The Maine Event

People who are familiar with my work know that I travel little and only on the East Coast. It’s partially a result of choice and partially just the way life has directed me. I like the East Coast and have always felt it a good fit for me artistically. I’d rather work in familiar environments. My range has been from Maine to North Carolina, with Pennsylvania of course being my primary haunt as it is where I live. Maine actually has been a location I had visited once before but only as a tag along with my wife when she was on business.

Last week, Maine became a more purposeful location for me to work. I needed some serious time in the field and the family needed a new vacation destination. Acadia National Park became the solution. Just having returned from a week in Bar Harbor (or “Baa-Ha-Ba, as they say up north), I’ve been downloading RAW image files and developing a few new images for July shows.

The image below was made on Cadillac Mountain during sunset. The view is looking down on Bar Harbor and the Porcupine Islands in Frenchman Bay. One of the great things about Acadia is that the roads are open 24/7 and so I could go whenever I wanted (and I pretty much did just that). The image was made with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II with a Canon 17-40mm f4.0 L lens, polarizing filter and split-neutral density filter (on a tripod of course).

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Gardens as Natural Oasis

Last Saturday, as part of the Artists’ Gallery’s participation in the Kalmia Club’s  Garden Tour, I spent several hours exploring private gardens within Lambertville, NJ. These are mostly small gardens designed to maximize their beauty and feeling of retreat. Several had water features and Zen-like elements that made them not only attractive to look at, but also peaceful to be in. The weather was overcast, my favorite light condition for gardens.

For many people, the garden is their everyday nature experience and so also a very important link to the natural world in general. I was amazed by how much could be done in such small spaces yet still allowing one to feel that they were almost in a wilderness.

The Garden Tour has been an annual event for years and the Artists’ Gallery participation has now become part of the tour more than ever

One particular garden that struck me for both design and it’s inviting feeling had an eating nook that drew me closer. A lace tablecloth added texture and the shade gave the scene a bit of a mysterious feeling. I emphasized both by exposing for the white tablecloth and using a lens adaptor to shift the plane of focus in a way that concentrates the viewer on the ornate pattern of the table cover.

(c) 2011 Paul Grecian - Photography

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