Harbor
Night Vision
A week ago the moon was full, temperatures were freezing and I was standing in the dark along Lake Michigan’s shore in Kewaunee, WI. I’ve never attempted to shoot the Kewaunee pier and lighthouse from this angle before. I’ll have to try it in the daylight, possibly for a sunrise, sometime.
I worked a bit to try and correct the color of this image. Unfortunately, the mercury vapor lights of the city give everything a reddish tint that I wasn’t able to tone down much without making the rest of the colors look strange.
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In the Still of the Light
A Sunday morning sunrise over Lake Michigan and the tiny harbor of Algoma, WI. I snapped this last Sunday on my way to church. It was one of the coldest mornings of this year’s unusually mild winter.
I normally like to see more clouds in the sky in my sunrise/sunset images, but I thought the light, wispy clouds just behind the lighthouse were a nice change.
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Enlightening
A low hanging cloud bank was making a futile attempt to suppress the sun rising over Lake Michigan. The foreground is ice and snow covering the harbor. The black line at the edge of the ice is a flock of Canada geese waiting for the warmth of the morning sun. And, of course, the tall structure is the pier light at Algoma, WI.
I prefer the kind of sunrises where a majority of the sky turns beautiful shades of red, orange and gold. Unfortunately, I just haven’t been offered much on the days I could be out shooting. Most of them have been cold, dull, dreary days. This time of year, the days are so short, I have to leave for work before the sun rises and don’t return home until after the sun sets. My best opportunities are the weekends and weekends haven’t been cooperating lately. (I know…excuses, excuses, excuses.)
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Smoldering Sunrise
The Christmas gift that keeps on giving… This is another image I captured at sunrise on Christmas morning, 2011. This lighthouse is positioned on the western shore of Lake Michigan – at the harbor opening of Algoma, WI.
Algoma has had some sort of structure providing light for navigational purposes since March 1st of 1893. This current version, standing more than 40 feet tall, has been in place since 1932.
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A Christmas Story – Opening Act
This is the way the day started in Algoma, WI on Sunday, December 25, 2011 – Christmas morning. The sun had to force its way through a band of low clouds hugging the horizon over Lake Michigan.
Myself and another area photographer were there to witness and record it. Obviously, neither one of us had young children at home to open presents on this early Christmas morning. I was actually on my way to church to prepare for the morning’s service and stopped (as I often do) for a quick round of pics.
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Harbor Slush
The harbor at Algoma, WI was busy making slush on the morning I snapped this image. There were chunks of ice undulating with minimal wave action. As they moved, ever so slightly, together and apart, the slush in the water created by the cold temperatures was pushed up between the chunks of ice, creating the ridges seen here.
This was taken right at sunrise on a Sunday morning. If you squint, you can see the first hint of the morning sun on the horizon, just to the right of the lighthouse.
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Morning Pastels
Look what I found! This is a pre-sunrise view of the Algoma, WI harbor and lighthouse. It was a cold December morning where the surface of the harbor looked like a giant, undulating slushie.
I had been feeling bad for myself because it had been awhile since I was able to get out and take some new photos. My last opportunities (usually early mornings on the weekend) didn’t work out – time wise, weather wise.
While fiddling with my camera, experimenting with a different setting, I found a group of images I had taken more than a week ago and forgotten about. This is the first of a few I will post in the near future.
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Cloudy Disposition
The distinctive, two-part pier of the Algoma, WI lighthouse stretches into Lake Michigan and a moody morning sky.
Those who have followed my photography will realize this is taken from a different location than I usually shoot the pier and lighthouse. Usually I’m somewhere on the southern side. From a southern angle, the pier looks like one solid protrusion. From this angle, you can see there’s a gap in the pier.
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Red Sky at Morning
This scene reminded me of the the old adage “Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. ”
I don’t recall the weather turning bad on the day this photo was taken, but then I wasn’t sailing either. We did have overcast skies with a little drizzle.
I did a little research on the common saying and found this interesting comment on Wikipedia…
The rhyme is a rule of thumb for weather forecasting, dating back over 2,000 years, based on the reddish glow of the morning or evening sky, caused by haze or clouds related to storms in the region. Due to the rotation of the Earth, from west to east, storm systems tend to travel eastward across a local region of the globe. A reddish sunrise, caused by particles suspended in the air, often foreshadows an approaching storm, which will be arriving from the west, within the day. Conversely, a reddish sunset often indicates that a storm system is on the east side (opposite the sunset), travelling away from the viewer. A similar movement is noted all around the world, in both the northern and southern hemisphere. There are occasions where a storm system might rain itself out before reaching the observer (who had seen the morning red sky). However, for ships at sea, the wind and rough seas, from an approaching storm system, could still be a problem, even without rainfall.
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Dreamscape
I’m always on the hunt for another alluring sunrise. It means getting up very early, packing up the gear and heading out in time to be at the scene well before the sun will rise. Often times, the best shots happen before the actual sunrise.
A view like this makes it all worth while. This is the lighthouse at Algoma, Wisconsin…just before sunrise.
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