Fine Arts in Bold Colors

Beautiful photographs of flowers in all colors and compositions. Perfect for any interior wall decoration ~ a bliss for the interior designer, art consultant or home decorator.

Acadia National Park Photography Guide

Acadia National Park is located in the U.S. state of Maine. It is a 5 hour drive from Boston or 3 hours from Portland, Maine. It was one of the first National Parks created in the USA and remains the only one to day in New England Northeast. It’s the 5^th smallest in size but ranks in the top 10 for popularity. The park reserves much of Mount Desert Island, and associated smaller islands or areas like Isle au Hut and the Schoodic Peninsula. Originally named Lafayette National Park in 1919, it was renamed Acadia in 1929. Acadia is one of the most visited wildlife areas in the United States and a paradise for every photographer and outdoor enthusiast. The park loop road provides easy access to many of the iconic photography subjects; Monument Cove, The Beehive, Sand Beach, Jordan Pond and the Bubbles, Bubble Pond, Otter Cliff to name only a few. The carriage roads and hiking trails provide further access to more remote locations where the park continues to inspire and unfolds its true magic. It is a heaven for macro, seascape, and landscape photography pictures that make for great interior design and wall art decoration. The light of the golden hours around dawn paints the sky in beautiful hues and brings out the beauty of the pink granite rocks along ocean drive.

Bar Harbor is the heart and soul of Mount Desert Island and provides plenty of accommodation, restaurants, shops and entertainment from May through November. Other towns on Mount Desert Island to visit are Northeast Harbor, Southwest Harbor, Sommesville, Bass Harbor, Bernard, or Tremont. During the rest of the year life slows down on the Island, tourists leave and access to the park may be limited due to snow and bad weather. Nestled on the east side of Mount Desert Island, surrounded by Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor has welcomed visitors for over a hundred years. It is a destination for tourists from all over the world. Cruise ships are in the harbor from May through October. Bar Harbor is only minutes away from the main entrance to the park and drives up Cadillac Mountain, Jordan Pond House, or the Park Loop Road and provides easy access into the wilderness. 

Park Loop Road

Most visitors are introduced to Acadia by enjoying a 27 mile ride along Oceanside cliffs and through mountain forests, stopping at scenic pullouts and iconic attractions along the way. The park loop road from Sand Beach to Otter Cliff is the most pristine area for seacoast photography. Morning light paints the granite coast beautifully in pink and warm hues. Park your car at Sand Beach, Thunder Hole or Otter Cliff and walk the ocean path. It is an easy walk along the Atlantic Ocean and there are breathtaking views at every step with plenty of photo opportunities. Explore the pebble beach at Monument Cove. There another pebble beach between Thunder Hole and Otter Cliff that makes for a great foreground feature when photographing Otter Cliff. Try using your polarizing filter or neutral density filter to extend exposure times and for silky ocean water effect. Alternatively cross Sand Beach for beautiful views of the Beehive and the Atlantic Ocean or climb iron rungs up the Beehive for striking vistas atop. Spectacular views and sunrise photography is possible from Gorham Mountain. 

Jordan Pond

The park loop road eventually will lead to the Jordan Pond House. The Jordan Pond House is famous for its fresh, warm popovers. It first opened in the late 1800s and visitors still relax here with afternoon tea. The lawn has beautiful views of Jordan Pond and the Bubbles. Make your way down to the pond shoreline. It is covered with rocks that make for a fabulous foreground feature and provide depth for your composition. Sunset and twilight has always been my favorite time of the day to take pictures here since the sun sets behind the South and North Bubbles providing ample lighting. Make sure to bring a split neutral density filter to overcome the high contrast of dark foreground and the bright sunset light of the sky. South Bubble itself makes for a great morning and sunrise destination. The steep but short hike up South Bubble awards fantastic views of Jordan Pond, Atlantic Ocean, and Porcupine Islands. 

Bubble Pond

A short drive from the Jordan House parking will lead to Bubble Pond. Bubble Pond provides brilliant and beautiful fall foliage around its shoreline. The waters of the pond are quite still and beautiful reflections are possible. Wildlife is thriving and the last time I shot there at dusk I encountered an Otter; Loons and Mergansers are in the area too. 

Cadillac Mountain

Cadillac Mountain is a 3.5 mile drive up to the summit where one enjoys spectacular 360 degree views of Bar Harbor, Frenchman Bay, and Cranberry Island to the East and Eagle Lake and Mount Desert Island to the West. There are many photographers at this location so be here early during sunrise to secure your spot or explore the mountain top to find a unique photo spot and composition. Sunsets provide majestic views to the west from turnouts along the drive. 

Eagle Lake

Eagle Lake is a short drive from Bar Harbor on Route 233. The lake provides beautiful hills covered in fall foliage glory 1 week before until 1 week after Columbus Day weekend. Check Fall Foliage Networks and fall foliage reports for prime colors and best times to visit. Sunrise is the best time for autumn color mirror-like reflection photography. Eagle Lake is also a great sunset photography location. There are rocks, logs, and grass along the shore that make for great landscape photography compositional elements. Across the parking area is a little pond with plenty of wildlife to photograph; otters, dragonflies, frogs, etc. 

Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Bass Harbor, Bernard, Seal Harbor, and Southwest Harbor

Bar Harbor, Northeast Harbor, Bass Harbor, Bernard, Seal Harbor, and Southwest Harbor are picturesque villages where harbor and island life can be explored and photographed. Fishing boats, sailboats and dinghies make for fantastic photo objects. Early summer fog makes for exceptional and moody boat photography. Bring your long lens to explore nautical detail photography. The Bass Harbor Lighthouse is a prime location in this area and it is a mob scene at sunset. Arrive early to claim your spot and be prepared to share the place with many other photographers. 

Back Roads Off Route 102, Carriage Roads, and Hiking Trails

The back roads off route 102 provide deep forest terrain for exceptional Forest Photography on overcast days. Duck Pond and Hodgdon Brook allow for beautiful cascades and leaf covered rocks photography during autumn. Along the Around the Mountain carriage road there are a few great waterfalls and cascades that can be photographed. Eliminate boring gray skies from your composition and zoom in for more intimate landscape photography pictures. Bring a ND filter and polarizing filter to extend exposure times and eliminate glare on leaves and water surfaces. 

 

Wonderland

Wonderland is on Mount Desert Island where a 1.4 mile trail in Acadia National Park leads out to a rocky coastline that is pristine at low tide for macro photography or at morning and evening for sunrise and sunset photography. Once at the ocean, there are several spots to sit, enjoy, or take nature photographs. Make sure to plan your trip at low tide since this allows for exploration of the tide pools and their marine life. If you are lucky you may encounter a star fish on one of these black rocks … I haven’t been that lucky yet which is why I come back at every Acadia visit. 

Photo Gear

Tripod, wide-angle lens, telephoto lens, macro lens, polarizing filter, neutral density filter, split neutral density filter, battery power, memory cards.

More Photo Tips:

Acadia National Park Photography Workshop and Tour 

6 Basic Photo Tips that will boost Photography Confidence

15 Photo Tips for Sharper and Better Photography

15 Fall Foliage Photography Tips

Photography 101: Depth of Field

Das Photo of The Week

Every week I choose one of my favorite photographs of the week from my Fine Art landscape, cityscape, flower and macro photography collection and offer it throughout that week at a discounted rate. This week's photo of the week on sale is Discovering Form in Photography showing glorious flower photography art from New England and a description of how to create 3 dimensional images within a 2 dimensional media.

Starting today through the week of 28 October 2012 this bright blooming flower photography collage from my Flower Photography Gallery, available as art photo print, acrylic print, metal print or on canvas, is on sale.

More Reading and Photo Tips you may enjoy: 

Love Jigsaw Puzzles and flowers? 

Favorite Flower and Gardening Quotes 

Painting with Light like Georgia O'Keeffe 

15 Flower Photo Tips and Photography Inspiration

A Perfect Christmas Present

 
I partnered with Maynard's, LLC and compiled a fine collection of my flower photography images in a 1000 piece high quality, interlocking puzzle: "Flowers in Bloom".

The puzzle has a twist that makes it so more fun. The puzzle twist jigsaw puzzles were developed to enhance the jigsaw experience. With hidden images and a new twist around every corner, their intent is not to make the jigsaw puzzle more difficult, but to make the whole experience more enjoyable. Providing images that are fun to piece together and offering a small surprise with every one. This 1000 piece puzzle twist measures 26 5/8" x 19 1/4" when completed and can be beautifully framed thereafter.

Magical Acadia National Park

I spent last week in Maine Acadia National Park. The drive up from Boston was a sunny one at first. Around Bangor it turned cloudy and I was not convinced there would be any photo opportunities for me that evening. But upon arrival everything fell into place. As soon as I crossed the bridge to Mount Desert Island I was greeted by a Rainbow over Acadia National Park ... what a great omen to start a week of outdoor photography. While continuing to drive towards Bar Harbor I was not 100% decided on where to stop for my evening shoot. The sun still peaking through the clouds I was evaluating Cadillac Mountain or Jordan Pond and the Bubbles. At the turn to Cadillac Mountain I followed my Photographic Instinct and kept going straight towards Jordan Pond. From the parking area it is only a short walk to the pretty shoreline and one of Acadia's iconic photo locations. There are many rocks that make for fabulous landscape photography foreground features. Almost instantly after setting up camera and tripod the magic unfolded. The sky turned orange from the sun setting below the clouds and I started shooting. The magic did not last long and I probably exposed 6 images. I applied a Split Neutral Density filter to overcome the high contrast of the dark foreground and the brighter sky with the 2 hills at the other end of Jordan Pond: South and North Bubble.

An aperture of F/29 combined with an ISO 100 setting provided the sufficient Depth of Field from foreground to the horizon and a shutter speed of 10 seconds. The long exposure time guaranteed a silky water effect of the pond while rocks and mountains remained in sharp focus. During post processing I minimally adjusted lighting, contrst, and color saturation before sharpening the final image. 

Favorite Flower and Gardening Quotes

 
"A morning glory at my window satisfies me more than the metaphysics of books." ~ Walt Whitman

"Perfumes are the feelings of flowers, and as the human heart, imagining itself alone and unwatched, feels most deeply in the night-time, so seems it as if the flowers, in musing modesty, await the mantling eventide ere they give themselves up wholly to feeling, and breathe forth their sweetest odors. Flow forth, ye perfumes of my heart, and seek beyond these mountains the dear one of my dreams!" ~ Heinrich Heine

"When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other." ~ Chinese Proverb

 

"Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed." ~ Walt Whitman

"Flowers really do intoxicate me." ~ Vita Sackville-West

"Flowers whisper "Beauty!" to the world, even as they fade, wilt, fall." ~ Dr. SunWolf

"Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature." ~ Gerard de Nerval

"I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers." ~ Claude Monet

"Flowers don't worry about how they're going to bloom. They just open up and turn toward the light and that makes them beautiful." ~ Jim Carrey

"Earth laughs in flowers." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

"I'd rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck." ~ Emma Goldman

"People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us." ~ Iris Murdoch

 "We have much to hope from the flowers." ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 

Bloom where you are planted." ~ Mary Engelbreit

"Flowers are beautiful hieroglyphics of nature, with which she indicates how much she loves us." ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"Flowers are words which even a baby can understand." ~ Arthur C. Coxe

"Forsythia is pure joy. There is not an ounce, nor a glimmer of sadness or even knowledge in forsythia." ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again."  ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

"Gardening has a magical quality when you are a child." ~ Barbara Damrosch

"A garden is a love song, a duet between a human being and Mother Nature." ~ Jeff Cox

"...a garden is like life: something is always doing well, something is struggling, something is being born anew, and something is dying." ~ Edith Reed

"When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it's your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not." ~ Georgia O'Keeffe

"Even if you think the Big Bang created the stars, don't you wonder who sent the flowers?" ~ Robert Brault

"One of the most attractive things about flowers is their beautiful reserve." ~ Henry David Thoreau

 

"In joy or sadness, flowers are our constant friends." ~ Kozuko Okakura

"Flowers are our greatest silent friends." ~ Jim Brown

"The flower is the poetry of reproduction. It is an example of the eternal seductiveness of life." ~ Jean Giraudoux

"A relationship is like a rose, How long it lasts, no one knows... You hope you've found that special rose,
'Cause you love and care for the one you chose." ~ Rob Cella

"Art is the unceasing effort to compete with the Beauty of Flowers - and never succeeding." ~ Marc Chagall

"More than anything, I must have flowers, always, always." ~ Claude Monet

 

More Reading and Photo Tips you may enjoy:

Orchid Flower Fine Art Photography

Basic Photo Tips that Boost Photography Confidence and Output

Photographing Light

15 Flower Photography Tips

Painting with Light like Georgia O'Keeffe

Das Foto of the Week

Every week I choose one of my favorite photographs of the week from my Fine Art landscape, cityscape, flower and macro photography collection and offer it throughout that week at a discounted rate. This week's photo of the week on sale is Pretty Purple Things showing glorious lilac flower photography art from the beautiful Boston Arnold Arboretum during May around Mother's Day .

Starting today through the week of 15 October 2012 this bright blooming lilac flower photo image from my Flower Photography Gallery, available as art photo print, acrylic print, metal print or on canvas, is on sale.

Incredible Macro Photography

In this latest nature macro photography blog post I compiled some of my personal favorite Bug Photography artwork that I have been capturing during the last couple of years. The selection shows a variety of butterfly, grasshopper, fly and dragonfly close up images that were taken in beautiful Florida, Maine, or in my home state of Massachusetts.