Nursing Pup

Bunker Ledge just off Seal Harbor on Mount Desert Island hosts a summer population of harbor seals and gray seals. When the tide and sun align, there is beautiful light for taking pictures of the seals (I hesitate to say 'shooting the seals'). Living in Seal Harbor affords us the convenience of taking our 28 foot Ellis lobster yacht out to the ledge every week of the summer. This was a lucky shot! I never noticed the seal pup, let alone the that it was nursing, until I reviewed my pictures for sharpness and interesting compositions. My attention was drawn to larger and brighter seals in a different area of the frame. As I zoomed in on the image to check detail sharpness, I scanned to the left and noticed the nursing pup. Yup, a very fortunate moment to capture! To learn how to create images like this, consider taking my sunset cruise photography workshop off Mount Desert Island.  

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 300mm, f/8 (&B there ;-), 1/640 sec, ISO 200, 5/28/14, 6:27 PM

Nursing Seal Pup, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Here's the original shot, where my attention was drawn to the larger and brighter seals in the center of the frame. I was trying to include the red buoy and waiting for waves to wash up on the right side of the ledge. All the time shooting that evening, I was never aware of that cute pup nursing.


Macro Rhododendron

It's spring in Maine and I decided to visit the Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor as it comes into bloom. Frankly, photographing flowers usually bores me, so I tried mixing it up this year with some different angles using a macro lens. This lens was made back in the mid-70's and still produces some wonderful results. Though it's a 55mm lens, when paired with the D800, there is plenty of detail to crop down the shot. Here's my favorite shot of the day with all the details of my post-processing in Lightroom. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park.

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 55mm (macro), f/5.6, 1/100 secs, ISO 200, 6/7/14, 4:20 PM

Blooming Rhododendron, Asticou Azalea Garden, Northeast Harbor, Maine

Below are my post-processing steps in Lightroom, starting with the raw file.

First I tried a square crop. All the editing happened with the square crop.

Add some sharpening (+39) and adjusted the Tone Curve for a bit of contrast (an s-curve shape) making the darks darker and lights lighter.

Now for some very subtle tweaks on the Basic panel mostly to brighten the flower and darken the background: Highlights (+5), Whites (+5), Vibrance (+6) and Post-Crop Vignette (-8).

Okay, it's a good looking flower with pretty colors, but missing energy. I tried a few different crops before settling on this one.

As a bonus, here's my second favorite shot from that day - some white flower thingy. Enjoy!

White Flower, Asticou Azalea Garden, Northeast Harbor, Maine

Sunset Skypools

We never expected a sunset as we left the dock in the fog. While we were on the water, the conditions continually improved as the fog lifted. By the time sunset was happening, there was a thin wisp of fog just below the western mountains of Acadia National Park. We had a great opportunity to include skypools in the foreground of this sunset shoot. And an added bonus of soft light at the base of the mountains provided a thin veil of fog. To learn how to create images like this, consider taking my sunset cruise photography workshop off Mount Desert Island. 

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 35mm, f/11, 1/250 sec, ISO 400, 5/21/14, 7:29 PM

Sunset skypools with the Western Mountains of Acadia National Park, Maine


Who's Ever Heard Of Skypools?

They're cool oval shaped colors that appear on the surface of water reflecting the colors in the sky. Yesterday evening I was out on our boat exploring options for the Sunset Cruise Safari and came across some outrageous skypools (link scientifically explains the phenomena) just off Mount Desert Island. My shutter continued snapping away for at least 30 minutes - I'm crazy for this kind of abstract photography! Below is a potpourri of shots taken yesterday, including a sunset. To learn how to create images like these, consider taking one of my nature photography workshops in Acadia National Park. 

EXIF data: Nikon D800, 300mm, f/5.6, 1/1600 sec, ISO 400, 5/21/14, 7:19 PM

Skypools just off Mount Desert Island, Maine

The Katherine Louise lobster boat out of Southwest Harbor, Maine

Katherine Louise lobster boat out of Southwest Harbor, Maine

Skypool sunset, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Mount Desert Island western mountains silhouette by the  sunset with foreground skypools.

Contrails lit up by the sunset. My camera was pointed up, down, sideways and all-around. 

Contrails lit by sunset off Mount Desert Island, Maine

Skypools 2 off Mount Desert Island, Maine

Another favorite skypool from yesterday, this one has a bit more tension.

Ending the series with a quiet lobster buoy.

Quiet lobster buoy off the coast of Mount Desert Island, Maine

 

Burnt Coat Harbor Light - Night Sky

Having the wonderful opportunity to start a new light painting project with community of Swan's Island earlier in the evening, I was hoping to capture the night sky afterward (in the wee morning hours). Hopped in bed around 11:00 pm with heavy cloud cover. Woke up around 1:00 am to check the cloud cover, no clouds and the moon was setting - great conditions for night sky photography. Drove around Swan's Island concluding with the lighthouse as the last stop. I was able to frame the Milky Way arching over Burnt Coat Harbor Light. This was literally the last shot of the evening. Special thanks to Rob for hosting us on the Sunbeam and Heather for providing island transportation. 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/2.8, 20 secs, ISO 2000, 5/8/14, 3:33 AM

Night Sky, Burnt Coat Harbor Light, Swan's Island, Maine