5 Frames with a 1D MkII and a 35mm F1.4L

Slogging around the Canon 1D MkII is my favorite way to pretend I’m a photojournalist. It’s big, bulky, and gets uncomfortable on the neck after about ten minutes. Also, while it won’t make your photos better, it does make you look more professional. My favorite lens to pair with it has been Canon’s MkI 35mm 1.4L. The APS-H sensor ends up making the 35mm just a touch wider than 50mm making it great for street photography without getting too up in people’s faces. I love the 28mm feel shooting street photography, I just feel like I don’t live in a dense enough place to feel comfortable doing it consistently. The 45ish-mm equivalent is convenient for both getting the whole scene without backing up too much.

This summer resulted in me starting a bit of a long-term photo project. No pressure to release by a certain date may not be the best for clearly defining a subject or story, but it has allowed me to take my time pondering how I want to communicate my ideas. The only thing set has been the location of Old Orchard Beach, (OOB) Maine. OOB plays a unique role in Maine. It is a tourist destination, but not really for anyone local. OOB strongly serves a majority French Canadian audience, many of which have been traveling down to the beach town every summer for years. While I may not know what OOB was like when the Grand Trunk or Atlantic Railroad served French Canadian tourists decades ago, I do have a lot of experience of what it’s like now.

Old Orchard Beach has a certain reputation in Maine—high amounts of drugs, strange people, etcetera, etcetera. I don’t personally believe it’s as prevalent as some think, but it can still be a weird place, especially if you’re there every day. This, in my experience, is probably due to OOB never having a “normal” time in the summer. There’s a variety of reasons for this, but most notable is how the population jumps and constantly changes. In the winter months, OOB sees a population of about 10,000 people. Once June hits though, this can increase to well over triple that, and with many tourists only being there for 1-2 weeks, there’s often little time for people to settle down. Mix this with a variety of both international and local students getting summer jobs in the tiny ~4 square mile area and this makes OOB a much more interesting and diverse town than what’d be expected in Maine.

The constant bustle due to tourists and tendency for those same tourists to be in “vacation mode,” also has many ignoring some of the more interesting things going on. The best way I can illustrate this is the doll strapped to a kayak, (pictured above & located under the pier which is usually the most population dense area.) It was present for about a week and no one said anything about it. People often sat right near it, all day, unbothered. While I can only strive to be so set on enjoying my vacation that I ignore what’s going on around me, it’s surprising lifespan on the beach was almost as impressive as it was strange.

While most of the interesting events are fairly localized to the beach, and especially the pier which is fairly central to the area, there is still a lot of life away from the beach in OOB’s more suburban area. Despite only being about 1-2 miles from all of the action, the suburban area of OOB tends to be much quieter, and much more normal. Nonetheless, I’ve found a lot of joy in capturing this area of the town as it is a much different energy, often leading to a much slower-paced shooting experience. This suburban area is also much less captured which makes it feel overlooked in a way.

I am looking forward to continuing working on this project capturing life in OOB Maine. If you want to follow along, check out my Instagram.

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