This photograph features the working boats moored at the Peirce Island commercial fishing pier in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Prescott Park and the historic Sheafe Warehouse appear across the channel while the Memorial Bridge spans the Piscataqua River behind it. The clouds were nice and puffy this late spring day.
This is a High Dynamic Range (HDR) photograph – several bracketed exposures were combined to yield a single image with greater detail and wider tonal range. An artistic filter was also applied to give it a painterly look. Prints are available from my Etsy shop.
Classic schooners proudly display their American flags as they lie moored in the calm waters and early morning mist of Rockland Harbor in Maine.
Schooners, popular in the 18th to early 20th centuries for their speed, are sailboats having two or more masts with the foremast shorter than the mainmast.
A framed print of this image is on display at the Dover Art Center gallery in Dover, NH during the month of August 2025.
A sailboat approaches the drawbridge at Perkins Cove in Ogunquit, Maine. This small peninsula shelters a small harbor and includes art galleries and gift shops. It is located at the end of the Marginal Way, a spectacular footpath along the Atlantic Ocean.
This image uses High-Dynamic Range (HDR) technique and an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance.
The gundalow boat Piscataqua sails past Fort Constitution in New Castle, New Hampshire. The Portsmouth Harbor lighthouse is to the left, the lighthouse keeper’s house is the white building with the red roof. The large building in the background is the former Portsmouth Naval Prison, built like a castle on the current grounds of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The image was captured from Fort Foster across the harbor in Kittery, Maine.
This image uses an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance; prints are available from my Pixels shop.
While on a cruise of Portsmouth Harbor, I captured this image of a lobster boat named “Early Dawn” tied up to a pier piled high with lobster traps. The foliage in the background is starting to show its fall colors. The Maine Boats website has an interesting history of the Maine lobster boat, which evolved from simple dories to sloop-style sailboats, to today’s wide, diesel-powered work boats. Another website provides information on taking a tour on a lobster boat at various locations in Maine.
This image uses an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance; prints are available from my Pixels shop.
This image of a 1969 Chris-Craft Sportsman antique power boat was taken during the New Hampshire Boat Museum annual vintage wooden boat show, held on the docks in Alton Bay, New Hampshire, a small village at the southern end of Lake Winnipesaukee. This gleaming 22′ boat is amply powered by a 283 Chevy V-8 inboard engine.
Part of my portfolio of photographs, this image uses an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance. Prints are available from my Pixels shop.
One of my favorite places to walk is Peirce Island in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It offers interesting views of the the harbor, including Prescott Park and the Fish Pier with its working boats. This scene shows the fishing boats docked at the pier on an early June day, with the steeple of North Church and the historic Sheafe Warehouse (c. 1740) in the background. The viewpoint is from Four Tree Island, a picnic area connected to Peirce Island by a short pedestrian causeway.
Part of my portfolio of photographs, this image uses an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance. Prints are available from my Pixels shop.
The Joseph ConradConnecticut Statehood US postage stamp
Inspired by the Connecticut Statehood stamp, I traveled to Mystic Seaport in 2012 to capture a photograph of the Charles W. Morgan, the subject of that stamp. Unfortunately it was being restored at the time so it was surrounded by scaffolding inside a large shipyard building. Getting a nice image proved difficult, so I opted to photograph the Joseph Conrad, another ship in the Mystic Seaport collection.
The Joseph Conrad was built in 1882, in Copenhagen, as a training ship. It was originally named the George Stage, after the son of a prominent ship owner, Frederik Stage. In 1934, after 52 years of service and about to be retired, British Captain Alan Villiers bought and renamed her after Joseph Conrad, the author of popular seafaring novels. Two years and fifty eight thousand miles around the world later, George Huntington Hartford II bought and modernized the Joseph Conrad as a private yacht, sailed and raced her until 1939 at which point ownership was transferred to the US Maritime Commission and used once again as a training ship. Acquired in 1947, The Joseph Conrad now finds its home at Mystic Seaport as an exhibit and training vessel for the Mystic Mariner Program.
Part of my portfolio of photographs, this image uses an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance; prints are available from my Pixels shop.
The tugboat Independence moored in the Cape Cod Canal. Buildings and the training ship of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy are seen in the background.
The Independence was built in 2009 by the Derektor Shipyards in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It measures 127′ long and generates 5,400 horsepower from its twin sixteen-cylinder diesel engines. For safety, tugboats generally have two of everything.
Approximately 15,000 vessels use the 7-mile long canal annually. It takes and hour and a half to transit, a much shorter journey than going around the tip of Cape Cod. The majority of the cargo is petroleum products like gasoline and fuel oil carried in long barges that are towed or pushed through the canal, with the assistance of a second tugboat to ensure safe passage.
Part of my portfolio of photographs, this image uses an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance. I also processed the image to remove the color in all parts of the image except for the tugboat and water, making it stand out more clearly among the dense array of shapes of the academy buildings and ship in the background. Prints are available from my Pixels shop.
The Wentworth-Coolidge historic site is located in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on the shores of Little Harbor. This was the home of Benning Wentworth, the first royal governor of New Hampshire. The Coolidge family owned the property from 1886 to 1954, developing it as a summertime artist community. The Wentworth-Coolidge Commission continues this tradition of sponsoring arts and music events on the site, which includes a short walking trail and is open for house tours.
I’ve taken many photographs of this site, but particularly like the image with the dinghy in the foreground, taken from the Heritage cruise ship operated by Portsmouth Harbor Cruises.
Part of my portfolio of photographs, this image uses High-Dynamic Range (HDR) technique and an artistic software filter to impart a painterly appearance. Available from my Etsy shop.
Dave Thompsen Photography 