Photos

Inspired by a resent trip to some of the Aland island lighthouses and this being a "copy" (including the foot :-)) of my Bengtskär lighthouse staircase I remembered Trek Earth again. There just seems to be far to little time for everything nowdays. :-(

The Lågskär lighthouse is situated on Lågskär in the Aland islands archipelago, about 15nm (nautical miles) south of Mariehamn. Or a one hour boatride in our case.

A wooden day beacon was erected in 1794. In 1840 it was converted to a lighthouse by building a lantern on top of the beacon. The wooden structure turned out to be too weak and a new lighthouse in granite and brick was erected next to the old one. During the First World War Russia decided to blow up the lighthouse. Finland was still part of Russia at that time. The current lighthouse was built in concrete in 1920. It was the first lighthouse built by independent Finland.
The lighthouse was automated and the lens changed to a more economic one in 1961. The previous lens can currently be seen in the lobby of the Finnish Maritime Administration in Helsinki, but it will probably be returned to Åland. The Maritime Museum in Mariehamn is hoping to host it when it's new exhibition space opens in 2011.
(Source: Finnish lighthouses by Seppo Laurell)

Birdwatchers have against upkeep rented the old lighthouse keepers' building. Sadly the wooden buildings are now in a very bad shape. According to one of the birdwatchers it's not worth trying to fix the buildings as it would be a "never ending story"...

This was shot with my latest "baby" the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. I wonder when I get bored of going wide. It just seems to be my all-purpose lens lately...

PP done in Canon DPP from RAW. Increased brightness, added one step of contrast and three steps saturation and sharpened. Resized and saved.