LEANING BARN, BERKSHIRE MOUNTAINS, MASSACHUSETTS
I photographed this picturesque old barn on my return drive from a trip to New England a few years ago. To quote the late Charles Kuralt: “Barns back east have weather vanes on them to show which way the wind is blowing, but out here there’s no need…farmers just look out the window to see which way the barn is leaning.”

OCTAGONAL BARN, HARRISON COUNTY, OHIO
This barn, built in the early 1900s, is one of more than 30 round and polygonal barns in the Buckeye State. Most of America’s polygonal barns, which were easier to design and build than truly round barns, were built in the Midwest from about 1880 to 1920. Some farmers believed that the round shape of the barn was more efficient, since livestock could be arranged in radial stalls around a central feeding area. Others believed that evil spirits would not be able to find corners in the barn to lurk in!

ROUND STONE BARN, HANCOCK, MASSACHUSETTS
This well-known barn, one of the largest round barns ever built, is located at Hancock Shaker Village in western Massachusetts. It was built after a fire destroyed the community’s dairy barn in 1825. In 1864, after another fire destroyed the conical roof, a new roof with a cupola was added. The 85-foot diameter barn has stone walls that are three feet thick at the base. Another restoration of the barn was carried out in 1968. The village was sold in 1960, when only three elderly Shaker residents remained. Today it is a major tourist destination.

MAPLE LEAVES BELOW BLUE HEN FALLS
A gentle rain was falling when I photographed these red maple leaves on the rocks below Blue Hen Falls in Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation area, recently promoted to Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I used a 4x5-inch Sinar view camera, a 90mm Nikkor lens, and Fujichrome 50 film. The lens was tilted forward to maximize depth-of-field and a polarizing filter helped to eliminate reflections from the wet leaves and rocks. Because of the low light, the exposure was around 4 seconds. Poster 30 x 22 inches.

NATURE
This photograph of petunias and other summer plants was taken on the South Terrace of Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, Ohio, and is one of 157 color photographs included in the book Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens. The poster includes the following poem by Robert Frost: “A saturated meadow, Sun-shaped and jewel-small, A circle scarcely wider than the trees around were tall; Where winds were quite excluded, and the air was stifling sweet With the breath of many flowers-a temple of the heat.”

HOLLAND HARBOR LIGHT
The first lighthouse at the mouth of Holland Harbor was a wooden structure built in 1872. The keeper’s house, which was built in 1907, was modified to contain the light in a tower erected in 1936. The light is covered with steel plates, painted bright red, and the lighthouse is known affectionately as ”Big Red”.

With 116 lighthouses, Michigan has more than any other state. Many have automated lights, and some, sadly, have been abandoned to the elements.

LITTLE SABLE POINT LIGHT, MICHIGAN
The Little Sable Point Light is located along a remote section of sandy dunes on the west coast of Michigan’s lower peninsula. Completed in 1874, the lighthouse was fitted with an automatic electric light in 1954, and the keeper’s house was demolished, leaving only the brick tower standing. The light can be reached by a short hike from a parking area in the Silver Lake State Park. When I visited the park in early fall, the late afternoon sun bathed the brick tower and dunes with a golden light.

PEMAQUID POINT LIGHTHOUSE, MAINE
This well-known lighthouse, situated on a rugged outcrop of unique rock formations about 16 miles south of Damariscotta on Maine’s central coast, was commissioned in 1827 by President John Quincy Adams. It was rebuilt in 1857. Although the tower is only 38 feet tall, its commanding position atop a rock ledge allows the light to be seen on a clear day for 14 miles. The lightkeeper’s house is now a Fisherman’s museum, containing artifacts of Maine lighthouses and the fishing and lobster industry.

POINT AUX BARQUES
The lighthouse at Point Aux Barques (“point of the little boats”) was constructed in 1857 to mark the transition from Lake Huron into Saginaw Bay, and to warn lake travelers of the shallow waters near the coast. Nearby, out in Lake Huron, is an underwater park, the Thumb Area Bottomland Preserve, that was set up by the state in 1985 to protect the nine known shipwrecks that lie offshore. Relics gathered from the wrecks are stored in the Lighthouse Museum. This isolated area, the “thumb” of the mitten-shaped lower peninsula of Michigan, is a world away from the large urban areas of Detroit, Flint, or Saginaw. Many visitors, who come to enjoy the small towns, farm markets, picturesque lighthouses and historical areas, hope that the Thumb retains its rural charm.

WEST QUODDY HEAD LIGHTHOUSE
Located on the easternmost point of land in the continental United States, this stately red-and-white striped lighthouse was built in 1858 after an earlier light, commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1806, was completed in 1808. The white flashing light is visible for 18 miles. Nearby, across the Canadian border on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, is the summer home of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and the East Quoddy Head Light. West Quoddy Head Light is surrounded by some of the most rugged coastal scenery in the eastern United States. From the light, the steep cliffs of Canada’s Grand Manan Island, a center for commercial fishing and birdwatching, can be seen to the southeast. To the north stretches the bay of Fundy, where tides can rise and fall as much as thirty feet.