A foggy day at Acadia National Park in Maine. The rewards of getting down low and risking that a sneaker wave won’t kill your camera gear.
@David_Wallace posted an image from his recent trip to Acadia where he discussed his “bad” luck of being there while tropical storm Elsa roared up the east coast. Acadia is a place that I have shot a lot, and one of the things I like most about it is that it frequently gets “bad” weather. The dynamic, changing weather along the Downeast coast of Maine can make for some dramatic conditions. Even in total pea soup fog like this.
On one Acadia trip a few years ago, at 4:30pm I was shooting in total pea soup fog . At 6:45pm the fog was gone and I shot one of the most glorious red/purple cloud sunsets that I have ever experienced. And at 8:45pm all the clouds were gone, and I shot the Milky Way. As Mark Twain said “if you don’t like the weather in New England, wait a minute”.
Specific Feedback Requested:
any critique or comments are welcome
Pertinent technical details or techniques:
Is this a composite? (focus stacks or exposure blends are not considered composites)
no
Canon 5D MK4, Canon 16-35mm f4 lens, at 31mm, ISO 100, 0.4 sec at f16
Beautiful image, Ed! I love the rocky shore curving out into the fog and distant trees! Wow! I haven’t seen a shore like this in a long time! It’s so beautiful! I only went to Acadia once and it rained the whole time, I remember trying to take some pictures of flowers and the camera I had at the time went bizerk because it was getting wet! So only memories from Acadia!
The worst part was not the lack of knee pads, it was crossing about 20 yards of large, wet, slippery cobble rocks to get to the water. Those rocks are 12 to 18 inches across. One false move and you break an ankle…
Ah, blissful fog! I will get to that part of the country someday, I hope. This is lovely. I like the progression of color of the warm rocks to the cool background. The overall balance is perfect. The only nit I see is the one dark rock touching the frame near the LLC. Just dodging it a bit would do the trick to make if less distracting. Or cloning a bit of falling water.
This is a very different landscape to the beach that I am used to in the West Coast. I love the perspective, too, and the curving shoreline is very very neat. The only feedback that I have is regarding the greenish rock towards the lower left corner of the frame. It is somewhat an eye magnet because of the color contrast with the reddish rock around it.
Hey Ed, I love this image! This low angle comp works really nice and of course the fog is wonderful. The shutter speed is perfect doing great things to the waves rolling over the rocky shoreline. Beautifully captured!
I really like this image as well. The subdued colors really work well in this environment. They’re there but not very noticeable. Yeah, my days of walking on rocks like that are over. It was always dangerous but now it could lead to surgery.
The foreground rocks are really interesting. They’re really an element in themselves and not just a leading line. The challenge (as in flowers) is where to draw the line on the bottom frame. I would have thought that a crop to eliminate those small partial rocks bearing out would be the right thing to do. But when I do it with a scroll the image gets worse because the new ones begin to look cut off. I don’t know what the solution is but the composition feels like it flows off the bottom of the frame.
Gorgeous! I’m late and all the good stuff already covered above. It was well worth the last part of the trip – across the boulder field. My first reaction when I saw it was that it made my bad knee ache.
thank you all for your comments, I appreciate hearing your thoughts.
at higher tides these boulders get covered by the ocean, so not only were they wet and slippery, they were covered with a thin film of algae in many spots, making them doubly dangerous. To actually get right to the water, I sat down and slid on my butt for the last 10 feet before I took my camera out of the bag. Mario, that’s why I did not need knee pads.
This is what I call the “fractal problem”. Whenever you have repeating patterns like this with no real edges around it, you usually cannot avoid cutting off something. Like you said, you crop higher and the problem just repeats itself with the next row of boulders. In this case the sides work well for me. And along the bottom I thought it would be a lesser evil to minimize the next row down. The boulder field here went on for 60 or 70 yards, and was 20 or 30 yards wide, so there was no clean edge right at the shoreline.
Man, you killed it with this image, Ed! I love the low POV and the way the cobbles are right in your face. The diagonal placement of the ocean is perfect and forms a nice triangle with the far shoreline that directs the eye into the frame. What can I say about the fog as it sets the mood in this lovely scene. I only have one super picky nitpick; for some reason that lighter rock slightly more than halfway along the right edge catches my eye. Maybe clone or burn down just a touch. Anyway, this is outstanding. Was this Schoodic?
This is a great scene. I think you have made all the correct decisions. The crop is good, the smothness of the water is well chosen and you have captured the wave at the correct position.
Congratulations! There’s a a good relation between the clarity of the wet rocks into soft haze, the soft foam of the water. meeting those rocks, and the fading tree landscape. I like it. As one who also photographed Boulder Beach in the wee hours of the morning, I know about some of the challenges, like when I got my foot caught between boulders when the tide decided to come in. That’s why I go in teams, another photographer helped me out. One of the most exciting places to go, always different, always wonderful no matter what the weather.
thank you all for your comments, I appreciate hearing your input.
That’s a good way to drown if you really get stuck. Actually this is not Boulder Beach on Mt. Desert Island, this is from the Schoodic Peninsula section on the mainland. Good spot on that @Ed_Lowe, this is indeed the east side of Schoodic.
Love the picture! I’ve been dreaming about Acadia lately (I’m a displaced New Englander). I was in Port Gamble, WA this morning, looking at the fog and listening to the foghorn. You’ve inspired me to try harder to get back to New England for a trip. What time of year was this image made?
It’s the clarity of the rocks in the foreground in contrast to the rest of this moody soft" fogscape" that I like about this image. Wonderful image. Is the rock against the edge of the frame on the LLC a small distraction? Might the sea foam be clone over at least some of it ? What do you think?
