Fall Foliage 2018 Acadia National Park Day 2
27th November 2018
Fall Foliage in Acadia National Park 2018 Day 2
I was able to check the weather report on the windy summit of Bald Mountain the previous day and saw that the forecast had changed to cloudy and rainy for this day. Trusting that, and the completely overcast skies I saw at the first light of dawn, I wrote off getting a sunrise shot on the morning of Day 2 and opted to make oatmeal and coffee at camp instead.
Big mistake! A few minutes after breakfast was ready, well before the sunrise time, I noticed an intense band of magenta light on the eastern horizon at sea through the trees. There must have been enough of a break in the overcast offshore!
The one thing I did right was have my hiking bag packed with all of my photo gear the night before. I grabbed it and raced through the woods from camp to the coast. The light was incredible, but I had no previously scouted composition. I had run out of time to scout the coast for sunrise compositions the day before. Scouting is something I would highly recommend. You need to know what your composition is before the light hits.
The light was so intense I don’t think it looks real, even though I did almost no saturation adjustments in post processing. I was tempted to de-saturate it. Either way I am disappointed with this image, but here it is:.
Initially I was upset that the person parked themselves down in view, but in hindsight I think it helps the image. Once the crazy light faded, I actually liked the results better:
I really wish I had found a location to put the sun more in the right side of the frame to balance it out.
After this sunrise it was completely cloudy. I went off to shoot some of the cobble beaches.
Sadly, it was obvious that people have been taking stones off this beach for years, and I found the distinctive cobbles mostly below the tide line. Please don’t remove stones or anything from the wild! One stone at a time over years makes a big difference.
By 9:30 am it started to rain, and would remain rainy the rest of the day.
Striped maple with rain drop falling off:
I headed down to the Jordan Stream Trail and walked its length. The rain kept the tourists away. I found a few interesting compositions:
Eight second exposure to create this swirl effect of pine duff stuck in the eddy. Too bad the rest of the scene looks chaotic from all of the downed trees.
My Canon 6D and 24-105 L series lens held up very well shooting uncovered in the rain. It proved that it's weather sealing was for real. The only issue was condensation on the lens, especially during day 3’s sunrise shoot. But more on that later.
Around sunset time, it was still cloudy and drizzly. I shot some moody shots of the cliffs of Mt. Champlain:
Then I headed into a birch forest but just couldn’t get a good enough composition to have a photo to share from that experience. I finally gave up and just started hiking around Great Head to scout for sunrise the next day. Of course once I was 10 minutes down the trail, I saw orange light glowing in the skies! I was missing the good stuff for the second time this day because I gave up.
I raced out of the woods and back to this spot, and only got this one frame off in good light before it faded:
Thus Day 2 ended. Lessons learned: always pre-scout compositions and never give up on the chance for sunrise or sunset if you have traveled to be somewhere.
I was able to check the weather report on the windy summit of Bald Mountain the previous day and saw that the forecast had changed to cloudy and rainy for this day. Trusting that, and the completely overcast skies I saw at the first light of dawn, I wrote off getting a sunrise shot on the morning of Day 2 and opted to make oatmeal and coffee at camp instead.
Big mistake! A few minutes after breakfast was ready, well before the sunrise time, I noticed an intense band of magenta light on the eastern horizon at sea through the trees. There must have been enough of a break in the overcast offshore!
The one thing I did right was have my hiking bag packed with all of my photo gear the night before. I grabbed it and raced through the woods from camp to the coast. The light was incredible, but I had no previously scouted composition. I had run out of time to scout the coast for sunrise compositions the day before. Scouting is something I would highly recommend. You need to know what your composition is before the light hits.
The light was so intense I don’t think it looks real, even though I did almost no saturation adjustments in post processing. I was tempted to de-saturate it. Either way I am disappointed with this image, but here it is:.
Initially I was upset that the person parked themselves down in view, but in hindsight I think it helps the image. Once the crazy light faded, I actually liked the results better:
I really wish I had found a location to put the sun more in the right side of the frame to balance it out.
After this sunrise it was completely cloudy. I went off to shoot some of the cobble beaches.
Sadly, it was obvious that people have been taking stones off this beach for years, and I found the distinctive cobbles mostly below the tide line. Please don’t remove stones or anything from the wild! One stone at a time over years makes a big difference.
By 9:30 am it started to rain, and would remain rainy the rest of the day.
Striped maple with rain drop falling off:
I headed down to the Jordan Stream Trail and walked its length. The rain kept the tourists away. I found a few interesting compositions:
Eight second exposure to create this swirl effect of pine duff stuck in the eddy. Too bad the rest of the scene looks chaotic from all of the downed trees.
My Canon 6D and 24-105 L series lens held up very well shooting uncovered in the rain. It proved that it's weather sealing was for real. The only issue was condensation on the lens, especially during day 3’s sunrise shoot. But more on that later.
Around sunset time, it was still cloudy and drizzly. I shot some moody shots of the cliffs of Mt. Champlain:
Then I headed into a birch forest but just couldn’t get a good enough composition to have a photo to share from that experience. I finally gave up and just started hiking around Great Head to scout for sunrise the next day. Of course once I was 10 minutes down the trail, I saw orange light glowing in the skies! I was missing the good stuff for the second time this day because I gave up.
I raced out of the woods and back to this spot, and only got this one frame off in good light before it faded:
Thus Day 2 ended. Lessons learned: always pre-scout compositions and never give up on the chance for sunrise or sunset if you have traveled to be somewhere.