Month: February 2011

And now for sunrise on Lake Michigan…

February 9, 2011
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse BeachSunrise

Here is an update to last night’s post of the sunset, with images from this morning’s sunrise! I wasn’t planning on going out this morning but found myself wide awake about 5:15 so I decided that since it had been so clear last night that it might make fro a great sunrise. I was disappointed when I saw clouds overhead at the beach. I kept hoping the sun would pop through but it never did. Still all in all I found some interesting shots and the ice had actually opened up a bit it seems even though the temperature outside was only 2 degrees. 

Interestingly I did a custom color balance off the snow which in my opinion was way too warm (for those tech nuts it gave me 13450K!) In Lightroom I brought it down to around 9000K which may still be too warm, but is what I remember it looking like in real life. The first images from before sunrise where shot at 6500K and I left them at that color temp. This was my guess for color temperature before I made a custom image of the snow for white balance. Of course if you are not looking at a color calibrated monitor it might not matter.

Here is a link to my selections from the shoot: Sunrise

And Last nights image selection again: Sunset

Enjoy!

Richard

More images of Lake Michigan in Winter

February 8, 2011
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse Beachwinter

This afternoon I ventured down to the lake front at Lighthouse Beach, one of my favorite spots, not just because it is close, but it has an old pier at the north end and a small bluff behind the beach to give you some elevation, giving you a perfect place to start from. I’ve shot a lot from this beach over the years, and it is one of the places where I decided a book on all the Great Lakes might be something I should work on.

I knew I wanted to shoot the evening sunset with the ice build up along Lake Michigan’s shore before next week’s warm up. So, with the temperatures around 8 degrees I ventured down to the beach about a half hour before sunset. As I approached the entrance I said hello to a fellow photographer coming off the beach and I thought to myself, why are you leaving so soon, the best light is about to be here! Then I looked out over the water and ice and thought, maybe I should have come down a bit earlier!

Yet the light from the cloudless sky reflected off the snow giving it a glow late into the evening. Starting up high on the small bluff I was able to be about the same height as the top of the ice packed into the coastline. Beyond you could see some patches of open water, and all the way out you could see the icebergs floating out on the open water. Looking carefully you could see the icebergs floating on the waves and moving southward past the frozen pack ice which extended out about 2-300 yards.

The only part of the old pier at the north end of the beach which could be seen were a few of the pilings sticking out of the ice. I shot them from a distance and included the light station at the entrance to Wilmette harbor.  I then headed out to the edge of the ice pack to get a different view.

I always shoot later into the evening than most photographers. By now it was nearly 45 minutes past sunset and the light had a very interesting glow to it, and the stars had begun to show in the sky, along with the streaks from all of the planes going in and out of O’Hare airport.

Finally done, I looked back to see Grosse Pointe Lighthouse beaming out towards the lake. One last shot needed to be done before heading in. So an hour and a half after arriving on the beach and almost an hour past sunset I packed it all in headed to the warmth of my car. Glad I went down even if my feet and fingers were cold. Interestingly I didn’t really feel that until I was making what I knew were the last shots, then I felt the cold.

To see my selections from this shoot use this link: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LakeMichiganWinter20110208/ 

Enjoy the winter!!

Richard

The Chicago Blizzard 2011 – Images of Lake Michigan

February 4, 2011
Great Lakes ProjectLake Michiganwinter

Many people think a blizzard is something to be avoided, not me! I loved the idea of Chicago being pounded by snow – but then again I had some ulterior motives. I had just been asked by an advertising agency if I had any winter shots in a snowstorm. I’ve also been working on my Great Lakes book project so this would make some great material for that I assumed. I prepared the cameras, got out layers of clothes and geared up for the elements.

I ventured out in the afternoon on Tuesday as the storm was in full swing. I went first to my favorite place nearby – Lighthouse beach here in Evanston, but found nothing striking my fancy this time. I wandered up to Gilson Park, which has sand dunes and trees bordering the beach. I thought these would make good foreground for Lake Michigan lying beyond. Except you couldn’t see the lake most of the time! As the storm cranked up it had sustained winds of 50 MPH with gusts over 70 MPH. This meant that in addition to the snow hitting you full on as it blew horizontally along, the wind was so strong it was picking up water drops from the surface of the lake, freezing them and blowing them into you like sharp little razors. It hurt to be out there!

Now we all know that to see the snowflakes, you need a dark background to show them off, after all white on white doesn’t work. Even when I placed tree trunks in the foreground, or the grasses, it was hard to pickup the snow in the air. I tried both slow exposures and fast ones (at 1/250 second). A little luck, but the best results to me were the blowing snow which appear as clouds of fog coming off the tops of the dunes and those when the lake closes in almost all the way.

Not your typical Chicago Blizzard shots of stranded cars – but a look at what the lake has to offer on such an exciting day!

To see more images from this shoot use this link: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LakeMichiganWinterStorm/index.html

And to see some shots from past years you can check these out:

Winter 2010: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LakeMichiganWinter/index.html

Winter 2008: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LighthouseBeachWinter/index.htm

Cheers,

Richard Mack