Category: Great Lakes Project

Starting A New Project – The Great Lakes Project

January 26, 2012
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLake Superiornature photographyRichard MackwinterWinter Landscape PhotographyWinter photography

This year I am really focused on a new project and book on all five Great Lakes, currently titled Twenty/Ninety-Five, The Great Lakes Landscapes. This book will focus on the fact that 20% of the world’s fresh water and 95% of North America’s fresh water are held in these five bodies of water. Think about that. Twenty percent of all the fresh water in the world. Include all the lakes, ponds, streams, rivers and snow and 20% of the water sits in these lakes. And currently there are 42 million people who live along these lakes. Indeed mankind has lived on these lakes for thousands of years yet it is only in the last few centuries that mans impact has been felt in such great ways. I want to look at that impact and how we can insure that our children will have the same benefit of these lakes and natural areas. The book will look at the statistics on the lakes and focus on both the natural and wild areas in the lakes watershed and on some of the cities and industries which lie along the lakes, including how we use the lakes for recreation and commerce. I intend to blog along the way on this project. And since the first trip is upon me next month it is time to start. I hope you’ll join me on this voyage and follow my blog as I examine these great lakes of ours. Like most who live along the lakes for most of their lives I have not been to most of the 10,000 miles of shoreline. I will enjoy opening up my eyes to new places. I hope folks will share their thoughts of their favorite places on the lakes as we go along as well and I invite everyone to leave comments on posts they enjoy or with places they love. This is also an evolving project, one not limited to a book, but to the possibilities of an e-book with video, gallery shows of images and art installations, writings from those working to save the lakes and research the ecology of the lakes. Now a lot of folks who know me know I’ve been working on this off and on for the last few years, but now it is time to really get serious about it and concentrate on this project. So the adventure begins…

The other day a friend asked me, “So what did you do today?” My answer was complete with all the tasks we undertake during a day and also included my work on my next big project of photographing the Great Lakes. As I explained I was preparing for a trip around Lake Superior in late February she was surprised at how much planning I was doing. Yet to make sure you come back with images you can use and not just nice snapshots from your trip you need to plan. And planning takes time and energy.

I look first to the stars. Will the moon be full during my trip? If I want to have a chance at a full moon shot where do I think I want to be when it happens? Do I need to change my dates for the trip to get a better chance for being in the right place at the right time? What is my goal for this particular trip? Then looking at maps, books on the area, online websites you begin to make a determination for where you want to go. In this case it is even more challenging because I have not been to the Canadian side of Lake Superior and do not know what access I might have in the winter. Searching blogs and online sites gives me some idea. Certainly there will be a lot of serendipity involved in a trip of this kind, from the weather and the light, to the ice flows themselves and my access to the lake. All I can do is prepare myself the best way possible and know the maps and my own game plan. Will it change mid trip? Probably, but with proper planning I can know why and where to turn next. And then serendipity can play with me and I will be ready to capture those intimate moments because I had a game plan in the first place.

 

The trip is scheduled to start the weekend of February 25th. So for now you can see some of the shots I have done in the past on the Great Lakes using this link to a portfolio of images on my website. http://www.mackphoto.com/Creative/l-lakes.html (sorry this is in Flash so those with iPads or iPhones won’t see it until they use another way)

I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts on this project!

Peace,

Richard

 

 

Two Friends, their cameras and the Full Moon…

December 11, 2011
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse BeachLighthouse Beach PierMoonriseRichard Mack Photographyseeing

Last night we had another full moonrise, and in addition there was a total lunar eclipse, which unfortunately wasn’t visible here in Chicago. But I still made my way down to my favorite beach here in Evanston and the old pier at the north end of Lighthouse Beach. This time I was prodded by a friend of mine to make the journey. Jill Buckner is a photographer who has been working in Atlanta for 20 years and is now splitting her time between Atlanta and Chicago. She wanted to visit the beach with me for a moonrise. I thought why not. It’s cold which will help condition me for the upcoming winter shoots around the Great Lakes and I will have the pleasure of shooting with another photographer who I have never shot with.

It is always interesting to me when you shoot with another photographer, because they may bring fresh eyes to something you look at the same way each time. This can be especially true in the case of a location you have shot repeatedly. As luck would have it the moon came up right on time, yet we were not. So we arrived about 15-20 minutes after it had cleared the horizon. We thought we had more time from looking at the cloud layer out over the lake, which magically disappeared at the time of the rise of the moon. Clearly we should have been on time, especially because the moon was positioned far enough north of east in the sky that it came up right down the pier’s path.

Maybe because of our late arrival we both just went to work rather than looking at the scene and talking about what we would be trying to get in our shots. So you had two photographer’s plying away quietly for the next 70+ minutes through to the darkness if night.

Interestingly we never really crossed paths with each other. She went to one view I another. For me the immediate goal was to get the moon rising over the end of the pier with the posts pointing towards the moon. As the evening went on and darkness fell it was the moon’s glow on the water which came to life and became a stronger element than the moon itself. At this point you are shooting in the dark, with a high ASA – in my case 1600 – but then have noise to deal with in the dark areas of the image. My guess is that if I moved up from the Canon 1Ds III to one of the newer Canon’s like the 5D Mark III which has a much higher ASA scale topping our near 128,000 I would solve this problem.

I look forward to seeing what Jill shot – I’m guessing they are different even though we shot the same place at the same time with similar cameras and equipment. Each of us has their own unique perspective and that is what makes art an individual creative form.


To see more from this evening’s shoot use this link: Moonrise

And to see even more full moon images just search the blog for moon

Cheers,

Richard

 

My 711th Moonrise!

September 15, 2011
eveningGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse BeachLighthouse Beach PierMoonrisephotography at nightRichard Mack Photography


On Monday September 12, 2011 I watched my 711th moonrise. OK, I haven’t seen all of them but based on a moonrise every 28 days this is my 711th moonrise. I was down at Lighthouse Beach in Evanston, Illinois, my favorite beach which you know if you’ve been reading this blog. Unfortunately, on this night the clouds were coming in once again which blocked the moonrise until it was high in the sky.

 

First shot

Luckily I had come down the night before, which is always the best night to shoot the full moon because it rises about 25 minutes before sunset giving you have enough ambient light to work with to illuminate the scene. As many of you know I have been shooting this scene for a long time. I have been waiting to get the angle of an old pier to line up with the moonrise in just the right way. In the past the moon has either been too far south or too far north and not directly where I wanted it. Then you have the weather which must be just right as well, so for months, maybe even years, I have been trying to get this shot. So on Sunday night I headed down to the lake front to see if this would indeed be the night. The sky was clear so my hopes were high. As luck would have it I was set up and ready to go well before the appointed time of moonrise, and yet I couldn’t find the moon on the horizon. There was still too much moisture along the horizon so the moon wasn’t visible until it was about 10 above the horizon. So my plan to use a long lens to pull the moon in tight against the pier once again has to wait.

Yet it was still a great night to be there as the sunset was a mixture of blues, reds and purples. With the polarizing filter on the colors were enhanced enough to match what it looked like to the eye. I also used my graduated neutral density filter once the darkness fell to balance the brightness of the moon with the rest of the scene. I found this time I didn’t like the results as it took the colors away from the sky around the moon. The darker it got the more the moonshine on the water came out in the shot. But at that point you tend to lose the detail in the moon. And as the exposures get longer than about ½ second you start to see movement in the moon with longer lenses. In the age of film you couldn’t work as long into the darkness as you can these days and still have usable images. With today’s digital cameras and post processing in Lightroom or Photoshop you can adjust RAW files in to get detail our of shadow areas of underexposed files which means you can expose for the highlights and bring back the shadow areas in post. Knowing this I kept making images well into the darkness, an hour past sunset. The two last images are my favorites from the evening.

Almost the last shot...

There are many moonrises in your life and each one is unique because of where you are when you see them. Each is to be savored. Enjoy them.

Peace,

Richard

PS: To see more images from this shoot follow this link: Moonrise at Lighthouse Beach

Lighthouse Beach Poster now available!

June 22, 2011
Fine Art PrintsGalleryGreat Lakes ProjectLighthouse BeachPrintsQuiet Light PublishingRichard MackRichard Mack Photography

If it is summer in Evanston it means hitting the beach! And to commemorate this you can now get my new poster of 15 images from Lighthouse Beach. These images were done over a number of years as part of the Great Lakes Project and show’s the moods of all four seasons.

As part of this project I have spent a lot of time at Lighthouse Beach for many reasons. One, I live about a mile away and have been going to this beach since I was a kid. So for me there is a lot of emotional connection to this beach. It is where I have played as a kid, played with my kids and spent many hours alone looking out over the water. And for the last 30+ years have seen it through a photographer’s eye. The old pier, just to the north of the beach has provided many opportunities for images. Sometimes I am there at dusk alone, other times I might join another photographer or two shooting there as well. It has become a popular spot.

If you’ve been following this blog you know I have been trying to get a shot of the full moonrise with the pier in the frame. To date it has eluded me. Someday I shall prevail, I hope, and get the shot – which is so perfect in my head. Stay tuned.

In the meantime if you are a fan of the beaches around Chicago, and especially in Evanston or even Lighthouse Beach then you need this poster! Purchase it online at http://www.quietlightpublishing.com/ for only $45.00! The poster is 24”x36” and is printed on archival paper – the same as my fine art prints.

Enjoy!
Richard Mack