Trying To Find The Road Not Taken

Looking back through Flickr at my most popular photos, I still love this one. It was taken at Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. If your a fan of outdoor music, picnics and don’t mind a drive, it’s well worth the trip. Tanglewood is the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Craig will get lawn tickets for us and we’ll drive up with our chairs, blanket and a book and listen to classical music. Very relaxing.

Sunset on Good Hill, originally uploaded by criana.

When we got back from Maine, I really enjoyed looking through my photos. It also got me thinking, why do I wait for vacation to make time for photography and really enjoy it.

After work I came home, had dinner and then Craig and I headed up to Good Hill and I set up the tripod and just relaxed and watched the sun go down. Snapping photos along the way. It wasn’t a very dramatic sunset but it was nice to not be sitting on the couch thinking about what else I should be doing.

I ordered from B&H Photo a 0.9 Neutral Density filter, just for taking photos of waterfalls. In Machias is Bad Little Falls, luckily for me, there was plenty of water flowing through them. I set the tripod up, with the filter and used my remote to snap photos.

I had the camera settings at ISO100 / f18 / 1.6s.

We took a ride out to Cutler on Wednesday. It’s a quiet peaceful ride out from Machias and the bay never disappoints. I took some photos with the 18-55mm lense, along with the 100-300mm lense. I like how the more close up photos came out.

This year we rented a 1800’s cottage on a bay in down east Maine. When we first arrived I was questioning what the heck we rented. Craig on the other hand was very happy and loved the place. After moving our items in, it started to feel more like home. It really is amazing to realize that this house has withstood so much. The guest book went back to the 1940’s.

We had a great relaxing week, visited with family who also rented a home in the area. We never rode our bikes, but did do quite a bit of reading, exploring the area, watching movies, visiting and taking photos.

I drove back to Mount Desert Island on Saturday evening and decided to try to meet up with my group at Thurston’s Lobster Pound, but stopped at Southwest Harbor (Map) to take pictures of the sailboats in the harbor. I tried to take photos here in 2004 but my camera was stolen later in the day and I lost the photos.

When I pulled over, another photographer was out shooting photos already. I took out my tripod, camera, remote and started setting up. I used the graduated filter to keep the sky in color while also getting the boats exposed.

When I walked over to the area side of the dock area, I met Ted, who was the other photographer. We started chatting and it turned out he lived one road over from where Craig and I lived for a year and a half. He shared with me information on the photography class he was taking while in Maine. We swapped contact information and websites. I finally had a chance to give a moo card to someone who did not know me prior.

By request, some more info : )

Location: Cadillac Mountain Summit Loop Trail on Mount Desert Island in Maine, in Acadia National Park
Camera Settings: ISO100 / f8 / 1/320s / 18mm focal length

I used a graduated filter on the lense to keep the sky a deep rich blue while exposing the trail properly. If you’ve never been to Acadia National Park, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s beautiful, scenic and the whole Maine coast is wonderful to explore. If you like to hike and particularly bicycle it’s a little slice of heaven.

June 21-22 was the 6th Annual HondaSUV Georgia Meet in Bar Harbor, ME. It happened to coincide with our vacation already planned in Maine. There were members driving up from Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, New York and more. I had tried to get NorthEast Member Club members to go to Acadia in the past with no luck.

The turn out was great. Racoon and 4HondaOwner put together shirts with the event name. We had a lot of fun visiting with everyone. Friday the weather was foggy and cool, but Saturday mid-morning turned into beautiful weather. Craig and I drove to our rental late in the afternoon and then I drove back down in the evening to hang out for a little longer and say good-byes.

NYC Waterfalls, originally uploaded by criana.

Craig and I definitely want to go down to NYC to see these. Not sure if we’ll get to see all of them.