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Cellpic Sunday – The Lighthouse at Puerto Plata

The cast iron lighthouse.

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.

Regular readers know that I can’t resist photographing a lighthouse, existing lighting notwithstanding. Sometimes the timing works perfectly and the subject gets a boost from the prevailing light. Such was the case on this morning’s arrival in port on our first-ever visit to the Dominican Republic. In its time, the cast iron lighthouse functioned through a system of revolving light and shadows given off by a kerosene lamp and was first lit in 1879. Built by R. Deeley & Co., a New York firm, the Puerto Plata Lighthouse once served as a beacon for ships traversing the Atlantic.

A silent warrior where land meets the sea, the lighthouse still stands against the ever-present threat of nature. Hurricanes and cyclones have etched their mark upon the structure, and the salty air creates a continuous pattern of surface erosion. Though the Cultural Heritage Office’s 1979 restoration provided some relief, the original spiral staircase, a casualty of neglect, eventually succumbed to the ravages of time.

About the photo: The timing of our arrival in Puerto Plata couldn’t have been better. The rising sun created a golden glow in the sky and tinged the water with lavender colors. No sky replacement was needed and I couldn’t have asked for better. I used my Samsung S23 to interpret the image and Adobe Lightroom to crop out a parking lot just visible at the lower left of the original image. Removing that distraction also put the lighthouse in the left vertical line of the Rule of Thirds grid. I shipped it off to Luminar Neo for only a small tweak of Enhance AI. That tool brought up the exposure in the foreground to bring the trees in the foreground out of the shadows and added some contrast to the sky. I thought about using dehaze to remove the mists in the background but decided that leaving the background in the haze helped to draw attention to the lighthouse. Click on the image to view it in 2K HD on my Flickr site.

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

54 comments

  27. I too love a lighthouse! One day, when we were in Erie Pennsylvania which is about 20 minutes north of our Lake House in Pennsylvania… we went to all three Lighthouses in the area. One was just over the border in New York. It was such a fun day.
    I love the colors in your photo. Beautifully done!

    Reply

  28. Our minds must run on the same roads. Mine took me to a lighthouse in Crescent City, Oregon. Yours is very dramatic, John. I love the golden colors – great timing. If you have a blah sky (Oregon does sometimes) can you give it a little color like yours has. I used Dehaze on my picture and it brought out the clouds and a little color.

    Reply

  30. Love the photo, and I’m glad you left the mist there. It adds another dimension. We spent our honeymoon in Puerto Plata 36 years ago. I’m sure it’s changed dramatically since then.

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