Stephen Sheffield Fine Art Photography and Mixed Media: A SELECTION OF PHOTOGRAPHS FROM MOOSELOOKMEGUNTIC LAKE, 2013 - (and some insight into my art-making process)

Art making in Maine.

This post was intended to be 'only' about "Art Making In Maine" but it quickly came to also include a little about marriage and a little more about parenting as an artist.

This is a photograph of me taken by my 8 year old son as we pack up and hike out of a location.

My family has had cabin on a lake in north western main since the late 50s. There has not been a year when I have failed to spend time there in the summer or winter. Since the 1980s when I was in art school at Cornell University have used this time away at the cabin to get my thoughts together and pay attention to myself and my art work. Over the past ten years that has included my lovely wife and now my amazing two boys. The time spent in Maine has changed, and for the better. At first it seemed tough to get work done and to find time to think, but now with an understanding spouse and boys that are getting old enough to occupy themselves and even assist me with my work. I have created many of my most well know images in the woods or by the shores of the lake. This year I pushed a great deal of film through my vintage Speed Graphic, and I will post some of the large film photographs as I get to developing and printing the sheets, but for now here is some digital imagery from my time there.

Thank you to my ever-suffering wife, Alison, who puts up with my shenanigans.

This image and the one below are test shots taken by my 8 year old son using my camera phone secured to the top of my Speed Graphic.

Before Polaroid went out of business I used to use sheets and sheets of Polaroid film to test my shots before using film. Now the camera in my phone is a close approximation (often too much information) to what my film will capture.

In this shot (taken by my father from the shore) I have strapped my tripod to the gunnels of a vintage row boat and am adjusting the Speed Graphic to aim back at me as I row and my son clicks the shutter.

Here we are out on the lake. You can just barely see my 8 year old son behind the tripod.

Here is Milo ready to click the shutter.

This is a test shot from the row boat set up.

One of the many storms that come rolling in across the lake.

Portrait of my 8.5 year old son Milo.

3 am with a full moon.

This and the shots before it are from a particularly windswept and bleak end of the lake.

Milo and Finn helping me frame up a possible shot.

The boys watching the moon and sunset.

Milo getting some 'alone' time in his beach tent.

Lake scene.

Deck chairs at dawn.

Cabin bookshelf.

The boys in their treehouse.

Leaf after the rain.

In between rain storms.

Yet another sunset.

Tea and inspirational reading.

Mid-day sky

A break in the water gun fight.

Early morning 'stand-up-paddle' with Alison.

Finn watching another storm roll in.

Warming the tea on the wood stove to take the chill off the morning.

Milo working the shutter on my Speed Graphic during another photoshoot.

Finn running down the path between Mooselookmeguntic Lake and Upper Richardson Lake.

Dramatic sky as Milo climbs on some driftwood at a distant end of the lake.

Clearing the negatives and coating the positives of some of the last remaining and very precious Polaroid T-55. I use this remaining film for "finals" and not tests anymore.

Polaroids taken with my Speed Graphic.

Finn finding his own 'alone' tie on a rock in the woods.

Yet another sunset.

Milo throwing rocks into the lake during an early morning shoot.

I break out the vintage Hassleblad when I am not shooting setups and locations. And a shout out to the Baxter Brewing Company! Some yummy ale right there!