Photographing the Dubois Pioneer Home

The Dubois Pioneer Home is one of eight natural and historical Jupiter Florida locations that will be included in the January “Photographing Jupiter Florida” photography course given through the Lighthouse ArtCenter. For details go http://lighthousearts.org

Starting January 9th, I will be teaching a course through the Lighthouse ArtCenter entitled “Photographing Jupiter Florida”

One of the eight locations I have chosen for this hands-on photography workshop is the Dubois’ Pioneer Home–a gem of a historic locationin Jupiter that often goes unnoticed in the shadow of the more popular Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse.

Back in the late 1980’s, I had the honor of interviewing Bessie Wilson Dubois for a local newspaper story. She told me she was 11 when she stepped off the Jupiter station of the Florida East Coast Railway from New Jersey. “My father built a one-story home on the highest hill overlooking Jupiter Inlet in 1898. Each day from our porch, we watched the incoming tide flow clear and blue into the river. Each night the beam from the lighthouse shone across a multitude of silvery bait fishes. At times the sound of fish jumping made it hard to sleep.” she told me.

I was fascinated to learn that her pioneer life required much creative enterprise. She and her husband managed a fish camp, restaurant, guesthouse and honeybee farm! She cooked and served a menu that included fresh fish and oysters harvested from the river in the back yard, and pastries from apples and pineapples grown in front of the house.  Today, we are fortunate that Bessie Wilson Dubois wrote and published colorful and detailed histories of the area’s pioneer life and that her family home is open to the public.  A visit to  photograph her home is one of the “eight great locations” that will be part of my “Photographing Jupiter” course given through the Lighthouse ArtCenter beginning Jan 9. 

During the session at the Dubois home, students will learn how to photograph and edit wildlife, landscape and architectural images including creatively converting them to black and white files for fine art printing.