Acadia National Park in Autumn: Nature and Landscape Photographs

Back in October, I had a frustratingly shortened trip to Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor, Maine. It had been seven years since my last trip to Bar Harbor. On the recent trip, I intended to have five full days of photography, during peak fall foliage, and I had spent weeks carefully mapping out places to photograph, in different times of day and weather conditions.

However, before sunrise on the second morning, I had a bad fall on the rocky coast near the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse. I immediately felt severe pain and no use of my left arm and shoulder. I drove myself with one hand to the the Emergency Room, back in Bar Harbor, about 40 minute away. At the ER, they put me in a sling, and I knew my time in Maine would come to a premature end. That same day, my wife, Cynthia, flew up from Pennsylvania, packed all my stuff into our car (I was not able to lift anything), and she drove me nine hours back home. You know that whole "sickness and health" part of wedding vows? Well, Cynthia went above and beyond. Several days later, after X-Rays, an MRI and a CT scan, I learned that I had broken my scapula (shoulder blade).

On the morning in which I got hurt, the photography gods played a cruel trick on me. Immediately after my fall, as I sat in excruciating pain on the rocks by the coast, the pre-dawn sky was a beautiful combination of pinks and blues, but I was unable to lift my left arm to take any photos. During the drive to the hospital, a beautiful mist rose up from the water, with the early morning sunlight shining through. My instinct was to pull over to take photos, but the reality was that I could not even lift my left arm enough to touch the bottom of the steering wheel. Photography was out of the question.

Prior to the injury, I had one evening and all of the next day for photography. What follows are the photos that I took in that time, in and around Acadia National Park. This included stops at Jordan Pond, a sunrise at Boulder Beach (with a great view of Otter Cliff), various views along Park Loop Road, Otter Cove, Bass Harbor Marsh, the picturesque Somesville Footbridge, and a late afternoon and evening at Eagle Lake.

Jordan Pond and the Bubble Mountains, in the evening, with
 fall foliage, Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/10/20.

Driftwood in Jordan Pond, after sunset, with the Bubble Mountains.  Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/10/20.

Otter Cliff, as seen from Boulder Beach,
before sunrise, Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean, at
Boulder Beach, Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Otter Cliff, as seen from Boulder Beach, just after sunrise,
Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Monument Cove with early morning light,
Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Otter Cove, with fall foliage.
Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Jordan Pond and the Bubble Mountains,
Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Penobscot Mountain with fall foliage. Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Penobscot Mountain over Jordan Pond, with fall foliage. Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Somesville Bridge, with fall foliage. Somesville, Maine. 10/11/20.

Somesville Bridge, with autumn flowers fall foliage. Somesville, Maine. 10/11/20

Bass Harbor Marsh, Bass Harbor, Maine. 10/11/20.

Eagle Lake, Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Eagle Lake, Acadia National Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

Eagle Lake after sunset, Acadia National
Park, Maine. 10/11/20.

 

"Here Comes the Sun": How to Create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photograph of a Sunrise

"Little darling

It's been a long, cold lonely winter

Little darling

It feels like years since it's been here

Here comes the sun..."

George Harrison

(The Beatles)

Perhaps it was our "long, cold" winter in Bucks County, Pennsylvania that had me itching to take a sunrise photograph. I took the Delaware River and Train Bridge photograph just a few days ago, about a mile from my house.  A beautiful sunrise somehow combines wonderful drama and color with sense of peacefulness. Its the literal and symbolic beginning of a new day. A fresh start. 


Photographing a sunrise can be tricky business.  Once the sun starts to come up, you are faced with a subject with both very bright areas and very dark areas.  While our eyes magically sort this out, the camera has a harder time.  If you take an image with a correct exposure for darker parts of the scene, the sun will be overexposed and washed out.  If you get a correct exposure for the sun, the rest of the image may be nearly black.

There are a few ways to photograph a sunrise in a manner that replicates what our eyes see.  If there is a clear line between the bright area and the dark area, a graduated neutral density filter can be handy. However, often situations are more complicated than that.  For example, in the first image below (Delaware River and Train Bridge) the areas of relative dark and light are juxtaposed throughout the scene.  Its not a simple matter of the top being bright and the bottom being dark.  For situations like this, I like to create a High Dynamic Range (HDR) image from multiple separate exposures. For the Delaware River and Train Bridge photograph, I took eight separate exposures (you can see each of these exposures under the photograph).  If you would like to learn more about the process of creating an HDR photograph, please skip to the bottom of this post.  


Here is a sampling of my sunrise photographs from the past few years.  In addition to a few images near my home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, I have included iamges from The Bahamas, Acadia National Park (Maine), Myrtle Beach (South Carolina), Pittsburgh, and Washington, D.C.  To see more of my photographs or to purchase an image, click HERE.

Delaware River and Train Bridge
Yardley, Pennsylvania (Bucks County)
March, 2015

Here are the eight separate exposures used to create the above
HDR photograph.  These all have ISO 200 and Aperture of f/16.
The shutter speeds range from 1/2 second (upper left)
to 1/200th of a second (bottom right).

Old Chevrolet Truck
Hopewell, New Jersey (Mercer County)
April, 2013

Delaware River from Lumberton Footbridge
Lumberton, Pennsylvania (Bucks County)
December, 2014

View from "The Cove"
Atlantis, The Bahamas
December 2014

Acadia National Park, Maine
View from Cadillac Mountain
August, 2011

Cherry Grove Pier
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
April, 2014

Cherry Grove Pier
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
April, 2014

View from Mount Washington,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
February, 2014

U.S. Capital
Washington, D.C.
August, 2014

CREATING A HIGH DYNAMIC RANGE (HDR) PHOTOGRAPH:  For 99% of my images, I prefer to shoot in manual mode.  When I want to create an HDR photograph of a particular scene, I usually place my camera on a tripod. This avoids any blur in your image (i.e. if you are using a slow shutter speed). Also, it insures that each of your exposures has close to the exact same content.  You then take a series of exposures (holding constant the "aperture" - the size of the opening of the shutter), and changing the exposure speed in regular increments.  You want to make sure that you have a correct exposure for each part of the scene - from the darkest part to the lightest part.  

As an example, let's look at the Delaware River and Train Bridge photograph.  To create this, I took eight separate exposures.  For each of them, the aperture  was f/16 (because I wanted a pretty wide depth of field). For the darkest parts of the scene (i.e. the bridge and the ground in the lower right) the correct shutter speed at f/16 was 1/2 second.  I then shot a series of exposures at regular intervals ("full stop" increments) until I reached the brightest part of the scene (the sun needed a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second). I then had eight separate images (you can see each of these exposures above, under the Delaware River and Train Bridge image). Once I returned home, I uploaded all of my images onto my computer. Then I used HDR software (I use "Photomatix") to merge the eight exposures into one image.  This final image has the correct exposure for each part of the picture.  I then used Photoshop and OnOne software to put the "finishing touches" on the image.

Maine - Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor

I'm just back from Maine's beautiful Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor region with my wife and 2 sons.  In addition to wonderful outdoor activities like kayaking, biking, and hiking, the area is a photographer's paradise (and its not too bad for seafood and ice cream!).  Below are a few of my new Maine images.  These and others can be seen at my ETSY shop: JOSHFRIEDMANPHOTO on ETSY

Otter Cliff, Acadia National Park

Morning Light from Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park

Morning Lobster Boats, Bar Harbor, Maine

Eagle Lake, Acadia National Park, Maine

Footbridge, Somesville, Mount Desert Island, Maine

Otter Cove, Acadia National Park, Maine

Morning Lobster Boat, Maine

Morning Light on Pond, Acadia National Park, Maine

Tide and Rocks, Acadia National Park, Maine

Click here to visit my ETSY shop