Calm Morning - 27 September 2014
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CALM MORNING - 27 September 2014
Sunrise from the Otter Cliffs - Acadia National Park, ME
Link to full sized image: http://www.tom-hill.biz/Galleries/Scenics/Elsewhere-Japan-Plains-Maine/i-SkntkHS/A
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Today's image was shot on my last morning in Acadia National Park. I wasn't planning on going out. I was planning on sleeping in. Well, all good plans do not always seem to pan out. I woke at 4am. Unlike the previous night with clouds--making a spectacular sunset--this morning was almost cloudless. Except for a small strip of cloud just where the sun was.
I got out to the Otter Cliffs well before anyone else was out there. But, unlike the previous time I was there in the middle of the week people eventually began to arrive. In fact, they seemed to arrive in droves. There were at least 20 or 30 other photographers trying to make something without getting into each others ways. Not surprisingly, there were conflicts. I"m not sure why people can't figure out ways to avoid conflicts. While no pushing or shoving or even name calling was done, the tone of the interaction between one or two photographers was definitely elevated. Which seems to fit this image so well.
I find this capture as being very interesting. There is a tremendous calmness throughout the image. It's almost abstract in its concept. Yet, there's a burning "hotness" where the sun will eventually arise. The thin wispy clouds mixed with foreshadowing of blast of the rising sun seems to represent the conflict the photographers were having.
Me, I wasn't interested in anything these guys where trying to shoot. All of them were shooting the cliffs, which I got earlier in the week. None of them seemed to be seeing what I was seeing or pointing in the direction I was. I was probably the only one out there with my telephoto lens to really close in on the clouds and the horizon--a bit atypical for landscape photography.
Honestly, I'm conflicted with this image. It's not quite as symmetric as I wish. Or, the composition has tension in it that I'm not sure I like. I'm still deciding whether it's as good as I think it is or just another pretty good sunrise capture.
Cheers
Tom