Great Lakes Lighthouses

July 22, 2024
Aerial PhotographyGreat LakesLighthousesRichard Mack PhotographyThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater SeasThe Sweetwater SeasTourismtravelTravel Photography

What summer trip might you be planning? There are 388 lighthouses around the Great Lakes. They are beckoning you to a great trip of discovery!

It may surprise you in these days of near-universal GPS systems, 300 of the lighthouses are still active aids to navigation. The state of Michigan has more lighthouses along its coastline than any other state in the United States.

Here is the count of many active lighthouses are on the Great Lakes by state and Canadian province:

Ontario – 94

Michigan – 109

Wisconsin – 39

New York – 21

Ohio – 14

Minnesota – 7

Illinois – 8

Indiana – 6

Pennsylvania – 2

Can you name where your states lighthouses all are? Most people can only name a few.

Lake Michigan – 97

Lake Huron – 95

Lake Superior – 75

Lake Erie – 68

Lake Ontario – 53

Follow this link for a map of all Great Lakes lighthouses.

https://gllka.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9e1508ae15f9444f9b960aa42e435951

You can tour many of these lights, and you can at least walk around most of them. Many give you the opportunity not just to make it back to a harbor or around an island safely but make stunning photographs in all types of weather. Every lighthouse was built for a reason, either too many shipwrecks in the area from shoals or shallow water or to aid navigation to harbors.

Get out there and visit these great places, many built more than 100 years ago and still in operation. To learn more about them, visit www.thesweetwaterseas.com and find more information on lighthouses and other places around the Great Lakes. We have lots of links on our learn more page.

Cheers, Richard

*Statistics from the National Lighthouse Keepers Association   https://www.gllka.org/faq

United States Lighthouse Society https://uslhs.org/

Source:http://thesweetwaterseas.com/blogsws/LighthousesonGreatLakes

The Four Dances – Great Egrets in Wisconsin

June 20, 2024
New WorkPhotographyQuiet Light PublishingRichard MackRichard Mack PhotographyTourismtravel

I had a chance to look at some older images I’ve made and decided what at first have been individual images needed to be put together. I have hung the top left corner and bottom right corner next to each other in canvas prints. Going through the old images I realized two more could easily be added to make it a group of Four Dances. The great Egrets were found on an island in Whitewater Lake in Wisconsin and I’m told they are no longer nesting with the hundreds other egrets found there.

This image is now available in the shop at Quiet Light Publishing. Cheers, Richard

Foreword Book Award Silver Medals!

June 11, 2024
awardsBook AwardsBooksGreat Smoky Mountain National ParkGreat Smoky Mountains BookGreat Smoky Mountains NPnational parksNational Parksnaturenature photographyNature Photography AwardQuiet Light PublishingRichard MackRichard Mack PhotographyRichard Mack's BlogSmokiesSmoky Mountain National ParkSmoky MountainsSmoky Mountains Bookwaterfalls

Today we learned my book Great Smoky Mountains National Park: Fifty Years of American Landscapes has been named a winner in two categories in the 26th annual Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards. We won the Silver Award in both the Nature Book and Art Book categories!

I am humbled and proud to have won the Silver Awards with so many entries from around the world. You always hope people like your work, and it is gratifying to receive such recognition.

The Foreword INDIES recognize the best books published in 2023 from independent and university presses, as well as self-published authors.

With over 2,400 entries submitted across 55 categories, this year’s competition showcased the remarkable talent and diversity of the independent publishing industry. Foreword’s dedicated editors carefully selected approximately 12 finalists per genre, which were then presented to individual librarians and booksellers entrusted with the challenging task of determining the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention winners.

#quietlightpublishing#richardmackphoto#mackphoto#forewordreview#ForewordINDIES#greatsmokymountainsnationalpark#smokieslife#NPS#nationalparks#smokymountains#smokymountainstennessee#smokymountainsnc#smokymountains

Why the Solar Eclipse is Cool

April 2, 2024
Canoneclipsenaturenature photographyRichard Mack Photography
Total Solar Eclipse, 2017

I have been asked the last few weeks if I will be going to watch the solar eclipse. My answer is of course!

People ask why? What makes it so special? Think of a natural phenomenon which only comes around here every so often, last time in 2017 and next in 2044. Now think about all the sun rises and sunsets you have enjoyed over the years. Even they bring people together even though they occur every single day. It is always an exciting time when a beautiful sunrise or sunset occurs, especially if you are with friends or family and experiencing it together. It is the start or end of another day. In the case of the solar eclipse, yes, they happen somewhere every few years, but usually in far away places or in the middle of the oceans. So, the excitement is understandable. If you haven’t seen one you can only wonder what it is like.

Most of us will be standing with a crowd of folks we do not know, and they don’t know us. Yet this event has brought us all together from a diverse background to watch a wonder of nature. We will all be talking and pointing as the eclipse starts. And then the moment will come when it gets to the totality and the temp starts dropping 15 degrees and the sky goes dark and everyone gasps and is silent. Very small white “beads” appear for only a second, caused by the sun coming through the valleys of the moon’s mountains before the edge lights up in one bright spot called the Diamond. The white corona around the sun appears. We hear the birds and nighttime bugs come out, the ground has a pattern of what looks like the shadows of leaves, but is the shadows formed by the mountains of the moon dancing on the ground here on earth. We see the diamond at the edge of the moon for the second time as the moon begins to move off the sun. As the sun’s crescent edge reappears a roar of applause and shouting goes up from the crowd as everyone is amazed at what we all just saw together. There is an unspoken bond we all know. Then the crowd begins to thin out, except for the photographers staying to capture the end of the eclipse as the moon leaves the sun entirely in an hour or so.

I started planning this trip last summer. Looking for some cool places to be which could make for an interesting image along with the sun. Eventually had four places in mind. Kaskaskia State Park in Illinois along the Mississippi, Niagara Falls even though I thought the weather was risky at best, Hot Springs Arkansas with the mountains, and the Dallas area with my daughter and her family. Now it is only the weather which will determine the final place to be, so far looks like I’ll be going back to Kaskaskia, which will also make it a historical shot as the eclipse does not happen in the same place on earth except every 375 years. If you’ve never seen a total eclipse I encourage you to make some last minute plans.

May mother nature give us a chance to see her wonderous natural events again this year. Enjoy, Richard