MADAWASKA, Maine — This Madawaska resident, famously known for sharing picturesque landscapes from around the St. John Valley, said he started capturing scenes after he upgraded his cell phone to a smartphone.
Many who follow the Facebook groups Positively Aroostook, Just Looking Around, My Aroostook and Everything Maine may be familiar with the daily posts by Chris Michaud, a St. Agatha native who lives in Madawaska. The photographs Michaud shares are typically vibrant sunset or sunrise photos at various locations around the valley. One of Michaud’s posts in any of these groups can catch the eye of hundreds of Maine residents and people beyond.
These photos are part of a collection of photographs taken around Aroostook County by photographer Chris Michaud. Credit: Courtesy of Chris Michaud
Michaud hadn’t really considered photography as a hobby before roughly 2015, he said. A man of spirituality, Michaud said he was practicing his morning devotional, an act of prayer or private worship, when he came across two verses, “The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Earth shows forth his handiwork,” and “From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, the Lord’s name shall be praised.”
“Those two things speaking of the Earth, the sky, the sun, moon and stars — I said you know what, I don’t have a hobby and I thought that maybe it might be a good thing for me,” Michaud said.
With the help of his newly purchased smartphone, Michaud sets out at 2:30 a.m. every day to document nature, surprised at his phone’s capabilities.
“I couldn’t believe what it could do. It’s right there. It’s so convenient,” Michaud said. “I went out there and I began to take pictures and I was amazed with how they looked. I also found that it was easy for me to find the proper composition and proper lighting and all of that, and people said that ‘You’ve got something there, you need to do it more often.’”
Michaud runs his own business called White Glove Facility Maintenance based in Fort Kent, which he referred to as his day job. He plans his workday around his schedule for photos, hoping to be out early in the morning for the sunrise and back out by sunset.
Since the beginning of Michaud’s photo-taking endeavors, he became more familiar with local roads through potato fields and wooded areas that he would not have previously taken in order to find locations for just the right photo.
“In every town in the (St. John) Valley, there’s always 10 different ways to get back home if you’re willing to go out in the woods,” Michaud said. “That’s where I began to learn about all these places that a lot of people don’t know are there and it just fueled me up. If you know where you’re going and at the proper time, you get incredible pictures.”
Seven years down the road, Michaud receives messages or comments on his photos from people who have moved away from the valley.
These photos are part of a collection of photographs taken around Aroostook County by photographer Chris Michaud. Credit: Courtesy of Chris Michaud
“To have on Facebook people from all over the country and actually other parts of the world say, ‘I remember that place’ or ‘is this there? Is that there?’ — it’s been a real blessing to me to be able to bring a little joy to the lives of people who no longer live here. Matter of fact there are people that have come to visit as a result of seeing some of my pictures,” Michaud said.
Michaud said he sells prints and canvases of his work, but that selling his photos isn’t where his passion lies.
“It’s not for profit, primarily,” Michaud said. “It’s more to kind of share with people the area and also to get people to think. Those two Bible verses made me think, and I haven’t stopped ever since.”