Bass Harbor Head Light

This lighthouse is located in Acadia National Park near the town of Bass Harbor

One of the unique aspects of Maine is the variety and quantity of lighthouses that are found all along her coast. Although we saw plenty of lighthouses on the fall excursion to Maine, Bass Harbor Head Light is the most scenic lighthouse within the boundaries of Acadia National Park.

The problem with a pretty lighthouse is that just about everyone wants to look at it and take a picture of it. That problem was exacerbated by the fact that we were in the park during the peak fall color season and loads of other photographers wanted to take a shot of a lighthouse as well. We arrived about an hour and a half before sunset and there were already two dozen or so photographers present. To take this shot, you have to crawl out on the rocks near the surf line and find a decent spot to set up your tripod. In this case, that was difficult because the early arrivers (as if an hour and a half isn’t early enough!) had take the prime locations. I had to fiddle around quite a bit to shoot just over the heads of the other photographers and still end up with a foreground to my liking.

After getting set up, we basically stood our ground and waited for the light to get better. A few intrepid photographers tried to move to some unoccupied locations close to the water and ended up getting soaked by the rising tide and crashing waves. One stepped into a tide pool and soaked his trousers up to his thigh. A few people tried to tuck into spots that weren’t really big enough for another person and only ended up irritating those who had been there early. At one point someone counted over fifty of us clinging to the rocks like a pod of lobsters!

Finally, the sun moved close enough to the horizon to create some golden light. There weren’t nearly enough clouds in the sky so shooting into the sun created a huge latitude of exposures in the scene. I had to shoot seven images bracketed by one stop each in order to capture the highlights in the water and on the lighthouse along with the shadow detail in the rocks in the foreground. I blended the images together with Photomatix Pro’s Exposure Blending tool. I didn’t capture all the detail of the sun and the rocks are perilously close to being underexposed, but I like the image overall.

As luck would have it, we were a few miles away the next night, and a brilliant sunset ensued. I couldn’t help but wish that we had been at Bass Harbor Head Light on that afternoon. At least in my mind’s eye, I would have had an altogether different and better image to share. But, that didn’t happen. That is the kind of thought that keeps a photographer returning to the same scene over and over again.

Hadlock Brook Waterfall

Hadlock Brook drops near brightly colored foliage to form the only naturally occurring waterfall in Acadia National Park

One of the goals of our fall excursion to Maine was to visit the carriage roads and granite roads located in Acadia National Park. John D. Rockefeller owned large tracts of land on Mt. Desert Island and used the island as his personal retreat. When cars became prevalent, the locals decided to create roads for automobiles on the island for their own use and to promote tourism. Mr. Rockefeller was not keen about the intrusion on his lifestyle and potentially his property. So, he created fifty or so miles of carriage roads. Horse drawn carriages were apparently his preferred mode of transport when on Mt. Desert Island.

Those carriage roads have survived and have been incorporated into Acadia National Park. They are still serving Mr. Rockefeller’s original purpose. No auto traffic is allowed on them. Only hiking, biking, and horse-drawn carriages are allowed on the roads. In some places, not even bicycles are allowed. The roads are well maintained and have gentle grades. They make great hiking trails and allow access to points all over the island.

Of particular interest are the eighteen granite bridges that were constructed as part of the carriage road system. Most of them are Rockefeller’s original design and are used to cross over roads and streams found throughout the park. The bridges are works of art themselves.

Two of those bridges that we wanted to explore were located near each other. They crossed two different streams, Maple Brook and Hadlock Brook. This photo is taken from the Waterfall Bridge – aptly named because it is adjacent to this waterfall that is formed by Hadlock Brook. Interestingly, this is the only naturally occurring waterfall in Acadia National Park. With the steep terrain and numerous streams, it would seem likely that other waterfalls would be found there.

The morning that we chose to hike to the bridges was an ideal fall morning with crisp, fresh air and abundant sunshine. The fall colors were peaking all around us making for beautiful scenes everywhere we looked. We arrived at Hemlock Bridge first and shot it for quite a while. We took some nice images there, but we didn’t realize what waited for us just up the path. Imagine my excitement seeing this beautiful tree at it peak of color standing immediately adjacent to this beautiful waterfall. Fortunately, the rain that we had experienced the past two days worked in our favor and was filling Hadlock Brook ensuring abundant water to flow through the falls. I literally couldn’t take enough exposures. I wanted to ensure that I captured the scene as I was experiencing it.

This image was taken at f22 with an exposure of 0.6 seconds. I had to use a neutral density filter to add three stops in order to get the water as silky and smooth as I wanted. We had to wait for the wind to die down occasionally, but we were fortunate to experience many windows where the air was still allowing for crisp images. There’s a bit of leaf blur here, but nothing that detracts from the image – I hope.

Sunrise from Cadillac Mountain

The sun creeps over the horizon and the Atlantic Ocean as viewed from the summit of Cadillac Mountain

 

Early morning light warms the granite and vegetation atop Cadillac Mountain

When we reached Bar Harbor on Friday evening, the rain was still pouring down. More was forecast overnight. However, it was supposed to be clearing at dawn. Knowing how unreliable weather forecasts can be, I didn’t want to plan on the weather being clear, but I didn’t want to sleep through a potentially beautiful sunrise. Ah, the life of a photographer. So, I dutifully set the alarm for an hour and a half before sunrise. Fortunately, we were able to scout out the summit and determine that we were only a fifteen minute drive from the summit itself.

When I woke up, I stepped out onto the small balcony of the hotel room wondering if I would see stars or get soaking wet. Unbelievably, I could see some stars and the faint beginnings of dawn on the eastern horizon. Clouds were still streaming by overhead, though. And, they were moving quickly. The clearing storm was giving way to a cool front and the wind was picking up.

Now, at this point in the story, I should interject that watching a sunrise from Cadillac Mountain is a big deal for a lot of people. The mountain isn’t that high – only 1600 feet or so – but it is so close to the eastern most point in the US that it is purported to be the first spot in the country to see the sunrise. A lot of people for varying reasons find that spiritual or just cool and want to be at the summit at sunrise. Add to that the ease of getting to the summit in a car, and you aren’t likely to have the place to yourself unless the weather conditions are truly awful.

After the ritual shower and cup of coffee, we made our way up to the summit. It was windy in Bar Harbor, but there was a full gale blowing on top of Cadillac Mountain. As expected, tons of people were gathering to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately for all of us, the wind was blowing at 60 or 70 knots. If I had been wearing a baseball cap instead of my wool hat, it would certainly have blown off the edge of the mountain. We began scouting for a location that would give us a good foreground and a clear view of the sun rising over the horizon. We actually moved a hundred feet or so down from the summit, partially to shelter us from the wind that was whipping over the summit. At one point, one of tripods – without a camera on it, fortunately – blew over in a wind gust. To say the least, the weather conditions were challenging. I honestly didn’t think that any of my long exposures would come out because of camera shake. I hung my backpack from the center column of my tripod just to it some extra weight and minimize vibration.

The good news about the weather conditions was that the passing storm was clearing the sky and allowing us to view the actual sun rising over the horizon. The first shot is taken as the sun makes its appearance out over the Atlantic. In the foreground you can see Champlain Mountain and some of the islands in Frenchman Bay. The second shot uses a crack in the granite of Cadillac Mountain to lead through the image to one of the pink-hued clouds that was passing by near sunrise. If you look closely at each you can see that the vegetation is blurred because it was moving in the heavy wind.

We shot the sunrise and passing clouds until a bank of clouds obscured the sun for quite a while. By then, we were ready for a second cup of coffee, some hot food, and to get out of the wind and cold. Perhaps it wasn’t the idyllic Cadillac Mountain sunrise that I had anticipated, but it certainly was memorable!