Spectacular Cadillac Sunrise

Timeline - Alarm: 3:53 am, Woke up: 4:07 am, In car: 4:22 am, At Cadillac: 4:38 am, Sunrise: 5:20 am.

The sky looked very promising for a beautiful sunrise as we drove up Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park this morning. Sure enough, there was a nice blanket of clouds glowing red as the sun rose above the horizon. I took this shot using a 3-stop neutral density reverse gradient filter (handheld). There's a brief window of a couple minutes to capture the sun just at the edge of the horizon. After that the light changes immediately and the moment is gone. So I like to arrive about 40 minutes early to: scout a location, set up, and have all the camera settings adjusted to capture the moment. This was the last MDI Photo Club outing of the season and a very successful one at that! Some Cadillac Mountain sunrises are spectacular, while others are ho-hum, thankfully today's was extra-spectacular. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park. 

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 16-35mm @ 16mm, f/22, 2 sec, ISO 100, 5/3/14, 5:18 AM

Sunrise, Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park, Maine

Hulls Cove Beachscape

After driving a mile past this scene and debating with myself the entire mile if I should stop to take a photograph or continue on to my destination, I turned the car around and headed back. They say take the shot when you see it, never say 'oh, I'll come back and take that picture'. I saw something from the road that looked promising, but I didn't know exactly what it was. Arriving at Hulls Cove in Bar Harbor, I walked down to the beach and started shooting. Seven compositions later I honed in on the final shot expressing what drew me here. Below I walk you through my seven compositions to experience my thought process as I composed this final image. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Fujifilm X100S, 23mm, f/8.0 (&B there), 1/160 sec, ISO 200, 4/23/14, 11:42 AM

 

Beachscape, Hulls Cove Beach, Bar Harbor, Maine

 

My first shot and what I liked: soft light, streams forming s-curves, interesting foreground rock with repeating patterns of green algae in background rocks, simple ocean (not distracting). I didn't like the shallow depth of field. Hmm, nothing special.

Hulls Cove Beach, Composition 1

Hulls Cove Beach, Composition 2

Let's try looking down to simplify the image, with less information. Ughh, it looks worse.

Looking down didn't work, let's try looking up. Nope. If there was an interesting sky with puffy clouds or an amazing sunrise, this would work. We're not there yet.

Hulls Cove Beach, Composition 3

Hulls Cove Beach, Composition 4

Okay, this is starting to feel right. Better angle and increased depth of field. But it could still be better, let's try changing perspective.

I climbed up on the foreground rock. I wanted to hold my camera high above my head and point down at the sand as my main subject of the image. It's starting to take shape. Let's now try a vertical shot.

Hulls Cove Beach, Composition 5

Hulls Cove Beach, Composition 6

Wow, that's it! Now for some fine adjustments. See the rock in the upper right corner. I want to see the whole rock with some ocean to buffer it on the right. Believe me when I tell you, it took a few shots. Holding the camera above my head implies I 'recompose' (without looking at the back or the viewfinder) and check. Over and over, until I get it just so.

Bingo, that's the one. Now climb down from the rock and snap a couple of other shots that didn't amount to much.

Hulls Cove Beach, Composition 7

Hulls Cove Beach, Final Composition

Here's the final image after some post processing in Lightroom and with Nik Software. I love using the stream as leading lines. From left to  right: leading from foreground rock to repeating rocks in background, leading from mid-image to the background ocean, and leading to the lone rock at the shoreline.

Sargeant Drive's Swelling Stream

Teetering on the edge of the stream in my Birkenstocks, I was tossing my tripod in the middle of the stream and shooting with a remote shutter release cable. I couldn't look through the viewfinder or see the back of the camera to frame or review my image. After each shot, I would pull the tripod out, change the settings on the camera (shutter speed, aperture, focal length or angle) and then place the tripod back in the stream (hopefully in the same place) and shoot again. Rinse and repeat until I found a compelling image. Below is the last image captured - I like it.

Given the heavy rain from the previous day, the original plan was to photograph water running off the rocks adjacent Sargeant Drive on Mount Desert Island along Somes Sound. Thinking this was going to be a quick 15 minute shoot, I didn't dress for the cold weather. After an hour shooting the rock faces and waterfalls it was time to head home and warm up. I found a spot to pull over and turn around. Just as I was preparing to make a U-turn, I spotted this raging stream hidden behind some trees. I jumped out of the car and headed into the woods and discovered this swelling stream. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

 

Swelling Stream, Sergeant Drive, Northeast Harbor, Maine

 

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 24-70mm @ 28mm, f/8 (&B there), 1 sec, ISO 100, 4/8/14, 6:15 PM

Monument Cove Blizzard

What do you do when the electricity goes out and there's a blizzard outside? Howie says, "Grab a camera and go out shooting!" and that's how my day went. Brenda's excuse for joining me, "It's warmer in the car than at home." So we drove around, in the 'last' blizzard of the season, searching for photo ops. I spent about 30 minutes at Monument Cove in Acadia National Park, it felt longer given the 27° F temperature, over 35 mph wind gusts and snow flying everywhere. Was it worth it, a resounding 'YES'. I'm pleased with the results. To learn how to create images like this, join one of our photo workshops in Acadia National Park.

Blizzard at Monument Cove, Acadia National Park, Maine

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 24-70mm @ 24mm, f/8, 1/200 sec, ISO 640, 2/26/14, 5:15 PM

 

Here are the post-processing steps. Starting with the RAW file.

 

In Nik Software applied: Pre-Sharpening and Define (due to higher ISO).

 

In Nik Software - Viveza:
  • On the wave: added slight amounts of Brightness, Contrast, Structure, Saturation, Warmth, and Green
  • On the monument wall: added slight amounts of Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Warmth, and Red

 

In Nik Software - Color Efex Pro, applied the Tonal Contrast and Skylight Filter.

 

Finally, in Nik Software applied Post-Sharpener and in Lightroom added a vignette.

Down Jordan Stream

The temperature was slightly above freezing causing the local streams to flow due to snow melt. My freshly minted snowshoe tracks were the only ones along Jordan Stream in Acadia National Park. I'm guessing no one had been here in the past couple of weeks. I've been up and down this stream dozens of times, however today with the snow stacked on the rocks the stream looked like a new scene for me to photograph. I spotted this down-stream angle and remembered when I was on a workshop with Bill Fortney and heard him say that shooting looking down a stream can but just as effective as shooting upstream. So I jammed my tripod legs into two feet of snow a few times until the composition felt right and snapped about three shots. The water flow over the rocks always varies slightly, so I like to have a couple shots to choose from. To learn how to create images like these, join one of our photo workshops in Acadia National Park.

 

Jordan Stream, Acadia National Park, Maine

 

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 24-70mm @ 32mm, f/18, 2 secs, ISO 100, 2/22/14, 4:11 PM