Monthly Archives: September 2012

Cliffside Bridge Painting

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“It’s raining, are we still going out tonight?” That question was asked many times during the day. As it turned out, the rain stopped about an hour before the bridge shoot. The shoot was a go! Walking up to the bridge, a few of us remarked how nice it was to be on the carriage roads that evening. Given the earlier rain we wouldn’t have considered going out that evening, if not for the bridge shoot. We arrived early in preparation to climb under the bridge and down the cliff during daylight. The project continues to grow with three new bridge painter joining us. Everyone was comfortably in place well before dusk, then we waited …

The before shot.

After a couple of shots we quickly realized how ginormous this bridge is. We needed more light, we could have used a few more light painters. Brenda knew what to do, “everyone gets two lights” and she passed out more strobe flashes and flashlights to folks. Now with double-fisted lights we were able to create this incredibly magical image.

 

Cliffside Bridge Light Painting Acadia National Park

Just as we were wrapping up the last shot, we heard a voice from the bridge above asking, “Which way to Jordan Pond?” Our first thought was, “What does this fellow think we’re up to, under the bridge – illuminating the bridge with flashlights.” After letting that thought pass, we determined that he got lost running. We offered to lead him to Jordan Pond when we were finished. I never heard the final part of the story, but I think someone offered Jim a ride back to his car near Eagle Lake.

The group shot under the barrel against the cliff.

Brenda baked Congo Bars, enjoyed by all (including the lost runner, Jim). We had a double raffle: Kevin won the Jordan Pond Dam Bridge print and Tom won the Little Harbor Brook Bridge print.

Lunch with Friends

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We had a lunch meeting with Lisa and Aimee from Friends of Acadia. We discussed my offer of donating the proceeds from the Northeast Harbor Library show in May and how they could help us promote the show. They shared some great ideas on to help us spread the word, as well as suggestions for hosting an opening and closing event for the show. Lisa and Aimee are super nice, we had a very productive lunch meeting. Afterward, I thought how nice it is to be working with such a professional group within the community.

Little Harbor Brook Bridge Painting

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Our sixth bridge painting started from a completely different angle and had three unique challenges: Tuesday, Two sides, and Technology.  I often ask myself, “Will there ever be a time we can roll up to a bridge and just shoot it?” Maybe after shooting two-thirds of them; currently we’re only one-third of the way there.

The first challenge: shooting on Tuesday. Brenda was traveling out of state on Wednesday, so we moved the regularly scheduled bridge shot from Wednesday to Tuesday.  Knowing that this might disrupt some folks schedules we opted for a small bridge. Little Harbor Brook Bridge is the smallest of the carriage road bridges (Jordan Pond Dam is equal in length). If we had a smaller gathering, we would still be able to paint the bridge. This part of the plan worked out as expected, we had 11 bridge painters – thankfully enough to paint both sides of the bridge.

The second challenge: painting two sides of the bridge. As discussed in the recon mission post, I wanted to capture both walls of the bridge, something we’ve never tried before. Just like the recon shot, I extended the tripod by taping our hiking poles to the tripod legs with gaffers tape. But no one was willing to hike a seven foot ladder into the woods for 3.5 miles (in and back), though Tom and Cort carried a step stool. With the camera extended about 8 feet above the ground, I knew there was no way I could: look through the view finder, make adjustments and review the shots. It was time to pull in some technology.

The third challenge: introducing a tethered laptop to camera. The night before I was evaluating different software for the iPad and laptop, downloaded an iPad app that required WiFi – that’s not happening in the middle of Acadia National Park. Finally, found some tethering software by Nikon that would work. Now we’ve added another piece of equipment, a laptop, to bring to each location. It was a real joy to adjust the camera setting on the laptop and view the images on the 15-inch screen, rather than the back of the camera’s 3-inch screen. I was able to identify lighting corrections with greater detail.

The before shot.

I was told that when I was trying to guide folks in directing their lights by saying, “A little higher, just to the left, more to the left, okay now down a bit, that’s it right there!” Folks on the other side of the bridge couldn’t see what was going on, but they sure thought I was getting my back scratched. That’s a hoot! Challenges not withstanding, we were able to light both walls of the bridge creating the image below. A big thanks to the light painters, both the 4 new painters and the veterans. A big congratulations to Barbara who joined us as a light painter, only days after finishing the Appalachian Trail and breaking the record as the oldest female through-hiker. She started hiking on March 3rd in Georgia.

 

Little Harbor Brook Bridge Light Painting Acadia National Park

The light painters group shot. I got to paint the bridge for the group shot.

We all enjoyed lemon squares baked by Brenda.  I forgot to bring the photo to raffle. I was a bit distracted with the new addition of a laptop in the shoot.  Brenda and I did the drawing at home that evening and Linda won the West Branch print.

Jordan Pond Dam Bridge Painting

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Brenda and I sat down about a week ago and asked each other, “How many more bridges and gatehouses are there to photograph?” and “How many months are left before the May show?” Just then I realized what Brenda had been saying for sometime; we might not finish the project at the rate we’re going. It seemed so simple when we started: 17 bridges and plenty of time. But after sitting down with a calendar and considering: holidays, earlier sunsets, and rescheduling for weather – the thought that we will be cutting it close is a big concern. Now, we’re going push for one extra bridge in September, October and maybe even November to give ourselves a buffer just in case the perfect schedule starts to deteriorate.

Okay, let’s try squeezing in Jordan Pond Dam in between the every-other-week shoot. It’s small and easily accessible, we won’t bother with the usual reconnaissance mission. We’ll shoot from the hip and hope for the best. Brenda had a vision of getting the Bubbles behind the bridge. Tom and I looked at the bridge and figured out that we couldn’t get the Bubbles, but we could include the all important ‘U-Shaped Valley’. The only way to capture the u-shaped valley was to gain elevation in the middle of Jordan Stream. That meant we would need ladders: one for the camera (notice tripod taped to ladder) and one for me.

We contacted a few “hard-core light painters” and asked if they would help us with this extra bridge; we only needed a hand full of painters. I asked folks to come a bit earlier to sort out how we were going to shoot the bridge, given no recon mission. They showed up even earlier, which was great. Tom and I started setting up the ladders and camera, while lots of folks were hiking over the bridge wondering what was going on.  Just then a fellow with a camera and tripod was coming by asked, “Are you painting?” I shouted, “Brenda give that guy a flashlight!” Justin stuck around for a few minutes and then decided to continue with his own plans of light painting around Jordan Pond. He meet up with us at the end of the shoot and we shared pictures.

The before shot.

 

After a few attempts of sorting out the lighting details and positions, here’s the shot we came away with. This image does a great job of incorporating the environment. The light painters did a fantastic job! I think it’s beautiful.

 

Jordan Pond Dam Bridge Light Painting Acadia National Park

Of course the group shot of the painters. I was painting the bridge in the group shot.

We all enjoyed watermelon cubes and Molasses Krinkle cookies baked by Brenda.

Welcome

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Welcome to the new website and blog.  While actively posting about the project, I will also attempt to retro-post, based on my memory of events from the last three months. There are more pages to come: News, Milestones, The Shoot, Recipes, and Contact.

Recon-Recon Mission

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Brenda and I invited Tom and Marguerite out for an early morning boat ride. Tom and Marguerite met us at 8:30 and we decided to skip the boat due to strong winds that could lead to heavy seas. I suggested we go out and see how the seas were, but everyone else knew better and persuaded me to try again on Sunday. While we were all sitting on the porch, we started discussing the next bridge to shoot and how I wanted to do a ‘reconnaissance mission’ for the recon-mission. Brenda thought I was out of my mind, but my trusty photography friend Tom completely understood. I wanted to know what equipment I would need to assist taking the shot and be prepared with the equipment when we did the recon-mission.

After a quick change into our hiking gear and photo bag packed (with various tools including gaffers tape), we started out on our recon-recon mission. We were headed for Little Harbor Brook Bridge with a stop-over at Cliffside Bridge to see what was involved in shooting that bridge – heck, it was on the way!

We spent a fair bit of time at Cliffside Bridge and finally settled on a shooting location, best way down to the bridge, lighting locations and some ideas about safety concerns. Here’s the shot from the location.We wanted to be sure and include the weep hole and the cliff under the bridge in the picture.

We continued to Little harbor Brook Bridge, keeping in mind our ‘hard-turn-around-time’ of 11:50. After looking at some pictures online, I knew what shot I envisioned. I was hoping for a high shoot at an angle to capture both walls with the ends offset. To get that shot my tripod needed to be higher. I broke out the gaffers tape and proceeded to tape our Leki hiking sticks to the tripod legs. It worked as a proof of concept and the image is very close to what I envisioned. After reviewing the image and the scene in front of us, we identified a number of locations requiring lighting. Though this is a small bridge, there are some complex lighting challenges. As a bonus the date stone is visible too.

We took the Asticou Trail back, which turned out to be a nice hike and quicker than the carriage road. We realized that in the future, maybe we could recon two bridges in one day and we didn’t have to do it during dusk, now that we understand how to light a bridge.