Maine Day 1 – Let the Adventure Begin →

Posted from Big Al's Adventures: http://www.bigalsadventures.com/maine-day-1-let-the-adventure-begin/

Freeport, ME

 

Today we made a journey to Freeport, Maine to the L.L. Bean outlet stores. As usual, we forgot something in this case binoculars.

We got to the L.L. Bean store which we have been to before and this time I took some video inside the store that I will be posting on my YouTube Channel. We found the section with the binoculars and were quickly asked if we needed help.

Knowing very little about what the best binoculars were the Bean associate was able to steer us in the right direction. We ended up getting Nikon 8248 ACULON A211 10x50 Binoculars. After my brother saw them he also went and bought his own.

Antler Chandelier Outside at L.L. Bean

Lunch

Once we finished making out purchases it was afternoon so we decided to find a place to eat. The great thing about the area around L.L. Bean is there are more shops and food places.

Out of all the different places, we looked at we settled on Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen and Topside Tavern. Linda Beans has seating on both the inside and out. We went in and were greeted and sat right away. They were even able to get us a spot downstairs so we didn't have to climb the stairs.

My dad any myself decided to go light and get two red hot dogs. Yes, RED hot dogs which were really good. The others got a lobster sandwich and turkey club.

The food was very good and the service quick and helpful.

Linda Bean’s Maine Kitchen and Topside Tavern Red Hot Dog

Kennebunkport

Now with lunch and shopping out of our way, we moved to our next location Kennebunkport. This location was not my idea, but the others wanted to go see Walkers Point.

Walkers Point is where President Bush's family have a compound that you can see. They have a small pull over for you to park and get a look at the compound. You can not get into the compound, though. They have Secret Service and gates blocking the road in and ocean surrounding it on the other sides.

It is a nice place to get some photos, though. The coastline is pretty with rocks and nice waves crashing in most of the time. If you are lucky and the Bush's are staying there you might be able to see them outside if you have good binoculars or a telephoto lens.

Walkers Point - Bush Compound

Walkers Point

Tomorrow

I do not have any idea of what we are going to do tomorrow. Someone said something about some outlet stores in Kittery. To me, that does not sound like a lot of fun, but we will see. I am sure we will have time to check out other stuff too.

Maine Travel Day - Let the Adventure Begin

Posted from Big Al's Adventures: http://www.bigalsadventures.com/maine-travel-day/

Heading Out

Today we started our trek to Maine for a nine-day vacation. Now granted when I go on vacation I am looking to do some photography on top of relaxing.

Maine at this time of year can be even more amazing with the changing of the season. I have already seen tons of beautiful red and yellow leaves on the trees along the road.

We were planning to leave around 7:00am, but as normal, we did not leave till around 8:00am.

It was pretty smooth sailing till we hit Connecticut. There we hit some major traffic due to some construction. They had two lanes go down to one for about a mile.

The best part was the construction zone was only a tiny section of a bridge. The backup was many, many miles long. Though it is funny since last time we went through the same area we had traffic without construction.

Maine Reststop

We did pretty well on gas while heading up here. We made it almost to the hotel but decided to stop to fill up on gas before arriving so in the morning we could just go.

The rest stop we went to was one that we have visited before. They have this big Moose statue by the building that has the restrooms and food services.

I decided that since we were going to be a few minutes I would go take a few pictures of the Moose statue. Again another snag. There was a maintenance guy cleaning the mulch around the Moose statue.

He did say if we wanted to take a picture with the Moose that we could. Since I just wanted to get a picture of it I did. I took three shots, but one had a tanker truck in it so I did closeups of the Moose's head.

We will probably go back at some point to get a better shot of it later this week.

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Arrival

We finally arrived at our hotel around 4:30pm. By the time we moved everything into the room and got settled it was around 6:00pm.

We decided to head out to get something to eat. We ended up going to Longhorn Steakhouse that was maybe 10 minutes down the road.

I got the Bison Meatballs for an appetizer and the Chicken Parmesan for my meal. Overall not bad at all. The 30-minute wait did drag out to about 45-mintues. Other than that I would give my experience a 4 out of 5 stars.

Bison Meatball

This Week

Here are some of my ideas for this week.

  • Try to make some small video blogs for my YouTube Channel
  • Look for and photograph some Moose and other wildlife
  • Write a post for every day that we are in Maine
  • When we go to Acadia try to get some good astrophotography
  • Take pictures of the changing leaves
  • Have fun

We are on a nine-day trip. Half in one section of Maine the other half in another.

What I Brought

The Gear I Brought

This is some of the gear I have brought along to take photographs.

  • Nikon D800 (Amazon)
  • Nikkor 24-70mm F/2.8 (Amazon)
  • Nikkor 300mm F/4 (Amazon)
  • Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 (Amazon)
  • Sony A7R (Amazon)
  • Sony 50mm f/1.8 (Amazon)
  • Canon 28mm f/2.8
  • GoPro Hero 4 Silver (Amazon)
  • Marrex Geotagger GPS for Nikon (Amazon)
  • K&F Concept Lens Mount Adapter FD-NEX For Canon FD FL Lens to Sony (Amazon)
  • Lens Mount Adapter, K&F Concept Nikon G Mount Lens to Sony E-mount (Amazon)
  • Waterproof Nylon Camera Backpack Bag Case Rucksack Daypack (Amazon)
  • Formatt-Hitech 100mm Resin Travel Filter Kit Elia Locardi Signature Edition (Amazon)
  • MeFoto Roadtrip Travel Tripod Kit commemorative Limited Edition (Red White Blue) (Amazon)
  • Luxebell C200 Aluminium Alloy Skeleton Thick Solid Protective Case Shell with 52mm Uv Filter for GoPro Hero 4 (Amazon)
  • Neewer Shoot Digital Intervalometer Timer Remote Control (Amazon)

  • Think Tank Photo Retrospective 30 Shoulder Bag (Blue Slate) (Amazon)

Plus I have other things like lens cloths, extra batteries, and camera straps.

End

Make sure to check back for the tomorrows adventures!

Source: http://www.bigalsadventures.com/maine-trav...

SnapChat Experiment #1

So I have decided to really look into SnapChat. I have had it for awhile now, but have never really tried it out. So this is my first attempt at using it while I was at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Galloway, NJ. 
Let me know what you think and give me some tips on how to make it better. I have some ideas, but the more the better.

Project update

Just wanted to post an update on my current project blog. So far it has been about 5 weeks and I have been able to post one article every week. Its pretty fun so far and can't wait till it catches on a little more. You can check it out at the links below I will link all the articles to date.

If anyone has suggestions for topics or something they want to see feel free to let me know and I'd be happy to try to write a post about it. Remember these are my opinions and thoughts/experience with these subjects. Writing like this is new to me so over time I will improve and bring you even more awesome content.

Read More

New project

I have started a new project to not only help people with their photography, but also help myself with my writing skills. I started a new blog that's separate from this one, since it is focused on helping/teaching people and this one is for my personal portfolio/photography.

You can find it here at http://thephotographytipsblog.com I have already posted one article and plan to post one per week. Check it out and let me know what you think. Thanks!

TinType Project

Today I downloaded the app TinType by Hipstamatic to play around with. It actually makes some neat photos. I have had a couple tintypes made of myself in years past with my Civil War re-enactment unit so I have seen how they are done and what they look like. I have decided to start a little project to challenge myself to take some cool photos with this app. I'll probably post them here and on my Instagram page. Here are a few samples of what it can do. One is just plain B&W, the next has a yellowing effect, and the last is in color.

B&W

Yellowing Effect

Color

My First Experience With A Hasselblad Medium Format Camera

Recently I was lucky enough to pick up a Hasselblad 500 EL/m from eBay. Surprisingly I only paid about $180 and it works perfectly. The only damage is has is some of the chrome parts are pealing, and the focus screen has some marks on it. Thankfully those do not effect the final images the camera produces.

The Hasselblad 500 EL/m for those who are not familiar with this type of camera is a Medium Format film camera that has a motor to move the film to the next from after an exposure

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April Rainbow

A shot I got of a rainbow after a quick moving thunderstorm came through. It was fading, but I was able to bring the colors out in lightroom.

LightRoom Edit - Rainbow!

While out to dinner we had a fast moving thunderstorm go through my area. When we were leaving we noticed a awesome rainbow. I didn't have a camera on me, but when I got home I grabbed it and got a couple shots before it faded away. This is how I edited the photos.