'This is a golden spot': Meet the Kennebunk man behind ‘incredible’ photos at Wells Harbor

WELLS, Maine — At Wells Harbor, Jack Coughlin stood in the sun at the start of what would turn out to be a memorable, springlike day, and shared a preference when it comes to the weather.

“I like anything overcast with a heavy mist before it turns to rain,” he said.

He was talking strictly about photography, by the way, as indeed shooting pictures in bright sunshine can be challenging. If you’ve seen the picture Coughlin took of three herring gulls perched atop mooring posts one foggy morning at the harbor back in December, you can understand his partiality toward gloomy skies.

The shot, which he shared on a Wells-themed community page on Facebook, delighted those who scrolled over it. “Very cool,” one person commented underneath his post. “Incredible composition,” another chimed in. “Great eye,” said a third person among the many who reacted.

To be sure, Coughlin was not daunted by the sun when he met a local reporter at the harbor on Monday, April 15. For him, photography is a lifelong hobby, one to which he has dedicated as much focus and commitment to growth as he did during his careers in both the medical and academic fields. Like a fisherman sitting in his boat on the calm surface of a lake, Coughlin is content to sit still on the harbor docks and wait and keep an eye out for sea critters who are ready for their close-ups.

“I enjoy sitting down in one spot,” he said. “It could be for five minutes. It could be for an hour. I’m just waiting for the proper expression and the lighting and everything to come together.”

Coughlin even likes pigeons, he said.

As members of those Wells-themed Facebook pages know, Coughlin will capture shots of everything from seals to boats. But it’s our feathered friends – the loons, ducks, gulls, eiders, and others – that he likes the most.

“A lot of people consider (pigeons) to be like a trash bird,” he said. “They’re actually very intelligent, and their social life is interesting. They mate for life. Their colorations are beautiful."

Coughlin has an eight-year-old Nikon D750 camera, complete with a Nitecore 200-500-millimeter zoom lens. He said it’s an “ancient” piece, long succeeded by other models, but well-suited to enthusiasts and even some professionals. The camera may be an older one, by the technology standards of today, but that’s fine by Coughlin. Famed photographer Ansel Adams did not have such technology back in his day, and his photographs hold up and remain treasured and collected to this day.

'I'm okay with it': York woman on 'Wheel of Fortune' $100K misfortune

Wells Harbor is the 'golden spot' for nature photography

Coughlin, who lives in Kennebunk, got his camera as a retirement gift.

He discovered photography during his teenage years but put his passion on the backburner as he made his way through college, where he studied chemistry and biology, and then medical school and the training and career that followed. He circled back to the art form after he got married in his early 50s, and he and his wife, Meg, had two children when they lived in Massachusetts.

“I got back to doing photography when my kids were in elementary and middle school, and they were both in sports,” he said.

Basketball. Soccer. Cross country. Ice hockey. Field hockey. Plenty of opportunities for the action and portraiture shots Coughlin likes.

After his children grew up and no longer played sports, Coughlin returned to nature, a subject that intrigued him as a youngster. He used to study insects underneath a magnifying glass, he said, and then broadened his horizons when he acquired a microscope. These days, birds, with their soaring, flitting ways, and their tendencies to sit still and watch the world go by, fulfill the role of subjects that his children did on the athletic fields.

While Coughlin also shoots at the nearby Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and Parsons Beach in Kennebunk, he said he tends to favor Wells Harbor.

“This is a golden spot,” Coughlin said. “This is ideal because you can get down on the float. You can get down to almost eye-level with the birds.”

When asked, Coughlin named his favorite bird to capture on film.

“The Great Blue Heron is interesting,” he said. “Depending upon what they’re doing at the time, and the lighting conditions, they can either look boring or just flat-out spectacular ... It’s the same thing I was looking for when I took portraits of athletes. I want the action and the expression.”

While the birds are his favorite, Coughlin said the seals seem to be the favorites of those who enjoy his photographs on the local community pages on Facebook. In taking photos of the playful creatures, Coughlin came to understand why they’re called sea dogs.

“They look just like dogs,” he said.

Birds. Seals. Boats. Athletes. For Coughlin, these subjects lend themselves to one thing in common when it comes to photography.

“It’s just fascinating that in a fraction of a second ... you can actually freeze (something) in time,” he said. “This is so people in the future can remember yesterday.”

And it’s the neurobiology that Coughlin likes when it comes to that person looking at a photo in the future. When you look at an image, your eyes see what it is, but your brain is what processes it, he said.

“Your eyes don’t see an image that is processed in your brain,” Coughlin said. “In the brain, the image gets integrated with your previous experiences, your emotions. Your brain just fills it all out.

“And that’s the fun part of it.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Maine man behind ‘incredible’ photos at Wells Harbor