Acadia National Park and Isle au Haut

Isle au Haut, June 2023

Acadia National Park spans a number of islands in Maine’s Penobscot Bay, primarily Mount Desert. A lesser known part of the park is on Isle au Haut, a six-mile-long island with a year-round population of just under 100 that, like a lot of coastal Maine, expands significantly in the summer. Like Mount Desert, it has a rugged coastline, bubbling brooks, a couple of “mountains,” and other scenery large and small that is irresistible to most nature photographers. But Isle au Haut is harder to reach than Mount Desert. Accessible by ferry, it has few overnight accommodations for visitors, which leaves it blissfully uncrowded.

I’ve been going to Isle au Haut since I was a kid, and the sunsets, morning fog, and ocean vistas are as captivating as ever. Each summer for the past six or eight years I’ve lugged my camera, tripod, and assorted lenses to the island on our family vacations and have carved out time to photograph the woods and coast. Although I’ve always had an eye out for the smaller scenes, most of what I’ve photographed in the past has been larger landscapes. This year was a little different. I didn’t have a plan ahead of time to concentrate on intimate scenes; I simply wanted to see what the weather and light offered. As it turned out, the persistent fog, along with a little rain, made for wonderful small scene opportunities.

One revelation to me was seaweed, more specifically seaweed photography. It’s omnipresent on the rocks below the high tide line and probably an afterthought if not a nuisance to most people. I’ve taken occasional photos of the yellowish brown marine algae in the past, without much success. In retrospect, that’s probably because it was an afterthought. This year’s fog and overcast skies provided nice, even light and an opportunity for me to be more deliberate in creating images of the humble and abundant seaweed hanging from barnacle-crusted rocks.

Seaweed on the coast of Maine boasts an array of shapes, colors, and tones. Pimpled pods, delicate leaves, and hanging blades range from deep brown and green to burnt orange to vibrant yellow and gold. In calmer inlets it undulates in the waves at high tide, and when the tide is out it covers the rocks like a blanket. I made a lot of seaweed images this year, and my favorites ended up being tighter compositions that emphasized textures and tones as well as some longer exposures of fronds waving to and fro in the swells.

I also spent time, as I always do on the island, photographing waves at work on the rocky beaches. The even light from overcast skies gave me plenty of chances to explore the rocks, and I easily got into a very focused zone, oblivious to time or obligations. Waves draining over dark rock formations or around colorful granite stones captivated me for a couple of hours one foggy morning. I’m not sure I broke any new ground there as far as compositions, but I enjoyed the time.

If I had one minor regret from my photography this year, it was that I did not make more of the ample fog in the trees. I love those conditions, but for various reasons I was unable to get many images I was pleased with. Even so, I was happy with some of my small scenes photography and gratified to return with some images that represented a distinctly different perspective from past years.