Posts in Category: Acadia National Park
6/22/2010
Bass Head Light
Until a few years ago if you wanted to photograph Bass Head Light from a flattering angle, you had to risk life and limb climbing down a cliff to the shelving rocks above the surf. The park service put in a stair, and that makes the photographer’s life much easier, and safer. Now you don’t have risk life and limb until you get to the shelving rocks above the surf. The best vantages are still a scramble.
On a cloudy Saturday morning, fairly early, I had the place to myself. In fact, I debated making the drive down to the light, as the day did not look promising. Turns out the flat light, along with just enough interest in the cloud cover, made for some of my best shots of Bass Head to date.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/800th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom 3, Recovery for the sky, Fill Light to balance the foreground, just a touch of Blackpoint right, added Clarity and a smidge of Vibrance, Sharpen narrow edges preset.
From Acadia 2010.
And the vertical view.
6/21/2010
Corner of MDI and the Cranberries
Looking across at the Cranberry Isles from the overlook where the Park Loop Road turns the corner to head up toward the Seal Harbor Entrance and Jordan Pond. That is the point of land on the right that protects Seal Harbor. The sea foam adds a design element, which adds a lot to the image. It only improves with scale, so you might want to view it at a larger size on Wide Eyed In Wonder (click the image for the link).
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80. Aperture Preferred.
In Lightroom 3, Recovery for the sky. Some Fill Light for the foreground. Blackpoint just slightly right. Added Clarity and a touch of Vibrance. Sharpen narrow edges preset.
From Acadia 2010.
6/19/2010
Margret Todd at Anchor
This is a tourist boat: it makes daily excursions under full sail on Frenchman’s Bay and the surrounding waters for the delight of paying passengers, and does a very popular sunset dinner cruse as well. Always picturesque, this early evening shot sets it against the still waters of Bar Harbor and the backdrop of the Porcupine Islands. The ornamental railing at the foreground adds dimension to the composition. I cropped slightly from the bottom to eliminate the path in front of the railing.
It will repay a larger view.
Canon SX20IS at about 80mm equivalent for framing. F4.0 @ 1/500th @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom. A bit of Fill Light, Blackpoint just barely right. Added Clarity and more than usual Vibrance to try for a little blue in the water. Sharpen narrow edges preset.
From Acadia 2010.
And a second view. This time with more sky.
6/18/2010
In a Family Way
In my Yearling in Flowers post earlier this week, I told the story of a extraordinarily considerate dump-truck driver who alerted me, last Saturday morning, to three deer feeding just down the road from where I was at the time in Acadia National Park. You have seen the Yearling. Here are the two adults, one clearly pregnant with this year’s fawn. The deer, while aware of my presence at the edge of their field (though I attempted to blend into the bushes at the edge of the road as much as possible) were not overly concerned, and I enjoyed one of those peak moments for a nature photographer, when everything just came together: light, subject, foreground (I love the flowers), and background, to create a memorable experience and memorable images. One of those camera-don’t-fail-me-now moments.
Canon SD1400IS Digital Elph behind the eyepiece of a ZEISS Diascope 65FL spotting scope for an equivalent focal length of 1500mm (top three) and 3500mm (bottom). Exposures ranged from 1/125 at ISO 125 to 1/200th at ISO 200 (last shot). Programmed auto. The combination of the little pocket digital point-and-shoot camera and the spotting scope allows for these intimate portraits from distances that leave the wildlife pretty much undisturbed.
In Lightroom 3, some Fill Light and Blackpoint right (which with this camera and scope combination introduces way too much yellow, so Auto White Balance to restore the tones), added Clarity and a tiny amount of Vibrance, Sharpen narrow edges preset. The last two images are cropped for composition.
From Acadia 2010.
6/17/2010
Pitcher Plant in Bloom
Sieur de Mont Springs, at Acadia National Park features the Wild Gardens of Acadia maintained by local volunteers. In a small corner of the grounds they have recreated all of the major habitats, from the bogs to the peaks, on Mount Desert Island and planted them with representative plants. Few plants are more bazaars than the Pitcher Plant. Bog dweller. Carnivorous. Strange in shape. And with a particularly complex (looking) flower structure. This is the bloom. I got down practically to ground level to shoot low enough to see into the flower head, using Macro and the long end of the zoom on the Canon SX20IS. Generally what you see is more like the image below, also taken from a distance with the tel zoom, this time because they were in a wet area with no direct approach.
Canon SX20IS. 1) 425mm equivalent @ f5.0 @ 1/500th @ ISO 200. 2) 560mm equivalent @ f5.7 @ 1/400th @ ISO 400. Programmed auto.
Recovery for the highlights in Lightroom 3, some Fill Light and Blackpoint right to extend apparent tonal range, added Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen Narrow Edges preset.
From Acadia 2010.
6/16/2010
Frenchman’s Bay Evening Peace
The further north you go in Maine, the longer the summer light lingers. This is past 8pm on the evening of a stormy day. Storms had passed and Frenchman’s Bay (Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor) is smooth as glass and just about as clear. This was taken from the Narrows, near the Trenton bridge where you come on to Mount Desert Island, looking south east down the length of the bay.
This is really about the light, of course, and the exposure had to be intentional to capture enough detail in the sky while showing the water in a natural light. Landscape program and selective metering (biased slightly for the sky buy tipping the camera up) handled it well. Post-processing in Lightroom helped to extend the apparent range to cover both sky and foreground, and bring out detail that would otherwise have been lost.
I work only in jpeg. This kind of image might be easier to do in RAW…but I can’t say for sure. I know that this processed jpeg is very close to what I saw with my naked eye…to what drew me to the scene in the first place. I was after the peace…and here it is. It will repay a look in larger sizes. Click the image and use the size controls on the top of the window.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/60th @ ISO 80. Landscape program. Landscape program on the SX20IS has an interesting feature: it defaults to infinity focus when it can not find focus, which is necessary in a shot like this with little for the sensors to focus on in dim light.
Heavy Recovery for the sky in Lightroom 3, significant Fill Light for the foreground, Blackpoint just barely right, added Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen narrow edges preset.
From Acadia 2010.
6/15/2010
Bar Harbor and the Porcupines: three views (2 with gull)
It was, as I mentioned a few days ago, a blue day on Cadillac Mountain when I visited late in the afternoon last Thursday. It had rained through noon and was just beginning to clear off. This is the view out over Bar Harbor, Frenchman’s Bay, and the Porcupine Islands. You can see the bar extending back toward land from Bar Island (completely above water at low tide) that gives Bar Harbor its name. Taken from the lowest overlook on the Cadillac Mountain road. The gulls work the scenic views as though they bought the concession. This one was quite bold and actually walked up to me and practically stood on my feet when I failed to offer it any tribute. I took its picture. That will have to be enough. 🙂 The Panorama is 8 shots stitched in PhotoShop Element’s Panorama tool: the longest pano I have done to date. The Pano, of course, really needs to be viewed a larger size.
All with the Canon SX20IS. 1) 28mm equivalent @ f4.0 @ 1/800th @ ISO 80, Landscape program, 2) 80mm equivalent @ f4.0 @ 1/640th @ ISO 80, Landscape program, and 3) 8 shots at 70mm equivalent @ f4.0 @ 1/250th @ ISO 80, Panorama mode.
In Lightroom 3, Recovery for the sky, Fill light for the foreground, Blackpoint just slightly right, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Sharpen Narrow Edges preset. The top shot was cropped bottom and top for composition and to remove distracting road surface.
From Acadia 2010.
6/14/2010
Yearling among Flowers
This looks to me to be a late season fawn from last year. It was feeding with two adult female Whitetails, one of which was obviously pregnant.
There is a story behind the images. I was 90 minutes early for a bird walk I was coleading last Saturday at the Acadia Birding Festival in Acadia National Park (misread the schedule), so I shouldered my digiscoping rig and was hiking along the shoulder of the road between the Seawall proper and the Seawall Campground entrance, looking for cooperative birds. A huge, industrial scale, white dump truck approached at speed, and hit is hydraulic breaks hard just as it came parallel with me. It literally skidded to a stop about 100 feet beyond me, and this huge hairy arm dropped from the driver’s window, up there 10 feet in the air in the cab, and snapped its fingers. I could see the driver looking at me in his rear view mirror. He was a dump truck driver: sleeveless tee, a bit tattered and smudged, beard and a fringe of longish hair around a bald plate. Big as his truck and just as tough. He snapped his fingers again, and, getting impatient, jammed his truck into reverse and started back. I hustled over.
“Hay,” he said, “There’s deer in the field about 200 yards down the road on the left, right out in the open. Great shot!” And he grinned and nodded. “Well thank you,” I said, and he jammed into first and rumbled on.
Humm? Deer? Whitetails would be nice, but, honestly, what were chances of 1) their still being visible when I got there, and 2) their not running off as soon as they saw me?
Still, nothing ventured, nothing gained. So I hurried down the road, trying to remember where the first open meadow was, and wondering if I would be able to see the same deer from road level he could see from 10 feet up in his cab? Turned out to be closer to 400 yards, but eventually I came up to an obvious meadow opening on the left. I could not see any deer from the angle I had. I crossed the road and edged up to the last blocking shrub and peaked around into the meadow.
And, of course, as you can guess from the images above, there they were: the two adults and this obvious yearling, the two adults together and this guy ranging ahead of them further into the back of the meadow.
So, down tripod, up scope, focus, camera in, camera on, zoom to eliminate vignetting and take the first shot. (Not one of the ones above 🙂 ) I was able to work the three deer for 20-30 minutes, taking hundreds of exposures. The light was great: gentle under light cloud cover. When I had enough to think I might have some keepers (my rule is 10 exposures for every keeper you hope for) I backed away and left them to their feeding. When I passed in the car 30 minutes later they were gone.
So, I want, right here, to thank that dump truck driver for the extraordinary kindness of stopping his rig to tell me about the deer he had just seen. I never would have known.
Canon SD1400IS behind the zoom eyepiece of a Zeiss Diascope 65FL for an equivalent focal length of about 2200mm (first two) and 3400mm (last one). Exif f5.9 @ 1/200th @ ISO 160 and 200. Real f-stop closer to f12 (based on the scope).
In Lightroom 3, Fill Light and Blackpoint considerably right. Added Clarity and Vibrance. Sharpen Narrow Edges preset. Auto White-balance to remove yellow cast.
And, once more time. Thank you.
6/12/2010
Cadillac / Cranberry Isles Blue Day
Every visit to Acadia National Park is satisfying on so many levels. This is the tail end of a day of rain and storm, with clearing weather coming in from the south, looking off the shoulder of Cadillac Mountain over the Cranberry Isles and out to sea. There is still a lot of moisture in the air and no direct sun on the summit. A blue day. But with a beauty of its own.
Canon SX20IS at 28mm equivalent. F4.0 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 80. Landscape program.
In Lightroom 3, some recovery for the sky, Fill Light for the foreground, Blackpoint just barely right, added Clarity and Vibrance, Sharpen Narrow Edges preset.
From Acadia 2010.
And another view. One of my risky tripod-less panos. View as large as you monitor will take. Click the image, and use the size controls at the top of the page.
6/28/2009
Infinate Cadillac
Happy Sunday!
This is perhaps an appropriate shot for the last entry from this year’s trip to Acadia. I tried several before getting this low angle, flower and lichen in the foreground, expanse of the rocky top and ziz zag of the environmental fencing, and then leaping out across Frenchman’s bay to the horizon with its clouds. I was trying to capture at least one aspect of Cadillac and Acadia: the sense of being suspended, all life, from the flower struggling against odds to the humans tiny on the near horizon, between the rocky, gritty particular and an awesome infinity. For me, that is an essential element of the Acadia experience.
Practically speaking, I used Program Shift (see In Praise of Program Shift on Point and Shoot Landscape) to get the smallest aperture for greatest depth of field to keep everything from the foreground rock detail and the flower petals to the far horizon relatively sharp. It took me quite a few shots and 20 minutes to find the right flower. F8 on a P&S is pretty deep focus, but I found that I had to put the flower up into the field a bit and let some of the rock go soft right at the bottom of the frame. I cropped out the out of focus area in Lightroom during post processing.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide and macro. F8.0 @ 1/200th @ ISO 100. Programed auto, program shifted for smallest aperture.
In Lightroom, besides the crop, Recovery for the sky, some Fill Light and added Contrast to compensate in the foreground, added Clarity and Vibrance, and Landscape sharpen preset.