As if Ruohomaa was a staff reporter for a local paper, he thoroughly mined the neighborhoods and towns near his home for human interest pieces. In particular, he jumped at opportunities to photograph people at work, and given how near he lived to Penobscot Bay, he often ended up on the water. In the late 1950s, he spent a day with Melton Sturges, a “moss picker” from Spruce Head. Sturges spent much of his time foraging for Chondrus Crispus, or Irish moss, from his favored grounds around the Muscle Ridge Islands. This species of seaweed is a primary source of carrageenan, an industrial/commercial thickener. This was good, hard work for an independent Yankee; it gave Sturges lots of quiet time on the Bay, a steady—if modest—income, and the flexibility to take care of his ailing wife. At the end of the day, Ruohomaa visited with the couple in their living room and snapped a few candid portraits.