Winter

Bomb Cyclone

Crowning Touch

My good friend, David Seaman of the Michigan Hospital Association, has told me I need to come to Lansing to photograph the holiday tree erected in front of the Michigan State Capitol. I first try shooting from a window in David's office. But the finished image is not moving me the way it should. So I start over, this time from on the street squarely in front of the tree and the capitol. Now I am seeing an image I think makes the elegant tree and elegant building enhance each other. Thanks, David!

Breaking Through

Winter Trees

This icy sight greets Brad and me after a 150-mile drive to St. Joseph from Ludington on an ice-cold but sunny January 8th morning. Ice is already building up seaward from St. Joseph Lighthouse. Lake Michigan is on its way to freezing over before this winter ends.

Icy Trees at Weldon Creek Farm

Icy Trees at Weldon Creek Farm

Frankfort

Frankfort

I am looking forward to the Ludington New Year's Eve Ball Drop and fireworks tonight, but I am already being blown away this morning by the ice balls forming along the Lake Michigan shoreline by waves and spray from a December northwester. Large rocks protecting the Lincoln River Outlet channel wall at Epworth Heights are becoming increasingly large ice balls. The splashing water is also freezing on my waterproof North Face clothing. As I move, the ice coating on my clothing breaks with a crunching sound. Goodness gracious!

Nothing could have excited this Michigander more on a winter’s day photo excursion on M-22 than experiencing this eagle flying by so close that my 500-millimeter telephoto lens could seemingly reach out and touch it. The mature eagle was among several hunting for food on a January morning near Crystal Lake north of Frankfort. Brad and I were en route to photograph the Point Betsie Lighthouse when we spotted several eagles feeding just offshore by a large open-water seam in the ice. We saw one of the eagles fly to shore and roost in some tall pines on a nearby hillside. The lighthouse could wait; there might be an image here as good or better for the book we had started shooting, Todd and Brad Reed’s Michigan: Wednesdays in the Mitten. We would be proved correct. We quickly set up 25 yards on either side of the flight path and waited…and waited. I was rewarded with my all-time favorite eagle-in-flight image when one of the eagles chose to fly right by my hiding spot instead of Brad’s. The image was (and remains especially) meaningful to me because my Army Ranger son Tad served our country for several years as a 101st Airborne Screaming Eagle. This eagle was definitely screaming past. Once I got on target, I was able to squeeze off three shots as I swung the lens on my gimbal tripod head and tracked with the majestic bird. With fast action shots, a photographer can often pre-select the background; but often, time does not allow one to see at the fraction of a second of exposure exactly how the subject fits against the background. Back the next day on my computer at our gallery, this image screamed for attention and selection. The bird fit perfectly against the background, simplifying and making order out of what would have been chaotic one one-thousandth of a second earlier or later. Brad and I like to say, “Little things are big things.” On this shot, a fraction of a second made a big difference

Glorious Ludington

Seeing Upper Tahquamenon Falls took away what breath I had left on this below-zero January morning in Michigan’s fabulous Upper Peninsula. Winter had already partially frozen the more than 200-foot-wide falls.

Winter had transformed Munising Falls from a rushing torrent of water to a motionless ice sculpture. The quietness on this windless January morning put me at peace and added to my enjoyment of one of my favorite Michigan waterfalls

Tunnel of Trees Conrad Road in Winter

Looking out from the Rock River Canyon Ice Caves, better known as the Eben Ice Caves, I was thinking that the rock ceiling and ice looked like a winter sunflower with “petals” of ice emanating from the center of the “flower.” Any way you look at them, these caves at Eben Junction near Chatham in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula are impressive.

Ice Sea

During our hike back from the Eben ice caves, my favorite Robert Frost poem came to mind as I stopped in the woods to appreciate the equally stunning sight of the snow-covered woods. I was in a rush on my way to the caves and passed up making a shot in these woods. Early that evening on the way back all was still and perhaps even more magical looking. I felt like Robert Frost must have felt when he stopped in the woods on a snowy evening.

In the Teeth of Winter