Wild River Maine Photographs

On our way back from The Forks, Maine we stayed over a couple of nights in the Gorham, NH area where I revisited the Wild River in Maine to make photographs. This is on the New Hampshire - Maine border. I have previously photographed this area and was looking forward to the revisit.

The weather only cooperated for a day as there was a lot of rain the other day we were there. We went to the Wild River area in the evening, around 5:30 and stayed until about 8:00 pm, taking advantage of "quiet light." I learned the term "quiet light" when taking a John Sexton workshop at Anderson Ranch in Colorado in 2000. The light is directional and can emanate from a large area such as the sky. Generally there is no direct sunlight present.

Two images made during this time are shown:

River Rocks, Sand, and Branches, Wild River Maine, 2010

Fern and River Rocks, Wild River Maine 2010

Moxie Falls and High Dynamic Range Imaging

Figure 1. Moxie Falls, Kennebec river valley.

Making photographs of Moxie Falls in Maine provided an opportunity to use "high dynamic range" imaging because of the extremes of the lighting. The top of the falls was in full sunlight and the cliff sides was in deep shade. So I made three exposures, one to insure detail in the shadow, the sunlit water was blocked. A second intermediate exposure was made and finally a third exposure insured that there was no blocking in the sunlit water but of course there was little shadow detail.

Figure 2. Exposed for the shadows (Zones 2-4), blocked highlights.

Figure 3. Exposed for the intermediate scale (Zone V).

Figure 4. Exposed for the highlights (Zone VII-X).

Figure 5. Combining the three exposures into a final image.

The same approach was used for the full view of the falls (Figure 1)

Color vs. B&W Rendering

The color image of the previous post is rendered in B&W. The forms in the image remain the same of course but there is a different sense conveyed by the green rendition vs. the B&W. I would say that the B&W has a more ominous, mysterious feel compared with the green rendering. The exploration and exploitation of this difference is certainly worth pursuing.

Recent trip to Kennebec river valley and Wild River Maine

We (Susan, Tucker and I) recently made a short (four day) trip to the Kennebec river valley in north central Maine with the view of making photographs of the north woods, waterfalls, ... The weather was a bit of a hindrance as it rained two of the days. I made color photographs of the hemlock trees and mist outside our cabin(see photograph) using my point and shoot camera, and B&W photographs with my 4x5 field camera(not yet developed). I turned the hemlocks into a long narrow panorama (top image).

On the return home we stopped in Gorham/Shelburn NH and I visited the Wild River in Maine to photograph. This is an area were I have photographed before (see http://www.jackahearnphotography.com/new_england.shtml) and comparing these new photographs with the previous ones should be insightful. These photographs are not yet developed.