I lived in Maine, on an island off the coast, for 13 years. Did a lot of photography, produced a book of photographs and poems called "Acadia: Visions and Verse." Also worked on about a dozen videos around Maine.
This summer I'm leading a group of eight photographers and artists for a two week journey along coastal Maine and here are the places I've selected for us. Might give you some ideas.
Sebago Lake: For a taste of lake country and inland. Some wonderful sunsets over this placid lake.
Freeport: In part because there is L.L. Bean's and a wonderful inn, but also because of some of the coastal opportunities of lobstering and crabbing. And a short hop day trip away, Pemaquid Point with one of the most scenic and storied lighthouses of all.
Monhegan: The great artist's island an hour offshore, whee Winslow Homer, the several generations of Wyeths and countless other artists found inspiration over the years. Little village. Sheer cliffs. Woods dotted with "fairy houses" people put up to accomodate the blithe spirits of the woods.
Stonington: Great fishing village. Deer Isle. Monumental bridge leading to and from.
Isle au Haut: Part of Acadia National Park, accessible by mail boat twenty minutes off shore. A wonderful inn made out of the Keeper's House (and that's its name) of the light house on Robinson's point. Island is mostly woods and sea but with a village (fifty residents), classic old church on a hill, fishermen and -women (Linda Greenlaw, one of the fisher folk caught in the Perfect Storm lives and writes here). Also on islands nearby, puffin rookeries.
Camden: Along with adjacent Rockport, great opportunities including the Maine coastal schooners harbored in Camden, and the three hills which Edna St. Vincent Millay saw in her poem "Renascence". Rockport is also home of the Maine Photographic Workshops.
We're not going up as far as Bar Harbor this time but that is another great opportunity as Acadia National Park is principally centered around there and has all kinds of wonderful possibilities.
In all, with Maine, you really can't go wrong. Enjoy.
jack perkins