Sisk, the horticulturalist at the Mystic Seaport Museum for 35 years, has just had 120 of his favorite Mystic-area photographs reproduced in a 128-page hardcover book, "Mystic Memories," published by Flat Hammock Press. The book features artistic photographs of the Ocean House in Watch Hill, USS Nautilus in Groton, Charles W. Morgan at the Seaport, and others, and sells for $23.95. It is available at the Seaport, and bookstores in the Mystic area.

Sisk, one of 10 children, says he always liked gardening and never minded being asked to cut the lawn or pull a few weeds. He liked art, too, but says he couldn't draw or paint, so photography seemed the next best thing. In his teens, he acquired his first camera, a little point-and-shoot model that got him hooked. His two passions, gardening and photography, have been a part of his everyday life ever since.

Each February Sisk would submit some of his photographs to the Seaport's employee art show, and a few years ago, Dede Wirth, a buyer in the Seaport bookstore, suggested he might be able to get a book of them published. Worth introduced Sisk to the folks at Mystic-based Flat Hammock, who liked the idea. It took more than two years, but when the book was released a month ago, Sisk was thrilled.

Photography is a lot like gardening, Sisk says. It's all in the details. A meticulous lawn or bed of annuals and perennials takes time and patience, and it's the same with photography. Sisk is constantly monitoring the weather, looking for cues to pick up his camera and head out. "If a cold front is coming through, I know they'll be dramatic lighting at the end of the day," he says. "If it's a foggy morning, I might want to go down to the Town Dock where the water will be still." Some photo shoots are planned months in advance. Sisk will get an idea, or a subject, and then wait for the perfect weather conditions.

Over more than 30 years of shooting, Sisk has evolved from a point-and-shoot camera to sophisticated single lens reflex models, and finally, to a top-of-the-line digital. All of the photos in his book were shot on slide film. There are waterscapes from Watch Hill and Weekapaug, flowering trees at Wilcox Park in Westerly, the lighthouse at Stonington Point, a dairy farm in North Stonington, Ford's Lobsters in Noank, the beach at Groton Long Point, and the Up-Down Saw Mill in Ledyard. Sisk says he never runs out of material.

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