Maine – Page 2 – Dutch goes the Photo!

Wednesday’s Choice

As I was editing some of the substantial backlog of my images (don’t ask how many), an idea came to mind. Often, during these editing sessions, I like to experiment with alternate looks to create for my images. It’s a way to check what mood comes through with a particular look.

So I thought it might be interesting to ask for feedback from all of you to find out how these alternatives resonate (or don’t) with your sensibilities. Here’s the first one in this series.

This images was taken a bit later in the morning of the A Very Early Sunrise in Maine post, as I had found a different location with a view of some of the Porcupine islands lined up and a sky that was rather pleasing.

The first treatment is the more sedate of the 2, as I made use of Aurora HDR’s ‘Rocks Sunset’ preset that is part of their Natural collection of presets. As I looked at this result, I felt that it didn’t really do the overall scene justice, as even a bit of brightening of the foreground didn’t produce a good sense of the beauty of the landscape on the mountain.

The second treatment is definitely more aggressive; it uses Aurora HDR’s ‘EggHDRugs on Brain’ preset that is part of their Trey Ratcliff Looks collection. It pops the foreground quite a bit and with a bit of darkening, the sky look came in as pretty dramatic.

Hope you enjoy these comparisons and I’m looking forward to hear from you about your preferences.

A very early sunrise in Maine

During the photography trip to Acadia National park in Maine, there were several key photo opportunities that were not to be missed; one of these is to photograph the very early sunrise atop Cadillac Mountain in the park.

During a large part of the year, Cadillac Mountain allows one to see the earliest sunrise in the United States, a fact that attracts a significant number of photographers to this location, despite the incredibly early hour. The following is one of the images that I captured during this morning session…

This was captured at 4:45 a.m. on June 8, 2021, as the Sun is just beginning to show a sliver of its orb above the horizon. The weather really cooperated on this day, as the clouds made for a great canvas for the Sun’s early rays to paint the rose-fingered dawn, as Homer might say.

This image was shot with a Canon EOS R5 using a Canon RF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens; aperture was at f/9 with an exposure of 1/250s at 800 ISO. Post processing was done using Luminar 4 by Skylum.

Puffins are magical!

As 2021 enabled us to slowly, carefully head back toward travel and exploration of our world, I did manage to take a photography trip to Acadia National Park in the wonderful state of Maine.

Acadia is an exciting park to visit, as it presents a wealth of photography opportunities with excellent variety. During this trip, we photographed the sunrise at Cadillac Mountain, sunsets in Bar Harbor, lighthouses and nature in its many manifestations. It was a great way to unwind!

A side trip took us to Machias-Seal Island, which territory is disputed between Canada and the United States. The benefit of this dispute is that small groups are allowed to visit the island’s puffin colony, weather permitting. As our guide had reserved our tour’s spot well in advance (spots sell out in early January), and the weather cooperated, we had the pleasure of spending several hours photographing from blinds, as we were surrounded by puffins everywhere. Here’s one shot from that magical time.

There were hundreds, if not thousands of puffins around us. From time to time, some of them would even run across the top of our blind, giving us a pitter patter of little puffin feet as a sound track.

This image was shot using a Canon EOS R5 using the amazing Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM lens. This lens absolutely blew me away with the image quality that it was able to produce.

There will be more posts coming from this trip!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Coast

Along a coast filled with moments…

Welcome to week 184 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge! For those looking for last weeks’ round up, I have started working on it, but, as I’m traveling, will be a day late getting all your great posts rounded up.

After a week of magnificent sunsets, I thought that I’d continue with a theme that was allied to last week’s theme in terms of location. When I looked for possible themes, I was surprised that it was available… So this week, your challenge is to find a Coast and share your impressions of it, or simply Coast along in your automobile and enjoy the countryside floating by.

Yes, Coast is one of those words that can be taken into several directions, so feel free to follow any of these directions and let your creative thoughts explore what lies ahead! More than anything, have some fun with the theme! Can’t wait to see your ideas!

Here’s a coastal evening…

This came from a nighttime excursion to Cape Neddick, Maine, where the lighthouse is decorated for the holiday season every year. Using a long exposure, we get a sense of peace across the scene, as the water calms down…

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

So, coast along and find your coast moment!

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Sunrise

A chill in the air!

Welcome to week 151 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge.

This week’s theme is another instance of surprised that I haven’t used this theme before! While Morning has been a theme, Sunrise has not been used yet. As I always look for the themes to be accessible to everyone, I figured that the Sun is available to most of us, Earthlings. Of course, it does happen early in the day, so night owls might be disadvantaged, but I’m sure their creative minds can come up with a workaround for rising early!

Most of all, have a lot of fun with this theme!!

This sunrise is from last week…

I had the fun of spending a day with fellow photographers, braving the cold of the Maine coast! The temperature at this time was only 3F(-16C), but the sunrise was spectacular, and putting it behind the Portland Head lighthouse made for a dramatic image…

The full rules of this challenge are in TPC Guidelines, but here’s the tl;dr:

Write a post with an image for this week’s topic
Please tag your post with fpj-photo-challenge (if you’re not sure about how tags work, please check out this WordPress article about tagging posts)
Create a pingback link to this post, so that I can create a post showing all of the submissions over the week (note: pingbacks may not appear immediately, as my site is set up to require approval for linking to it; helps against previous bad experiences with spamming)
Have fun creating something new (or sharing something old)!!

Looking forward to see what comes round the bend this week!

WPC Final Week – Favorites – Pt. 3

Nubble brooding

The Final WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has presented their final theme of All-Time Favorites, which, while being a bit sad that it’s their last prompt, is a great way to finish.

Today’s choice is one of those photographs that has gotten a lot of positive reactions from many people, both on-line and those who have seen it in print. As a subject, it was something that I avoided for years, as it had been photographed so many times before and some great photos already existed. Until, this day in June 2013, when I was inspired…

So here’s what came about…

cn-20130612-Cape-Neddick-Brooding_57A1833_4_5-12x18 — *Nubble Brooding*

The vista that lay in front of me was not quite as dramatic as this final image. There was a bit of surf; there were some (rather bright) clouds overhead. My decision was to get down low to the water for this shot and find the right spot for the composition, which I wanted to be a little bit out of standard. Then I took a series of exposures with different solutions to get all the elements that I needed.

I took five weeks before I was in the right mood to edit this image and produce what you see here. There was a need for some darkness in this image, as well as the light that gives hope. Hope you enjoy!

Have a great day!

Surreal Moments

Nubble brooding

The WordPress Daily Prompt gives us the theme of Surreal. There are definitely some surreal moments among my collection of images!

I enjoy the process of creating something more than what is visible to the eye in my photography. Whether it is a straightforward (or not so) HDR image or combining many layers to create something otherworldly, there is something special about putting together an image that existed in my mind rather than the view through my lens.

This image comes from a beautiful, sunny June day…

As there was a bit of cloud cover, I thought it might be interesting to use it in a much darker fashion. Taking a series of shots across a range of exposures, I got the clouds dark enough to become menacing, while leaving a hint of brightness around their edges. It took a bit of manipulation, but I got it to a point that I like.

Have a wonderful day!

The Mighty One

Bull Moose in Rain

The WordPress Daily Prompt has the theme of Mighty. This caused me to take a look through some of my images to see what resonated…

Then I came across this image of the mighty bull moose, happily browsing in a pond in the pouring rain! Clearly, this bull was not overly impressed with the rain, and not nearly as bothered by it as the photographer. Despite the weather I had a great day photographing in Baxter State Park in the great state of Maine.

Here’s a quick shot that shows off this beauty of a beast….

Bull-Moose-in-Rain-LW4O2110 — *Bull Moose in Rain*

Have a wonderful day!

York, Maine

A lovely day!

A nice day for a trip to Maine and drop off our old coffee table. Now it’s time for a late lunch!

And the view is nice too!

Diversity of the Earth – pt. 4

Catch bull moose at 4!

This weeks WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge has the theme of Earth, which is appropriate, given that Saturday is Earth Day. So I figured that I would do a weeklong series of different views of the Earth that I have experienced. Feel free to join in with the fun!

One of the areas of amazing diversity is the Animal Kingdom. The level of adaptation to the opportunities presented in our planet’s environment is simply stunning! From bacteria that thrive in volcanic vents on the bottom of the ocean to birds of paradise that create mating displays beyond human comprehension and everything in between!

Among my favorites is the moose, featured in our fourth episode…

This image was captured in June, 2006, during a photography weekend led by the wonderful photographer, Mark Picard, whose moose and nature photography are stunning! As it happened, we were graced by a significant amount of rain during this weekend, for which I was prepared; one of the advantages of doing a lot of outdoor photography in New England is that preparation for lots of different weather conditions becomes second nature.

Despite the weather, we saw around 27 moose in under three days, which was phenomenal. This bull was very happy grazing the underwater vegetation in this pond and was clealy not affected by the rain 🙂

Technical Details

This images were captured with Canon EOS 1D MkII using a Sigma 50-500mm f/4.5-6.3 APO DG lens. Exposure settings were 1/250 second at f/5.6 and 1000 ISO.

	Wind Kisses on Thursday Teaser
	jansenphoto on Thursday Teaser
	Wind Kisses on Thursday Teaser
	jansenphoto on Thursday Teaser
	pensitivity101 on Thursday Teaser