Acadia National Park

On October 8^th, I embarked on a three-day photography journey to Acadia National Park, the only National Park in New England. I previously made a trip with my sister and brother in-law, but decided I would go alone this time around. I love traveling with my family; however, they are starting a family now and don’t have as much time to travel anymore. The advantage of traveling alone is flexibility, however, the obvious disadvantage is loneliness. The lonely drive took four and a half hours from Boston. Acadia has a variety of different geographical features; including mountains, beaches, a beautiful coastline, various natural ponds, and the Atlantic Ocean itself. In addition, delicious seafood can be found in Bar Harbor, a city right next to the park. It is a perfect place for vacationers and nature lovers.

I arrived at three in the afternoon and drove straight to the park headquarter to gather information I needed for the next three days. After I arrived at my campsite (blackwood), I registered my week pass with the park rangers and set up my tent. This panorama below was taken with my iPhone on the last day before I left the park.

 

 

After spending 20 minutes setting up my tent, I noticed the sunset was approaching—the Sun itself was emitting warm rays of red and orange, colors that define sunset. So I drove westward to Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse to catch this glimmering sunset. I managed to arrive about an hour before sunset, but it took me 30 minutes to find a parking spot. After wasting so much time looking for parking, I followed the trail to the cliff of the lighthouse where most of the iconic photographs of this lighthouse were taken. There were a number of photographers, and unfortunately, I was the last to arrive. As expected, all the good spots were taken, and I didn't have much time left before the sunset, so I asked one of the photographers to spare me a few inches. A kind German photographer helped me out, and I owe him big time. I found myself engaged in a very long conversation with him about photography. To return a favor, I told him some of the must-visit photographic places around the park since it was his first time visiting. Here is the best frame of the lighthouse at sunset.

                                                                   Bass Harbor Head Lighthouse at sunset

I was one of the last photographers to leave the lighthouse, but I was still unsatisfied. My job was not done. I drove back to the east side of the park and by the time I got back, it was already dark—this was around eight at night. I stopped at a restaurant in Jordan Pond and wondered if they were open. While I was walking from my car to the restaurant, I looked up in the sky and saw the Milky Way. I decided this view was too good to pass up on, so I decided to skip dinner. I drove to the summit of Mt. Cadillac to capture the Milky Way. After shots of the Milky Way, I found something very strange happening on the other side of the sky. It looked like a big light source was lighting up the sky and was moving in different directions. A few seconds later, I realized it was the northern light. See the photo below.

                                                       Northern Light at Cadillac Summit



By the time I finished, all the restaurants in Bar Harbor were closed, so I drove approximately 17 miles to the town of Ellsworth to get food. I got back to my campsite 30 minutes before midnight. It was consider a cold night in early October, with temperatures in the mid-30s. After a long day of driving and shooting, I decided to skip my shower and went straight to bed.


Day 2: I woke up at five in the morning and drove up to the Cadillac summit to catch the sunrise. Unfortunately, clouds were very thick and blocked the sun out completely. As I soon realized, the whole day was like that. As a result, I went back to my campsite and took a shower in a nearby area (which was $2 for 4 minutes hot water shower). Around noontime, I decided to visit a garden within the park, and I found it was a perfect time to capture the color of foliage. Here are some of the photos I took.

 

                                                  A photographer using a film camera to document foliage

colorful leave on grass

                                                 Sun breaking through the clouds and shining on the garden


As the sun began to break through the clouds before dusk, I rushed to Cadillac Summit in an attempt to make up for the shots I missed in the early morning sunrise. On my way up to the summit, there were numerous photographers and their cars pulled up on the side of the road awaiting for the sunset. I rushed to a location that I knew, and luckily, the clouds were no longer a problem.

Sunset at Cadillac Summit

A minute later I moved my camera and decided to include the sun in the shot.

Sunset at Cadillac Summit

 Shortly after dinner, I drove back to the park and was hoping to see the Northern Light or the Milky Way again, but only found the sky covered entirely by clouds.

Day 3: THE worst day of my trip! I woke up only to find out it was raining and the clouds were very thick and low at the atmosphere. Visibility was very bad. I took this photo to show you how bad it was. I was about 30-40 feet away from the car in the photo.

                                                                          Cloudy day at the summit

During the afternoon, visibility began to improve and the rain was getting lighter, so I decided to go to Jordan Pond and Bubble Pond to capture some color and small detail of the park.

                                                                       Cloudy day at Jordan Pond

                                                                       A small waterfall near Bubble Pond

                                                                  A small waterfall near Bubble Pond


Acadia never ceases to amaze me. Two trips, two fond memories engraved in me forever. As a photographer, Acadia National Park is truly a goldmine—its sunsets and sunrises are beautiful, perhaps the best I have ever seen. The diverse geographical features of the park (mountains, ponds, beaches, coastline, and the Atlantic Ocean) along with the newly discovered Northern Light are truly breathtaking, even to the common eye. If you are planning to visit Acadia, you should definitely check out some of the areas on the photos above. You can also visit their website for more information. I hope you enjoy this article.

Sport bike photoshoot

Last week my friend Alan asked me if i could do a photoshoot of him riding a bike, and i did.  We went out to Blue Hills in Quincy, MA with a couple of friends for the photoshoot.  I decided to have one of my friends to drive my suv so i could take picture from the back of my suv with the rear window opened. Please do not try this.  If you are going to try it, try it at your own risk.  I was trying to use a slow shutter speed to get a blur background and pan with the bike, but i found it was very hard to get a sharp shot of the bike with my car moving and the slow shutter speed.  I tried to use a faster shutter speed but it just froze all the motion of the wheels, so i went back to use a slow shutter speed and hoped to get lucky.  Here are some of the shots that i think they are acceptable.

 

 

BTS stories of The City of Boston

On the first post of this blog, i was talking about a timelapse project of mine "The City of Boston". I released the timelapse in early September, and it went viral.  I was lucky enough that Boston.com featured my timelapse on their website here. I am really thankful that alot of my friends and everyone that shared it on their blogs and facebooks. You can check out the timelapse video blow.       

In this post i will tell some of the BTS stories. Before i start let me tell you more about my workflow. I used a canon 7d with 10-22mm, 24-70mm and 100mm to film this timelapse. The camera almost always stay on my tripod, or gorilla tripod (i personally don't recommend you use a gorilla tripod to shoot a timelapse because i ended up spending a lot time fixing those shaky shots). I also used a motorized dolly for those moving shots.  I used a intervalometer to trigger my camera. For most of the shots i used 3-7 seconds interval (between each shots). Afer i finish shooting i used lightroom and LRtimelapse to edit and smooth out my timelapse. By the way LRtimelapse is free you can download it here. 

Let's start with a shot of the ICA (The Institute of Contemporary Art)

This shot was the last footage i took for my timelapse.  I actually didn't plan to go to the ICA to shoot. I planned to shoot a church with a sunset behind it around Fenway area, but the clouds were so thick on the west.  I turned my head to the east and saw there was a clear sky with some nice blue and purple color, so i decided to drive to east of boston, and i knew that it would be nice footage of ICA with a twilight. After a few mintues of scouting i found this shot above. In the timelapse you will see people passing by the scene, and some of those people were my friend (which i met him on my way to shoot a church scene and he wanted to come along) and i. We were walking back and forth to make the scene a bit more busy.

This is the shot of Storrow Drive

 

This shot was the most scary scene of my entire project.  The shot wasn't scary at all but what happened behind the camera was scary. I took this shot from a walking bridge somewhere near the Charles/MGH Station. It was near Mass. General Hospital. The date i went there was something going on there. I could hear police cars everywhere and i saw news reporters from a few news stations. For some reasons it didn't stop me. So i arrived at this walking bridge and started setting up my camera. After about 5 minutes i started to shoot, there was a homeless man walk up to me and started to talk to me.  I was getting kinda scary and i was thinking to stay or leave.  I stayed and prayed that he won't touch my camera or me. I felt like i needed to talk to him so i started to tell him some of the beautiful scenery i saw in New Hampshire. He actually told me that he is from New Hampshire. He also told me that he escaped from Mass General Hospital.  The scary part was when he was about to leave and he told me that he was gonna hit me and run.  Surprisingly he didn't touch me or my camera and i got good footage for my project. I was so lucky!

 

The thrid shot is The First Church of Christ

 

This shot was taken at The First Church of Christ at night.  If you had bring your tripod and your camera to this location you might know that the security guard would come to you and tell you to stop shooting. This time i was lucky.  I was there for half of an hour, and right after i finished and i was about to pack a security guard came up to question me. The lucky part was he didn't ask me to detele my pictures, and he believed what i told him which i told him that i was taking pictures of clouds.

 

 

I hope you enjoy these stories. "The City of Boston" is my first timelapse video, and i am planning to do more timelapse video. If you have any question on how to make a timelapse video or you have questions you can comment on this post. 

 

Update:

LRtimelapse 2 is no longer for free, but you can still download the free evaluation version. The free evaluation version can only render a maximum of 400 images, everything over 400 you have to buy it. here is a link  for more info.

Thx David Howland for the reminder

Off to Acadia

I am heading off to Acadia National Park (Maine) for three days, i am hoping to capture some good footages for my future project, and pictures.  I will be staying at the Blackwoods campsite. If you guys interest in going to Acadia National Park in the future, you can find out more info in here, or you can ask me questions in here.

Boston sunset

A beautiful sunset of Boston after a stormy day. I was lucky enough to have my camera with me and capture this moment.

Welcome to my blog!!

Hi, everyone my name is Yao.  This is a photo blog of mine. I am new to blogging and this is my first post. English isn't my first language so please don't laugh at my writing.  I live in Boston, Massachusetts.  I love photography and that's why i started this blog the share everything i know and to learn from you. In this blog i will post some of my photos from the past and present, and i will also post status of my current project (project Boston)that i am currently working on. Project Boston is a short film that i have been working on for about two months from now.  If you are still reading this post you might think "why are you talking about a film project in a photography blog?" Let me explain. This film will be made of a series of timelapse (timelapse is a series of pictures that composed into a video sequence) video. So it is like a photo video, but it will play in a rate of 24 frames per second.  I want to give you a better idea of what it really is i have included a link of my timelapse video on my facebook photography page below here.  You may like my facebook photography page also.