acadia national park | Beautiful Flower Pictures Blog

Magical Maine

by hankinslawrenceimages | Nov 21, 2011 | Maine, Photo Locations

One of the highlights of October for me this year was a week photographing at Acadia National Park in Maine. I was there for a workshop on the Contemplative Landscape taught by George DeWolfe & Lydia Goetze.

Visiting Acadia National Park in the second week of October was amazing. I haven’t seen fall color like this in a very long time – probably since I was in high school. What I quickly realized was that in New England some of leaves of the Sugar Maple trees turn a magnificent shade of red that we just don’t see here in the Mid-Atlantic area. My guess is that I’ll be heading back to Maine for more fall color photography in the coming years.

As wonderful as the scenery and colors were in Acadia – the best part of the trip was the Contemplative Landscape Workshop. During the workshop, I was challenged to think about my photography in ways I’ve never thought about it before. Really starting to consider – what am I trying to say with my photographs? What emotions and feelings am I trying to convey?

In addition to taking us to some incredible places to photograph, the instructors, George DeWolfe and Lydia Goetze, talked about how both Western and Eastern landscape painting traditions can influence how we compose our photographs. We also discussed how practicing mindfulness can help our photography.

It was a fantastic workshop – so good in fact – that I’m seriously considering heading to Death Valley to repeat the workshop in February!

Pearly Everlasting – Anaphalis margaritacea

by hankinslawrenceimages | Nov 25, 2009 | Flowers, Wildflowers

This past summer while Bill and I were exploring Acadia National Park in Maine, I spotted a wildflower I’d never seen before. It had clusters of tightly packed white and yellow flowers. I had no idea what it was. I eventually discovered that it was Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis margaritacea), a native plant and member of the aster family. Later in the week, I was able to photograph a lovely group of Pearly Everlasting ath the Wild Gardens of Acadia – a great location for learning about the plants and ecosystems at Acadia National Park.

Here are some of my photos of Pearly Everlasting from Acadia National Park.

A view of the entire group of flowers

A little closer in view that gives a great sense of the texture of the unopened flowers.

And finally two side views of the flowers with different depths of field. I’m still trying to decide which of these two photos I like better.

I really enjoyed photographing the Pearly Everlasting at the Wild Gardens of Acadia. Next summer, I’ll definitely look for more Pearly Everlasting, I’d like to photograph some with the flowers fully open.