The Lighthouse at the Point
Monday, July 4, 2011 at 3:43PM 
I discovered Cape May in 1974 as a result of having read Witmer Stone’s
classic Bird Studies at Old Cape May. At the time, I lived in northern NJ, a 3-5 hour (depending on traffic) drive away. In 1989, I moved to southern NJ outside Philadelphia, which put me about 90 minutes from Cape May. Despite the distances, I drove to Cape May about as often as time permitted. I then moved to Texas in 2001, but returned to NJ in early 2010. This time we bought a house in Cape May County about 15 miles from Cape May Point at the southwestern corner of the State.
Cape May Point is easy to find. Take the Garden State Parkway south to Exit 0. Continue straight over the eastern canal bridge onto Lafayette Avenue. Make a right at the “T” intersection in front of Collier’s Liquors onto Perry Street, which soon becomes Sunset Boulevard. After a couple of miles, make a left onto Lighthouse Avenue, which will take you to Cape May Point State Park.
There were two other lighthouses at the southwestern tip of New Jersey. Both of these were lost; one to the unrelenting ocean and the other to poor workmanship. The first was built in 1823 while the second was built in 1847. The current one was finished in 1859.
The Park is justly famous in the natural history community as the sight of the annual Cape May Hawk Watch. However, it is the Cape May Point Lighthouse that dominates the Park. The Lighthouse is 157 feet 6 inches tall with 217 steps (199 indoors) to the observation deck. Not surprisingly, given the flatness of Cape May, the Lighthouse is a very prominent landmark visible from many areas around the Point. As a result, it is often a photographic subject for the weekly photo walks I lead for the Cape May Bird Observatory.
The lighthouse image at the upper left is a scan of a slide made
with a Nikon N90s camera with a Nikon 35-105mm lens and Sensia 100 film. The image at the upper right was created with a Canon 7D camera, a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 lens, an ISO of 500, an aperture of f/5.6, a shutter speed of 1/1000, and an exposure compensation of +1.0. The image to the left was created with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV camera, a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens, an ISO of 400, an aperture of f/14, a shutter speed of 1/500, and an exposure compensation of +0.33. The image to the right was created with a Canon EOS 1D Mark IV camera, a Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, an ISO of 1600, an aperture of f/4.0, a shutter speed of 1/3200, and an exposure compensation of +1.33. The image at the lower left was created with a Canon 7D camera, a Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, an ISO of 800, an aperture of f/5.0, and a shutter speed of 1/5000. The image to the right of that one was created with a Canon 7D camera, a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 lens with a Canon 2.0x III teleconverter, an ISO of 500, an aperture of f/5.6, and a shutter speed of 1/2000. The next one to the right was created with a Canon 7D camera, a Canon EF 600mm f/4.0 lens with a Canon 1.4x III teleconverter, an ISO of 500, an aperture of f/5.6, and a shutter speed of 1/320. The image to the lower right was created with a Canon 7D camera, a Canon EF 28-70mm f/2.8 lens, an ISO of 800, an aperture of f/5.6, and a shutter speed of 1/8000.
As these images show, I have photographed the Lighthouse in the snow, from the beach in Winter, and from south of Bunker Pond in Summer. Likewise, as noted above, I have used lens of various focal lengths that allow very different perspectives. Regardless, the Cape May Point Lighthouse is always an interesting subject for those of us who photograph in the field. Why not join us for a Saturday Photo Walk. For details, see: http://www.birdcapemay.org/programs.php.
Mike Hannisian
Reader Comments (1)
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