Monhegan Island Hermit Photo

Photographer’s Note

For years, Manana,a small barren island in the harbor of Monhegan Island was home to “The Hermit.” Ray Phillips was a food inspector in New York City during the 1920s. During the Depression, he came to Monhegan, bought one-sixth of Manana Island, and built a 12-by-15 driftwood shack. He lived there, unmarried, with his goats, his sheep, and his geese until he died in 1975 at age 83. His ashes are buried on the island. The ramshackle hut on the east side of the island is not his (his was raised because it was dangerous), but you can imagine him living there.

plimrn, snunney, Kielia, feather, saylan-cb, vmf-214, Longroute, parbo, fulvio52, asajernigan, ymrk, phwall, dareco has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

snunney (34868) 2008-12-13 7:59

Hello Tom,
A very pleasing mood to this interesting composition. I like the sombre tones of the landscape overlaid by the light cloud streaked sky.

meyyappan_rmp (133) 2008-12-13 8:54

very nice capture of a beautiful place. sky is excellent, nice sharpness and the island is awesome.

Kielia (8487) 2008-12-13 9:02

Hi Tom,
a very attractive place and a beautiful capture. Most of all I like the horizon! As ususal a great atmosphere of the seaside. My compliments!
Warm regards
Harriet

feather (49860) 2008-12-13 9:02

Very interesting story about the hermit. You had a great POV here looking out over the scattered buildings and across to the island. The tree on the right plays an important part in your composition, and there are so many tiny details to see.
Kath

toto (18709) 2008-12-13 9:31

Bonsoir,
belle photo de cette petite ile près de ce village de toute beauté.
Cette vue en plongée donne tout son effet.
Jolies couleurs et netteté qui nous montre de superbes détails.

Amitiés Thomas

saylan-cb (12726) 2008-12-13 10:06

Hi Tom,
Superb photo!Great image and very nice colours.
Excellent!
TFS/Regards

vmf-214 (1622) 2008-12-13 11:31

Hi Tom,

What a great view and wonderful colors, The details are great in the buildings and boats and the sharpness is perfect. Great job Tom.

Regards
Jason.

Longroute (9345) 2008-12-13 13:15

Fine and interesting, Tom,
thanks to you I'm getting to know Main and its beauties.
A very remarkable place with beautiful houses and a lush flora.
I envy that hermit! (:-
TFS,
Donato

parbo (10970) 2008-12-13 13:50

Hello Tom,

Wonderful merge of fantastic landscape view with an interesting story of “The Hermit”. The spectrum of green colors are very nice but the island and buildings on shore adds great value epically with cloudy sky. Congratulations. Have a nice weekend.

Best Regards,

Ertugrul

rodgerg (24029) 2008-12-14 1:45

Hello Tom,

An another superb landsacpe very well collected. A nice composition well balanced with differents plans and a great depht of field. An image rich in details, colours and especially contrasts. Congratulations.
Have a good sunday,
Roger

Dyerco (9070) 2008-12-14 3:21

Hi Tom
Nicely composed. The light part of the sky compliments the island. Interesting story to go along with the image. TFS
Phil

fulvio52 (8314) 2008-12-14 4:46

Hi, Tom.
Moody landscape/seascape and great complementary story. I like the "scattered" appearance of this view, as there's a lot of interesting stuff to look at, and the gloomy atmosphere hovering on it. Excellent comprehensive job, TFS! You guys have a great sunday, see ya soon. A big hug to Lexi + B&G,
Fulvio.

baba_flies (7985) 2008-12-14 4:55

Hello Tom! What a great view from this location, you give us an excellent overview. I find the grey sky really attractive and I guess there was a storm rolling in, at least the clouds look like they would bring some rain drops. Nice the bushes in your foregrund and the lonely tree on the right side, serving as a good foreground. Have a wonderful Sunday, Barbara.

Gerrit (35697) 2008-12-14 6:43

Hi Tom,
excvellent view over this peaceful looking coastal village. The barren island looks intruigingf indeed.
Regards, Gerrit

asajernigan (14132) 2008-12-14 6:52

Tom,
Nice shot of this great little town and island taken from an excellent POV. Your composition is great showing the island with the town in the foreground. The tree on the right provides nice framing for the scene as well as adding a sense of depth to the shot. The colors are good for the difficult lighting conditions.
TFS,
Asa

ymrk (8713) 2008-12-14 6:55

Hello dear Tom;
Very good capture and wonderful landscape.Nice photo with light details.
Superb work!
Have a nice day,

YAĞMUR

phwall (5562) 2008-12-14 14:07

Hi Tom,
Nice capture on a grey day, I like the way you've used selective saturation to pop the spot colour of the tiny amounts of red and blue.
I must put that one in the bag of tricks.
Good POV, you cover the scene perfectly. Also I like your composition, the foreground bushes give added depth and the lone tree relieves the skyline.
That's quite an impressive building in the centre of frame for such a small village.
I've just had a look at Monhegan Island on Google Maps, it sure is out there on its own, no wonder the fishing fleet is tucked in behind Manana island, that's about all the shelter there is.
I suppose if you are gong to be a hermit, that's as good a place as you could find.
Thanks for a great shot.
Regards
Peter

dareco (17104) 2008-12-14 19:38

You've given us a really great view! A beautiful place and an interesting note. If I was a hermit I think this could be the ideal spot :) TFS

Greg1949 (8507) 2008-12-15 4:21

Nice one Tom, this seems a bit wider in scope than your usual fare and I really like it, it puts this area in context. Note is awesome as well, I can certainly identify with it and imagine the difficulty of trying to live there on that rock.

Greg

plimrn (19624) 2008-12-19 10:37

Hi Tom,
I like the way you framed this shot with the barrier island providing protected anchorage for the boats.
My husband's uncle was a bank teller and a teacher before the depression. When it hit, he too headed out to the wilderness and became a trapper and a miner and never really came back either.
HLJ, Pat