Rocky Top Studio

Mountain Road, Cadillac Mountain, Acadia National Park

I'm excited to announce that I've totally revamped my personal website and portfolio at allisontrentelman.com and I hope you'll check it out.  It's brand new and I'm open to comments and suggestions if you have any.

I'm considering bringing the blog over there too (it's been copied there so I can test it out) for the sake of simplicity and having everything in one spot.  The keyword for my business (and life) this year can be summed up in that one word - simplicity.  Keep it simple and focus on what you love doing.  It's amazing how, with that goal and without any effort on my part, things are just falling into place.  It's so easy when you just go with the flow. 

Peaceful Landscapes

Some peaceful landscapes to take me through the weekend.  The first three are new, the last is a few months old but hasn't been shared here on the blog yet.. 

The first one is something new I'm trying - a combination of several exposures to make up an HDR and then a separate long exposure for the water.  I was surprised it worked out as well as it did on my first try!  Can't wait to get back to Acadia to try more - spring gardening is keeping me busy right now tho!

Back on Monday with more new work!

First Spring Weekend

 

We're expecting our first warm weekend and I'm hoping to spend it chasing sunsets like these at Acadia National Park.  There's still a foot of snow on the ground but I feel a touch of spring in the air and I can't wait to spend time at my favorite place in the world!

Have a great weekend!

More Shots from Acadia

I haven't been a very good blogger lately, but all has been well at Rocky Top Studio.  This summer and fall blew by like they always do..  We're spending more and more time outside as the days shorten and the sunlight seems all that much more precious.  We have been racing to finish a lot of work outside before the snow started falling (who knew 10 cubic yards of dirt and compost would be so much work to move?) but we're beginning to feel prepared for winter.  Except for the fact that we're still planning to put up a "little" 10x16 greenhouse before snow falls..  We'll see!

We've been frequenting Acadia, occasionally bringing our 4-legged friends, and always bringing the tripod and camera.  These are some new HDR's that haven't been on the blog yet, tho you may have seen them on flickr if you're one of my contacts.

Otter Cliffs, Acadia National Park

This summer we've been visiting Acadia as much as possible..  We often just go up in the evenings for a little "sunset vacation"..   It's the best part of vacation - for photographers, anyway (sunset at a beautiful place) without the hassle of hotels and boarding the dogs and spending money.  It's one of the benefits of living in vacationland!  Often we just go to the ocean road section of Acadia between Sand Beach and Otter Point, where there are gorgeous paths along the rocky shoreline with many lookouts and it's just a beautiful place to be.  I especially love hanging out on this rocky beach where the round rocks have been worn smooth by the ocean over time.

This beach has a beautiful view of Otter Cliffs, which recently made the headlines up here, when 19,000 pounds of granite suddenly broke off from a popular rockclimbing spot, obliterating the climbing spots previously known as The Black Crack, Riptide, and Razor Crack.  Luckily nobody was hurt, and it happened in the middle of the night so nobody saw it happen.  I've stood on top of those cliffs many times, and am very thankful that nobody was there.  When I checked the date of this photo, I realized it was taken just HOURS before those rocks fell on the night of July 15!  Possibly the last photo taken of Otter Cliffs as it was. We were lucky to catch the (nearly) full moon rising on this clear summer night, and the mood was totally magical. 

Monument Cove, Acadia National Park

This is my first experiment with long exposure HDR photography..  I've always wanted to do beautiful long exposures of water, but I never wanted to lug my tripod everywhere I went..  Since we've been shooting high dynamic range images lately, we need to use tripods anyway and it's opening up worlds of new photographic opportunities!  Since we live so close to the coast, I have no shortage of beautiful spots to photograph on the seashore, and I can easily imagine a series of these that I'd love to do..  Both the rocks and the water come out so beautifully in HDR, and I love the dreamy look of the long exposures.  This image was made of 2 exposures each 3 sec. long. 

A Fresh Start on Typepad

Hello and thanks for visiting my new blog!  I am Allison Trentelman, I own a little art studio in Frankfort, Maine.  I run the business with some help from my partner Tony, and we live on a rocky mountaintop just a few miles from the sea.  I am a photographer and artist, and I sell my work at a few galleries and on Etsy. 

My work is pretty much all inspired by the beauty of nature here in Maine..  There's just something magical about it up here that's beyond description..  We love going on day trips throughout the region to photograph the beautiful landscape.  We live about an hour from Acadia National Park, which is one of our favorite spots.  We spent Superbowl Sunday in Acadia, and it was wonderful to wander the beaches in solitude with our cameras. 

This spot is called Sand Beach, and is usually crawling with tourists, but we managed to find it quiet on this day.  I like the solitude of it, it's exactly how we were feeling on that cold day at the beach.