How An Understanding of Natural History Can Improve Your Photography
A Lens on the Maine Coast - Past and Present
Introduction to the Coast of Maine
The coast of Maine has been appreciated for centuries by those seeking beauty, solace, and recreation. It’s also a place people live and work. These two worlds come together in fascinating ways that have been a muse for many artists, myself included. With its blend of rugged scenery and fascinating human culture, Maine can truly be described as an artists’ and photographers’ paradise.
If you love lighthouses, Maine has some of the most spectacular in the world. If you want to see hardworking folks making a living from the sea, we can show you how it’s done. If you love geology and want to see the effects of time, tides, and glaciation on some very old rocks, we’ve got that. If you just want to photograph trees, well, you’re in luck, because we have tons of them. From ship captains’ houses painted white to classic New England churches, from lupines to beach roses (two beloved invasive species), and from lobster boats to sailboats to powerboats to dinghies to skiffs to dories to rowboats to kayaks to… you get the idea. There’s a lot to see here.
I’m illustrating this article with my own images to show the photographic potential that awaits those who take Maine’s rich natural and human history into account when venturing along the coast.
A Land Shaped by Ice
The contours of the landscape you see in Maine today are mainly the result of the glaciers that swept across the land for many thousands of years, finally retreating around 12,000 years ago. The most recent glacial episode in Maine began about 35,000 years ago, when the Laurentide Ice Sheet overspread southern Quebec and New England. During its peak development, this ice sheet was several thousand feet thick and covered the highest mountains in the state, flowing southeast.
As the ice receded, the release of the weight of the glaciers allowed the land to rebound and rise, so in areas such as Mount Desert Island, evidence of wave action and sand can be found hundreds of feet above the current water level. Otherwise, rising ocean levels due to melting has created what geologists call a 'drowned coast’, where former mountain valleys are covered and filled in with water, creating the bays, inlets, and islands of today.
The gentle, rounded appearance of our hills and mountains is the direct result of glaciers smoothing them down. Often, the southern and eastern slopes of our hills and mountains are steeper due to glacial ‘plucking’, which occurs when ice cascading over a ridge first smooths the front, but as it crests the ridge, the pressure of the ice, along with water seeping into the rock below, plucks layers of material from the lee side as it moves down.
Another one of the many telltale signs of the glaciers are glacial erratics. As the glaciers retreated, they sometimes left large boulders behind, called erratics. The ice also left crevices and striations on the rocks, which were also caused by the action of water draining beneath the glaciers and friction as the ice moved along, dragging rocks and other material with it.
This is part of my Guide to Photographing the Coast of Maine. The following section, which delves into topics like Maine coastal geography, ecology, climate, as well as sections on Maine wildlife, indigenous peoples, colonial history, and the evolving economy of Maine, including the subjects of lobstering and lighthouses, is for paid subscribers only. I believe curiosity and understanding of natural history and human culture can greatly improve your success at image-making because of the attention to one of the most important aspects of photography: story telling.
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