LOOK THE OTHER WAY - 30 September 2014

Sunrise on Bass Harbor Head - Acadia National Park, Maine

Link to full sized image: http://www.tom-hill.biz/Galleries/Scenics/Elsewhere-Japan-Plains-Maine/i-sH7T3PT/A
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Normally I frequent all the same places every other photographer likes to shoot. These places are obviously well know because of their iconic photographic characteristics. Even though I go to the same places as everyone else, the challenge becomes capturing an image that's unique to me instead of making an image that looks like everyone else's image. Sometimes to do that, you have to look the opposite direction of everyone else.

This particular morning I was shooting the relatively famous and very photogenic lighthouse on Bass Harbor Head. I've been there before and had good success. While I was particularly happy with the images I captured of the lighthouse, I was interested in more. Unlike other times, this particular morning wasn't very crowded with photographers. There were two others and they were both shooting towards the wonderful lighthouse with a very subtle color in the background sky. Me, I turned around and saw what eventually became the image above.

I think we were all so focused on the lighthouse that we didn't spend much attention looking around and seeing what else was developing. In this case, minutes before the sun broke the horizon the clouds to the east were turning a very vibrant red. In fact so much so the red was coloring the slick rocks to the left of the image. The challenge here was collecting the light in a way that retained some detail on the rocks while still capturing the intense red clouds. I've noted before, this requires a bit of digital magic to collect enough "info" that allows me to recreate what we're no kidding observing with our own eyes.

Yes, I have images of the lighthouse. But, this image really is the milestone for this particular morning's shoot.

Cheers

Tom

NightSunrise