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.