maine

2025 Vacation Wrap-Up

All in all, it was quite the adventure.

Our summer vacation to Nova Scotia and Maine was an endurance test for both driving (almost 70 hours worth) and photography (two weeks worth of photos to organize and edit).

There’s probably such a thing as “too much travel,” and we were right up against that limit. But we also had an amazing time and got to experience a beautiful portion of North America. 

A few final thoughts on our 2025 adventure:

  • The kids, thankfully, can now fully entertain themselves in the car. They’re old enough now to manage their activities, keep themselves busy, and not ask us parents for too much attention.
  • The driving was worth it. Yes, there was a lot. But I loved seeing Canada and the U.S. this way. I’ll never forget driving through New Brunswick and rounding a corner to see a beautiful lake at the bottom of a valley, or following the St. Lawrence River through Quebec and seeing where it empties into the Atlantic Ocean.
  • My photography kit was perfect. Having the super-compact and capable Canon EOS M6, along with a few lenses, was all I needed. I’ve created a video review of the camera – check it out on YouTube, featuring some of the photos from this trip. 

Now I’m off to work on our annual summer vacation photo book.

 

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Bar Harbor, Maine

2025 Vacation: Bar Harbor, Maine

We had two opportunities to visit Bar Habor, Maine: one after we completed our Acadia National Park adventure, and the other was via a lobster boat ride.

Our first visit, after the park, was during a beautiful evening where the town was hopping with people and activities. It’s summer, so of course us tourists were out.

The shops and restaurants were packed, and the sunset light was perfect for capturing some street photography. I saw tons of colors and characters, the perfect recipe to grab pictures around the town.

When we came back, we hopped on a lobster boat for a tour of Frenchman Bay.

It was a great tour. We learned about lobsters, about the fishing industry, and even took a loop around a lighthouse, where seals were squatting on the rocks.

For the first time, we all got to hold a lobster. After grabbing them out of the lobster nets, the kids had a chance to throw the lobsters back into the bay.

Bar Harbor, Maine

Now I know, first hand, where those delicious lobster rolls come from.

Shot on the Canon EOS M6 and a select few EF-M lenses.

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Foggy Maine

2025 Vacation: Foggy Maine Coast

This is almost like cheat-code photography.

Much like we saw at Peggy’s Cove, sometimes the fog would roll in off the Atlantic Ocean and flood our little corner of Maine in a dense haze. 

After the first time the fog rolled in, I made a point to check each morning to see if it was foggy out. I had this spot in mind up the peninsula, where boats were gathered by the shore, and I thought, “This would be an amazing foggy spot for pictures.”

One misty morning, the fog made an appearance, and I seized my chance to head up the coast and grab pictures at that boat landing. But then something funny happened: the further North I drove, the less foggy it was. When I landed at that spot, there was no fog at all.

Bummer.

Luckily, it was foggy enough during our week there that getting out and taking photos was not a problem. 

It was so fun to wander around Flye Point and see the entire landscape reimagined.

Shot on the Canon EOS M6 and EF-M 22mm f/2 and 32mm f/1.4.

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Acadian National Park

2025 Vacation: Acadia National Park

I had the chance to visit Acadia National Park almost 20 years ago. It’s where I climbed my first mountain, and I was excited to show off the park to my family.

Acadia is not the biggest national park, but for sheer variety, it has a lot to offer: great hiking, mountains, oceanfront scenery, with ponds and rivers galore.

The park helped me appreciate the benefits of Canon’s lighter mirrorless kit. When you’re hiking up and down mountains, the portability of the EOS M series was definitely a benefit. And the image quality never suffers.

It’s a shame Canon discontinued the M series. With the R series, cameras got bigger, lenses got bigger, and apart from a few of the APS-C and point-and-shoot bodies, there’s nothing like the M series in the lineup anymore. Trips like this highlight the need for a smaller kit.

We worked our way around the park and by mid-day, we finished up and headed into Bar Harbor, Maine, for dinner.

Shot on the Canon EOS M and the EF-M lenses.

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2025 Vacation: First Day in Maine

After leaving Canada by way of New Brunswich and the border, we landed in Brooklin, Maine, our home for the next week.

We arrived at nightfall, so we had no glimpse of the peninsula where we sat.

Not until I got up early the first day and went to the beach.

This was the Maine I remember. And for that first morning, I had it all to myself.

I did what I always tend to do and went exploring – up and down the coastline, through the set of cabins on this part of the shore, taking advantage of the early morning light.

Lookout Inn - Brooklin, Maine

Then the family woke up, and we explored the jagged, rocky beach together.

The tide was a new thing for us Michiganders. Here on the peninsula, we had to pay attention: there were several islands you could walk out to at low tide. But come high tide, you might get stranded.

And the bay’s ocean water, just like in Nova Scotia, was freezing. So we mainly played on the rocks.

Later that night, after dinner, we took a stroll back down to the coast to watch blue hour come in at high tide.

Maine was different. More rugged. A little more wild. And there was lots more to see.

Shot on the Canon EOS M6 and several EF-M lenses.

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Bubble Pond

Bubble Pond, Arcadia National Park

Bubble Pond at Acadia National Park in Maine.

Just for fun, I’ve taken a bunch of my landscape photos from cross-country trips (this one on a swing through New England in 2008. Here’s the original.) and re-edited them with VSCO FIlm 03.

The trouble is that these were all taken with a Canon SD750 – a point and shoot with limited capabilities. It took great photos, but the files aren’t all that flexible. Or big.

Anyway, enjoy the full series, or buy a print

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