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.