Greg Miller Photography Blog

Rainbow & Squall - Acadia National Park

I had the honor and privilege to serve as an Artist in Residence at Acadia National Park this past October.   The National Park Service has residencies within the parks that have the facilities to house artists inside their parks.   Acadia uses former naval facilities on Schoodic Point as an environmental education center as well as for housing for the Artist in Residence program.  Schoodic Point is a beautiful rocky peninsula and is about a  1:15 drive from the main part of the park.  It many ways this served me well, because I had little desire to photograph the all the cliche scenes that every photographer who visits the park tries to shoot.  I always strive to capture scenes in a unique way, which to me means waiting for special light and/or weather conditions.  Having a thorough knowledge of a specific area and its weather patterns improves the odds of being at the right place at the right time.  I did see any point in capturing photos that have already been done over and over, so that left me free to exp0lore in the hopes of capturing photos that would be more unique.  Much of my time in Acadia saw cloudy, rainy days with flat, boring light.  That quality of light works well with intimate foliage shots, which I will be sharing in the future within this blog.

The photo I am sharing today was taken on one of the few sunny days that I experienced during my stay.  This day was especially calm and clear, with not a cloud in the sky most of the day.  But about an hour before sunset, a rogue and isolated storm appeared on the western horizon.  The storm system consisted of a single line of clouds that was perhaps 2 or 3 miles long.  It passed overhead in a terrible fury as I drove to the coastline where I hoped to catch a photo before the storm disappeared over the Atlantic ocean.   Rainbows only appear when looking directly away form the sun, so I was fortunate that the sun was setting behind me.  The low angle of the sun allowed the raonbow to really sizzle with color.  This rainbow is limited to band of squall area beneath the rain cloud on the left, as there was nothing but blue sky above the strip of clouds.

Come back to this blog often in the near future, as I will be posting more photos from Acadia.