... late yesterday evening i hopped atop my trusty bmw motorcycle and headed up to bangor to join chad, my friend and former student, for a photography wanderabout along the edge of the sea in acadia national park ... while chad is clearly well along the curve towards mastering the techniques involved producing images with 60-180 second long exposures using a 12x neutral density filter, it's all relatively new to me and thus the morning was a bit of a role reversal ...
... i stopped in dysart's for a nice "trucker supper," then finished the ride up to bangor ... i think the plan was for me to crash on the fold-out couch and get four hours of sleep, but between chad welcoming me and our heading over to the coast was instead four hours of chatting about all manner of things ...
... chad's clearly an acadia park "expert" ... at every turn of the road he was explaining to me that vistas i would find at the end of hidden paths or, in some cases, "descents down cliff face routes where if you slip you die" ... it's been years and years since i've driven the park roads, so it was a pleasant time having such a knowledgeable tour guide ... finally, we arrived at "boulder beach," flashlight in hand, chad helped me negotiate the rutted, twisted tree root booby-trapped trail to the shore ...
... here's one of my first shots ... if i recall correctly, this was with the heavy filter, and is an 80 second exposure (10mm-f6.7-iso100 for those who are interested) ...
... those rocks are beyond treacherous, in no small part i survived because chad taught me that some types of stone hold the moss while others remain clear and provide enough traction that i could stand on them without slipping ... so cool, there's always something new to learn ...
... i enjoyed using my serious-piece-of-equipment manfrotto tripod, and within ten or fifteen minutes i was comfortable understanding how to work the wireless shutter release/intervalometer my good buddies in hong kong sent me ...
... here's where the the moment demands a 10mm lens ... (thank you, sigma) ...
... chad captured me completely disregarding the fact that the combination of these slippery boulders and my cranky ol' knees are an orthopedic surgeon's nightmare ... he posted it saying he had processed the image to "honor" my pa's over half-century old chemical stained faded ektachrome color slides that i've been posting in this journal ... i was honored ...
... and, of course, as john and i have discussed, i made sure to capture a photograph of another who joys in "chasing the light" ... all sorts of people get elected to be president of the united states, chad was once of a very, very select group of most remarkable young people who were trusted to collect the money from the soda machine, as far as i'm concerned a fact should be at the very top of his resume ...
... sun having cleared the horizon, here's a more standard exposure in which by manipulating contrast and color. and utilizing photomatrix pro to "tone map" the image ... a different interpretation of otter point ...
... as i was rapidly entering a never-want-to-leave frame of mind, chad called over to me, "turn around and take a look" ... what a nice way to end our visit to the edge of the sea ...
... back in bangor, chad's wife, emmie, offered up some excellent properly cooked eggs (sorry, my below the mason-dixon line friends, but i'm never going to agree with you on that) and wonderful blueberry pancakes ... before i left their five most charming children took turns trying out my motorcycle ... all were fascinated, but i've a feeling that years from now this is going to be a photograph labeled "walker's first motorcycle," and next to it on the wall will be a long row of similar pictures ... i'm even betting in some of them there might be clear air showing between the wheels and the road ...
... forty mile-per-hour gusting cross winds for the ride home, made all the more interesting in that it's been a while since i've gone thirty hours without sleep ... now, recovered and famished, i've another great memory to file away in my life book ...
... chad, emmie, and, my favorite "cool kids gang," emily, walker, daniel, megan, and tom*, thank you, thank you very much ...
*... if i messed up on a name, you all get an ice cream ... what the heck, you're all so cool even if i didn't next time i'm up i'll treat ...