SEBAGO LAKE – The Portland Water District has released its 9th annual Images of Sebago Lake calendar this year featuring 24 diverse images of the lake captured by 22 amateur local photographers.

The photographs, which feature loons, a dog, sunrises, ice formations and docks, are matched with quotations from Einstein, Thoreau, and Camus, among others.

Forty-six amateur photographers submitted more than 280 photographs for the calendar, according to Sarah Plummer, the environmental education coordinator at PWD. The district’s environmental services department helped select the winning 24 images by vote.

Plummer said that while the quotes in the 2013 calendar focused on lakes, the 2014 calendar quotes are focused on the specific seasons and images captured in each photograph.

On the December page, an Ansel Adams quote is displayed below Jamie Cypher’s image of a partially frozen Sebago Lake.

“Let us have a splendid legacy for our children,” it reads. “Let us turn to them and say ‘this you inherit and guard it well, for it is far more precious than money … and once it is destroyed, nature’s beauty cannot be repurchased at any price.”

Plummer said that a PWD committee selected the Adams’ quote for the December page because members believed it captured the charitable side of the holiday spirit.

“It relates to the season of giving and charity and looking ahead to the next year,” she said. “At the end of the year, many people are having that feeling of giving and hope, and it kind of relates to the holiday spirit.”

Cypher, an Otisfield resident who has been featured in the water district calendar three times before, took the December photo from the so-called “S-turn” along Cape Road on Raymond Cape.

“I just like the look of it,” Cypher said. “All the gray turns, and all the water on the ice. It was a very quiet and peaceful scene, too.”

“I submitted it because I think Sebago Lake is interesting in all times of the year,” Cypher added. “I like it more when it’s nice and quiet and peaceful. This spot is always picturesque no matter what time of the year.”

Kerry Freeman, a resident of Raymond Cape, shot the January photo with her Panasonic Lumix GH3. Freeman, who works remotely as a grant writer for a Los Angeles nonprofit, photographed the image looking west from the point of Raymond Cape. It portrays the sun setting on waves lapping onto an unusual, half-illuminated, wall of ice.

“I was just walking along with my camera, close to sunset, obviously, looking for possible beautiful compositions,” Freeman said. “I like to make a composition out of the sunset, not just take a sunset picture. I found this really cool ice structure along the shore, and just sat down along the snow and ice and took pictures and waited for the sun and ice to get in the right place. I couldn’t feel my toes for about an hour after that.”

Photographs by Rich Antinarelli, of Sebago, have been published in the water district’s calendar for the past five years. Antinarelli shot his photo for the 2014 calendar from his boat near Camp Mataponi in Naples, near his waterfront home in Sebago. He used a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTI to capture a “mama loon and a baby loon hitchhiking,” as he put it. Antinarelli’s shot is the main image for the May page.

“I just thought it was cool seeing the loons,” he said. “I really love the wildlife up in the area. I just thought it was a cool picture. I don’t think a lot of people get a chance to see a baby loon riding the back of their parents.”

Linda Panzera, who shot the cover image for the 2013 calendar, submitted what became this year’s February photograph. Panzera, a resident of Sebago, shot the picture of Otter Island with her Nikon D700.

“We have lake smoke on Sebago that ices the trees as it rises,” Panzera said, describing the photo. “It may not go to the top of the trees, but everything that it touches is ice. If it doesn’t go over the trees, then that part of the tree is not iced … Every day on Sebago is different, and this was just one of those beautiful days that you had to take a picture of.”

Two of the images were shot on the same canoe on the same day with the same type of camera. Susan Landry, who shot the September image, was canoeing with Kathie Maxsimic, who shot the October image, in October 2012. Both women captured a still Sebago Lake with their Panasonic Lumix cameras.

“It stayed dead calm all day long and we were just shooting pictures,” Landry said. “The whole entire time we paddled probably from 10 in the morning to 2 and there was never a ripple on the lake at all.”

The water district printed 1,200 calendars. They are available for free (one copy per person) at the Sebago Lake Ecology Center located at 1 White Rock Road in Standish. The submission deadline for the 2015 calendar is Aug. 15.

“I just thought it was cool seeing the loons,” said Rich Antinarelli, who shot this image with his Canon EOS.“I just like the look of it,” said Jamie Cypher, who shot this image from the “S-turn” along the road on Raymond Cape.“I was just walking along with my camera, close to sunset, obviously, looking for possible beautiful compositions,” said Kerry Freeman, who shot this image from Raymond Cape with her Panasonic Lumix GH3.“We have lake smoke on Sebago that ices the trees as it rises,” said Linda Panzera, who shot this image of Otter Island with her Nikon D700.“It stayed dead calm all day long, and we were just shooting pictures,” said Susan Landry, who shot this image of Raymond Cape with her Panasonic Lumix camera.

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