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| Sand Beach - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
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| Stone Bridge over Park Loop Road - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
ON MARCH 1, 1872, during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, Congress designated Yellowstone as the first national park in the United States and the world. in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law a bill that created the National Park Service, and administrative division (bureau) of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Though the first half century, the park was maintaiened in fits and starts, being at one time occupied by the U.S. Army to fend off poachers and timber thieves. But it endured, and its progeny is manifest in not only the 60 parks in the U.S. but the numerous national parks in the many countries of the world.
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| Classic View of Frenchman Bay from Cadillac Mountain Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
I WAS recently in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (one of only 2 that I have been in more than once), and it occured to me that it might be fun to blog about the ones I have visited, as I have come away from each of them with images that I liked.
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| Jordan Pond ("Bubbles" in the background) Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
WHILE NOT the first National Park I visited, Acadia National Park comes to mind when I try to think of my favorite. It may be because for my kind of photography, it is the most diverse that I have visited. Originally named LaFayette National Park in 1919, the par was renamed Acadia in 1929. Acadia is not one of the largest parks, occupying just under 50,000 acres. Yellowstone alone takes up well over 2 million acres (and it is not the largest). Acadia does have the distinction, though, of being the first National Park east of the Mississippi, and the additional distinction of being the first National Park to be formed from donations of private land. Unlike the vast acres of Yellowstone and Adjacent Grand Teton, the borders of Acadia are more limited. It is often difficult to know when you are in the park or out of it. Most of the park is situated on Mt. Desert Isle, an island in northeastern Maine, in the Gulf of Maine, on the Atlantic Ocean. Those parts of Mt. Desert Isle which are not part of the park are bucolic and mostly true blue collar lobster fishing communities, the most noted of which are Bernard, Bass Harbor, and Northeast Harbor and Southwest Harbor, which mark the east and west shores of the Somes Sound, a deep waterway up into the island that ends near the picturesque village of Somesville (best known for its iconic bridge).
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| Hunter Creek - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
PHOTOGRAPHY IN National Parks can be challenging for a number of reasons. Particularly in the "iconic" sections of the parks, one of the biggest obstacles is the number of visitors. The parks were created to allow (and even induce) the citizenry to visit them and appreciate our natural wonders. It has worked. Perhaps too successfully. With crowds has come litter, polution, destruction of the sometimes delicate ecosystems, and stress on wildife, among other things. For a photographer looking to make beautiful images of our natural environment, this can certainly degrade those opportunities. In terms of automobiles and people in the image, we have - in the past - had the opportunity to simply patiently wait for our scene to clear. In recent years, that has become more difficult as the numbers of visitors have rapidly increased, making the park often overcrowded. This is evident in places like the main roads through Yellowstone, the Cade's Cove Park Loop Road in Great Smoky Mountains, and the Park Loop Roads in Acadia.
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| Park Loop Road in full Fall Foliage Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
FORTUNATELY FOR us, Acadia is one of the places that can be visited in the off-season and yield some wonderful photographic opportunities. We did that. Although we almost missed the fall foliage (and probably did miss the proverbial "peak"), there was still abundant fall color around us. The nearby iconic village of Bar Harbor is a famous and popular tourist destination during the summer months, even recently becoming a major port stop for cruise ships on the U.S. and Canadian Atlantic coast.
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| Cruise Ship in Bar Harbor, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
WE LEARNED, though, that the climax of the season for Bar Harbor is the Columbus Day holiday weekend. We were a week after that and though we missed the "cheap" lobster rolls at the lobster pounds, we did just sneak in a full lobster dinner at one of the Bar Harbor legendary lobster restaurants the night before they closed for the season. But the real win for us was: NO CROWDS! Not anywhere. We had the run of the place and thoroughly enjoyed our time.
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| Otter Cliff - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
MOST OF the iconic shots you have seen of the park over the years are easily located (and often well-marked) within the park. There was one elusive spot that we were rather proud that we found. There is a shot down on the rocks at Otter Beach that shows Otter Cliff (a granite cliff that turns pink during appropriate sun conditions) in the distance. That is where most photographers make their shots from. It is plainly visible and quite accessible from the road. But there is a better spot. My research paid off as one of the books I read about photographing the area disclosed this location, known as the cobblestone beach for its smooth, rounded stones that have been shaped by centuries of wave action. There is a not well known (nor marked) pathway which takes some searching and looking to find that will take you down to the cobblestone beach. If you find it, be careful, as the rounded stones shift easily and you could end up with a twisted or sprained ankle. But the discovery was worth it, as those cobbles make (in my opinion) a much nicer foreground for that Otter Cliff shot.
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| Park Road - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
I THINK it is fair to say that a photography trip to Acadia National Park should really be viewed as a trip to Acadia National Park and vicinity. As I mentioned, the park proper, while having some pretty great (if iconic) photographic sites, is quite small. And once you get beyond shooting the icons: The Bubbles, Otter Beach, and Cadillac Mountain, the real "show" is probably mostly in that "vicinity" part. You are going to want to venture out of the park!
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| Colorful Lobster Boats - Mt. Desert Isle; Bernard, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
You are going to want to venture out of the park
WE SPENT numerous early mornings and late afternoons in the lobster harbors of Bernard and Southwest Harbor, on the island, as well as a couple trips to the noted (and iconic) Bass Harbor Lighthouse. Later in our trip we ventured off Mt. Desert Island and over to the Penobscot Peninsula to the west of the Isle, and on down through Deer Isle to my favorite of all the Lobster Harbors: Stonington. It is hard for a photographer not to get excited about the colorful and shapely boats, surrounded by everyman fishing piers and buildings, and this is particularly the case when there is some fall foliage in the scene. Northeast Harbor seemed a lot more of a recreational boating harbor and - dare I say: more "upscale" than the others - so hence, less photogenic.
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| Southwest Harbor - Mt. Desert Isle; Southwest Harbor, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
FOR ME perhaps the second largest impediment to good photography is the operating hours of some parts of many parks. Almost all of them cover ground that is not gated, but often the parts of the part that might lend itself to pre-dawn to sunrise and sunset to twilight are gated. And most of the time they are regulated under a "dawn to dusk" test. There are a couple difficulties with that for the photographer. First, there is no hard and fast definition of dawn to dusk, and sometimes the powers that be take some license with that. More importantly, however, in order to make a really good "sunrise" image, we really need to be at our shooting point and set up for the shot well before the actual event. Anyone who has "been there," knows that not only is that 340 minutes or so before the actual sunrise just a wonderful time, but often the light just before the "main event" can be - for lack of a better description - "magical." The problem with "dawn to dusk / "sunrise - sunset" gating is that the photo is rarely just inside the gate!
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| Lobster Boats - Mt. Desert Isle; Bernard, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
THIS PROBLEM usually reverses itself at night. I have often made what I consider to be my best "sunset" images after the sun dips below the horizon. That is - technically - after sunset. And if you are a distance from a gated park entrance, you may have a problem if you (and your vehicle) are inside the gates at that time. There are, of course, many parks and many parts of parks that are not gated, and one of the enjoyable components to park photography can be finding those spots. But "dawn to dusk" often forces the photographer to photograph only during the daylight hours, missing what can often be the most pleasing and dramatic lighting conditions for photography. As in all my travel, I shoot pretty much all the time, with a thought process that I may never get another chance at a place. While I am not unhappy with my results most of the time, I sure would like to have more latitude to shoot during the "good light" hours of the day.
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| Acadia National Park Seashore - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
NOT SO in Acadia. At least not historically (read on though, for some not so happy changes). We found virtually all the roads and entrances to be open virtually all the time. We had no difficulty with arriving on location in the morning darkness, and occasionally coming back to our bed and breakfast facility after dark. The only exception to this was (and is) the road up to the top of Cadillac Mountain. That is gated and opens and closes at certain posted hours. In 2009, as late in the season as we were, we didn't have any problem accessing the road during the day, and we did drive up to see the view (it is a kind of "must see/must do" for park visitors). I understand that things have vastly changed now. In 1921, the Park Service instituted a somewhat controversial new vehicle reservation policy, ostensibly to ease congestion (which, as in all of our national parks, has become a major problem at times). I read recently (anecdotally and on Face Book so "for what its worth") that Bass Harbor (or some municipal authority) is going to begin a similar reservation system and a charge for visits to the Bass Harbor Light. It is hard to know what to make of all of this - once many wonderful viewing and photography opportunities being more heavily visited and in many cases consequently more heavily regulated. But it is part of the new reality.
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| Bass Harbor Light - Mt. Desert Isle; Bass Harbor, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
THIS PROBLEM usually reverses itself at night. I have often made what I consider to be my best "sunset" images after the sun dips below the horizon. That is - technically - after sunset. And if you are a distance from a gated park entrance, you may have a problem if you (and your vehicle) are inside the gates at that time. There are, of course, many parks and many parts of parks that are not gated, and one of the enjoyable components to park photography can be finding those spots.
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| Some old traditional Lobster Traps - Stonington, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
MOST NATIONAL Parks are not a fenced-in boundary type of property. Indeed, in many cases, main roads go right through the heart of the park. This often leaves vast areas of the parks that are not bounded or gated. While access to the iconic areas of the parks are often time-restricted, and visited only by park-operated access roads, there are so many other areas that are not - and are worth exploring and photographing. Acadia may be the best example of a diverse photographic opportunity. Exploring the often quaint little lobster harbor towns and poking around the marinas, always full of lobster traps, buoys, and other trappings of the trade can be fun and photographically rewarding.
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| Traps and Buoys - the equipment of the Lobster Industry - Bernard, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
IN "DOWNEAST," Maine (an odd tradition indeed: the futher north and east you go, the more "downeast" you are), there are seascapes, wild cranberry fields which turn a beautiful red in the fall, and boats almost everywhere you turn. The character is essentially rural and the majority of industry decidedly fishing-oriented. And not just any fishing. Lobster fishing.
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| Lobster Fisherman - Stonington, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
THE STORY behind the "LDB III": One afternoon when we were in Stonington, I was set up to shoot the harbor and was looking for compositions. The fishermen had (mostly) just returned from pulling traps for the day and were offloading at the pound quite near where I was shooting. One of the fishermen had finished, and run his boat to his mooring buoy, just out in front of me. I photographed his boat and a couple images of him running back to shore in his dinghy. As he stepped out of the dinghy, he approached me (turns out his pickup was parked directly behind me). A friendly sort, we talked about photography and lobster fishing. And on the afternoon, I got a bit of an education on the industry. My buddy, Rich and I had been involved in some conjecture about the cost of one of the boats. He guessed way too low. I guessed a bit higher and came closer. Suffice it to say that the equipment for a modest operation, boats, traps, mooring, maintenance and all was in the hundreds of thousands, approaching $1 million (and that was back in 2009). It went up from there.
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| Colorful Lines - More trappings of the Trade - Bernard, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
I SPENT a few years in my youth working on family dairy farms. The lobster fishing industry has many parallels. This gentleman worked on his own. They are regulated on when they can start pulling traps - usually shortly after sunrise. But his typical day - during the season - meant he was at the harboar around 4:00 a.m., loading the boat, doing maintenance, etc. His "staked out" trap lines were about 30-40 minutes from the harbor. He would be there and ready to pull at the instant the clock hit the regulated time. Often, it would be dark by the time he returned, off loaded and closed things down. Income was pretty good in a good year (much like the crop farmers I worked closely with during my legal career), but not a "get rich" proposition. It was - like family farming - a labor of love and often a generational thing. It was fun to talk with the guy and I will always remember his friendly openness.
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| Panoramic view of the Stonington, Maine Lobster Harbor Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
ONE ICONIC scene that you probably should not miss while at the park (still on Mt. Desert Isle, but not actually in the park), is the Somesville white bridge. Depending on conditions, you can find varying surrounding photographic elements, like flowers and foliage. The bridge can actually be shot from different viewpoints, but the straight on perspective is the "iconic" image. Officially, the Thaddeus Shepley Somes Memorial Bridge, it is one of the most often photographed sights in Maine, and is often used for wedding photography and graduation shots.
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| Somesville Bridge - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
ONE THING I found humorous as I read on-line about the Somesville Bridge was that it is characterized as "near Bar Harbor." As the proverbial crow flies, it is about 6 miles from the center of Bar Harbor. We learned a saying, though, while we were in the area: "you can't get there from here." Obviously you can. 😕What they really meant was there is no direct route. Driving from Bar Harbor, you must make 2 turns (first to the right for a short jog, and then back to the left), in order to negotiate your way around the northern end of the Somesville Sound. Worth the drive.
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| Wild Cranberries - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
ON THE way, during the fall and late fall months, you will most certainly see some fields dotted with wild cranberry bushes. You will know because much like the tree-laden foliage of fall, cranberry bush leaves turn bright red.
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| Acadia National Park Seashore - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
BEING AN island in the middle of the Atlantic, you can certainly expect to have some spectacular views in and around the park. Indeed, they are almost everywhere you look.
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| Otter Cliffs from the cobblestone beach - Acadia National Park - Mt. Desert Isle, Maine Copyright Andy Richards 2009 - All Rights Reserved |
Andy, I've been to 36 National Parks. Many of them offer wonderful photo opportunities. I'd be happy to show you around a few of them if you are interested.
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