Category: Lighthouse Beach

The "Super" Full Moon

March 20, 2011
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse BeachMoonriseRichard Mack Photography
2 Comments

почистване

Last night we all enjoyed the “super” full moon – ok a lot of us did- as the moon came close to the earth as it passed its perigee in its orbit making it appear about 18% larger than normal. Now here by Lake Michigan I went down to Lighthouse Beach to shoot the full moon over an old pier that is at the north end of the beach. Much to my surprise, and disappointment, I was not the only photographer there and sadly not the first even though I was a good 40 minutes before moonrise. If you have followed along on the blog and the Great Lakes Project you know this is one of my favorite places to shoot, partly because it is less than a mile from my home and partly because it is a great place to make images.

I took my time getting there and thought it was not going to be a great night because it seemed very cloudy and the chances of seeing the moonrise seemed slim to none. Some friends were also there and we talked as I made a couple of snaps of the old pier. Then as it got closed to moonrise time it just seemed really impossible. I packed up the equipment and we started to walk off the beach. I mentioned to my friends Donna & John that this went against every rule I go by – leaving before the event because you don’t think it is going to happen. As we started up the hill I stopped and said to them, hang on I’m going to wait a few more minutes. And sure enough just then I heard someone say, “Look at the glow!” I quickly made my way to a plot of sand which had an unobstructed view and started to shoot.

It did seem bigger, and more golden in color. Because it was about 40 minutes after sunset it was truly dark out by this time and trying to get a good image was almost impossible. The full moon should really be shot the day before it is officially the full moon. Then it rises about 20 minutes before sunset so you have enough daylight left to illuminate the setting without over exposing the moon. But last night was even cloudier.

As the night took over and the clouds moved back in I also thought, hey, there’s always a full moon next month. In the average lifetime we see about 1000 moons. So here’s to next month…and being the only photographer at the old pier!

Happy Spring!

Richard 

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

Grosse Point Lighthouse

August 24, 2010
Great Lakes ProjectLighthouse Beach

Last night I was able to get up to the top of Grosse Point Lighthouse to shoot the shot I had in mind for the Evanston Leadership Council poster. There are a lot of photographers living in this town and the city has many existing shots which most of us have seen over the years. I wanted to capture something most have not seen. My idea was to get into the light station and shoot across the Fresnel lens looking back at the city and lake. In my mind it would be a great shot – with the city rising by the lake while in the foreground you had a new perspective on the cities most icon symbol – Grosse Point Lighthouse. Well, what happens most of the time when you go after preconceived ideas is they don’t work out exactly like you thought. Evanston seems to have lots of tall buildings in its downtown space so I had envisioned a downtown area with the tall buildings standing by the lake. I had forgotten how far back the city really is from the edge of the lake, and the fact that from the north, at this point of land which juts out into the lake, the buildings are not the packed in look I thought they would be.

This means you adjust your thinking, reposition for a different shot which presents itself to you and begin to think outside those preconceived notions. Get in closer to the Fresnel lens, work with the full moon which was rising – and one reason for going up this particular night. And yes, you may have to switch from the wide angle lens to make that moon show up a little better. I even shot a series with the specific idea of stitching them together in Photoshop to make a panoramic image which would include more of the lake. As night fell the light from the Fresnel lens began to illuminate the inside of the lighthouse and I balanced the interior and exterior exposures which had been in my original preconceived vision of what I wanted.

While the shots were not what I had in my mind when I ascended the 116 steps to the top they work for me and in the end it was a great night of shooting for this fine city. Once on the ground I looked up and saw the moon coming closer to the lighthouse from the ground, so with mosquito’s biting away and darkness already upon me I continued to shoot from the ground looking up. Now I confess the final shot in the series from the ground is a compost of the correct exposure for the moon and one for Grosse Point Lighthouse. By this time of night the exposures were up to 6 seconds – way out of the scope of the moon which moves in the sky in that time frame. But I knew that…

I want to thank Don Terras who is curator of the lighthouse for letting me in to get these shots. If you want to know more about Grosse Point Lighthouse check out their website, or come take a tour on the weekend, and buy Don’s book, The Grosse Point Lighthouse (ISBN#0964855801) a great book which also includes a history of this light station and others around the Great Lakes.

To see the entire take from the evening go to http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/GrossePointLighthouse/

To se what I shot of the old Lighthouse Beach Pier last Friday when rain kept us from shooting in the lighthouse go to http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LighthouseBeachPier/

Peace,

Richard