I’ve been leading this workshop since 2018, and 2026 also marks the twentieth consecutive year that I’ve photographed Autumn in Acadia. There are few other photographers who know the national park in autumn as well as I do. Every morning, I’ll lead you out in the early hours to photograph the sunrise, followed by a full day of visiting several sites around the park, choosing the best locations according to what weather we’re having. We’ll also make time for some digital instruction, learning how to process your images and how to get the best from your raw files using Adobe Lightroom software.

In October 2025, I led two workshops back to back. The first one was for the North American Nature Photographer’s Association (NANPA). This was a relatively short workshop- just 2-1/2 days, but we packed in the excursions, hitting sixteen different spots from Friday morning until Sunday morning. Then for my own Images of Acadia workshop, I had a smaller group than normal, but the smaller size only made it easier to get to know each other well and I think this might have been the ‘tightest’ group I’ve ever had.

After ten days of photographing Autumn in Acadia (Maine), I was well primed for more color. I was supposed to do a shoot in Michigan in late October, but it was cancelled. I unexpectedly found myself with a couple days of ‘free time’ so I drove up to Illinois’ largest state park, Rock Cut, near Rockford and the Illinois/ Wisconsin border.

One of the best parts of my job is getting to see places and things that most people never get to experience, so hopping on a boat to photograph a tiny, remote island in the Atlantic Ocean sounded fantastic to me….