Posts in Category: Acadia National Park
6/27/2009
Off Cadillac's East Shoulder: Cranberry Isles and the Atlantic
On a good day on Cadillac the views in every direction are astounding. Though the clouds over the Atlantic were of a different kind and a different quality than those over the landmass, they are no less beautiful, and the Cranberry Isles, dotting the mid-ground before the Atlantic shades off into the horizon make for an interesting vista. This is another shot I have taken on every trip, and another shot that is never the same twice.
Sony DSC H50 at about 40mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, Recovery for the sky and clouds, added Clarity and Vibrance and the Landscape sharpen preset. Because I wanted the foreground to pop, I used a graduated filter effect from the bottom up two thirds, and added Exposure, Clarity, and just a touch of Contrast.
6/26/2009
Off Cadillac's North Sholder (Frenchman's Bay)
Leaving Jordan Pond and the Bubbles behind for the moment, we make our way to the top of Cadillac Mountain, one of, if not the highest point on the East Coast (that is to say, directly overlooking the Atlantic). Reputed to be the point of first contact in the US for each sunrise. There is an excellent paved road to the top, and it has been a major tourist attraction for more than a century.
It is always dramatic, but there are still days when it looks like you can see forever, the clouds provide a sense of infinite depth, and the sea is deep blue to the horizon. This was not quite one of them. You can see, looking north here that there is a haze over the landscape…but still…those clouds, that sky. Who could resist?
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Cropped in Lightroom from both top and bottom to improve composition. Recovery for the sky (which also cut some of the haze). Some Fill Light to compensate. Blackpoint to the right. Added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset.
6/25/2009
Bubbles Unconventional
I have tried shots like this many times…trying to catch the Bubbles from an unconventional angle. After all, I have hundreds of shots from the end of the pond. Somehow they just never have enough drama. This one is different. The play of light and shadow on the foreground rocks, echoed as it is by the cloud shadows on the slope behind, and the wisp of clouds overhead, make it a satisfying shot, and a worthy tribute to the Bubbles. Of course, from this angle they are much less bubble like, but we still know what they are.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery for the sky in Lightroom, then added Clarity and Vibrance and Landscape sharpen preset. I may have moved the blackpoint to the right a little.
6/24/2009
The Length of Jordan Pond
Jordan Pond is reputed to have the clearest, cleanest water in the east, and images like this tend to bear out the claim. This was taken from the small check damn at the southeast corner of the pond where, this day, water was flowing into the pond from the marshy area behind the dam. (I always assumed it was an outlet, but I guess not). It shows the full length of the pond, though the Bubbles are somewhat hidden behind the east shoreline. This is another low angle shot, taken squatting close the flowing water from the middle of the dam.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/400th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
Recovery in Lightroom effects the clouds and sky, as we were mentioning yesterday, but it also does a really good job of clearing a layer of surface reflections from water…making the water look more transparent. Added Vibrance and Clarity, and Landscape sharpen. Cropped at bit a the top for better horizon placement.
6/23/2009
The Bubbles
I think I must have a hundred images of the Bubbles across Jordan Pond taken over the years. The fact is, they are never the same any two days, any two years…and on a good day, with weather making or actually happening…any two moments. The shift and angle of light, the sky and cloud background, and, of course, the season all change the view dramatically. Point of View variations are all but infinite…though all my images are captured from one of 4 vantages where you can get down close to the water.
Then too, the lake itself changes. The shoreline is never the same twice as levels rise and fall, and the water depends on the wind and wind direction for its texture.
All in all, the ideal subject. Which is, of course, why I keep going back to it.
This shot is taken fairly low to the water using the flip out LCD, and the clouds are as interesting as the mountains themselves, which is why I zoomed out for tighter framing.
Sony DSC H50 at about 65mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/800th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, heavy Recovery for the sky and clouds. Recovery, again, attempts to recapture dynamic range by pulling back the highlights, but it does it in such a way that differences in high grays and whites are also emphasized. It is ideal for this kind of complex cloud detail, and allows me to expose for the foreground, using standard Programed auto, without worrying about the sky too much. Without Recovery in my post processing toolbox I would have to work the exposure much differently for a shot like this, and then do some levels and curves work in post. Recovery is one of the most powerful of Lightroom’s tools, at least for my style of shooting.
I also added Clarity and Vibrance, moved the blackpoint slightly to the right, and used the Landscape sharpen preset. Total post processing time under 2 minutes.
6/22/2009
Jordan Saddle
Going even a bit deeper into the view, still from the same location as the Pic of the Days from the 18th and 19th, I found the cloud on cloud effect over the saddle to the southeast of the Bubble very interesting, and experimented with various framings to bring it out. This, cropped in Lightroom for better composition, is the most successful.
The various shades of white to gray in the cloud on cloud layers was not easy to render. In Lightroom I used a graduated filter from the top, reducing exposure just slightly and increasing contrast. The whole image received a boost in Vibrance and Clarity, and a bit of extra contrast (the shoreline in the image is at least a mile away and there is a lot of air between me and it). I used the Landscape sharpen preset.
Sony DSC H50 at about 300mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/640th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
6/20/2009
The Bubbles over Jordan Pond
You may recognize this as essentially the same view of the Pond and Bubbles as we saw yesterday. (We will be spending some time around the pond the next few days as I work through the views from this trip.) This image was taken from the same spot as yesterday’s, but this time I zoomed in to about 100mm equivalent to show the detail of the interesting clouds behind the mountains, and to make it essentially a composition in blue and green. This is still a landscape, but more compressed. What it loses in majesty it gains in intensity. Or that’s the theory.
Sony DSC H50 at about 100mm equivalent. F5.6 @ 1/1000 @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom I applied Recovery for the sky, to bring out cloud detail and increase contrast between the blue and white. Recovery especially helps in cases like this, where you have layered clouds. Clarity and Vibrance also increased the molding of the clouds, and brought out more detail in the trees and the stone of the mountain. (Brought out…that is to say that the information is already there in the digital file. These manipulations do not add anything to the image, they simply adjust relative values to make what you are interested in more visible in the final image.) Landscape sharpen preset.
6/19/2009
Overlooking Jordan Pond from the Pond House Lawn
The Jordan Pond House in Acadia National Park is justly famous for two things: its popovers (gotta be eaten to be believed) and its view. Lunch or dinner on the Jordan Pond House lawn (seating for a hundred or more at tables with individual umbrellas), on any day when it is not actually raining, is, like the popovers, an experience not to be missed. Jordan Pond stretches away below the lawn and the blueberry patch and the Bubbles (two smallish mountains by Acadia standards…big rocks by western standards), rise up behind. Weather comes down the deep valley of Eagle Lake behind the Bubbles and makes for interesting skies. Scenic or what.
I have photographed the Pond and Bubbles in just about every light, at different times of year, but this is actually the first image I have taken from the vantage of the lawn. I was actually sitting on the ground a the edge of the lawn when something about the sky and the bit of weedy grass in the foreground just caught my attention this trip and I took 10 or more exposures at various heights above the ground (between on it, and a foot off it) in an attempt to capture the depth of the view. The low angle was also necessary because there were people continuously walking down a path that runs along the trees on the left, below this near horizon, and people on the path along the lake at the foot of the hill. This shot works for me. You will see some other treatments of this view in coming days.
Sony DSC H50 at full wide. F5.6 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Programed auto.
In Lightroom, I used Recovery for the sky, moved the blackpoint to the right slightly, and added both Clarity and Vibrance. I added a bit of contrast, and used the Landscape sharpen preset.
6/18/2009
Asctiou Garden's
Asctiou Gardens is an Azalea and Rhododendron garden, on the Japanese model, in Northeast Harbor, Mount Desert Island, Maine, near Acadia National Park. It was originally planted and landscaped by Charles Savage in the late 50s and has gone through several incarnations since. It is now managed and tended by the Mount Desert Land and Garden Preserve and a staff of volunteers. It is beautiful in any season, but it is stunning when the Azaleas and Rhododendron are in bloom. I have been on MDI three times in season, and each time have come away amazed. The variety of colors, the massed blossoms, the vibrancy of it all against the water features and delicate green lines of the carefully tended trees and landscape…it all just short of too much.
These are all pretty straitforward shots with minimal processing in Lightroom. I used both the macro extremes of the Sony DSC H50. Close in and tel, for contrasting effects. Close in for deep detail, tel for compression. (See Lupine Lessons: Point of View on Point and Shoot Landscape for more on using your zoom and macro to good effect.)
In this array of shots, each thumbnail links back to the lightbox view at Wide Eyed In Wonder (my SmugMug site).
And one final vision, where the bokeh is as vital as the flowers themselves.
6/14/2009
Marie Todd Emerging
A three masted schooner set up to carry tourists around Frenchman’s Bay, the Mary Todd here emerging from the morning fog.
Sony DSC H50 at about 70mm equivalent. F7.1 @ 1/2000th @ ISO 100. Programed Auto.
There was a lot of morning light caught in that fog, and it took all the Recovery I had available in Lightroom to pull it back to show the visual effect of the morning. Added Clarity and Vibrance, and Landscape sharpen preset.
From Bar Harbor 08.