Acadia National Park » You Can Sleep When You're Dead: Blog by Colleen Miniuk

Making the Images: “Another World” and “Floating in Time”

Nov 052013

“Another World,” Eben’s Head Trail in Acadia National Park, Isle au Haut, Maine (Prints available for purchase – click on photo to order!)

NOTE: This blog entry will appear in our new book, Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, & How as “Behind the Photo #12: Looking for Answers.” In addition to this post, I’m featuring 11 additional behind-the-scenes stories from my experiences in the park. If you’d like to pre-order a copy, head over to our Indiegogo campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/photographing-acadia-national-park-book until November 30, 2013. Thanks for your interest and support!

Looking for Answers

“There’s more than one right answer.” ~DeWitt Jones

Gaelic Storm–a Celtic band which makes toe-tapping, knee-slapping music I enjoy tremendously–produced a song titled, “Don’t Go for the One.” The lyrics tell of a gentleman going to buy snails to impress his house guests, but gets talked into having a single beer at the bar. One brew becomes two, three, four, and what was supposed to have been a quick chat turns into an all-night event. As the title and chorus hilariously suggests, one should not expect to enjoy only one beverage with your friends.

While it may seem like a stretch, this philosophy can apply to photography as well. Don’t go for the one photograph!

Very rarely am I fortunate enough to get everything to come together perfectly in a first frame. Even after I have spent ample time observing, analyzing, and visualizing an intriguing subject to define a clear vision, more often than not, I will also explore the scene through recording a series of frames with my camera.

Assuming the lighting conditions are not changing quickly, I contemplate an abundance of “what if” scenarios to determine how I will accomplish recording my visual message before snapping the shutter. What if I only included this section of the scene? What if I positioned my camera lower to the ground? What if I used side light instead of backlight? What if, what if, what if? I continue tapping into this iterative evaluative process as I begin photographing, as it helps me refine what my eye is seeing and how to share that through a photograph.

Not only does this process enable me to achieve my creative vision, but it also helps me fully appreciate the subject from a variety of perspectives and find the many right answers a scene possesses, as Dewitt Jones’ quote suggests. If I have spent the time and money to travel 3,000 miles (4,828 km) from Arizona, hopped on a passenger-only ferry to the remote Isle au Haut, biked six miles along a bumpy, single track dirt road, and then walked a mile uphill with a heavy camera backpack to get to a location, you can be sure I am not going to snap only one photo and head home. Instead, I want to challenge myself to see how many right answers I can discover.

On the first day of our visit to Isle au Haut, my parents and I ventured to the Eben’s Head Trail well before sunset to allow extra time for wandering and discovering along the unfamiliar trail. After a short meander through the forest, we emerged on the rocky coast and scrambled to the top of Eben’s Head, where a breathtaking 180-degree panoramic view of the isle’s western shoreline and open waters of Isle au Haut Bay greeted us. We noticed the receding tide leaving behind small tide pools on the volcanic ledges surrounding the cobble beach directly north of our perch. Eager for a closer look at the momentary glimpse into the typically hidden ocean world, we hiked the short distance to the seashore.

After only a few seconds of exploring, the fine, hair-like seaweed floating in the tide pools fascinated me. A few steps ahead on the black boulders, my mom, Jacque, spotted a slightly larger saltwater puddle and called to me, “Hey Colleen, you have to see these bubbles!”

When I gazed into her find, I did not just see tangles of seaweed and floating bubbles. The scene immediately transported me to outer space, where planets swirled in a distant galaxy. I knew I had to create an image of precisely that subject!

I walked around the small pool to begin the visualization process, first noticing how the backlight from the late afternoon created a dark backdrop in the deep pool. Then, I settled on a vertical orientation based on the bubbles’ arrangement. I knew I needed to keep my lens (positioned to look down upon the scene) parallel to the surface of the water so that the face of the bubbles and the top layer of seaweed remained in focus. A small aperture on my 100mm macro lens would provide the depth of field necessary for my tight composition. I needed to remember to twirl my polarizer to get just enough reflected light on the water, but not so much that it overshadowed the primary scene.

With this vision in mind, after diligently setting up my composition and exposure, I snapped the frame and immediately reviewed the image on the back of my camera’s LCD. Shockingly, on the first try, I managed to record an image that matched my vision–a right answer!

Despite being pleased with my first snap, I continued exploring the scene for 45 more minutes. After a number of frames, I picked out an odd reddish tint occurring across the image. It was the reflection of my red jacket! I experimented keeping the extra color in the frame by hovering over the scene. I also eliminated it by stepping a short distance away from the scene and triggering the shutter with a cable release. Contrasting with the rich greens and blues, the additional color made the scene look even more other-worldly–a second right answer!

I tried turning the camera to the left slightly and then to the right slightly, utilizing a Dutch tilt, to play with the composition as the bubbles appeared, disappeared, and then reappeared, changing the visual balance entirely from image to image – more right answers!

Then, I used extension tubes to allow me to get a closer perspective (see the time image titled, “Floating in Time,” at the bottom of this post). I felt the broader perspective better conveyed my initial notion of “planets swirling in a distant galaxy,” but I enjoyed the results of this more intimate view–another right answer!

During the process, I felt my photographic message and my confidence strengthening with each additional frame. Had I gone for “the one” and packed up after my first shot, I would have missed the chance to see all the possibilities this magical scene had in store!

Which of the two images presented here do you prefer? Why? Remember, there are many right answers so share your thoughts in the Comments below!

“Floating in Time,” Eben’s Head Trail in Acadia National Park, Isle au Haut, Maine (Prints available for purchase – click on photo to order!)

Pre-Order Your Copy of My New Book, “Photographing Acadia National Park,” Now thru November 30!

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Oct 242013

Reserve your copy of our new guidebook, Photographing Acadia National Park: The Essential Guide to When, Where, and How through my new Indiegogo campaign at www.indiegogo.com/projects/photographing-acadia-national-park-book .

Now through November 30, 2014, not only can you pre-order one or more books at discounted price (which won’t be available after the campaign concludes), but you can also purchase prints from Acadia for your home at a special price, get your name listed in the book forever, and even reserve an all-inclusive 4-day photography workshop extravaganza with yours truly as your guide in Acadia National Park!

The money raised during this campaign will help me bare the cost burden of printing the book (I’m not just the author and photographer, I’m also the publisher!). In addition, I am proudly donating 10% of this book’s profits to the Schoodic Education Adventure residential program, an unsurpassed educational opportunity for children to learn about science and nature in Acadia National Park. Finally, I also donate 10% of the profit back to the National Park Service for every photograph purchased from Acadia National Park.

So not only will your contribution get you a helpful guide and help me produce this book – my dream – but also together we can make a difference for our future generations!

So don’t delay – pre-order your copy today! We’ll ship you the first books hot off the truck in early February 2014 when it arrives! For more information about this guide, please visit the book’s website at photographingacadia.com.

And then help us spread the word by sharing this newsletter and/or the Indiegogo campaign link (www.indiegogo.com/projects/photographing-acadia-national-park-book) with your family, friends, and camera clubs! We’ve started a Referral Contest, where I’ll award the person who refers the most amount of funders (# of people) with a FREE 16″x24″ ready to hang metal print of the Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse.

To participate:

Log in to your Indiegogo account.
Cut & paste the URL in the “Share This Campaign” section to share your the personalized link on your social media (e.g. Facebook, G+, LinkedIn, Twitter), email, and websites.
Track your referrals – when someone clicks on your shared link and contributes to this campaign, they will appear in your referrals (under My Profile beneath your name when you login)

I’ll share the top three contenders each week until the campaign closes to keep you informed of the status.

Thank you for your support!

Making the Image: “Ride With Me”

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Mar 212013

“Ride With Me,” Acadia National Park, Maine (Prints available for purchase – click on photo to order!)

Of all the images I’ve created thus far, the one I get questioned the most about is, by a landslide, “Ride With Me” in Acadia National Park in Maine. I’m frequently asked, “Where was the camera?” and “And how did you snap the picture with both hands on the handlebars?”

Though I captured the image above during my second Artist-in-Residence with the park in October 2010, my visualizations for this image started almost a year earlier in November 2009 during my first residency. In the months leading up to my first visit, I read a wonderful book by Ann Rockefeller Roberts titled, “Mr. Rockefeller’s Roads: The Untold Stories of Acadia’s Carriage Roads.” Concerned the “new” automobile would threaten the natural beauty and affect the quiet, peacefulness Mount Desert Island provided him, his family, and fellow community members, John Rockefeller, Jr. envisioned setting aside land to establish a network of carriage roads limited to only carriage riders, drivers, and pedestrians could utilize for recreational purposes. By 1940, a 57-mile system of carefully designed and developed carriage roads existed for exactly that purpose.

Inspired by this story, as I turned each page, I started to piece together the kind of photograph I wanted to make when I arrived and experienced the phenomenal carriage roads for myself. As soon as I made it to Acadia in November, I hit the carriage roads on foot or by bicycle, traveling almost every length of the 45-miles within the park boundaries. Occasionally, I stopped to make a photograph or two or ten or fifty. I felt I was capturing “nice,” technically acceptable photographs along the way but never truly felt I had captured something that did this unique feature within Acadia justice.

Poor Carriage Road Shot - Example The photo to the right was honestly the best I brought home. Does this inspire anyone to go to Acadia and see the carriage roads for themselves? I’m guessing a resounding NO!! This shot is just, well, really sad…

Now once you have a spark of enthusiasm or even a semblance of an idea, don’t give up on it! I had the fortunate opportunity to return to Acadia in October 2010, so I had precisely 10 months to analyze what went wrong in the first attempt and design an approach that would yield the type of image I wanted to capture on the carriage roads.

I wanted to share how much fun it was to hike and bike along these paths, so I decided I would show myself in motion. I’m not a fast walker, and so help me, I do not run ever (unless someone is chasing me or is giving away free cameras across the field…) so I planned to create the image while on a moving bike with a slower shutter speed to imply movement and speed. I could hold the camera in one hand up to my eye while keeping one hand on the handlebars to render an OK image, but that approach seemed doomed for certain disaster for clumsy ol’ me. I needed both hands on the handlebars, but how would I trigger the shutter?

I mulled my idea over with my husband, who promptly suggested I research what skydivers do to trigger the shutter when they throw their crazy selves out of planes with both hands free. Hmmmm, yes…I found a company online, Conceptus, who made switches for just this reason! So I traveled to one of their distributors in Eloy, Arizona to pick up my tongue-switch, a cable-release that would plug into the camera and would allow me to trigger the shutter hands-free with my tongue! After just a few clicks, I knew this tool would certainly help me capture my vision!

With fresh enthusiasm for my idea, I returned to Acadia and started biking the autumn-kissed, tree-lined carriage roads with my camera strapped to my mid-section with a basic strap, my camera manually focused at infinity, my lens set at 16mm for a wide-angle perspective, and of course, my tongue switch in my mouth! I’d bike as fast as I could downhill, experimenting with various shutter speeds to render just enough motion but not so much it looked like the stars when the Millennium Falcon went into hyperspace mode.

Six-hundred shots later– only four of which turned out to my liking – and I can confidentially say this photograph, “Ride With Me” is exactly how I felt about enjoying the carriage roads and perhaps more importantly, it conveys exactly what I wanted to share with my viewers about that special feeling. I hope this photograph does inspire you to go to Acadia and see the carriage roads yourself! Truly, as the title expresses, I wanted you to ride with me.

Whether you’re photographing from a bike, an airplane, or with your two feet solidly planted on the ground, remember to look at your image on the back of your LCD before you move yourself or your tripod to be sure what you’ve captured is exactly what you envisioned and wish to share with your audience. If you don’t, you’re cheating yourself and your audience out of something very important you have to say about the scene in front of you. Work the scene by moving your position, changing lens, using light differently, modifying your exposure settings, applying filters, or whatever else you can do to ensure you capture that vision. And like I suggested earlier, once you have an idea pop into your head or you see something in the field that excites you, don’t walk away or give up until you’ve recorded it with your pixels!

Technical info: Canon 5DMII, 16-35mm at 16mm, ISO 50, f/20 @ 1/5th of a second, polarizer, triggered by Conceptus tongue-switch, basic post-processing.

March 2013 Print of the Month: 30% Off: “Ice Hoodoos” Prints!

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Mar 142013

The Artist-in-Residence program within the National Park Service offers professional visual and performing artists, writers, and composers an unprecedented opportunity to explore and create their art in inspirational locations across the United States. Though each park operates their individual programs separately and differently, almost all of the participating locations request the artist donates a single piece created during their residency.

With my third Artist-in-Residency in Acadia National Park in Maine completed as of late February, I needed to make a decision as to which of the thousands of frames I snapped in my month-long stay would be THE chosen one. It was important to me that the selected image clearly expressed what winter was like for me in this coastal park – full of cold, ice, fleeting moments, and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Given that criteria, I’ve selected “Ice Hoodoos” to be my donated print for my winter residency!

“Ice Hoodoos,” Acadia National Park, Maine (Prints available – click on photo to order & use coupon code 0313POTM01 to receive your 30% discount now thru March 31, 2013!)

I’ve also selected this print to be our print of the month for March 2013, which means now thru March 31, 2013, visit our website and use coupon code 0313POTM01 to receive 30% off any size or style of this print. As with each Print of the Month within the collection, in addition to your print, you’ll also receive a one-page write-up on the story behind the photograph, which will include specific location information, technical details, and photography tips to help encourage you to get outside and enjoy nature. As an added bonus for this print, we donate 10% of the profits from all prints sold from the National Park Service via the National Park Foundation.

Blog readers will recall the story I shared when I first posted this photograph on February 12: “This bizarre and spectacular sunrise landscape happened yesterday morning [February 11] along Ocean Drive near Boulder Beach. The peak of the recent blizzard, “Nemo,” occurred almost simultaneously with a higher than normal high tide on Saturday, causing monster waves to pound the granite-lined coast and create a wall of spray almost up to Ocean Drive! This, combined with frigid temperatures well below freezing, plastered rocks and plant life alike with a coating of salt spray along this section of coastline, creating these amazing small desert hoodoo-like formations. As if that find wasn’t enough, the glorious sunrise was one of the most colorful I’ve seen in all my days in the park!”

This print will join my two previously donated prints – “Lighting the Way” of Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse and “Season of Change” from the Schoodic Peninsula – in the Acadia National Park collection.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can participate in the rewarding Artist-in-Residence program at Acadia National Park, please visit their website at www.sercinstitute.org/education/artists-residence-0. Though the application process is now closed for the 2013 season, mark your calendar to apply starting this October for the 2014 season!

“Lighting the Way,” Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse at Acadia National Park, Maine, which was my donated print from my first Artist-in-Residence in November 2009 (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

“Season of Change,” Schoodic Peninsula, Acadia National Park, which was my donated print from my second Artist-in-Residence in October 2010. (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

You’re Invited: "Connecting With Nature Through the Lens" Presentation This Friday in Acadia!

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Feb 122013

Ice Hoodoos along Ocean Drive, Acadia National Park, Maine. Prints available – click on photograph to order!

Greeting from Acadia National Park!

As a part of my current Artist-in-Residency in Acadia National Park, I am excited to be presenting “Connecting With Nature Through the Lens” program at the next SERC Institute Brown Bag session on this Friday, February 15 from 11:30 am – 1 pm at Moore Auditorium. Free to the public, but donations – which benefit solely the SERC Institute – happily accepted at the door. I know it’s a bit of a commute for the Arizona folks, but hopefully those in the Northeast, specifically Maine, can attend! For more information, visit http://www.sercinstitute.org/brown-bag-lunch-serc-connecting-nature-through-lens.

Though I’ll be sharing more photos of my phenomenal, still-in-progress four-week residency soon, this bizarre and spectacular sunrise landscape happened yesterday morning along Ocean Drive near Boulder Beach. The peak of the recent blizzard, “Nemo,” occurred almost simultaneously with a higher than normal high tide on Saturday, causing monster waves to pound the granite-lined coast and create a wall of spray almost up to Ocean Drive! This, combined with frigid temperatures well below freezing, plastered rocks and plant life alike with a coating of salt spray along this section of coastline, creating these amazing small desert hoodoo-like formations. As if that find wasn’t enough, the glorious sunrise was one of the most colorful I’ve seen in all my days in the park!

Technical information: Canon 5DMII, 16-35mm lens at 18mm, ISO 125, f/22 @ 1.6 seconds, 3-stop graduated neutral density filter, basic post-processing.

CMS Photography: Favorite Photos From 2012

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Jan 022013

“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt

Happy 2013 Everyone! A new year means a blank canvas on which to create new friendships, opportunities, and achievements! I hope you each have big dreams in mind, and perhaps even more importantly, I hope you follow them relentlessly and passionately so they all come true for you in the new year. After all, “you can sleep when you’re dead,” right?

Whew, what a year 2012 was for CMS Photography! Last year will go down as our busiest, most successful, and by far the most exciting year to date, with many countless “thank you’s” owed to you, as I could not do what I do without your continued support! I feel truly fortunate to be surrounded by so many inspiring, creative, and enthusiastic people.

Some major highlights for us from last year include (in no particular order):

Won 7 international book awards for our recently published guidebook, “Wild in Arizona: Photographing Arizona’s Wildflowers”
Wandered and relaxed (!) during my husband’s two-month sabbatical from his work
Traveled to Scotland, England, Alberta & British Columbia in Canada, California, Hawai’i, Maine, Montana (twice), Florida, Washington, Utah (multiple times), and to many excellent photogenic locales within Arizona in between!
Established and participated in the first ever cultural photography exchange and exhibition between Alberta and Arizona for the Through Each Other Eyes non-profit organization (which led to the recent creation of the IRIS Photographic Society of Alberta)
Served as a Featured/Keynote Speaker at the International Photographic Society of America (PSA) Annual Conference and the Cooperative Communicators Association (CCA) Institute
Saw friends and met lots of new people during numerous book signings, camera club presentations, and photography workshops
Selected as an Artist-in-Residence for Acadia National Park (…for the third time!!)
Published in the 2013 National Geographic and Arizona Highways calendars
Donated 100% of the profit from November print sales to Emmy’s Army to help my friend, Emily, beat childhood cancer
Started this blog!

And just when you think you can’t have any more wild fun, 2013 shows up!

Going into our sixth year as a full-time freelance photographer and writer, I couldn’t be any more pumped for the year to come, not just because of all the travel planned and the new projects we’ll announce throughout the year, but all the great times and awesome learning opportunities we’ll share together, whether that be during our upcoming Workshops and Presentations or simply out in the field sharing some light and good laughs.

But, before we start running down the 2013 street like a bat outta hell, though, I’d like to share my favorite 13 (a lucky number for the new year!) photos in celebration of a joyful 2012. For more inspiration, be sure to also head over to Jim Goldstein’s Blog, hes posted his traditional and ever-growing list of other photographers’ own favorites and best from 2012 for his “Blog Project: Your Best Photos from 2012.”

Here goes:

1. Winter’s Serenade, Death Valley National Park, California (January 2012)

Cottonball Marsh area along Salt Creek in Death Valley National Park, California, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

2. Walk the Line, Death Valley National Park, California (February 2012)

Cracked mud and stones in the Panamint Dry Lake in Death Valley National Park, California, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

3. Sunrise at Boulder Beach, Acadia National Park, Maine (June 2012)

er Beach and the Otter Cliffs, Acadia National Park, Maine, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

4. Bunchberry Dogwood, Acadia National Park, Maine (June 2012)

Bunchberry dogwood (Cornus canadensis) at Acadia National Park, Maine, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

5. The Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei, Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park, Arizona (June 2012)

The Totem Pole and Yei Bi Chei rock formations in Monument Valley Tribal Park, Arizona, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

6. The Colorado River Flexing its Muscle, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona (June 2012)

The sandstone cliffs of Marble Canyon reflect into waves in the Colorado River near Lee’s Ferry, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

7. The RCMP Musical Ride, 100th Anniversary of the Calgary Stampede, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (July 2012)

Abstract view of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s Musical Ride during Stampede in Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

8. Reach for the Sky, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona (August 2012)

Abstract sky pool pattern in Lake Powell, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, Arizona, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

9. Autumn on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona (September 2012)

Gambel oak line the edge of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

10. Autumn Regeneration, Kaibab National Forest, Arizona (September 2012)

Abstract view of a regenerating burned forest during autumn in the Kaibab National Forest, Arizona, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

11. Mother Nature’s Ice Cream, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona (October 2012)

Striated bentonite clay beds in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area, Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order)

12. Spell of the Sea, The Big Island, Hawai’i (November 2012)

Waves and volcanic rock along the Puna Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

13. Winter Solstice Eve, Canyonlands National Park, Utah (December 2012)

Viewed from the Green River Overlook, the sun sets over Island in the Sky district in Canyonlands National Park, Utah, USA (Prints available – click on photo to order!)

Thank you for stopping by the “You Can Sleep When You’re Dead” blog! Let’s all make 2013 a year to remember!

~Colleen