[singlepic id=1620 w=325 h=250 float=left]My wife and I visited Acadia National Park for the first time last summer. I photographed so many details along this beautifully rugged and mysterious coast that it has taken until today to sort out the keepers. The majority of this set was captured along the coastal Wonderland Trail.
As a child, the Maine seacoast was a yearly vacation destination for my family. Acadia’s rocky tide pools really brought back some of that childhood amazement. I vividly remember how intriguing the rocks, crabs, seaweed and tide pool creatures were to me during those times. Absolutely thrilled to find these striking and pristine tide pools once again, I set out to capture them as a child with different eyes. I recognized many of the life filled pools and rocky scapes as cosmic reflections, personal symbols, strange spirits, artists’ works, coastal ecosystems and the beginnings of advanced planetary life.
[singlepic id=1614 w=320 h=240 float=right]Acadia’s coast creates fascinating and compelling walks. My high hopes of capturing striking shots of the tidal ecosystems were fully exceeded. I can’t think of another place where such visually intense combinations clash into one another while achieving balance. Within these contrasting coastal captures there are several kinds of seaweed, barnacles, larva, algae, salt, iron, rosy granite, quartz striations, glacial deposits, snails, clams, mussels and bacteria. Trying to fathom the sea while sitting in these areas had a peaceful and meditative effect on my mind and body.
The surrealist and cosmic like stagnant tidal pools visually stood out from the rest of the landscape to me. These pools were not what I expected to find nor focus on. These out of the ordinary dark depressions existed right next to the more clean, colorful, glass like pools. The longer the pools are untouched the darker they appear to become. My guess is that the saltwater eats away at the rosy granite which has an iron content. If the pools are not washed often by the sea they become red, dark, murky, stagnant and bottomless. In dreams, a body of water which you can not see through such as a dark lake, ocean or pool, can symbolize the unconscious. Some say that by going into the great below within dreams you may find yourself.