SEBAGO LAKE – If the 2011 “Images of Sebago Lake” calendar issued by the Portland Water District is any indication, the Lakes Region is filled with talented amateur photographers.

According to the calendar’s project manager, Lynne Richard, who also serves as the water district’s education and outreach coordinator, the popularity of the free calendar has steadily gained steam since its inception six years ago. This year, more than 150 photographs from about 60 photographers were submitted.

“It’s not only residents, so many people come up to Sebago and they love it and take pictures all the time,” Richard said. “The calendar is really about celebrating this lake. We’re focused on the natural beauty of the lake, and through this calendar we want to showcase the lake.”

Richard said she starts receiving photo submissions early in the year and collects them through the end of August, when she starts culling the ones she wants to use in the calendar.

“It takes about four to six weeks, since it’s not the only thing I do. But we try to match the pictures with the season since you don’t want a snowy picture as the photo for July,” Richard said.

After she picks the final photos, which these days are all digital files, the materials go to J.S. McCarthy Printers in Augusta, which produces 1,200 of the glossy full-color calendars.

Many of the calendars are then sent to business partners of the Portland Water District as Christmas gifts. But, as a reward, each photographer who submits a photo receives a free calendar as well.

“This is a thank-you to them,” Richard said, “and I normally don’t notify the ones who get their photos in. I try to make it a surprise so when they open the calendar and flip through it, they get a nice little surprise. It’s my little Christmas present to them I guess you could say.”

The governing philosophy of the calendar, Richard said, is highlighting Sebago Lake in its natural form. Many photographers will send in photographs of boathouses or boaters, but Richard prefers natural beauty instead.

“Really our focus is on the natural beauty of the lake. It’s not about boathouses or cottages or boating,” she said.

All submitted photos, since they become the property of the district, can also be used in other publications including informational brochures, announcements, on the district’s website, on a blog Richard writes concerning lake health, and on the district’s Facebook page.

And while visitors and tourists can submit photos for the annual calendar, this year, seven of the 12 months in the calendar as well as the cover photo feature photographers who live locally.

Cover Photo

Chip McCarty

Chip McCarty, a seasonal resident of Frye Island, submitted a fall foliage shot that Richard used on the cover of this year’s calendar. McCarthy, 57, works as a government contractor outside Washington, D.C., and has been visiting his family’s camp on Frye Island since 1968. He’s been submitting photos for the calendar for the last five years.

The photo he supplied, which features a small pond at the south end of Frye Island, happens to also be his work computer desktop’s wallpaper, he said.

“I took the photo while standing on a road beside the Long Beach Causeway,” he said.

McCarty used a Canon EOS Rebel to take the photo, which he captured at about 2 p.m. on a day in October 2009 while visiting the island for the annual town meeting on Columbus Day weekend. The afternoon lighting, he said, produced deep oranges and reds, which brought out the foliage.

“I’ve done photography close to 40 years now,” McCarty said. “I’m pretty busy, but I try to do it as much as I can.”

January

Diane Rogers

Diane Rogers, who lives off Thomas Road on the eastern side of Sebago Lake, has a great view of the White Mountains right from her home and captured the snow-capped summit of Mt. Washington and Tuckerman’s Ravine for the calendar’s January photo.

Rogers, 63 and retired from Unum, took the photo with her husband’s Canon EOS Rebel and a 300mm lens that helped bring out the detail in homes and trees located several miles across the lake from her vantage spot. The last remnants of winter ice can be seen, as can a near perfect reflection of the mountains.

“I love taking pictures,” Rogers said. “I have a little digital camera that I always keep in my pocketbook just in case. But it’s hard not to want to take pictures living here on the lake. Every season is just gorgeous.”

March

Paul MacConnell

River Road, Windham resident Paul MacConnell, who drives for Downeast Energy when he’s not taking photographs with his Kodak EasyShare camera, captured a rocky scene off Whites Point Road for the March calendar selection.

“I was at a friend’s house going ice fishing and I laid down on the ice to get that photo,” he said.

MacConnell, 55, enjoys taking photos and even sold some shots he captured of a sunset in Hawaii.

“I’ve got a bunch on my Facebook page but I’m really just an amateur. I actually surprised with all the other good photos that mine made it,” he said.

April, December

Rich Antinarelli

Rich Antinarelli of Sebago received two nods for this year’s calendar, April and December, both of which the 62-year-old took from his dock on the western side of the lake.

April’s submission features mallard ducks standing on a submerged block of ice. Antinarelli took the photo with his Canon EOS Rebel during ice-out in the spring of 2010 and entitled it “Just Ducky, Too.” He had submitted a similar duck-themed photo for the calendar entitled “Just Ducky” two years ago.

The December submission features ice-covered shoreline vegetation, which he entitled “Icy Reflections.” The photo was taken on a December morning when the water in Muddy River Cove was warmer than the air, creating smoky vapor, he said.

“The breeze came in and blew the mist onto the trees and froze. It was beautiful,” Antinerelli remembers.

While Antinarelli, who has only been pursuing photography for the past few years, has had smaller inset photos published in the calendar, 2011 marks the first year his work has been featured as one of the 12 larger monthly photos.

“I love these calendars, you get to see different parts of the lake at different times of the year. It’s beautiful,” he said.

May

John McLaughlin

Moody Road, Standish resident John McLaughlin provided the calendar’s May submission. McLaughin, 63, captured a serene Lower Bay scene from the Standish Boat Launch in early evening hours with his Nikon D300 using a 24-70mm lens.

The retired special education teacher does some photography for the Portland and Deering yearbooks capturing sporting event photos.

“I carry my camera all the time, and I’ve submitted a bunch of them to the district,” McLaughlin said, “but this one was one of those times where you had light coming through low clouds coming from your back and I think that made it pretty dramatic.”

September

Sue Johnson

Sue Johnson, a member of the Saint Joseph’s College Magazine staff and 11-year college marketing and public relations employee at the college, isn’t sure who took the photo that was submitted for the calendar since she and others on staff take many photos for the magazine and other college publications.

“We take a lot of pictures of the campus for the magazine, so I can’t really remember if it was myself or someone else who took the photo,” Johnson said. “But I can tell you where it was taken, from the back of Mercy Hall where the dining room is located,” she said.

The photo shows some trees starting to turn color in the foreground, with a sliver of Sebago Lake in the photo’s center and the White Mountains in the background. The photo was the first submission by the college.

November

John Hufstader

Another St. Joseph’s College employee, professor of New Media courses John Hufstader of Anderson Road in Windham, took a full moon shot of the western side of the lake from a perch in the faculty lounge on the fourth floor of Alfond Hall on the college campus.

The 54-year-old Anderson Road resident, who took photography classes during his high school days and “has loved it ever since,” used a Panasonic Lumix camera to capture the full moon over fall foliage.

“I was getting prepped for an 8 a.m. class so I’d say I took that photo at about 6:30 or 7 a.m. in October 2009. There was a full moonset at dawn,” he said.

The Portland Water District’s Images of Sebago Lake 2011 Calendar features photographs of Sebago Lake captured by Lakes Region amateur photographers and used as the wall calendar’s monthly artwork. Standish resident Diane Roger’s photo of Mount Washington was used as January’s monthly photo.By Rick AntinarelliBy John McLaughlinPaul MacConnellBy Sue JohnsonBy John HufstaderBy Rick Antinarelli

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