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Cellpic Sunday – The Legend of the Three Sisters

Is it a navigation aid, a reference to celestial navigation, or maritime folklore?

Saint John, New Brunswick.

A placard near this lamp post notes that the lamp, then a single oil lamp, was placed as a navigation aid in 1842. Vessel captains could line up the light with the Trinity Church spire to navigate safely into the harbor at night. Eventually, the lamp was replaced with three gas-powered lights, red panels facing the sea, and white panels facing the land. Of course, modern navigation tools have long since replaced the need for lamps.

At some point, lost in history, locals started calling the lamps the Three Sisters. Some say the term is a reference to maritime navigation using the constellation Orion whose belt consists of three stars often referred to as the Three Sisters. Some say the reference is more modern, coined by a local radio host, and the term caught on with the locals. Some say it is a reference to folklore, the three sisters waited on that spot for their husbands to return from the sea. Their story is one of tragedy, love, and the enduring spirit of sisterhood.

As fate would have it, tragedy struck when a powerful storm swept across the bay, claiming the lives of many sailors, including the husbands of the three sisters. In their grief, the three sisters sought solace in their shared pain and love for one another. Determined to honor the memory of their lost loves, they decided to dedicate their lives to the sea that had taken their partners away.

As the years passed, the sisters became known as the Three Sisters of Saint John, symbols of strength, resilience, and unwavering love. Their legend grew, inspiring generations of Saint John residents to embrace the virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

About the photo: A couple of weeks ago, I saw a YouTube video about a Photoshop process to create some fine art images. I subscribe to Lightroom and Photoshop, but it’s mostly to get access to Lightroom. Despite my lack of expertise, I decided to try to get Photoshop to do what I wanted, but it was a real challenge, even with the help of the video as recent updates to P/S didn’t quite match the video anymore. I got the job done and learned a bit along the way. That post was published a month or so ago.

As it turned out, I found I could use the same P/S method to give this image a soft-focus background. The image was shot with an f/1.8 lens opening. [edit: After a comment from Philo, noting the lack of background blur for a typical f/1.8 image, I admitted to the same misgivings. In reviewing my collection of images from my Samsung S20U, it appears the camera always reported f/1.8 in the metadata. So, I can’t say for sure what the true f/stop is for this image.] The background objects, that cruise ship and apartment building were in sharp focus. I tried my usual process in Lightroom and Luminar Neo to de-emphasize the background but I wasn’t happy, so then I got the idea to use the process I’d just learned in Photoshop. After basic edits in Lightroom, I sent the image to Photoshop where I used the Subject mask to put the lamp on a separate layer and hid the layer. I then used Context Aware to remove the lamp from the background image. Finally, I used the Blur>Lens blur tool to defocus the background. When I turned the lamp layer back on, I was done. With the image posted to Flickr and to the top of this post, all I had left to do was tell the story.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s acceptable as well. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, and, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

50 comments

  6. Interesting story of the three sisters.
    Good job of selectively blurring the background.
    Surprise that f/1.8 lens did not do the job perfectly. Just wanted to know whether you kept the aperture value more than f/8?
    The image has come out very well.

    Reply

    • You know, I questioned my lens opening so I started checking my files. It appears that Lightroom metadata always shows my Samsung S20U images as having an F1.8 aperture, no matter what the camera uses. Checking the images from my S23U, the metadata reports the correct f/stop used.
      So, I now need to go back and edit the text to indicate that I really don’t know the aperture that the camera actually used.

      Reply

      • I have had a love-hate relationship with Adobe for years, so I can’t disagree with your last two comments. 🙂

        In fairness to them, though, I checked my auto-uploads to Flickr where images go directly from my camera to a folder on Flickr. All of my S20U images have f/1.8 baked into the metadata. I also noticed that the lens always shows 7.0 mm, no matter the zoom setting. Only the shutter speed and ISO seem to be tracking in the photos correctly. The photo apps are apparently reading what Samsung provided in the image.
        That prompted me to check my S23U images. The metadata appears to be reporting the correct information to Flickr, and that matches what I see in Lightroom.

      • It would seem so. I guess when I use my cell phone, I don’t pay much attention to settings, using the automatic mode most of the time as it’s so convenient. I used the S20 for maybe three years, and it took me until now to realize the metadata wasn’t correct. That’s on me.

    • You know, Dan, I really should take notes. I often take a photo of the placard next to the image of the reference.
      I am surprised how often, though, I can’t find further information on the web than what the placard notes.

      Reply

  23. Great story and picture. I have done one or two pictures using the Photoshop technique. You can do the same thing with Bridge and it’s much easier for me, so I usually do that. Once in a while I’ve had an error message with the photo in Bridge, so I have to move over to PS. I’m not as familiar with PS, so it’s more complicated for me. When I first read your title, I thought for sure the post was going to be about mountains in Oregon. LOL. I guess there have been more than one group of three sisters in the world. 🙂

    Reply

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