Maine in January
With a Friday free before heading back to TX after a week of work, I set out to explore and photograph the winterscape that is Maine in January. I headed up toward Moosehead lake to see if I could add photos of the B52 bomber crash to my Boneyard photo collection. Although I reside in TX, my family is from Michigan, and I was most over confident in my snow driving skills and the capabilities of my small rental SUV. After about an hours drive, I turned onto a dirt road with hard packed snow... about a mile into the drive and with approximately 5 miles left to the crash site, I started up a hill. About half way up the SUV lost traction and begin sliding back down....Steer into the skid...Does this apply in reverse?? Either way I ended up stuck in a bit of a bank, panicked for about five seconds, and got out to assess the situation, wondering who I was going to call and how I would have to explain missing my flight home that evening. Turns out that under the hard packed snow was a nice thick layer of ice, should have known better. I ended up using the small snow bank I was stuck against to my advantage and with a bit of extra throttle was able to gain traction on the bank and pivot myself back onto the road. After this, I managed the whole skidding backwards down hill successfully. Just as I was promptly heading back in the direction from which I came, I encountered two snowmobiles coming the other way. Luckily they missed the clumsy driving show!
I know now that I will need to rent a snow mobile next time to go get these crashed bomber shots I desire!
I ended up settling for some other cool Maine winter shots on the way back to Bangor.
In Dover Foxcroft I got out my tripod and played with bracketing and multiple exposure for some fun HDR shots. I was kicking myself for not having packed my ND filter, so instead I put the ISO all the way to LO1.0 and the aperture down to f22, and still couldn't get the water to slow down enough. The good water shots had the snow and sky pretty blown out, so HDR it is. Also my sensor is super dirty and it shows big time at that small aperture, I applied a quick healing brush to the largest spots after I merged the photos into HDR.
Maine has some pretty cool covered bridges, there are at least two right off of hwy 15 on the way from Bangor to Dover Foxcroft.
Although I didn't achieve my photo goal on this trip, its often times just as much, or more fun to just drive through the country and shoot as you spot fun things. It's amazing the random things you see and often don't give more than a passing glance as you drive by. What is this smiling yellow submarine looking thing??
I also added quite a few photos of abandoned buildings to my collection, for a later blog. But I was especially attracted to this farm stand. I look at it and immediately imagine shelves filled with the reds of summer cherries, apples and strawberries, the fragrance of fresh fruit and lush vegetables. The bitter wind hits my face and I almost lose my balance on the ice under me as I stand in front of the abandoned stand closed up for winter.
