ROCKLAND—On one of the shortest, darkest days of the year with snow and ice threatening the weekend, it was nice to bask in the glow of some beautiful photography by The Good Tern’s Artist Of The Month, Tim Sullivan, on Friday, Dec. 19.

Sullivan recently debuted a new collection of photographs and this was his second show.  "Twenty years ago I thought I wanted to be a photographer, playing with light and color, but the processing, the chemicals, getting everything right was beyond what I could—and wanted to— do at the time.  Now with the quality and digital processing of photos almost matching what one can do with a film camera, I am enjoying the learning of the art, though still relatively new back at it," said Sullivan. ”For every spectacular shot, you have about 100 that just didn’t pan out.”

Many of his photographs were iconic Maine: crisp scenic shots of sunsets over the harbor—a welcome sight this time of year.

“You know what’s funny, I was never into sunsets or sunrises. My old stuff was more over-saturated, kind of gritty close-ups of parts of buildings, that kind of stuff. But once I got this camera, I felt like I was shooting film. It opened up a whole new world,” he said. Sullivan works with a 3200 Nikon DSLR. “For some reason it inspired me to get up at 4 a.m. to shoot sunrises in the summer.”

Joining Sullivan in The Good Tern’s tiny side room were musicians Michael Whitehead and Angela Anderson-Pomerleau as they cheered the crowd with their folk music. Wine tastings were also available courtesy of Brian Smith, owner of Oyster River Wine Growers, who shared samples of his wine and cider produced at his horse-powered farm and vineyard in Warren.

Sullivan’s photos can be found at facebook.com/timsullivanphotography.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com