One of my goals is to spend at LEAST as much time working on my craft as I spend working. This doesn't always happen but when I have an opportunity to get out and practice, I try to grab it. And when one of those opportunities happens to be with members of the South Shore Camera Club AND when we are joined by one of our speakers and mentors, the stars become aligned and something magical happens. One of the club's favorites, Peter Pereira, spent Saturday with a group of us, acting as mentor, historian and ambassador to the city of New Bedford. The day was fun, informative and inspiring.
Peter is a photojournalist who works for New Bedford's Standard-Times. Our tour began inside the newsroom, where we learned about its daily operations.
Our next stop was aboard a small boat that took us for a spin around the harbor. Much of the harbor is dedicated to commercial fishing and the rest to a small marina used for recreational boating. There's also a fast ferry from New Bedford to Martha's Vineyard.
After a leisurely lunch at Tia Maria's we toured the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The museum's exhibits depict the importance of the whaling industry to New Bedford's history. We were then on to Fort Rodman/Fort Taber, an important Civil War installation. Peter worked his magic, getting us special entrance into the fort, normally closed to visitors (below). The fort was crawling with World War II re enactors on the day of our visit, offering even more photo opps than normal.
Our visit ended in Fairhaven, with stops at The First Unitarian Church, constructed in 1838 with Gothic architecture, followed by a look at Fort Phoenix. From the fort grounds you can see into Buzzard's Bay and you also have a very good view of New Bedford's stone hurricane barrier, at 3.5 miles long it's the largest hurricane barrier in the world.
The day was a wonderful combination of photo shoot, history lesson and city/harbor tour!
