Dave Cleaveland’s enjoyment of shooting at night, of ‘painting’ his subjects with the fading light of the sun and the emerging glow of the moon, comes to us in his newest collection of nighttime images of Portland, Maine, USA.
Its entrance marked by the famous Portland Head Light, Maine’s largest city attracts visitors from around the world intent on seeing the origin of its namesake. The historic Old Port district, a working waterfront bustling with tourism, sits proudly at the mouth of the Fore River and part of Casco Bay, and melds charmingly with the metropolis thriving around it. Dave’s images, sparkling with the orange of city lights, convey this mix of old-world calm with new-world textures. He says, “I love flying low over the coast in a helicopter because there are so many ‘targets of opportunity.’”
Dave’s targets consist of ferry boats cutting through the dark blue harbor, to docked sailboats sleeping tranquilly on mirror-flat waters, to tugboats working silently to push their dependents home. His images are swathed in the evocative blue of nighttime’s first grips into the day’s passing. He understands the power of “pulling the detail out of an image,” as he calls it, and employs this tactic to capture the energy pushing out through the silhouette of the nighttime city sky.
“My goal as a photographer,” Dave says, “isn't to be ‘better’ than all the other guys. My goal is to produce the best photography that I can, using the skills that I’ve learned and the tools that I have available to me.” Latitude Image is grateful to be a part of Dave’s dedication to producing the best images he can at all times and proud to present his newest collection of nighttime images of Portland, Maine.