Acadia National Park

Halfway through a week in Acadia National Park, Maine.  It is absolutely breathtaking everywhere, I'm not sure I'll be leaving...ever.

It's raining now so I took the time to edit some of my favorites so far.  There's many more to edit and more to shoot!

Enjoy

Ring flash love

I received my DIY Photography ring flash kit today!  It took about 15 minutes to assemble (it would take any normal human 5 but I'm anal and meticulous, I even wore gloves so not to finger print the reflector).  Compared to a $300 "true" ring flash this performs like a dream for $25 buckaroos!
I immediately took it for a test drive.  Some quick portraits and then macro.

Lake Erie Fog

Saturday, I spontaneously decided to drive 45 minutes to find a large driftwood log that I wasn't willing to drag to my car a month ago but haven't stopped thinking about since.  I drug my 8 yr old daughter along for some muscle.  This said driftwood log can be seen in the first photos two blog posts down.  Yeah, awesome bench material.  I had already had it fitted with legs and lacquered...in my mind.  But that was a month and a dozen storms ago.
We arrived at the game lands along the Lake Erie shore, parked in a pull off scattered with a wide assortment of refuse, panties and left flip flops included, strangely enough. Right in front of the classic bullet hole riddled NO OUTLET sign (as if the cliff and large expanse of water directly behind the sign wasn't enough info).  We got our boots on and I grabbed my photo gear in case there was anything interesting.  I was planning on just snatching up  the driftwood and heading out to another photo location. We stepped out of the weeds and saw beautiful fog rolling in!  Awesome!!
On the beach, as I had feared, all the driftwood in all the great lakes had coalesced in great heaps and had been plowed by the waves up against the bluffs.  I searched in vain for my driftwood like a trying to find a specific stick in a giant pile of, well, sticks.  No luck.
The fog was great so we stayed anyway for a few hours.  The girl was whining 15 minutes in but then she found some cool driftwood of her own and then built a fort complete with a swing, really.  Since my driftwood disappeared she was paranoid about hers being snatched away.  So despite my constant reassuring  and telling her to leave it by the car she carried her armload of wood up and down the beach wherever she went, whining about how heavy it was.  It was a good afternoon.  Enjoy the photos.

I spent a lot of time with this log

I told her to look dramatic, she was having a good time...really.

I found a waterfall!

Goose

Magnolia

I got this star magnolia for father's day 4 years ago.  It's a fantastic little thing, it's all bare sticks then suddenly one day in late April I'll look out and it's covered with brilliant white blooms.  No leaves just flowers, and it smells wonderful.  It's kind of a weird root beer scent but it's great.  It's officially spring...finally!
So out come the flash and macro tubes!

...and I had to shoot our easter tulips before they became so depressed that their heads hit the table.

ND OD

I love neutral density filters...maybe a bit too much.
You decide.
(just wait for my trip to Maine in July)

I'll be making a bench out of that driftwood,
if I can manage to drag it off the beach.

Re-bar... just another day at the beach

3-4 foot waves

Beaver house and Heron rookery

I set out yesterday morning with the ultimate goal being to find some nesting Great Blue Herons.  My father-in-law gave me the general location so I figured I could find it.  I took the long way and stopped to hike around some gameland trails.  I used only my new 50mm which my polarizer and all my neutral density filters fit happily upon, it was great to get back into some daytime long exposures.   I let the wind ripple the waters around the beaver house while I stretched my exposures to 60+ sec.  The whole time I was scolded loudly by a flock of Canada Geese, not a fan of the annoying honkers.

Spring is technically here but there was very little signs walking through the woods.  I do love bright flowers and green leaves there's something so appealing about last years weeds and other annual growth after being ravaged by winter.

I did finally find the Heron rookery but only after driving past it at 70mph on the freeway.  I doubled back and snapped approx 400 shots (gotta love digital). There has to be at least 25 nests in the tall sycamore trees above a waterway populated by, you guessed it, a flock of Canada Geese that also were very aware of my presence and not too comfortable with it.  The nesting trees are situated perfectly in a ravine next to a bridge on the freeway.  You can position yourself directly across from them and shoot on the same plane.  It pushed my budget Sigma 300mm to it's limits but it performed satisfactorily.  I'll go back in May to try to capture some little fuzzy heads popping out of those nests.