Autumnal Greetings my friends! I hope this finds you all well and with any luck, cooling down a bit from the Summer heat. It’s been a while, I know, trust me, I am ever aware of my shortcomings in this blog/email department! Life has a relentless way of just taking us for a ride whether we want it or not. And I have been struggling the latter part of the Summer since I last posted after my Bday to find the time to work on the things I desperately want to. The demands of what needed done instead pretty much took hold again. And boy did we get socked with heat, humidity, and bugs to close out the season! If we didn’t get this past weeks’ reprieve of actual crisp Autumn air, I may have pulled what remains of my hair out!!!🤪
Alas, here we are though, and I’m super stoked for what lays ahead in the following weeks! Few things - (well I guess that’s not entirely true - a lot of things throughout Nature’s yearly cycle get me pretty fired up😂) - get me quite as excited as the month of October and all of its seasonal bounties… The Colors, the Smell of the Leaves and the Earth, the Autumnal Festivals, the Crisp Air - Ahhhhhhh!
But, let me dial myself back here briefly before I go out on an all out assault of Maple Trees ablaze. I have been wanting to work on this idea for such a time it seems and so I’ve been spending a decent amount of “free” time scouring my archives and finding stills and video footage that I’ve taken on my adventures which relate to my Portfolio Collection.
Why, you ask? Well, I’ve really wanted to make some montage videos to represent my experiences out there, some of which can actually lead right into the scene and time of the actual photograph itself. Perhaps seeing moving footage and hearing the ambient sounds of Nature can further help one relate to a place or get a better feel for what it’s like to be there? I don’t know, but its an experiment I’ve been wanting to try, so here we go!
I’m kicking this idea off with an image I’d been wanting to highlight all Summer. It hails from the far Northeast of Maine - Acadia National Park. If you’ve ever been, you know how special of a place this is, and this has long been one of my favorite portfolio pieces, not to mention a top seller! This video is a little raw as it is older (and does not have footage leading into the image itself) but I felt it a good experimental stepping stone for the ones I have in the docket to work on/finalize coming up. So, enjoy the image and the story per usual and then take a couple minutes to get lost in some sights and sounds I’ve captured from the rugged coastline if it fits your fancy… (I have uploaded both a “regular” file and a YouTube link because I don’t know exactly how the normal file is going to translate yet)
“Time Is What You Make of It” - Acadia National Park, ME
Mamiya RB67 w/ 65mm lens (Wide-Angle)
F32 for 3 seconds
Professional Fuji Velvia 50
It was my 3rd adventure to Acadia National Park and I had spent an entire week camping and hiking all throughout its diverse landscape, being able to enjoy and explore much more than I had on my previous journeys. The day before I was to return, I decided to re-arrange my travel schedule and stay one more day. It had been a somewhat rainy and foggy week overall and I hadn’t been content with my sunrise, or lack thereof, experiences.
So, yearning for one more opportunity and with a hopeful forecast, I rolled out of my hammock at Seawall Campground around 4am and headed for the coast near Monument Cove (a lovely nook nestled between Thunder Hole and Otter Point along the coastline of the Ocean Path)…
Aside from a few bicyclists I passed nearby, I had the place to myself. And as the pinks and purples began to deepen in the sky the bliss and solitude of the sea took hold. Soon, the sun found a clear crack just above the horizon and shone its fiery glow down upon the ocean and the granite at my feet. I surrendered entirely to the beauty of the moment, mind and body, a feeling I am not soon to forget.
It’s true what they say about the primordial experience of witnessing dawn in Acadia - it’s as though one is witnessing the beginning of time.
After a few exposures, I soaked in all that this morning had to offer. I made my coffee and breakfast right there on the granite cliffs, watching wave after wave crash into the shoreline. I scrambled from one boulder to another up and down the coast, reveling in the endless work of Father Time. Filled with utter peace and the seemingly brilliant decision to stay this day yet - and to think, it was just getting underway!
Link to YouTube Video - https://youtu.be/WNQTJjQq4XA
Or better yet, scroll to bottom and click link for View Original Post to go directly to the website blog posting for easiest viewing!
All my best,
Brandon