Acadia

 

It seemed like a great idea — at the time. And to be fair, all’s well that ends well, right?

This trip to Acadia was a quest for the perfect image for my living room wall, and I was bent on it being a long exposure shot of the waves crashing over the rocks just after sunset. Things were looking up, the rain of the previous day had given over to a beautifully clear day and the wind was producing some fairly large waves. There was even a nearly full moon due to rise shortly after sunset as a bonus. The only disappointment was that it would be the bottom of low tide just after dark, so I wasn’t expecting the waves to be as spectacular as they had been during the day. Oh well, just have to go back again!

As the sun started to near the horizon, I stuffed all my gear in my pack, grabbed an extra layer, hat, gloves, and trusty little headlamp, and headed out. Parking at one of the lots just West of Sand Beach, I ventured out onto the rocks. Meh. Not quite what I had been looking for. So along the roadside path I went, a bit farther West, and try again. Meh. Almost, but still not quite right. And on I went. After a couple more attempts I found a spot that looked promising and picked my way down across the rocks and set up my tripod. After shooting a few frames, I tweaked my position a bit by navigating across the chasms to get still farther West/South. Yeah, you see where this is going, don’t you?

The sunset was a bit lack-luster but I was still pretty happy with the colors that the long exposures were able to coax out of it. I played with exposure length, focal length, and position until I finally found a spot that gave me some good options while I waited for the moon to rise. Alas, it was not to be. Overcast skies blew in and squashed my plans in minutes. Oh well, guess I’ll have to go back again! I was having fun anyway, though. I may have actually squealed in delight at the preview once or twice. What really made me happy was that although it was low-tide, the surf was actually coming up almost as high as it had during the noon high-tide.

So I’m in my happy place, I’m shooting away, tweaking exposure and position, listening to the sound of the surf wow! That was a BIG one!, feeling the cold wind on my face, thinking “I LOVE this! I want to do this every day!”. Cool—another big one! Then that little voice whispers “psssst. Remember Peggy’s Cove?”. Uh, yeah. Maybe it’s time to go. I had been guessing at the focus for the past half hour anyway. Queue spray from the next big set. Everything gets jammed back in the pack and the tripod collapsed and locked down in a big hurry. I turn around to head for higher ground. Wow. That’s a lot of dark. And rocks. Crap. I mean, it wasn’t exactly blind-man’s-bluff groping my way across the cliffs and crags, I could see just fine for about 20 feet in front of me. There was no danger of stepping out into the abyss. But looking back up the rocks towards the road I realized that I couldn’t really pick out a route. Couldn’t see the path in the break of the shear rock face between me and my car. Oops. Not good. It was just about that time that the thought crossed my mind “geez, wouldn’t it suck if the batteries died now?”. That put a spring in my step!

Needless to say, I did eventually find my way back to the break in the rock and up the goat-path through the trees and boulders, and the half mile back up the road to the car. Lessons? Pack at least two light sources and don’t put them in the same place. Pay attention to the big picture as well as your footing. And always pay attention to that little voice that says that it’s time to go!