Posts in Category: Acadia National Park
6/20/2011: Wet Wood with Stream
On the way back from a very wet hike up South Bubble in Acadia National Park, we stopped at the Bubble Pond parking because I wanted a picture of a brook. This is Bubble Brook as it leaves the pond begins its run down to Eagle Lake. I love the wet woodland, the colors of the decaying leaves and the green foliage, and textures of bark and stone, and the curve of the stream, the parallel placement of the diagonal downed tree, the bow of the pine on the right, the roughness of the birch bark on the left, etc. etc. There is a lot going on in this image, but I think it is held firmly together by the sweep of the water, and well anchored by the base of wet stone and last years oak leaves. It is another image I could see printed, framed, and hanging on my wall.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f3.4 @ 1/30th @ ISO 200. Program with Active D-Lighting and Vivid Image Optimization.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
By the way. My morning posts are offset in time this week as I am on the west coast 
6/19/2011: Lichen Flowers: Happy Sunday!
Happy Sunday.
As I mentioned in my extended essay on shooting in the rain (Acadia from under an umbrella…), one of the advantages of prevailing mist and falling water is that you tend (or at least I tend) to look at what is close to hand more carefully…and, of course, the water on everything adds a glisten that catches the eye. I have always been fascinated by moss and lichen, though I know next to nothing about it. I like the forms it takes, the colors (or lack thereof) and the textures. The northern coast of Maine has both moss and lichen in abundance.
This whitish, antlered lichen forms large dense beads from the seaside path to the tops of the mountains of Acadia. It generally hosts a variety of other plants, but only a few hardy individuals, well spaced, as below.
I had, however, never seen the flowers, if that is the proper word for these reproductive parts of this particular lichen, until my day of photographing in the rain.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in 1) Close Up Scene mode, 32mm equivalent field of view, f3.7 @ 1/60th @ ISO 160. 2) 100mm equivalent, f4.6 @ 1/60th @ ISO 160 Program.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
And, of the Sunday thought, that matter of looking close come to mind. Though we Christians don’t give “paying attention” as much attention as some other religions, I certainly find that a sense of reverence has to be grounded in attention…in looking closely at life…in seeing and celebrating all the works of creation, from the most grand landscape to the smallest lichen on the forest floor. And when you do pay attention, you see the most amazing things. I mean, how unlikely are those flowers, or whatever lichen have, and how unlikely is the lichen itself…a fungus and an alga living entwined, supporting and feeding each other? The infinite forms of creation is enough to keep me reverent…and entertained…even on a rainy day. Even on a Sunday. Especially on a Sunday!
6/18/2011: The Bubbles with Merganser
If you are reading this soon after it posts and appears on Twitter and Facebook, I am somewhere in the air on my way to Chicago, and eventually to Orange County in Southern California.
The image, on the other hand, is a threatening rain day afternoon in Acadia National Park at one of my most favorite spots, Jordan Pond. For many years we had a special connection to Jordan Pond as we had daughters working at the Pond House, which overlooks the pond. The trail that circles Jordan is still one of our favorite walks in the park, and I have probably taken more shots of this view than of any other…in all kinds of weather, from bright sun to heavy fog. This one is somewhere in between. From the low angle the water is steel gray. This is a 23mm equivalent field of view shot, which makes it my widest shot of the pond to date (not counting multi-shot panoramas).
If you look closely at the rock just below the notch between the two bubbles, you will see a little pointy head sticking up. I didn’t see until I stood after this shot…but it was more obvious at naked eye scale than at extra wide angle. The head belongs to a female Common Merganser. The shot that follows was taken from about 4 feet in front of where I was squatting to take the wide angle, and gives you a good sense of the range of a super zoom Point and Shoot…23mm to 810mm…quick as thought.
The Merganser is cropped slightly from the full frame.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 1) 23mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/400th @ ISO 160. 2) 810mm equivalent, f6.3 @ 1/320th @ ISO 160. Program, with Active D-Lighting and Vivid Image Optimization.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
6/16/2011: The Bowl, Acadia National Park
We got a late start on our first hike in Acadia National Park this last visit, and by the time I got to The Bowl, a little pond on the trail from Gorham Mountain to Champlain, the light was rapidly going. I am not as fast on the trail, up over Gorham, down into the divide between, and up behind the Beehive to The Bowl, as I once was. Clouds had rolled in and rain was predicted by night-fall. Still, The Bowl never fails to satisfy. The subtle light, while it posed real exposure problems…a matter of somehow maintaining detail in both sky and landscape…gave a wonderful texture to the water.
For the image above I used all the help the camera provides: Active D-Lighting to extend the dynamic range when taking the image, and then in-camera post-processing using D-Lighting after the fact to bring up greens of the foliage even more. I finished it in Lightroom with some Fill Light and Blackpoint adjustment.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 23mm equivalent field of view, f4.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 160.
And I had to try a panorama. This is four 23mm frames stitched in PhotoMerge in PhotoShop Elements 9, and processed for Clarity, Sharpness, and lighting in Lightroom. It is about 270° so the right most shot was behind my right shoulder when I took the left most shot. It looks better at larger sizes. Click the image to open it to the width of your monitor.
6/15/2011: Cars as Art
One of our rainy day activities in Acadia National Park this week was a visit to the Seal Cove Auto Museum. I am not a car guy in the normal sense of the word. I notice fancy cars but I don’t lust after them (or not much anyway :). Still, I can’t imagine anyone with an eye for shape and color and texture and light not finding a lot to interest them in a world class collection of antique automobiles. What men made right there at the moment when the hand crafted carriage era and the beginnings of the industrial revolution overlapped are nothing less than works of art. At Seal Cove you can see examples of some of the most ornate restored to original glory. They even have bicycles and motorcycles too. What a feast of color and form and function!
Of course, to do any of these machines justice, you would have to get them out of the museum to a place with better light and space to frame them. These are just snapshots…using the ambient lighting, no flash…where something caught my eye as we toured the collection. Just to give you a flavor of the place.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at various settings from 23mm wide angle equivalent field of view to moderate tele at 76mm. Program with Active D-Lighting and Vivid Image Optimization. Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
6/14/2011: High-Bush Blueberry Blossoms in the Rain
I spent the morning yesterday shooting Acadia National Park from under an umbrella in the rain. Different. I plan an extended post on the experience on Point and Shoot 4 Landscape one of these days soon.
These high-bush blueberry blooms were at the Wild Gardens of Acadia at Sieur de Mont Springs in the Park. I was shooting from under the branch, looking up at a sharp angle, and the dark background is the peak of the roof of the Nature Center at Sieur de Mont. I love the way the rain has beaded the flowers. A close look (click the image and use the size controls at the top of the window that opens) will show lens effects of several kinds…there are drops where the bush and what is behind it are imaged…you see shots like that often…but there are also drops that are acting as close up lenses, showing the fine texture of the petal they are on.
Nikon Coolpix P500 in Close Up scene mode (assisted macro) at 32mm equivalent field of view, f3.7 @ 1/200 @ ISO 160.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
6/13/2011: Lupines in the Rain
Though it rained all day yesterday, we did take an afternoon drive around the Park Loop at Acadia National Park, and, when we came on this amazing stand of Lupines between Great Meadow and the road, I could not resist stopping (despite my comments of yesterday). It meant working from under an umbrella and getting my feet wet, but the contrast of the flowers and the aspen saplings in the subdued light was just too good to miss.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 100mm equivalent field of view, f4.6 @ 1/60th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting and Vibrant Image Optimization.
Processed in Lightroom for Clarity and Sharpness.
5/23/2011: Primary Colors in the Fog, with Loon
We made a quick trip to Machias and Bar Harbor on Friday, chauffeuring a daughter from college to summer job. It was a cold, rainy day, only letting up toward evening, and then the fog persisted over the water. Still, with a few hours in Bar Harbor, while we waited for a second daughter to get out work so we could take them both to dinner, I had to find something to photograph. 🙂
So this shot is primarily about color. I took several versions at different zoom lengths for different framing, but only in this one is graced by a loon.
Nikon Coolpix P500 at 215mm equivalent field of view, f5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 160. Program with Active D-Lighting and Vivid Image Optimization.
Processed for Clarity and Sharpness in Lightroom.
10/22/2010: hidden cove, Acadia
I am certain this spot has another name, but to us it is Hidden Cove. It is off the Park Loop road in Acadia National Park, and only marked by a small parking area across the road from what, if you are looking closely, is the head of a set of stairs that promises to lead down to the ocean. The stairs put you on that pebble beach. Walking the “ready made” trails out to the north of the stair head takes you to one of the points that frames the cove, and I took this shot from there. As you see it was still a foggy day and the vista is limited by the moisture in the air. At the same time, the moisture brings out all the rich tones in the rocks at my feet.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent, f4.0 @ 1/160th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Fill Light in Lightroom for the foreground and to bring up the detail in the evergreens, Blackpoint right for intensity, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen narrow edges preset.
This is the view from the beach looking out to the point from where the first image was taken.
Similar exif and processing.
10/21/2010: Cadillac cloud event
Our most recent trip to Acadia was not Cadillac Summit weather. We had mostly rain and mist and fog, and then fog and mist and rain. It was beautiful, of course, and we enjoyed it as much as any trip so far. But it really looked like we would finally make an Acadia visit without a drive up the winding road to the summit of Cadillac.
The last day there, after hiking in the heavy fog around Jordan Pond, and a pop-over lunch at the Jordan Pond House where our daughter who works there got to wait on us (lucky her) and we got fully fed, we started for home and suddenly, just before the Cadillac turn-off, drove right out of the fog and into sun. Looking up we could see the summit, standing out clear against a blue sky. Who could resist?
As we drove up though, it became obvious that we were racing the front. The fog was literally boiling up the south flank of the mountain on a strong wind ahead of the mass of fog and cloud that closed the whole south east horizon like a wall, and already hid the mountains behind us. The first wisps were crossing the summit as I got out of the car. It was the strangest thing. A clot of cloud would tear of the front of the cloud mass, which itself was moving so fast you see it come, and race on ahead of the mass across the summit like a living thing…boiling and rolliing, twisting into a thousand shapes as the irregular mass of the summit and its complicated air-currents caught it and tossed it every which way as it passed. The wind was so strong I could barely stand to take a picture. I tried to catch several of the cloud things (cloud beings) as they passed, but this (above) is the best I could do.
I finally turned, just ahead of the on coming mass of cloud, for the car…grabbing this shot as I passed. In less than 30 seconds I was in cloud where I stood.
I am sure it is not all that uncommon an occurrence on Cadillac summit…but it was the first time I had experienced it. My only regret is that I totally forgot to shoot some video of it!
Canon SX20 IS. Post processing in Lightroom.