This past weekend I took a trip with my GP out west to take photos of the beautiful lighthouses strewn across Lake Michigan’s shore. This trip has been an idea for awhile, ever since snow started to snow back in October. We've been checking in on the lighthouse cameras to see if they were frozen over often. And as soon as ice began to form on the shores we started getting ready. We ended up leaving around 9 AM (we were running late because I took a long shower) and drove for 3 hours to our first location;
Muskegon Pierhead Lighthouses
ISO 100 175mm f/8.0 1/320sec Canon 5D MK III
Of course, I've lived in Michigan my whole life, so the cold doesnt really bother me. But with the wind blowing in from the frigid shores of lake water of Lake Michigan it was hard to ignore the temperature. But the stunning scene somewhat distracted me from the cold. Really my photos do not capture the full beauty of the shore, the gently lapping waves and birds soaring overhead is lost through my lens. But even still I'm delighted with my photos from this pier.
ISO 500 265mm f/18 1/250sec Canon 5D MK III w/ 1.4X & PL Filter
Grand Haven Lighthouses
ISO 800 280mm f/13 1/400sec Canon 5D MK III w/ PL
The lake at Grand Haven was extremely frozen over, hills of ice were flowing beyond the horizon and piled high along the shore. In fact, I couldn't tell where the beach ended and where the ice began. Well, except for the ice that was gently waving beneath my feet. I heard creaking as I was walking down the ice and looked out to see that the patch of ice I was walking along was splitting into smaller ice burgs as the lake slowly rippled the ice. Walking out there was worth it though, the photo above was taken from the furthest point that I walked out, just to the edge of where ice met the vast water of Lake Michigan.
ISO 800 185mm f/9.0 1/640sec Canon 5D MK III w/ PL
Holland, Big Red
ISO 1250 120mm f/8.0 1/50sec Canon 5D MK III w/ Tripod
This photo of Big Red is my favorite from the whole trip, and possibly the most technically difficult photo I took. This photo was taken at sun rise, so I had very little light to work with in order to properly expose the photo. I had to make up for this small amount of light by putting my camera on a tripod to stabilize the image, allowing me to use a lower shutter speed than I normally would be able to hand holding. The beautiful sky in this image is mostly the effect of editing, in reality the sky had a hint of purple in a sea of gray. But when I imported the image into lightroom and started messing with color values the purple began to show itself. Eventually I decided to fully lean into the purple sunrise, using masking to dramatize the sky’s color.
ISO 800 85mm f/7.1 1/200sec Canon 5D MK III
South Haven Lighthouse
ISO 400 190mm f/22 1/320sec Canon 5D MK III w/ PL
South Haven's light house was the most iced over we had seen on our trip so far, and the glaciers along the shore also piled up to form unscalable mountains. I had planned to walk the pier to get a close shot of the icicles along the lighthouse’s gallery deck, but a kind old lady warned me that there was a $1000 fine for walking the pier. Sure enough, as I approached the pier police tape blocked my entry and a sign was hastily laid in the snow. As I was leaving I warned a young couple about the fine. Only 2 minutes later I was cheering them on as they walked to the lighthouse. Kudos to them, I just dont have 1000 bucks to throw around.
St. Joseph Lighthouses
