Summer Road Trips Assignment Winner Christopher Mills

Congratulations to Christopher Mills for winning the recent Summer Road Trips Assignment with his image, “The Bubbles.”

“Over the past weekend, we ended up camping under the stars in Acadia National Park and roamed around with the camera for a few days,” explains Mills. “Sunday night was clear and we made our way into Jordan Pond and set up facing the Bubbles under clear skies. The Northern Lights were active just enough to give a little color low on the horizon and the Big Dipper shined brightly almost directly over the Bubble Mountains. Then I got lucky and caught an Iridium Flare just to the right of the Big Dipper! Sitting there on the rocks enjoying the night sky and counting shooting stars, we were getting ready to make the short hike back to the vehicle when we heard feet coming down the trail towards us in the dark! Now you can't see your hand in front of your face at this point and whatever it was, it was in a hurry! It stopped about where we had left the trail to come out onto the rocks and all was quiet except my heart pounding. We just sat as quiet as we could, listening to see if we could hear any movement at all out of whatever it was. After about 20 minutes (which seemed like forever) we decided to shine some lights on the trail behind us and if we saw nothing we would high tail it back to the vehicle. After a good look around with the flashlights, we hurried down the trail around Jordan Pond and back to the vehicle. I don't know what it was but it made for an interesting adventure and a good feeling to be back at the tent site safe and sound! Always an adventure under the big Maine skies!”

See more of Christopher Mills' photography at christopheramillsphotography.com and follow him on Facebook and Twitter.