Introducing “Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse”

Our website has long been due for an update (and even routine maintenance). Now two people are working on it (both of whom seem to have a full plate of other responsibilities). I just counted eight of Nancy’s photographs that weren’t even listed on the site yet. That is what I’m chipping away at now. I finished with “Osprey Family,” which I introduced in an earlier post. It is Nancy’s most recent addition to our collection. Now I’m going to tell you about “Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse.”

We were in Jupiter for the ArtiGras Fine Arts Festival^schedule the weekend of a full moon. After setting up for the show, we did some exploring and came upon the Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse. We couldn’t find a suitable perspective from the lighthouse grounds (the lighthouse was on a small mound with trees around it), so we took this picture from the drawbridge on US-1 over the Loxahatchee River.

The sidewalk on the east side of this 1958 bridge is narrow. Because of the longer exposure necessary for a night shot (⅛ second), the camera was on a tripod. But when the front two legs of the tripod were against the edge, the back leg was in the street, and our butts were in traffic. The bridge tender looked at us as if we were crazy. Automobile traffic would rattle the bridge, ruining our shot. We needed the unsynchronized traffic lights on both sides of the bridge to be red together for at least twenty seconds so we could let the traffic clear the bridge and then compose our shot. While we were waiting, the moon was trying to exit the scene more quickly than most non-astronomers realize. We also needed the light’s beam to be in a convenient location. But it gives two flashes every 30 seconds, meaning that during the twenty second period of common red described above, it might not even show. Eventually (with a bit of divine help), everything came together, we got the shot, and everyone lived happily ever after. But until then, there were some long, tense moments.

For more information about this image, go to www.BeeHappyGraphics.com/gallery/jupiter.html.