A September evening along Maine's rocky coastline, captured on digital and 35mm film.
You don't need a special occasion to have your photograph taken. Whether you're celebrating a milestone, exploring somewhere new, or simply wanting to remember a particular chapter of your life, a portrait session is a way to preserve those moments for years to come. With its rugged coastline, peaceful wooded trails, and sweeping mountain views, Acadia National Park in Maine offers a beautiful backdrop for photographs that feel both natural and personal.
For Karli's Acadia National Park portrait session, we spent a September evening exploring the rocky shoreline of Otter Point, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. I first met Karli while we were both working in Bar Harbor, Maine for the summer. When we started planning her session, she already had the perfect location in mind. Otter Point is a place she regularly visits to rock climb along the cliffs and cool off with a swim in the ocean afterward, even when the water is freezing! Rather than choosing a location simply for its beautiful scenery, Karli wanted her portraits taken somewhere that was already a meaningful part of her life.
Portrait Photography at Otter Point in Acadia National Park
If you've ever visited Acadia National Park, you know just how much there is to see. Within a short drive, you can go from quiet wooded trails and peaceful ponds to towering granite cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. It's this variety of landscapes that makes Acadia such an incredible place to explore, especially with a camera in hand.
For Karli's portraits, we headed along Acadia's Ocean Drive to Otter Point, where the rocky shoreline and open water gave us a beautiful setting for an evening session in September. Karli wore a light yellow dress that stood out against the blues of the ocean and the gray granite rocks. We also brought along a colorful bouquet of flowers, which added a little extra color and gave us something fun to incorporate into the photographs.
We spent our time exploring different spots along the coastline, taking portraits, photographing the little details, and enjoying the September evening. Rather than focusing on perfectly posed photographs, I wanted Karli to feel comfortable being herself in a place she already loved. The familiar surroundings made it easy to keep the session relaxed and let the moments unfold naturally.
Why Acadia National Park Is Perfect for Portraits
What makes Acadia National Park such a special place for portraits is how easily the landscape can become part of someone's story. Whether you're visiting Maine for the first time, spending a summer working in Bar Harbor, or have called Mount Desert Island home for years, there are so many places worth remembering. With such a variety of scenery throughout the park, there's an opportunity to choose a location that reflects your own experiences and memories.
You don't need an engagement, graduation, or another major milestone to have your photographs taken. Sometimes, (it's enough to want to remember a particular time in your life, a place you love, or simply what it felt like to be there.) Those everyday chapters are often the ones we look back on years later and wish we had more photographs of.
For Karli, Otter Point was already a place filled with memories of climbing, swimming, and spending time along Maine's coast. Her love for the ocean was part of her everyday life, and I loved being able to incorporate that into her portraits. Instead of being just a beautiful backdrop, the coastline became a meaningful part of the photographs.
From the dramatic cliffs along Ocean Drive to the quiet trails around Jordan Pond, Acadia offers so many possibilities for portraits that feel true to you. Every location has its own atmosphere, and even familiar places can look completely different depending on the season and time of day. That's something I hope to capture whenever I'm photographing someone in a place that means something to them.
A Mix of 35mm Film and Digital Photography
For this session, I brought along both my digital camera and a mix of 35mm film. I love photographing with both because each brings something a little different to the final gallery. Switching between the two also allows me to approach the same scene in different ways, capturing a combination of spontaneous moments and more intentional portraits.
Digital photography gave me the freedom to capture the changing light and those little in-between moments. As the evening went on, the sky shifted into soft blues and pinks, giving the photographs a cooler, dreamier appearance. Having my digital camera with me meant I could keep photographing as the light changed along the coast.
The 35mm film photographs had a different feeling altogether. The grain, natural colors, and little imperfections added a sense of nostalgia that I love. There's something special about waiting to see how a roll of film turns out, especially when you've photographed somewhere as beautiful as Acadia.
Some of my favorite images from the session are the smaller details: Karli holding the flowers, her Converse resting on the rocks, and the moments when she wasn't looking directly at the camera. Those little details are just as much a part of the story as the portraits themselves. They're the photographs that bring you back to how a particular day looked and felt.
A September Evening Worth Remembering
By the end of our session, the light had softened, and the ocean and sky had settled into shades of blue and pink. Between the digital photographs and 35mm film, we came away with a collection of portraits, colorful flowers, and little moments from an evening along the coast. I loved seeing how the two formats captured the same setting in their own way.
What I love most about sessions like this is that they don't have to be complicated or tied to a special occasion. A meaningful location, a little time to explore, and the freedom to be yourself can make for some of the most memorable photographs. Sometimes, the simplest sessions end up telling the most personal stories.
I'm grateful I had the chance to photograph Karli at one of her favorite places in Acadia and capture a little piece of her time in Maine. Getting to know someone through the places they love is one of my favorite parts of portrait photography. I hope these photographs will always remind her of those September evenings, the cold Atlantic water, and her summer spent in Bar Harbor.
Photographed in September at Otter Point in Acadia National Park, near Bar Harbor, Maine, on digital and 35mm film.
