rainy out. The woman I was photographing was a little nervous so we couldn't get get much of a "fun" look out her. We were talking about books and I loosened her up by asking her a bunch of questions about what she was reading. The breakthrough moment came when I told her that we were going to pretend that we were taking her author portrait for the back flap of her imaginary book. That really got her excited and she crossed her arms and gave me a very confident "author's pose." I'm only sharing a single outtake (a lighting error, seen at the top of this newsletter) because I would feel weird sharing the real pictures. Just use your imagination. They came out cool.
My other assignments this week were a private elopement ceremony officiated by the wonderful Rev. Erika Hewitt, and another engagement shoot at Arnold Arboretum in Boston. Photos below.
Can you believe that this is in Boston? Like, this is right in the city.
This weekend I have two small Portland-area weddings and then I have to climb a friggin mountain in New Hampshire to shoot a proposal. Wish me luck.