Lynn WiezyckiI was looking forward to our trip to Maine ever since A.D. Wheeler and I got talking about it early in 2016. He found a house to rent for the week and put the word out to our Arcanum family that we were looking for a few intrepid photographers to join us for a week of wandering around Acadia National Forest and the surrounding area. We were joined by Mary Presson Roberts, Greg Croasdil & Mitch Russo plus our artist and budding photographer (and darn good chef), Danielle. We all arrived on a Saturday in August to balmy weather, a little too close to the weather at home in Florida, for me! Anyway, once we all got settled – which when there is a shoot about to happen did not take long – we headed out to a lake not too far from where we were staying. Eagle Lake is a large lake,
in Acadia National Park that is surrounded by the rounded older mountains of this part of the US. The water was clear and not all that cold! We found some open areas to get the full view of the lake and mountains. Our main goal for this location was to shoot the Milky Way but we had a few hours before sunset so we found some scenes to shoot around the shore.
As the time went by we were seeing more & more clouds coming in but we kept shooting and hoping that the sky would clear.
We stayed at Eagle Lake until quite late and got glimpses of the stars and the Milky Way but we left there pretty disappointed but not thwarted as we had 6 more nights. The next day, after making the trip around the park loop road (more on that in future installments) and having our first Lobster Rolls for lunch in Northwest Harbor, we headed back to Eagle Lake! We were treated to a very colorful sunset with clouds but we were still hoping for a clear sky for the stars!
We decided to have some fun while we waited for the full darkness. Andy had brought along his Pixelstick which has a small computer on board and, with programming, produces some pretty crazy images when the stick is walked by an open camera shutter.
The waiting & playing payed off as the sky started to clear as it got dark! We set up for star shooting and waited some more. Eventually the stars started to come out and we could actually see the Milky Way!
We hung out on the shore of Eagle Lake for several more hours and it was well worth the trip back, waiting & mosquitoes! We were treated to this spectacular view of the Milky Way! Most of this was visible with the naked eye. I have shot the Milky Way a few other times but this was by far the best view I have had of it!
We left Eagle Lake this night happy and excited! We could not wait to get back to the house to download our images!
I used my Nikon D810 on a new travel size Benro Travel Angel Tripod with a small Really Right Stuff Ballhead (which worked great with all my lenses including the Nikon 70-200mm and is much lighter than my at home setup!). I used 3 lenses, Nikon 24-70mm f2.8, Nikon 16-35mm f4 & Sigma 15mm Fisheye. I used my Nikon Wireless Trigger to avoid any camera shake with the long exposures.
This is Part 1 of a series of stories about our Maine trip! Please subscribe to the blog to receive emails when the next stories are posted. Please share with your followers!
For the originals of these images and many more, please visit my Eagle Lake Gallery!
That is all for now!
Lynn
Mary Presson Roberts