Two Perspectives

Two different perspectives of the Jesup Path in Acadia National Park from yesterday's visit. With at least three feet of snow on the path - snowshoes are required! I decided to head out a little before sunset to maximize the golden hour. That didn't pan out, the clouds blew through before the sun reached the golden light. Not to fear, the Jesup Path always has interesting photographic subjects. First, taken about three feet from the ground with a wide angle (16 mm). The starkness of the bare trees against the vibrant cloud filled sky compelled me to capture the scene. Second, looking up a tree with a small telephoto lens (85 mm). I really enjoyed the mushroom patterns scattered over the birchbark trunk. There you have it, changing perspective allows for alternative subjects/compositions. To learn how to create images like these, consider attending one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data (left): Nikon D800, 16mm, f/14, 1/30 sec, ISO 200, 2/22/15, 3:47 PM
EXIF data (right): Nikon D800, 85mm, f/5.6, 1/80 sec, ISO 200, 2/22/15, 4:29 PM

Jesup Path, Acadia National Park, Maine

Birchbark Mushrooms, Jesup Path, Acadia National Park, Maine

Frozen Otter Cliffs

Otter Cliffs in Acadia National Park at 110 feet tall are one of the tallest headlands north of Rio De Janiero.  Because of all the recent storms, they are currently coated with sea spray. In the past week with the three storms we've had, the sea spray has blown to the top of the cliffs, creating a frozen cliff face. I captured this image during the MDI Photo Club's monthly outing. The photo club ventured out attempting to capture the cliff face during the morning golden light; we were greeted with calm wind conditions and a (relatively) warm sunrise. To learn how to create images like this, consider attending one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 300mm, f/16, 1/50 sec, ISO 100, 2/7/15, 7:15 AM

Frozen Otter Cliffs At Sunrise, Acadia National Park, Maine

Bucks Harbor Machiasport

Last October, Brenda choose a weekend getaway to Downeast Maine. I'm thinking Bar Harbor is Downeast Maine; turns out there is more Downeast to see. We mostly drove around, allowing me plenty of occasions to stop the car, backup (as we passed an interesting vista), hop out, and take a few pictures. A few pictures meant at least 30 minutes per stop - we didn't get very far.

There are oodles of coves in Downeast Maine to explore and photograph. This image was taken at Bucks Harbor in Machiasport, Maine. Let's just say this wasn't the 'picture-perfect' day with a crisp blue sky, puffy white clouds, and a golden sunset. Sometimes days like these provide the right set of circumstances to capture the feeling or mood of the scene. For me, this image does that. To learn how to create images like this, consider joining one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 24-70mm @ 60mm, f/14, 1/13 sec, ISO 100, 10/18/14, 3:09 PM

Bucks Harbor, Machiasport, Maine


Below are my editing and post processing steps from the raw images to the final image.

The raw image:

In Lightroom: 
 - cropped the green boat from the left side
- applied a graduated filter to the sky

In Nik Color Efex Pro:
 - Added the Tonal Contrast Pro filter
 - Added the Skylight filter

Also used Nik Sharpner Pro:
 - default settings

In Photoshop, I used the content-aware cloning brush to remove all the sensor dust spots from the sky for this final image.
 

Small Snow Drifts

Tomorrow's forecast: blizzard. This pre-blizzard 'small' snow drift was taken at Jordan Pond in Acadia National Park yesterday. I took some time this past weekend to hike around, take photographs, and most importantly introduce our new puppy, Cider, to Jordan Pond. He officially loves running through the 'small' snow drifts at full speed, it's more like a belly-flop with legs everywhere. After tomorrow's 2 feet of fresh snow and 50 mph wind gusts, this scene will look completely different - ah, the impermanence of nature. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/14, 1/125 sec, ISO 200, 1/25/15, 1:42 PM

 

Small Snow Drifts, Jordan Pond, Acadia National Park, Maine

 

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Demystified Mist

As I was driving down the dirt road in Death Valley National Park, this scene was revealing itself just ahead of me. After a couple of minutes, I finally had the sense to stop and capture some photos. This was not the intended subject, but who could resist light like this? Five minutes later the entire scene was gone.

This image reminds me of a photography quip: "shoot it when you see it". How many times do you see something and say I'm too busy or I'll come back to shoot it? I've said that dozens of times - now I try to shoot it, rather than pass by the scene. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200, 12/12/14, 2:21 PM

Demystified Mist, Death Valley National Park, California