Dawn at Boulder Beach, Acadia Acadia National Park on Mt Desert Island along the coast of Maine is one of my favorite places for landscape photography. It’s relatively small, about ¼ the size of the Great Smoky Mountains, making it easy to get around. But don’t let its compact size fool you; this area is loaded with plenty shooting opportunities including the ocean, shorelines, lakes, mountains, fog, lighthouse, harbors, and sunrise and sunset opportunities. As a matter of fact, Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on the east coast, is the first place in the United States the sun strikes each morning making a sunrise shoot a very special experience. Reflections at Eagle Lake, Acadia Acadia’s landscape is a result of glaciation. Go back about 15,000 years and you will find this area covered by a mountain of ice over two miles high. The glacial advance and retreat resulted in carving out and later exposing the granite base rock unlike the well-covered mountains and hills we see in southern regions of the east. The hard material plucked from mountains at the base of the advancing and retreating glaciers is responsible for cutting deep groves in the local rocks running more or less north south. These groves work well for landscapes since they act as strong leading lines, which get nicely exaggerated when creating low-to-the-ground wide-angle compositions. As huge tongues of ice retreated they carved out valleys creating places like Eagle Lake, a great place to shoot colorful reflections in the fall when the light is right. Also, deep depressions from huge blocks of ice left behind from the glaciers are responsible for creating ‘kettle lakes’ like Jordon Pond and Bubble Pond, both Acadia icons. Dusk at Eagle Lake, Acadia National Park The weather is Acadia can change rapidly and since the mountains meet the ocean fog is common and often welcomed by landscape photographers. The trouble is that you may get up and out very early for a sunrise shoot on a mountain top and just when the fireball is ready to break at the horizon a wall of fog can descend upon on you without notice. Yes, it has happened to me. Other local features include the rocky ocean shoreline, which has its own allure. When the tides are right you can do some interesting work with a neutral density filter for long exposures to create an ethereal look with the water – without the need for Photoshop plugins. Fog at the Pier, Acadia The nearby town, Bar Harbor, is small but very pleasant area to just walk around with plenty of places to eat, including fresh ice cream and seafood (I hate fish). In town you can also book a short cruise on one of many of the ships or schooners, rent a bicycle, or go kayaking. The five islands off Bar Harbor are iconic and best viewed from one of the nearby mountains like Cadillac. If you are in good shape and into hiking you can take a light kit, often a wide-angle zoom is enough, and see the sights from high above by taking one of the mountains trails. I only recently got into this and my last trip I hiked up Gorham, North Bubble and South Bubble Mountains. The views are fantastic and I am kicking myself for not exploring these off-road locations sooner. On future trips I have a list of new mountains to hike to add even more wonderful images to my portfolio of this lovely place. I conduct landscape workshops in Acadia the spring and fall and I hope you will join me in the future. You can see some of my work from this small, but beautiful, national park here.