Point Judith, part of the town of Narragansett, extends more than a mile from the Rhode Island coast, marking the entrance to Narragansett Bay to the north and Block Island South to the south. The passage past Point Judith is known to be dangerous, with a treacherous ledge to the west and frequent fog in the area. It has plagued mariners since the first European ships visited the continent, known to sailors as a “Graveyard of the Atlantic.”

Three light structures have existed on this site. The present octagonal 65-foot (20 m) granite tower was built in 1856. The upper half of the tower is painted brown and the lower half white to make the light structure more visible to daytime maritime traffic.

One interesting tidbit is that the British stole much of the lighting equipment from American lighthouses during the War of 1812, ending up in Bermuda. However, some of the apparatus was returned and installed in several New England lighthouses after the war, including at Point Judith Light. Another relevant tidbit is that the last German U-boat sunk in World War II was two miles off this location.

The morning after the “super blue moon” of August 2023, I returned to Point Judith to shoot the scene once more. With tropical storm Idalia raging over the southern states of the USA, huge waves were all along the point. As I stood on a breakwater with a long lens to photograph the lighthouse at sunrise, the sky lit up in pleasant shades of pink. I took this photo as a shapely wave crested near the lighthouse, catching sunlight in the spray.