I first ran into Dan over a decade ago when, as a photographer for the Bangor Daily News, I was dispatched to the University of Maine campus, in Orono, for an article about a UMaine student who had started his own talk show on local cable tv.

Dan, who was only 19 at the time, was a huge fan of late-night talk shows, and in particular, The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. Seems Dan had started his own Carson-esque talk show and it had really taken off. He had the desk, the pencil jar he futzed around with,  an Ed McMahon-like sidekick in Rich Norton,  and even a  house band in The Lidral Trio,  that played during the breaks. Dan was witty, and his team was obviously having  fun with the show, and as I returned to the paper with my pictures I told myself “this guy is going places. I’ll hear his name again.”

“The Nite Show” had an impressive five-year run, establishing Dan as a bit of a Boy Wonder in the Bangor area.While still in college in the late 90s,  Dan landed a prestigious internship with Don Imus. This was at the peak of Imus’ popularity, when the Imus show was simulcast on radio stations and MSNBC. Imus took his show on the road, and during a live broadcast from the Bangor Auditorium, Dan had the guts to ask the popular broadcaster about interning on his show. Nine months later Dan was in New York working for the I-man.

After graduating with a degree in mass communications  Dan  joined Cumulus, a national broadcasting group with five radio stations in the Bangor market. He started as promotions director for the five-station group, and worked his way up to program director of WBZN, along the way winning several awards from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

After five years with Cumulus, Dan got snapped up by Maine Governor John Baldacci, to come to Augusta  as the Governor’s assistant press secretary.

Cut to summer 2006 and to Karen, a twenty-something bride-to-be who worked at Eastern Maine Health Systems with my former assistant Cristin.  On Cristin’s prodding Karen approached me about photographing her wedding. “Who is your fiance’?” I asked. “Dan Cashman” she answered, and I smiled. “I know who HE is!  I’ve taken his photo before!”

Seems Dan and Karen had met through UMaine, but not until after Dan graduated.  Dan, working for Cumulus by this time, had been invited to speak to a communications class Karen was taking.  Karen was immediately intrigued and asked a question. And got his business card. And came up with a reason to follow up.  Dan, thankfully, was equally intrigued by Karen. By the time the two were engaged Dan was balancing the job in Augusta and the relationship with Karen, who lived in the Bangor area.

You learn a lot about a couple when you photograph their wedding, and I learned very quickly that Dan and Karen are  well-organized, dependable, gracious, outgoing and hard-working.

One particular meeting I had with Dan and Karen came not long after Don Imus made national news with an offensive comment about the women’s basketball team at Rutgers; since I knew Dan had worked for Imus I was interested in his take. It would have been very easy for Dan to pile on his former boss–like everyone else was doing–but he resisted. While he didn’t excuse the remark, he didn’t crucify Imus either:  ”He’s not a bad person if you get to know him; he really does a lot of good for many people,” referencing Imus’ charitable work for kids with cancer.  It was an admirable response.

Their wedding was fun to photograph.  Cristin assisted, and it was nice to see the Lidrals there and even Governor Baldacci, who was able to drop in for about an hour.

Fast forward to just a couple of weeks ago when Dan made a big announcement. After four years, commuting to Augusta is finally taking its toll;  Dan’s decided it’s time to move on his dream to start his own public relations firm. Taking the experiences gained in Orono, in NYC, at Cumulus and in Augusta, Dan has started Cashman Communications. Located in Bangor, the agency offers a full range of PR services.Having watched Dan conduct his affairs in the past with smarts, the highest ethics, a sense of humor, hard work, determination, and a positive outlook, I know all these wonderful qualities will serve him well in business.  It was a pleasure to work with Dan recently to create photos for his new website, which will be coming soon to CashComm.net.   I know that he will do a great job for the clients who are smart enough to choose him for their PR needs.

If you can’t catch one of his classes at places like the Maine Media Workshops, then pick up one of his books. Two of my favorites are, Secrets of Lighting on Location and Spirit of Place: The Art of the Traveling Photographer. See all of his books, including luscious coffee table books, at his web site, aptly named BobKrist.com.

I had not met Bob, but was already a big fan of his work in National Geographic Traveler when I signed up years ago for his class at the Maine Media Workshops. I was not disappointed! In that week he gave me valuable guidance that is still paying off today.

So, I was very happy to learn today that he’s launched a travel photo blog, complete with photography and lighting tips.

As photographers, we should never stop learning. I look forward to stopping in on the blog on a regular basis and taking advantage of Bob’s generous sharing.  I urge all travel photo aficionados to bookmark Bob’s blog and visit it regularly, too.

Now I’m fairly certain that John Standish wasn’t thinking about photographers when he set up his web site. Based in Cape Porpoise, one of Maine’s loveleliest nooks, Standish most likely was thinking of the legions of boaters who ply the waters off Maine’s 3000+ miles of coast. But, photographers are just as interested in knowing when the Royal River will be an ugly mudflat. Or when it will be too dark to make out the cliffs at Monhegan.

Photographers know that the light around sunrise and sunset is the most photogenic light of the day. We call it “magic light” or refer to that time span as “the magic hour,” though it could last longer–or shorter–than an hour. The magic comes from the sun being very low in the sky, casting shadows that are long and soft; in a very short period of time the sun will usually go through dramatic color changes casting orange, gold, red or even pink hues over everything in sight. These are picture-perfect shooting conditions.

Because the conditions are so fleeting, it’s important to be in place and ready to shoot as soon as the magic light starts. Usually, that’s at civil twilight, roughly thirty minutes before sunrise.

That’s where Maine Harbors’ tide charts come in. If, for example, I am shooting an article in Acadia National Park, a quick look at the sunrise time in tomorrow’s tide chart for Bar Harbor and I know how to set my alarm.For those who have some flexibility in scheduling, Standish’s charts can even help us pick the days on which to shoot. If I’m shooting a story at Popham Beach State Park, I’d like to get as much of the sand exposed as possible, so that means shooting at low tide. I can scan the tide charts to see when low tide coincides with sunrise and sunset. That way I’ll get my magic light and a wide expanse of sand. Or, if I’m shooting the Bass Harbor Headlight and would prefer to have the rockweed and barnacles on the lower rocks covered by water, I will plan to shoot on a day when high tide coincides with sunrise and sunset.

The Maine Harbors site displays six months worth of data for coastal spots from Maine to Connecticut. Looking for sunrise or sunset times more than six months in the future? Check out the U.S. Naval Observatory’s Complete Sun and Moon Data for One Day. Looking for the tides in another region? Consult SaltWaterTides.com.

Postscript: In the years since this post was first blogged, Maine Harbors discontinued tide charts and instead began pointing folks to the Maine Boats Homes & Harbors web site for Tide Charts.  

So, with that usual bit of anticipation I have been waiting for the latest issue of Maine Boats & Harbors to arrive so I could see the article on the Phippsburg cottage I photographed for the magazine back in late October. It was the first architectural shoot I had done for the magazine, and I wanted it to look good!

The issue arrived earlier this week, but with a bit of a surprise: the magazine is now sporting a new name. As the letter from publisher John Hanson explained, a combination of factors led to the magazine’s newly expanded name of Maine, Boats, Homes & Harbors.

Of course there have been dozens of home stories in the magazine before mine, but it was sort of fun to note that I photographed the first home to appear in the magazine after Homes was officially added to the masthead.

It was a beautiful house, a fun assignment, and the article turned out lovely. I hope many more follow.