SEBAGO – Living on the same dirt road in Sebago, perched above the northwest shore of Sebago Lake, are two recent retirees who share a love of the lake and capturing its scenery in photographs.

Linda Panzera and Rich Antinarelli, longtime neighbors on Anderson Road in Sebago, have pushed each other to become better photographers. Especially in the last year or two, the good friends have encouraged one another to enter contests and juried art shows and, in general, inspire each other to expand their horizons and improve upon their chosen craft.

“I think there is a healthy competition,” Antinarelli said. “I think we push one another.”

Panzera agreed, but uses a different word to describe the relationship.

“We encourage one another to branch out to go a different way or to go look here, go look there, Panzera said. “So I don’t think it’s competition. I think it’s encouragement. It’s helping, it’s pushing. It’s not competition. ‘Look, go outside you can see the eagles have fledged today. Go look for them.’ It’s more like that.”

Whatever the word, the end result is beautiful, homegrown photography with Sebago Lake and the surrounding natural world it feeds its common thread. And from where they live on the edge of Sebago, minutes away from Sebago Lake State Park and an island that’s off-limits to humans due to the presence of protected eagles, it’s not hard to find Kodak moments close by.

“There’s really so much to see here,” Antinarelli said. “Really, you sit on the dock for a couple of hours, you’d be amazed at what you see. You’d see loons, ducks, the adult eagles circling, coming down catching fish to take back to the nest to feed the eaglets. It’s truly amazing.”

It’s not just the two who are happy with their work. They’ve won many accolades for their nature photography. The two are featured yearly in the Portland Water District’s annual calendar featuring photos of Sebago Lake. They were both juried into the annual Art is Community art and fine craft fair held in the Old White Church in Buxton. Each have won awards from the annual State of Maine Sportsman’s Show in Augusta as well as contests held at Winterford Galleries in Bridgton.

Panzera has even started her own business where she sells her photographs through four stores located around Maine. “And I’m busier doing that than I was when I worked full-time,” she said.

Awards and accolades aren’t their goal, however. The two love nature and the challenge of capturing it on camera.

While they usually go out by themselves and then share their photos later, sometimes, the two set on photo-taking adventures together, as well. Antinarelli and his wife, Joan, will be in their motorboat with Panzera in her kayak, which she said is better to get up close and personal with wildlife.

“There are times, we’ll be out here side by side and we’re taking pictures of the same exact thing,” Antinarelli said. “Some pictures are similar, but we do go our own ways most of the time.”

Antinarelli’s favorite spot is Sebago Lake State Park and the Songo River, where he captures scenes of birds, animals and sunsets.

“We can go up the Songo River, get pictures up there of great blue heron, deer, mergansers,” he said. “And just driving around this area, you see lot of deer, foxes. Everything seems to be right in the area. We don’t have to go too far.”

Panzera estimates 80 percent of her photos come from the immediate neighborhood and just off shore. She became friendly with a family of foxes living along Anderson Road that eventually let her close enough to capture stunning images.

“I’ve also seen moose in the neighborhood,” she said. “There was a bear in the neighborhood, although I didn’t get the bear unfortunately.”

For Panzera, the eagles take precedence.

“I became one of the eagle monitors for the state of Maine’s Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife,” she said. “We report to Charlie Todd, the eagle biologist, and we let him know when the parents are fixing the nests, when we think the chick has hatched, things like that. It’s wonderful, and we’ve been lucky enough to have two eaglets each year.”

Antinarelli and Panzera got to know each other as neighbors first. The photography came later. That photography, they both say, is improving as they acquire better cameras and lenses – or “glass” as Panzera puts it – that allow them greater creativity for their ever-keener eye.

“It’s friendship first, and enjoying the beauty of the lake together as neighbors, friends,” Antinarelli said. “Linda and I spoke recently about the pictures we entered this year in the sportsman’s show compared with the ones we entered last year, and we both agreed the quality is getting a lot better.”

“It’s the same as anything,” Panzera added. “The more you do, the better you get at it.”

Linda Panzera, with her Nikon D700, and Rich Antinarelli, with his Canon Rebel XTI, are seated on Antinarelli’s dock on Anderson Road. The two friends live on the same road in Sebago and often go on adventures together in search of great photos. The two have won awards and other accolades for their Sebago Lake-inspired photography.     
Great blue heron at Sebago Lake State Park.
This photo was taken in the Anderson Road, Sebago, neighborhood after Panzera became friendly enough with the foxes that they allowed her to get close for a photograph.