Acadia National Park Private Jet Photo Tours

Jordon Pond, Acadia National Park Photography Hot Spot

Jordon Pond – Acadia National Park Photography Hot Spot 

Acadia National Park is a National Park located in the U.S. state of Maine. It reserves much of Mount Desert Island and associated smaller islands off the Atlantic coast. Initially created as Lafayette National Park in 1919, the oldest National Park east of the Mississippi River, it was renamed Acadia in 1929.

We can tell you about the magnificent views, the glorious colors, the dynamic shapes and go on and on, but we won’t. We will inform you that this whole park is one of the most incredible places in the USA. If you would like to do photography from morning to night for days in a row, put this on your bucket list. It doesn’t get much better than this. Take a private jet and make it fabulous!

Acadia National Park is one of the most photographed parks in the United States. This image alone should portray why that is so. Extra Eyes Photo Tours will take you to all of the hidden locations. It’s a great tour. See the details here www.extraeyesphototours.com.

If you want to leave and head to another northern area, read about our journey from Acadia National Park, Maine, to Fundy Trail, Canada—an incredible journey. See our Acadia National Park Milky Way Information here.

 

JORDON POND PHOTOGRAPHY INFORMATION

JORDON POND AT A GLANCE

Lens: Wide Angle but you may find a bird or two. Not much wildlife here.

Gear List at a Glance: Circular polarizing filter, neutral density filter, tripod, shutter release, wide-angle lens.

When to Go:  The only time not to go is when they close the road down due to winter conditions. Check with the park before you go. Fall is ideal.

SHUTTER PRIORITY

If you have moving subjects, you will want to shoot in shutter priority to ensure your shutter speed is high enough to have your subject in sharp focus. Approximately 1/250th of a second is appropriate for people walking by, and adjust your ISO accordingly. If they run fast, increase your shutter speed to about 1/500th of a second. A fast bird flying by would be shot at about 1/1000th of a second. If it’s a bright sunny day, go as high as  1/1200th of a second. Remember, the higher your shutter speed, the less light comes into the camera. It should not be an issue outside during daytime hours.

MANUAL MODE

You have moving waters here. You can do your long-exposure running and milky water shots. You will have to use a tripod for this effect. Your settings will vary depending on the lighting and your neutral density filter. You will shoot in manual mode for the milky waters. ISO is always 100 or as low as your camera will allow. The aperture is f22. Your shutter speed will be the only variable depending on the light. Roll your shutter speed until your meter reads zero. (In the center)  Use your shutter release or 2-second timer to prevent camera movement when exposed. You will want at least a 2-second exposure for milky water. If you don’t have a neutral density filter, you may not get more than 1/15th of a second in the sun. 

You can buy one here if you don’t have a neutral-density filter. We highly suggest you do not go anywhere without one. It makes all the difference between lifeless images and outstanding, dynamic images.

APERTURE PRIORITY

Aperture Priority is often used to blur the background of your images and control your depth of field (how much from the subject to the background is in focus).

The higher you set it, the more light comes in when exposing an image. The higher the number, the more digital noise, so if possible, stay below 800. If you need to go higher to get the shot, you can use Topaz Denoise to filter out the digital noise later.

Acadia National Park

Area Information

Located off the Maine coast, most of Acadia National Park is 47,000 acres spread over Mount Desert Island. However, portions of the Park are located on the Schoodic Peninsula and Isle au Haut.

Six visitor information centers are located within or near Acadia National Park, including the main visitor center in Hulls Cove (northwest of Bar Harbor), a nature center at Sieur des Monts (south of Bar Harbor), a visitor center on Thompson Island (along the road leading into Mount Desert Island), another visitor information center in Village Green in Bar Harbor, the historic Museum at Islesford on Little Cranberry Island, and the Rockefeller Welcome Center on Schoodic Peninsula. Many significant features of Acadia are easily accessible from Bar Harbor, including Hulls Cove visitor center, the beginning of the Parks Scenic Park Loop Road, and the winding, 27-mile-long loop road, which includes the dramatic ascent to Mount Cadillac. It is also possible to hike up to its 1,530-foot peak from Bar Harbor (via multiple trails) to get views encompassing most of Acadia and the surrounding islands.

After looping around Cadillac Mountain, the Acadia Scenic Park Loop Road leads down to the Maine coastline at Sand Beach. Acadia’s Park Loop Road is a classic scenic drive featuring views of the ocean, lakeside beauty, and dramatic rock formations. Acadia has miles of historic highways, with the best-known being the 27-mile scenic Park Loop Road, which links the region’s lakes, mountains, and coastlines. There are over 130 miles of hiking trails for you to explore on foot and 45 miles of carriage roads to ride your bike.

Unique attractions include sandy beaches, rock beaches, thunder holes, and dark skies for milky way photography. Magnificent rocks can be found at Otter Cliff; these features make the Park a top ten photography location worldwide.

The Precipice Trail is another appropriately named steep hike with many ascents leading up to Champlain Hill, another of Acadia’s highest peaks. Two simple, marked hiking trails along Maines’s southern shores of Mount Desert Island–Ship Harbor and Wonderland–head down into the peninsula, which has its west coast and offers an unobstructed vista to the horizon.

Much less traveled than Acadia core, the region just west of Somes Sound has trails running down Long Pond’s edge (1 mi) and up Bernard Mountain (3.2 mi). Located south of Bar Harbor, the Park Sieur de Monts neighborhood features the Wild Garden of Acadia, the Park’s nature center, and the oldest branch of the Smithsonian-affiliated Abbe Museum. Acadia National Park features diverse landscapes, including granite-domed mountains, woods, lakes, and part of the mainland in the Schoodic Peninsula, comprised of islands along Maines’s rugged coastline ponds and ocean coastlines.

Acadia National Park preserves the natural beauty of rocky headlands, including the highest mountains along the Maine coastline. Acadia National Park is, as the National Park Service puts it, the crown jewel of the North Atlantic Coast, and for a good reason; it holds the highest peak along the entire Eastern Seaboard, the viewpoint that offers the first glimpse of sunshine when it rises above the horizon to illuminate the U.S. mainland. Acadia is unlike anywhere else, with miles of shoreline along the Atlantic Ocean.

Acadia preserves a sliver of coastal Maine, one of the nation’s most-loved parks, where northern forests drop steeply down into the wild Atlantic. Acadia, Maine, is a great place to get outdoors, with granite-strewn cliffs and miles of woodland trails on the shoreline. Acadia National Park, the only National Park in Maine, is known for its fall foliage. Acadia National Park sunrises (one of the first places in America to see sunrises) and the rugged, pink granite coast.

The Park has some of the best places for natural areas to photograph and towns and villages throughout the Acadia region, from Bar Harbor on Mount Desert Island, Mount Desert Island, to Winter Harbor on the Schoodic Peninsula.

If you cannot find somewhere to stay directly next to Acadia, try looking for cabins beyond Acadia, near Ellsworth, Northeast Harbor, or Winter Harbor. Acadia is open year-round, though many facilities inside and near the Park are closed from October to the end of May.

Another notable benefactor is John D. Rockefeller, Jr., who purchased and donated 11,000 acres of forests, shorelines, and scenic areas to the Park. Subsequent projects and partnerships have included Acadia Trails Forever, the first-ever dedicated trail system at a U.S. National Park, which raised $13 million from 1999-2001, and the Island Explorer. This free propane-powered bus system has served Acadia National Park and the surrounding communities since 1999.

Jordon Pond Information


The best hotels while doing photography

HOTEL

INFO

Add your hotel here!

Do you want us to send our photography and ghost hunting friends to your hotel for their photography or ghost hunting trip? Put your hotel information here. We will put pictures of your hotel, the website link, the phone number and your information on your hotel.

Would you like to be a featured hotel like this article or this one?  Please send us an email.  You will be surprised at how affordable our prices can be.

area information - photography

AREA

INFO

Park and Area Information

Entrance Fees: All park visitors are required to pay an entrance fee upon entry May–October. Passes are non-transferable. Credit cards are accepted at all fee collection areas.

Private Vehicle: $25 valid for 7 days
Admits private, non-commercial vehicle (15 passenger capacity or less) and all occupants.

Motorcycle: $20 valid for 7 days
Admits one or two passengers on a private, non-commercial motorcycle.

Per Person: $12 valid for 7 days
Admits one individual with no car.

Hulls Cove Visitor Center:
April 15 – October 31, open daily
April, May, June, September, and October: 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
July & August: 8 am – 6 pm

Seasonal Closings:

Park Loop Road:
Closed annually December 1 – April 14. Road opening may be delayed on years of heavy snow and ice. Two short sections remain open year-round.

Unpaved Roads:
Closed November 15 – May 15.
Visit Trail Closures for information on closures associated with protecting nesting birds.

For a map of these restrooms, click here.

GOOD CAMPING

CAMPING

Where to camp while doing photography or ghost-hunting

Add your campground here! Do you want us to send our photography and ghost-hunting friends to your campground to stay during their ghost-hunting trip? Put your campground information here. We will put a picture of your establishment, the website link, the phone number and your information on your campground to make it easy for our photographers and ghost hunters to find you. They are good at getting there in the dark.

Would you like to be featured in an article as a place to stay while doing photography or ghost hunting? If so, please send us an email. You will be surprised at how affordable our prices can be.


Schoodic Woods Campground

Located on the Schoodic Peninsula, this campground is 3 miles (5 km) southeast of Winter Harbor. It will open in 2015 from September until Columbus Day. After this season, it will be open from late May until Columbus Day. The entire campground will be first come, first served this year. Reservations for the following years are highly recommended.

Fee (per site, per night): $22 walk-in tent sites, $30 drive-up tent/small RV, $36 RV with electric-only sites, $40 RV with electric and water. Discounts are available for Senior and Access (Permanent Disability) pass holders.

Reservations for Blackwoods and Seawall Campgrounds
Reservations for individual sites are handled by the National Recreation Reservation Service (NRRS), not the park.By Phone
877-444-6777
877-833-6777 (TTY)
518-885-3639 (International)
888-448-1474 (Customer Service)

Online
www.recreation.gov

FOOD & DINING

FOOD & DINING

Add your Restaurant here!

Do you want us to send our photography and ghost-hunting friends to your Restaurant after their ghost-hunting or photography trip? Put your restaurant information here. We will put a picture of your establishment, the website link, the phone number and your information on your Restaurant to make it easy for our photographers and ghost hunters to find you.

The Jordan Pond House Restaurant:

Located inside the park. This is where we stop to eat.

Address: Park Loop Rd, Seal Harbor, ME 04675

Phone:(207) 276-3316

Perry’s Lobster Shack:
1076 Newbury Neck Road
Surry, ME
207-667-1955 – This is where you go to do sunset photography and enjoy your incredibly fresh lobster diner. We got up during dinner, did some sunset photography, and returned on the deck.

Perry’s is run by Perry and his wife, Beverly. The lobster shack is on the side of Newbury Neck Road, with stairs leading to the town beach. Perry’s menu is simple, with fresh lobster, mussels, and corn on the cob.

WEATHER

 WEATHER?

 Don’t forget that you can use a rain sleeve on your camera if it is raining. If it is bright and sunny, you want to use a low ISO such as 50 or 100.

If you photograph cloudy days, you can do running water or waterfall photography to help avoid the glaring sun. You can also use an ND filter to get long exposure for dramatic effects, even in the sunshine. If you ghost hunt indoors in abandoned places, be careful!

Go to our Photography Store after reading about waterfall photography or neutral density filters.