Day 1 — October 11, 2018 Thursday
As is usual at this time of year if I venture out for a photo trip, this blog morphs into more of a journal to record the happenings and thoughts of the day as I’ve always done since the first of my trips many years ago. In fact, I dug out the handwritten notes from my previous trip here to help with the information gathering and planning for a last minute decision to make a short, one week trip to Maine’s Acadia National Park for autumn colors. I realized it’s been a quarter century since my previous photo trip here in 1993, and that it would be a quite different experience from the grand landscapes that have been a major part of all the trips I took out west since 1999. While some of the mountains there pushed near 14,000-feet, here they could barely muster 2,000. But sometimes, as awe-inspiring as those majestic western scenes may be, I am also captivated by those more intimate scenes found within the eastern forests. Here, you are not slapped in the face with something epic, immediately knowing the iconic spot before you needs to be photographed just as countless photographers before you have done, but you have to search out the majesty in the many varied smaller scale corners this type of landscape offers.
My early flight this morning turned out to be fortunate since it managed to escape the wrath of Hurricane Michael before its remnant descended on the Triangle with heavy rain and wind from what was left of a near Category V hurricane packing 155-mph winds. But when the plane rose above the clouds, there was a beautiful sunrise. Arrived in Portland to some minor drizzle, but driving north, the rain became heavier and never let up. Stopped in Ellsworth at Walmart to get supplies and change into some pants more appropriate for rain, and next door to Home Depot for some 2-foot 2X8’s to level out the sleeping area (bedroom) of the SUV rental. Continued on to Hulls Cove Visitor Center where I finally got in touch with some friends after trying all day while on the road. They were staying in Stonington and graciously invited me to stay in a spare room, so I drove the 90-minutes there and had a wonderful time that first evening talking about photography and places to shoot during our time in Acadia. Soooo much better than being alone in the car that rainy first night. On the drive there, I passed an area of blueberries with granite outcroppings that looked very familiar to me that I plan to shoot on the way back to Acadia tomorrow if conditions (rain) permit, and I believe nearby Sand Beach may have been another spot I shot in 1993. So no photos on this first day except the iphone shot from an aisle seat out the window of the plane, which is usual for most trips; no scouting either but at least I stayed dry and enjoyed the company of friends. Tomorrow night I’ll be in Blackwoods campground having reserved the final available spot, with the rest of the trip open to the conditions and choices I can’t predict; just going with the flow.
Day 2 — October 12, 2018 Friday
We all got up bright and early and ended up a short distance away from where we stayed, trying to shoot Stonington harbor, but there were a lot of things working against us. First there was the solid overcast, no interesting formations; second, it seemed there was a lot of activity on the water with boats moving around and some shining super bright lights that ruined some of the long exposures; and third, the necessary long exposures because of the dim early morning light, created blurry boats, both from the long exposure itself, and movement of the water causing the boats to rock and spin around their anchor. Only time will tell if anything came out from the other three, but I never did get the camera out of the bag. Then we had breakfast and headed toward Acadia, with a short stop at Caterpillar Hill where there were some blueberry barrens with red color, stone outcroppings and some fine views.
From there, we went our own way for the remainder of the day, deciding to meet up again around sunset at Otter Point. In between, I ended up at Cadillac Mountain with hundreds of others and a cold, howling wind. But as luck would have it, the blueberries had turned red and I managed to find some nice compositions of the varied plant life and colorful pink granite with brilliant yellow/green lichens. I noticed that no matter how strong the wind, the granite didn’t move, but I had to boost the ISO to 400 or even 800 to even attempt to freeze the motion of the plants. But I did find a few spots that seemed to be sheltered from the buffeting winds. It was hard to take myself away from it without having explored all sides. Stopped on the way down to shoot the small waterfall caused by the recent heavy rains from Hurricane Michael. I stopped in Bar Harbor at the Ledgelawn Inn where my wife and I spent part of our honeymoon, but it seemed to be a bit run down and no longer in business. It was sad to see this historic bed and breakfast looking almost abandoned. Headed for the Park Look Road and first stopped by a large marshy area (it might be Great Meadow) off to the right with some beautifully colored autumnal trees at the base of the mountain there, especially picturesque because of the significant, individual maroon leafed tree standing isolated in the front. I took a few shots and a panorama. Then a little scouting along the road on the way to Otter Point where I met up with my friends again for sunset. Luckily the clouds had cleared out with only a few lingering clouds along the western horizon, but the clearing clouds to the east were interesting and lit up beautifully as the sun turned them differing shades of pink. I took several compositions with varying exposures to be blended later and along with additional ones to be blended depending on which frame illustrated the best wave action among the rocks. We even had a cruise ship appear leaving Bar Harbor as if on cue to provide a focal point. Afterward, we gathered at the Lighthouse Inn restaurant in Seal Harbor, just east on Rte 3 that had some surprisingly good food. We then split up and agreed to meet up at Cadillac Mountain for tomorrow’s sunrise in hopes of some clear skies (with a few interesting clouds) so the sun will light the blueberries. Hopefully it will work out. As an infamous president seems to say constantly, “We’ll see what happens.”
Day 3 — October 13, 2018 Saturday
Didn’t really have the time or the energy for an entry last night, so I’m doing Day 3 tonight on Day 4, Sunday, without any energy as well. Just not able to handle all the bending, standing and general lugging around all the camera gear as well as I used to. Slept at Blackwoods campground with a reservation and got up early for the ride to Cadillac Mountain, but when I looked up at the sky, I saw it completely blocked by clouds, so there was no sense in trying for any star shots before heading to Cadillac Mountain as I intended. When I did get there, I was amazed to see a few dozen cars already there, with sunrise still 90-min. away!! At about 525am the eastern horizon began to lighten, and I could see a sliver of hope in the clearing there. So I got the gear together and bundled up, and looked for a good spot among the throng, because by then, the lot had filled.
Well, the sky kept getting better and better as the mountain top filled with several hundred people, eventually morphing into a blazing red sky and shone red for a few brief (very brief) moments after the sun broke the horizon. The sun may have won the battle of the moment, but the clouds surely won the war, because they quickly overtook the majestic light and blotted out the tiny bit of red light on the rocks. Lynne, Barbara and Mike made it up there also, and without communicating, we all ended up together after the sunrise. Since today there was no wind, we wandered around the bright red blueberries making mostly intimate compositions of all the beautiful plant life in the multitude of pocket gardens we found. Not long after we finished shooting for the morning, the clouds began to spit some sprinkles, and increased until it was full-fledged rain. The afternoon appeared to be a washout. Click Here to see the same wonderful light from this morning that I experienced on my last day in Acadia.
Long views from the summit of Cadillac Mountain are great looking north, east and south onto the waters of Frenchman’s Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. And because the clouds had some texture to them, although completely overcast, they provided some interest that a clear bald sky lacks. In some ways the softer lighting of an overcast makes it easier to produce a wider range of color in the photograph, but it does lack the contrast that sunlight provides. So we just made the best of what the conditions had to offer, which is what you should always try to do.
Lynne had to drive back to her daughter’s, while Mike, Barbara and I hiked in the rain to Hadlock Falls. We met another photographer there and spoke a bit, and then hiked back to dry out our gear and headed to the famous Jordan Pond House for some of their signature popovers. Of course, being a weekend, it was mobbed and difficult to find a spot to park, but we managed to do so. We ended up having an early dinner there; my sandwich and grain salad was big enough to split into two and save for the next day’s lunch. Luckily, by the end of our dinner, with just a few moments before the scheduled sunset, it stopped raining, and we decided to stay and shoot the sunset light right at Jordan Pond. We scrambled around looking for decent foregrounds, and the easily recognizable Bubbles at the opposite end of the lake in the distance, and actually had a bit of drama in the sky as the sun set and took on a bit of color. It turned out we ran into that same guy from the waterfalls there and spoke to him again for a while as the light completely faded into darkness.
After splitting up for the night, I thought I might shoot the stars from Cadillac, and even though it seemed to have cleared, it was foggy at the top with a seriously cold wind. So that idea was out. Decided to try Otter Cliffs next, where I did do some Milky Way shots, but had to stop when a light fog started coming in and fogged my filters. The good thing was that the fog picked up some of the glow from the small towns nearby. After packing up, I had to re-circle the one-way park road to get to Sand Beach where I ended up spending the night.
Right now I’m falling asleep writing this while sitting in the car in Bar Harbor, so I will have to get to today (Day 4), tomorrow on Day 5. It gets confusing sometimes, and difficult to recall which events occurred on which day. The town is closing up now as it is almost 9pm. — Remember, I’m writing this the day after the events.
Day 4 — October 14, 2018 Sunday
It looked like it was going to be pretty clear at sunrise today, so I opted for the easier Boulder Beach rather than the 0.9-mile hike up Gorham Mtn. since the preference would be to have strong side lighting hitting the Otter Cliffs as the sun breaks the horizon rather than a cloudy sky blocking the sun. It proved a bit difficult to find the “trail” down to the boulders, but after I got down, it proved to be nothing compared to the difficulties of trying to maneuver across the cobbles in the dark with the added impediment using bifocals! But I managed to find a somewhat decent spot with only one soft, unbalanced fall (luckily unhurt) and saw only one other person on the beach until a workshop descended on us. It turned out to be same guy we met at Hadlock Falls and Jordan Pond, and was surprised that he would come back to this beach after the tremendous shot he showed us on that red sky morning. He’s supposedly in the middle of a project to create a book of Acadia with a photograph that was actually taken on every day of the year! He spends one week in Acadia for every season each year. That’s dedication. The strong side lighting I had hoped for never really materialized, and with the addition of a mostly bald sky, one of the classic images of Acadia never really worked out. So I decided to zip over to the Tarn where it happened that Barbara and Mike got there just before I did, and we spent quite a bit of time there shooting reflections in the water sprinkled with sedges, as the sun chased away the shadows on the mountain above the opposite shore. During our time there, hundreds of runners ran by us as part of the Marathon and sounded like a herd of buffalos galloping past. We were also joined by a Green Mountain Photography Workshop group of about 10-12 people who were doing the same thing we were doing: zooming in on the patterns of the grasses backdropped by the autumn leaf reflections in the water.
We split up then, agreeing to meet again at Bass Harbor Light. I did a little exploring at Otter Cliffs, shooting straight down on the soft wave action, and then went over to Little Hunters Beach and took some tide pool shots in the sun and some abstract patterns of the rock in the shade. As it was beginning to get later, I headed toward Seawall, and on the way there, I happened to see Barbara and Mike pulled over at a lobster shack to grab a bite of eat before sunset. They said they had already gone to the famous Bass Harbor lighthouse, and decided the zoo there just wasn’t worth it along with the lack of clouds, and so opted for Seawall for sunset.
I told them I would head that way and meet up later while in the interim, I attempted to find the Big Heath, a nearby wondrous bog of scarlet blueberry bushes, evergreens, mosses, and so many other interesting plants; just a magical pocket of nature left alone since it is basically hidden from view. I did actually find it, but it was pretty wet, and my feet ended up much more wet than I thought they were when I sank into the super spongy ground. It was a place I discovered during my last trip in 1993, and it looked eerily unchanged. We’ll soon see when I compare those photos from today with those from 1993. Then it was off to Seawall for our designated sunset spot, but without a single cloud in the sky, it didn’t look too promising. But, we found a low tide revealing things to photograph in various tide pools and areas thoroughly covered with kelp. There was another photographer there, and had her camera already set up for some Milky Way shots with her lens warmer!! We asked if the moon, currently in the sky, would bother her shots, but she was insistent that the Milky Way would not be interfered with by the light from the moon!! Well, I hope she gets her shot of the light painted tree and Milky Way with the moon. Afterward, we agreed to meet in the morning opposite the Gorham parking lot for sunrise as we both headed back to Bar Harbor. I simply parked somewhere on the streets of Bar Harbor and took off my boots with much wetter socks than I thought. I washed my feet with some baby wipes (just in case) and entered my journal from yesterday, but kept falling asleep in mid-sentence. So, off to Sand Beach for the night, where shortly after arriving there, some young guy knocks on the window to ask how to get to the beach?!?! It seemed he and his girlfriend/wife wanted to shoot the stars, but couldn’t manage to find his way from the parking lot to the beach. Any way, eventually I crawled into the sleeping bag at about 9:30pm and was asleep by 9:31pm. Was super tired and slept right through to about 430am!! Wow!! What a difference a good night sleep makes.
Day 5 — October 15, 2018 Monday
When I woke up at 430am, I felt as though I was finished with sleep for the night and decided to shoot stars at Sand Beach where I’ve been spending the nights. I set up on the sand and tried a few shots and realized that the cliffs all the way on the right had some exposed boulders and surf, so I scooted over there and worked there instead, believing that the rocks would provide more visual interest by lighting the gentle surf as the waves broke around them. I really only wanted the foam to be lit a bit and tried many times until I finally got it right. The whole time there though, there was a fishing boat at least a mile offshore with a pretty strong spotlight on it because when it shone directly at me, I could actually see my shadow! Afterward, I drove to the Gorham Mtn. parking lot to meet Mike and Barbara and we shot some “seascapes” with a bald sky. Afterward, we checked out Little Hunters Beach and found the tide way lower than when I had seen it the other day, so took some pictures on the opposite side since it was now in shadow instead of sunlight as it was the other day. Then it was onto Bar Harbor where we went to Choco-Latte, an immediate favorite, for a great breakfast sitting outside enjoying the morning sunshine.
However, the forecast was for rain to move in around 2pm, so we headed out to the Cadillac Entrance where we found some great red blueberries along with some young birches and evergreens. Pretty neat area. Then, I headed off for the tall white trees that are just a short distance beyond Great Meadow Drive which turned out to be aspens. They were just a short walk beyond the small parking area for the Great Meadow where I found the singular maroon leafed tree for single shots and panoramas. I took some shots there and then walked the short distance to the aspens and took some sharply focused images and blurs, and found Mike and Barbara heading my way when I had finished with the area and heading back to my car. We thought it would be neat to compare what we shot when we return home to see the differences when one isn’t present to affect the other.
We met up at the Wild Gardens of Acadia where the rain began right on schedule, and we ended up heading to their hotel for the rest of the afternoon as the rain got heavier. Barbara went to take a shower and wash her hair, something I hadn’t done yet since arriving, while Mike and I talked in the cavernous sitting area; something reminiscent of the grand old hotels of the past. It was raining pretty heavy nearing sunset, so that was not an option, so we had dinner at Route 66 Burger, which was also a micro-brewery. We ended up staying there quite a long time, having dinner and talking. By then, it was a driving, miserable rain and I just stayed in the car in Bar Harbor doing my journal until yesterday was done and I headed off to the Sand Beach parking lot for the night. The rain pounded the car all night, but it ended right on time around 3am, but then came the predicted gale force winds that shook the car like it did a few years back in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Day 6 — October 16, 2018 Tuesday
After all the storms of yesterday, this morning dawned clear but a bit breezy, and I went to the agreed to rendezvous of Monument Cove. I got there just before a couple from Indiana, and found that the tiny overlook in the woods, had only one great spot on top of a rock dead center of the opening among the trees to see the monument and the curved cobble beach, and I managed to start setting up immediately. The rock could possibly squeeze two people on it, but I wasn’t about to share it with anyone but Mike and Barbara. They showed up shortly afterward, and the sun finally lit up the monolith, casting a shadow on the nearby cliffs, but it was another bald sky, which made the images less than noteworthy.
After finishing at Monument Cove, and even though it was pretty breezy, we headed to shoot the Tarn again and surprisingly, found the waters calm and mirror-like, but we didn’t have much time there as the sun began to creep onto the water and grasses pretty soon after we arrived. I did try some motion blurs with the reflections and hope at least one is properly balanced and interesting; in fact, it may have been the very last shot. And again, there were many other photographers there as well, possibly another workshop. I suppose we chose a popular and photogenic spot. We headed back to their hotel in time for the free breakfast and for them to check-out. and I was certainly sad to part company, as they made this trip so much more enjoyable than any of my other truly “solo” trips since the early nineties.
So, I was on my own and headed off for the Schoodic side of Acadia and spent the day there. I scouted the one way circle road, taking some pics at Raven’s Nest at midday, and at Schoodic Point where there were a lot of interesting basalt intrusions through the granite, some colorful tide pools, and much more crashing surf coming ashore. But it was gale force winds there and loads of other folks wandering around the granite slabs. And since it was near mid-day, the lighting on this clear day was less than optimal for long views. But when the sun is high in the sky, that’s when the tide pools are lit well.
I decided to try to freeze some of the crashing waves after I noticed that the sun shone through the water of the crashing waves giving it a slight turquoise glow, and actually took over one hundred pictures at one particular spot where the waves shot straight up after pounding against the rocks. I also found that the wind actually accentuated the colorful tide pools in the area by giving a shimmer to them from the ripples on the water’s surface and, because of the placements of one of these pools, I actually had to shoot it hand-held! But by boosting the ISO, the frames seemed to be sharp which is always the downfall of attempting a shot without the camera on a tripod. I circled around the loop road again in late afternoon where I reshot Raven’s Nest (side-lit pics will have to either be blended or HDR’d), and thought I’d shoot the sunset at Schoodic Point. But with the wind still howling and not a cloud in the sky, I came to the conslusion that the world doesn’t need another sunset from Schoodic Point with a bald sky. So I hurried over to the east side to shoot looking east instead, and found a neat little spot looking toward Rolling Island with the alpenglow on the horizon behind it. It was nearly dark when I placed a small evergreen growing out of the rock as foreground, but feel I should have focus stacked the shot, so it may not be sharp front to back. But I do have the excuse for not doing so because I was using two split ND’s, having to hand hold one of them. In the gathering darkness, I packed up and chose to return to Acadia instead of opting for one of the several other choices I considered during the day. On the way, I stopped off in Ellsworth for, amazingly, my first McDonald’s meal of the trip; a big difference for me when every opportunity to have a meal there is usually taken. When I’m done here typing all this in at McDonald’s, I’ll head out to the Sand Beach parking lot again for my final night in the sleeping bag before I make my way back to Portland tomorrow.
Day 7 — October 17, 2018 Wednesday (Final)
Went to sleep last night immediately after crawling into the sleeping bag with a sky full of stars, anticipating an early morning hike up Gorham Mountain. I planned ahead and changed to my hiking socks, and set up my boots before turning in at 945pm to save time in the morning. Woke up around 245am and still saw the stars out the window above me. At 430am I decided to get out and begin the day, but a look out the window revealed absolutely NO stars!! It looked totally clouded over, so it made no sense to do a hike up Gorham, and I decided to do the drive up to Cadillac instead, but it looked to be windy at the top as I drove higher and higher up. Not too promising, so I dozed in the darkness in the parking lot surrounded by the usual multitude of cars. When I woke from the short nap a while later, I saw a band of pink on the horizon, so I hustled to get my gear together, all my warm clothes on, and searched around in the dim light for some interesting rocks for foreground. After I found something, I first got the sky right, and then tried many exposures lighting the rocks with my headlamp that would otherwise simply go black. If it works, I’ll have to blend several as only one area could be lit during a single shot. Then I tried a huge panorama of the incredible red light (to see that panorama, (click here) with the long lens and I thought the light might begin to shine on the rocks. But that turned out to be a disappointment and the sun retreated behind the clouds. Did another huge pano vertically, and discovered some crud on the split ND spread out all over the glass!! Ended up doing s third huge pano (9 panels) a bit after the red light without any ND (pano at the top of the post), but this time there were beams from behind the lower string of clouds that ran completely across the horizon. That string of clouds really gave the sky an additional layer of drama, not only for this panorama, but for the entire sunrise.
When it finally completely clouded over and the sunrise was done, I headed for the red blueberries at the Cadillac entrance and spent about an hour there with what might be the best of the ones taken there, was actually taken last. Just a baby evergreen (fir?) surrounded by the red leaves. Luckily, it was much more calm there than the windy conditions at the top of Cadillac. From there it was just a short drive into Bar Harbor for a wonderful breakfast at ChocoLatte, a great send off for the drive back to Portland as this year’s trip heads toward an end.
On the drive to Portland, I made a short stop at a spot that I had seen on the rainy Thursday driving in. It was a flat area part of the Branch Lake Public Forest right along the highway that was red, pink and some light areas of dried grasses that created nice patterns in this tiny meadow. But it would have been bland without a singular object to lead the eye to through the patterns in the meadow. Luckily, there was a small yellow/orange tree that provided that focal point, but I needed to try some photo stacking for this one; something I haven’t really utilized before, but it was a necessity in this instance. There were some problems in that since there was a bit of a breeze, the plants were not exactly in “register” in the two frames as would a completely stationary object. But I also have a single image that is a tiny bit blurry in the foreground that I could also use. That was the only photo stop along the way, although I’m sure if I paid more attention, I would see something every few miles.
In Portland, I checked in to the usual Motel 6, dragged everything that was spread throughout the car, into the room and tried to make sense of it all. The toughest thing is to squeeze down the sleeping bag, foam pad and the new “self-inflating” foam pad. Once those were done, I headed out for the final photo stop of the trip at Portland Head Lighthouse. There were some good clouds floating by, but no light on the lighthouse, and there were plenty of folks walking around it, so I tried some very long exposures (photo above – 3-minutes with a 10-stop ND Filter) which seemed to eliminate the people and blurred the motion of the clouds that provided a contrast to the jagged rocks surrounding the light, but probably nothing different from all those photos of the lighthouse that have come before. I headed over to an abandoned stone building, but the clouds had turned ugly and the wind whipped up pretty bad. So I decided against that idea, hiked back to the car, packed up my camera and headed for the exit as the heavy rain began. But as I turned west, I saw sunlight along the horizon, and even though it was still raining heavily, I headed back to the lighthouse instead, hoping for one last shot of the trip. I literally ran out of the car with the camera bag and it looked like I only had time for a few shots before the light would end on the lighthouse. I had to find a spot that showed the light on the house and lighthouse and hadn’t even been on that side of it before, but found the only spot in the immediate area that might work, and took several shots that might have to blended together at some point. An added bonus was a distant, short rainbow along the left side the lighthouse!! I took an iphone shot as well, and literally, 5-seconds later, the light on the lighthouse and the rainbow both disappeared. But the show wasn’t over. The clouds over the bay and ocean became incredibly lit by the reddening sunlight. I switched lenses and made a panorama, switched lenses again and looked south at the amazing cloud bank being lit up; switched lenses again and took some other clouds with a lighthouse across the bay. But, as the light began to fade, the park police used the PA to announce the park was closing in 6-minutes!
So I took that as a sign to make sure I get out of the park before being locked inside. What a way to end the photography part of the trip: running around trying to capture this incredible light. I can’t remember when I have ever had back to back super light in a single day. I wanted to finish up with a kind of celebratory dinner and followed the navigation downtown to a Starbucks, but couldn’t find any parking. Finally did, but it was no longer nearby the Starbucks, so I looked around the eateries surrounding this area of cobblestone streets and ended in Gritty’s, a pub with their own brews, but just had a burger. What was strange though was while I sat at the bar, a woman sat down next to me who I erroneously thought was with someone. She downed a giant margarita pretty quickly and while doing so, asked me if I had seen the Red Sox game. A few seconds of conversation about the Yankees getting killed by them, and suddenly she got up and left the place. It just seemed weird…almost like she needed that drink. Anyway, back at the hotel, I finished packing and brought the two giant bags to the car to make things easier in the early morning getting out for the 535am flight, and took a much needed shower. Needed so much that it was the first (and last) of the trip. A new first on a trip. Luckily, I didn’t do any real hiking or sweating in the cold, so I hope I did not offend anyone nearby; especially that woman sitting next to me at the bar. Hmmm, maybe that’s why she left so abruptly. Hopefully, things will go as smoothly tomorrow as they did when I came up. We’ll see.
j.j. raia 