Yooper Daily

End of January 2010- wow!

2010-01-27T11:50:00.000-05:00

What's happened since last post:
We had a great winter thaw, about two weeks of weather in the balmy 30's, much welcomed in January, we can still see our driveway pavement! and even some grass in the front yard! And the lake isn't froze yet ! Triumph!
I kind of put the blog aside as there's much to be done around here in the offseason, taxes, taxes, taxes, backups, decluttering, reorganizing, cleaning, and the list goes on. A little overwhelming to say the least.

Tonight is the Ish Suicide Bowl Ski jumps. If you haven't gone, it's really cool. These youngsters jump off a ski jump and fly through the air, the competition is held at night. It will be brutally cold. Perfect for ice conditions!

Lake Superior Winter

2010-01-02T11:54:00.000-05:00

Revisiting 2009, (not that I really want to) I think most of us have already bid 2009 a hearty adieu. We held our own in 2009 and are very grateful for that. And,we thank you for checking in with us every once and awhile on this sporadic, at best, blog. As I look out my window today and am greeted to a very cold Lake Superior that overnight, started to ice ball and ice-mountain up, and this will continue all day with temps not budging much above 5F. I think back to that gale a few days ago that I ventured out and watched the big surf roll in for hours- here's a pic where I was fortunate enough to spot another brave soul out with me across the cove-

New Year's Eve Ball Drop- yooper style

2010-01-01T14:49:00.001-05:00

One thing is for sure, yoopers have an ingeneously humorous sense of creativity as seen here in a picture of the actual ball that drops in Marquette Mi, every New Year's Eve. The ball is lowered manually, down four stories of one of the most historic buildings in Marquette, and at the strike of midnight, the New Year in illuminated numbers lights up at the top of the building facade. Be it rain, but most of the time snow, biting cold and blizzard, thousands come out to spend their New Year's Eve here. A stiff wind with gusts approaching gale, and numerous snow squalls kept us in our toasty home last night. Cheers to all that ventured out. We were content to watch the New York ball drop on tv. Here's an interesting bit all about this year's beautiful Waterford Crystal ball. all about the New York New Year's ball 2010 . Happy New Year to all!

great lakes freighters

2009-12-30T09:22:00.000-05:00

It's been busy at both harbors in Marquette lately. This is the first time we've ever seen two freighters on the same side of the ore dock at the Upper Harbor. Don't know if this is something we will see more often or if it was because the ships were waiting out the storm. Not sure, but I think Jan 15 is the last day for shipping for the winter.

sounds like thunder

2009-12-29T12:14:00.000-05:00

Was the scene yesterday on Lake Superior. We had a gale blowing up here in Marquette. So what's one to do? Head out to the lake, brave winds strong enough to test your balance, hike through cornea pummeling snow grains flying sideways, put up with eye watering, and nose watering, bone chilling cold. There's nothing else I'd rather be doing on days like these. Three hats, three layers of coats, two layers of pants, and goggles, and toasty Baffin boots and I'm hiking ready. At the height of the big sets that rolled through yesterday afternoon, there were some monsters. Was a creepy feeling when the snow squalls would come through and you only heard the waves crashing, cause you couldn't see 'em. That's when I realized the waves sounded just like thunder.

Christmas Eve walk in the woods

2009-12-27T17:41:00.001-05:00

Went for a hike in the almost knee deep snow Christmas Eve. Almost time for snowshoes. Snow was extra fluffy, no footprints except mine, little wind, and the snow stopped just long enough to allow me some pictures. Here's Lake Superior sillouetted by big white pines and an old post and beam fence,with the winter light fading fast.

Winter Solstice

2009-12-21T17:57:00.000-05:00

So, today is officially the first day of winter, the "winter solstice". This is the day that the axial tilt of the earth is the furthest away from the Sun, at a tilt of over 23degrees.We've talked about how typical it is that even this is the shortest day of winter, how the coldest days are yet to come. Same thing with the summer solstice.

The sun made a brief appearance today, but quickly clouded up and it's snowing again. Looks like we have a potential snow storm on the horizon just in time for Christmas Eve.

almost black and white

2009-12-19T14:18:00.003-05:00

Not much color on this day, but it is a color pic.
Nothing like a little freezing drizzle to make snow cling to everything.

Lake Superior steaming

2009-12-16T10:43:00.001-05:00

lake superior cooling down

Woke up, -10 F this morning the lake was steaming. We've already had some very cold days to bring down the lake temps and ice is starting to form on the shoreline. We have lots of snow. Everywhere. Winter has taken hold in earnest.

ISU World Cup, Marquette MI 2009

2009-12-15T10:22:00.003-05:00

Apolo Ohno on one of the final turns at the Marquette World Cup, December, 2009

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and look thru images from the ISU short track speedskating World Cup that was held the week of December 11, 2009 in Marquette, MI. We were blessed this year to have two major short track events, the Olympic qualifying trials and the World Cup, within weeks of each other. I wasn't on assignment photographing for anybody. This gave me a chance to take a chance and try some new things. These athletes are going a million miles a second and modern camera technology is getting real good at being able to capture millisecond action. On this particular image, there were a couple races where a sunbeam shone through to the ice, and created some real interesting lighting, to say the least. The light differential caused a backlight situation, and there were a few laps to capture almost like a tv commerical type lighting going on. Here is Apolo, in the lead, full out, skating through the sunbeam. I will get to more images probably after Christmas.

ice pastels

2009-12-14T13:38:00.000-05:00

this is the result of heavy freezing spray on Lake Superior

It's nice to finally get a little time to get out a bit and see what's up. After the big storm last week, lots of ice built up on certain parts of the shoreline facing northeast. We got some really cold temps on the backside of the storm, so the ice built up thick and fast. Never lasts long though. Taken at sunset, the ice reflected the colors of the setting sun against the cool colored winter sky.

Big NE from a few days ago

2009-12-13T12:38:00.004-05:00

Big waves in front of Marquette Lighthouse, December, 2009

big wave in front of Marquette Upper Harbor Ore Dock, December, 2009

Monster waves, some of the biggest I've ever seen at this location, were to be found on any shore facing northeast on Lake Superior December 9, 2009. Winds this strong out of this direction seem to be rather rare indeed. Lakeshore Drive got a major battering with the "sea wall" being ripped up pretty good. There was freezing spray all the way across the road, lining the chain link fence beyond the bike path. The young Lombardi Poplar lining the drive got hit pretty good with ice. I wasn't out long, only about an hour before dusk, but couldn't believe my eyes with the size of the waves along the McCarty's Cove area. Did any of the crew dare to challenge these beasts? Police had most of Lakeshore Drive closed, and I didn't have time to walk in and check triangles, it must have been HUGE. Ventured out to black rocks, and the freezing spray was all the way to the hillside bending cedars all the way to the ground. Can't imagine what that spot looked like at the height of the storm.

mighty mac

2009-12-04T02:35:00.006-05:00

Mackinac Bridge Reflections

We've been over the bridge a lot this year, lots of shows downstate, and most recently went to see family in Cincinnati and do a show over Thanksgiving. Off topic, a long long time ago, I lived in Cincinnati back in the Big Red Machine days, and never really explored the Kentucky side at all. This trip, we spent a lot of time in Covington KY and had a great time, amazed at the mansions along the river, equally amazed at the view from Covington of the two new stadiums in Cincy. Had a great burger and Guiness at Molly Malone's btw ;)

This image is from one of those crossings over the Mackinac Bridge, it was an extremely calm night, calm that didn't last long. If you look closely, you can see ripples in the water that happened part way through the timed exposure adding another dimension to the image. A few minutes later, these reflections of light were gone due to water chop. Now I just need to get back there for a calm day with the "Christmas Lights" on the bridge,,, suprised the ACLU hasn't complained about this.....but then again maybe it's not Christmas Lights but simply a change of light color for a change of pace....? It sure was nice in visiting some of the small Ohio towns on our last trip to see the 10 commandments displayed in front of several courthouses. Only a matter of time I guess before controversy ensues in this day and age of America.....

Still no snow : )

2009-11-24T07:41:00.007-05:00

Heavy frost and wetland, Munising, MI

This image was taken a week or so ago the morning after I had been up all night during the Leonid meteor shower. Lots of heavy frost, I even had it on my tripod! I came to realize I really don't have many frost photos-- for one - because by this time of year we usually have a good covering of snow on the ground!
This image is not possible with conventional single exposure photography due to the very large dynamic range in the picture, the camera can't balance out everything in one exposure from the sun to the bright horizon to the backlit shadows. In the past, I have pretty much dismissed HDR, but in this situation I gave it a go. Image was made stacking 6 images at different exposure times and tone mapping with HDR software. So many times, I see some really fake looking HDR. My goal here was to reproduce exactly what I saw that morning. The key in my mind to this process is not to overdo the highlights,(or shadows in the sky) which is so tempting when you see what is revealed in the highlights. This is in line with what I read from a BW photog that studied with Ansel when mentioning in the digital post process the overabundance of photographers sharpening everything to death- why?- because they can. So, verdict on HDR- What do you think?

not quite a "Van Gogh" LOL...

2009-11-22T09:38:00.007-05:00

startrails,meteors,aurora,orange is light pollution!-from Munising,brighter stars on left half is Milky Way

This is me having fun with digital. It's an image stack of 30 or so 60 second images taken at very high ISO in attempt to capture meteors. Kind of a novelty thing, not very aesthetic IMHO! Gives me a headache after looking at it too long.... Anyway, this was taken at the height of the leonids a few nights ago, and I only managed to capture one very bright meteor in this whole process... well, at least I got one....Bonus was a very faint aurora at the bottom of the horizon, which was not visible to the naked eye. Over time, it left a funky reflection off Lake Superior. A big reason you don't see images like this frequently is #1. A lot of things can go wrong in the process #2. technology to capture the magnitude of this image is relatively new #3. The process to acquire this image is a little more than just point and shoot with extensive post processing. In attempting photography from this location, I had thought this would be a great spot for night sky photography, was disappointed to see how much light pollution turned up in a relatively dark location.

collaborative effort

2009-11-01T09:56:00.004-05:00

In my husband's travels, he spotted this wonderful wetland when driving a couple weeks ago. He took some pics, handheld, and showed them to me. I went back to that area, THREE TIMES, to see what I could come up with using a tripod and different lighting conditions. On the best day of the three- with lighting/no wind, I forgot my cable release... OH WELL. One thing is for sure. Late autumn is beautiful with the golden tamaracks. wetland and third or fourth snow of the season!

tamaracks and turning blueberry bushes

Autumn's last hurrah

2009-10-30T10:55:00.008-04:00

OK. I take back the rusty and crusty title of the last post. The past few days, not having given up on photography this autumn season, I've been determined to go out and find color, whatever is left of it, and have put on a great deal of miles in efforts to do so. What I found is some brilliant patches of maples and some very unique scenes occuring late in this 2009 autumn color season in Upper Michigan. Late autumn is really a favorite time for me, with the forest floor being covered with autumn leaves, and, what struck me yesterday was how vibrant and green ferns are in contrast with the freshly falling maple leaves.
Michigan trail hiking in autumn

Upper Peninsula backwoods find, an old cabin
In my ventures, I happened upon this cabin. Immediately the questions came to mind. Who lived here? Was it a hunting camp or did they live here permanently? When was it built? When was it abandoned? What was it like back then? How hard was it to build this cabin back in the day? Just look how nature is reclaming this structure.
For the most part trees are now bare, but suprisingly there still are a few patches of maple that look like they are at early peak closer to the lakeshore. Yesterday I was lucky to finally have a few minutes of cooperation from the weather with flat calm winds- a necessity in long exposure photography. Over the next few days, I'll post a few more from this year's autumn color season.

rusty and crusty

2009-10-23T09:28:00.005-04:00

That's how I'd describe this year's autumn color season, for the most part.Definitely not the brilliant fruit loop type autumn as the trees have turned very sporadically due to the absolutely crazy weather conditions. I had such high hopes this summer, which was extremely cool and rainy. Then September happened. Driest on record. Then, October happened....! very cold with freezing temps. Tons of foliage are still on the trees,especially by the lake. Many leaves are still green,(oaks) and simply shriveling around the edges. Went for a drive yesterday, and for the most part, some aspen have a good amount of yellow,, the birch haven't fared so well, being one of the trees that turned earlier and freezing temps caused leaves to turn brown. Maples vary widely, with a majority of them a golden orange. Reds are very hard to come by this year. It's not a wash though, with the recent yellowing of the aspen and maples turning hillsides a mixture of burnt orange hinted by some brilliant golden stands of maple. Photography wise, photographers have their work cut out for them this year, with a large number of low pressure systems sweeping through the area creating many rainy,sometimes snowy, DARK, windy days, like... today!
It's funny when we do art shows, we have a small image displayed of a single tamarack surrounded by other pine species. The tamarack is a pine tree that turns golden yellow in autumn before loosing it's needles. Many people that visit our booth at the art shows have never seen these trees and think I intentionally altered the tree yellow. From what I understand, the tamarack is found as far south as West Virginia, but it's a handful of northern states. Right now, these are the trees that stand out the most, their contrast is spectacular against the black spruce. If you are lucky to find them in a bog with blueberry bushes, all the better, as those blueberry leaves are turning red. Snow cover forecast today should create some interesting scenes in these parts, as long as we don't get totally dumped on, a nice dusting would be plenty!

tamarack trees, upper peninsula of michigan

2010 will be here before you know it!

2009-10-15T09:44:00.010-04:00

And we've got a great calendar to help you keep track of next year!
northern lights aurora borealis calendar 2010 front

northern lights aurora borealis calendar 2010 back

Avery Color Studios contacted us to use our images to produce the Northern Lights Calendar 2010, the northern lights aurora borealis photography of Shawn and Brian Malone.
Check your local gift/bookstore for availability or- you can order them online here.
The photography in this calendar is from the brilliant off the charts northern lights displays from several years ago when we were at the solar maximum, the top of the 11 year cycle. Inside is a scientific description next to every image explaining how northern lights happen and what determines their color. So, not only do you get the images, the information included is very educational! Get 'em before they are gone! The quality of this calendar is top notch in every facet of reproduction as Avery did a great job, and is a chance for you to pick up our best northern lights images for an unbeatable price!

the Olympians are here-US Speedskating Olympic qualifying 2009, Marquette, MI

2009-09-10T12:05:00.006-04:00

If you've never had a chance, you gotta check it out. It's speedskating, one of the most exciting sports there is, IMHO. Marquette, Michigan is home to the USOEC, partnered with NMU. Berry Events Center has been home to the Olympic qualifying for speedskating for at least the last two winter Olympics, I don't know the history of the sport before that. I started photographing these skaters in 2005, with some of that work from the Olympic qualifying ending up in the Torino media guide and NBC Olympics coverage. This time around, I will not be able to attend Friday and Saturday's races due to previous commitments. However, I did get a chance to sneak in last night and grab some shots. I forgot how extremely difficult it is to photograph speedskating in relatively low light conditions. Lot's of duds, but a few keepers. Maybe at the worlds, which also will be in Marquette in November, I will be a little better prepared. Here's a couple shots from last night. I hope to get more up on my website soon. For an overview of standings, go to US Speedskating website.

apolo ohno turning on the burners

apolo ohno in a familiar spot, ahead of the pack

Yes! Summer is here!

2009-09-02T09:40:00.006-04:00

Finally. A huge high pressure system is going to park itself right over our area for awhile and we have a forecast of nothing but sunshine. Seems this summer has been very wet and stormy. Lake Superior water will probably be too cold to swim with south wind, even at this point in the season. Let's hope this beautiful weather lasts thru Labor Day weekend!

Last blast of summer color

2009-08-27T09:24:00.002-04:00

keweenaw summer meadow flowers

I love it when these yellow and pinkish/purplish flowers come out and seem to grow right next to each other providing a beautiful contrast in color. I don't know what they are called, they are probably weeds, but they sure brighten up the fields this time of year.

Well, looks like summer is winding down. We're back to c c cold temps again, The low was in the 40's last night.

I wanted to go look for some last patches of wild blueberries this week, but didn't make it once again. Time really flies.

word is, waves come

2009-08-21T08:24:00.004-04:00

A few of my surfer friends have let me know they think surf is a sure thing for today.So grab a a board and get out there! Sorry I can't get out there. Good luck you guys, and maybe next time for me!
Dan Schetter surfs Marquette MI

editorially speaking...

2009-08-20T19:24:00.003-04:00

A quick mention some of the places our work is found in most recent publications.

Marquette Country Convention and Visitors Bureau has seven of our images on the cover of the 2009 Visitors guide, and many more inside the publication.

For some chilly reading on a hot summer day, THE Surfer's Journal is running a ten page story in the Aug 09 issue of a couple midwest surfers at the Grand Sable Dunes Expedition of January, 2009. It's in stores now.

Ahhh the Keweenaw

2009-08-19T10:39:00.002-04:00

We got to spend some time in the Keweenaw this August. Every time we go there, we appreciate it more and more. In our efforts to get off the road and out of the art show circuit, could a gallery in the Keweenaw be a possibility in the future? Who knows. On the days these pictures were taken, it was probably some of the warmest days yet this summer. Meadows were full of the last colors of summer, brilliant magentas and yellows of wildflowers. We drove up to Brockway to hopefully catch a break from the heat with some wind. We were greeted with a wonderfully eery fog rolling in over the mountains and Lake Superior. The view from Brockway Mountain, Keweenaw Peninsula
meadow in the Keweenaw Peninsula

It's berry time

2009-08-12T09:35:00.004-04:00

Northern Michigan wildberries-all berries in photo are hand picked wild UP berries

Went picking berries in the Keweenaw last weekend. Raspberries are at their peak. Thimbleberries will probably be peak this weekend. Blueberries are peak or getting past peak in the central UP around the Marquette area. Haven't found any blackberries this year. We hope to find some bilberries this weekend- best way I can describe it is a berry larger and sweeter than a blueberry. They are GREAT!

Pictured Rocks

2009-07-29T18:55:00.003-04:00

Pictured Rocks Seacaves
Pictured Rocks coastline
Now's the time, when the water calms down and warms up, the days are long, to go out for a kayak at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. The sometimes 200ft sandstone cliffs, colored from minerals seeping thru the rocks makes for a very unique and awe inspiring experience. Just make sure you are knowledgeable of the shoreline, and only go out on the calmest of days, as there's nowhere to take out if you are somewhere along the shear sandstone cliffs.

wierd summer

2009-07-28T13:05:00.003-04:00

lake superior thunderhead
Thanks to everyone that visited us at Art on the Rocks this year. Sunday was especially not too kind to me this year, with what seemed to be a typical lake effect system dumping loads of rain Saturday night into Sunday and flooding out my booth location. Hats off to the Art on the Rocks crew for action in constructing a makeshift pallet floor to allow me to at least not have to pack up and leave Sunday morning. Wow, has it ever been cool and rainy in this part of the country this summer. Should lead to an especially brilliant color season this fall. Hope I have time to get out and do some photography as we have a very busy schedule already.

back from Ann Arbor

2009-07-20T17:16:00.004-04:00

Just wanted to thank everyone that stopped by our booth in Ann Arbor 2009 this past week. We had our most successful show to date in the three years we've been doing art shows and I can't thank you all enough for your interest and support of our photography. If our conversation got cut short by how busy it was, hopefully we'll see you down the road at another lower Michigan show such as Arts Beats in Pontiac Labor Day weekend or Birmingham Common Ground show in late September.

With sincere gratitude,
Shawn and Brian Malone

Sarychev Volcano Sunset

2009-07-08T04:42:00.004-04:00

I finally got to see a volcano sunset, and was it ever a treat. Last night the skies cleared and I saw the telltale white streaks way up in the stratosphere as the sun was setting. After the sun went down, the incredibly saturated colors appeared, with the "volcanic lavender" being very visible in crespiscular rays. This sunset had to rank up there with some of the best I've seen over Lake Superior. Just incredible.
Sarychev Volcano Sunset over Lake Superior, Upper Peninsula of Michigan

barely breaking 50 and drizzling

2009-06-30T16:03:00.005-04:00

Have to turn the heat on again, it's so cold. Only in da UP, LOL. This big wound up low kicked our butts this past weekend with winds topping out at 50mph at our show in Mn. Weather is definitely the trump card in outdoor art shows. The booth held,(just barely- the pork chop lady wasn't so lucky) but you couldn't help getting seasick trying to look at the swaying artwork on the walls. Needless to say, our sales suffered as a result. It sure was nice to make it home safely after dodging a couple deer in Wisconsin as well...

Eagle with it's catch

Driving to and from town today, I saw an eagle with a fish in it's talons fly overhead. These birds are amazing, to be able to pluck a fish out of water with greatly reduced visibility on a whitecap filled Lake Superior. Pic shown here is from another time when I was on a kayak, and observed an eagle, again, fishing. They make it look so easy.

heading down the rainbow highway

2009-06-24T07:37:00.003-04:00

heading east on M-28, Marquette County Mi

calm days

2009-06-16T04:26:00.007-04:00

Deer Lake
This time of year, the winds start to settle down a bit and it becomes a great time to be on the water, if the bugs don't get the best of you.(Right now it's a 1-2 punch with the mosquitos massively populating and the noseeums showing up with south winds). Here's a sunset from Deer Lake in Alger County, water was calm as glass. The sun is setting after 9:30 now, with twilight extending to around 11pm or so. There's a ton of daylight to go make those daytrips, early morning or late evening. First light is around 4am. Can't believe the solstice is right around the corner, we still have the heat on, especially cold, cold mornings! Just like last year, June comes and goes before it starts to feel like summer up here!

Pictured Rocks

2009-06-11T08:25:00.003-04:00

Went for a hike in Pictured Rocks yesterday. One thing is for sure. It's skeeter season. Since we live closer to the east side of the park, that's where I get to more frequently. You can see it all here, lighthouses included. It's amazing the diversity of natural features in that park, from the waterfalls and lakes to the huge sandstone cliffs, to the amazing dunes and pristine beaches that stretch for miles. The early spring wildflowers are at their peak and the trilliums are starting to turn pink. Miners beach is a very scenic place. The falls at the east end of the beach have a really neat sandstone texturing at the base of it, in which a lot of new sand has built up this year, covering a lot of this layered sandstone.
Pictured Rocks waterfall- anyone know if this falls has a name?

One of my fav hiking trails in the park also starts at this location and gets to the top of the huge sandstone cliffs relatively quickly. It's a place of solitude to be sure, but the initial hike up the big hill gets your heart pumping.
.hiking trail, pictured rocks national lakeshore

On a clear day...

2009-06-09T08:00:00.005-04:00

You can see forever. This is the view from Sugarloaf Mountain on 550 near Marquette a couple days ago. You can see the Huron Mountains I believe, in the top of the pic and the beach of Wetmore Landing in the bottom. This has to be what I have concluded one of the most beautiful vistas in the U.P and Upper Midwest. Thanks to conservation efforts, the view in many directions is still of rolling hills and forests, although more and more development is creeping in on the southeast view, not to mention what seems to be more and more towers every year. I can't remember the facts on the Little Presque Isle area which is the coastline you see in the pic, but I believe this large tract of shoreline is protected from development and is really a gem of solitude along the Lake Superior shoreline.

Spring-the other color season

2009-06-07T11:23:00.005-04:00

06/03/09-spring new leaves, upper michigan
Have you ever noticed in the spring, at certain times when the different maples and oaks start to grow their new leaves, theres a time in the Spring season that can match the intensity of color that you see in autumn? It's a different mixture of colors, with the spectrum of greens from dark navy green to lime green mixed in with the reds of the new maple leaves and yellows and limes of new oak leaves, frosted with whites of some other blooms.

a day of nests

2009-06-03T17:53:00.004-04:00

I should go out looking for morels more often. 9 times out of 10, I don't find morels, but rather stumble upon something else. Today it was nests. I was walking a two track in Hiawatha National Forest, saw a bird flutter out of a cut out dirt mound on the side of the road which drew my eye to a hole in this mound of dirt, and there I found two baby birds and a blue egg in a nest. I think they are robins. Funny how when babies are first born they have fuzz, not feathers, and their eyes are almost as big as their heads, and not open yet. They open their beaks when they hear their mother's chirps.
A little later, I was walking in a dense patch of trillium, a bird fluttered up and out,- it was a duck which had been sitting on it's nest of at least a half dozen eggs. No morels for me today, but plenty of bird nests!
bird nest with babies

it's good to be home

2009-06-02T22:11:00.005-04:00

We're back from one of our longest trips of the year. Just did an art show in Cincinnati, We were lucky to dodge the tornados and hail Saturday night, the heat held off for us and overall it was beautiful weather for the three day show. We did well and it was nice to get a taste of summer on our venture south. We filled up on our share of Montgomery Inn Ribs and Skyline Chili- world famous Cincinnati favorite dishes. It was also nice to get a short but sweet visit in with my family. I grew up in Cincy and wow, after having lived in the U.P. for so long now it sure is a different world in that part of the the midwest, most strikingly climate wise- we returned to freeze warnings this evening in the UP, and I notice we still have only buds on our big oak tree. On our drive home, once we crossed the Mackinaw Bridge, we returned to empty roads and the slower pace of life we moved to the UP for.
To live in the UP means sometimes you are rewarded with sights seldom seen elsewhere in more populated areas. Today Brian got one of those rewards, as he and his friend Gary got to see a MOOSE driving back from L'anse to Negaunee:
it's a MOOSE!

This fella was a big 'un. I've never been so lucky to see a moose up here, only tracks. Maybe I'll get lucky this year.

looks like Spring has Sprung

2009-05-25T20:53:00.004-04:00

First off, our thoughts and prayers out to everyone that was affected by the fires. We are unable to answer everyone's questions about areas affected by the fires, TV6 and the DNR I would say are some possible sources to find out that info. Also the township halls could probably provide more in depth info as to specific areas affected... And again, thanks to all the people that fought the fires, including our friend Chris Lamere and others in the volunteer depts. Lets hope things stay quiet tonight, red flag warnings AGAIN in the western UP.

On to happier things, the hummingbirds are back, and they closely guard their feeder. Here's a lucky shot of a hummingbird dive bombing another not so lucky bird just wanting a little drink of that yummy sugar water.

Wildfires break out in UP

2009-05-20T19:51:00.019-04:00

map showing approximate area of black river falls fire
Update 5/22/09- TV6 has said the fire is contained and roads are reopened. Our hearts go out to those that lost all. We know some on the volunteer fire dept that didn't get much sleep the past couple days... thank you so much for the hard work in getting this beast under control. The link for continuing coverage on the Black River Falls and other fires is here:----continuing fire coverage

Update:05/21/09- The fire in Ishpeming,the Black River Falls fire, has burned 770 acres, taken at least 33 structures and homes. Black River Falls obviously must be pretty scorched as well, looking at the fireline map. Looks like the homes lost are on the west side of 581 between a little north of CR CG to CR CS. I hope they can keep this fire from jumping 581 when the winds pick up today out of the W NW. Now they say the fire is 65% contained.

05/20/09-
As of now there are two near L'anse,(one near Pinery location) one in Ishpeming Township near Co Rd. 581 and one near Champion (Fish Lake Grade). My husband just drove thru L'anse and Ishpeming and said the smoke was thick. They are evacuating homes on 581. These firefighters are up against hellish conditions today. Pray for these fires containment. Just saw firefighting equipment drive by, looked like a fireline grader.
It will be interesting to see the cause of these fires. Red Flag warnings have been issued well in advance of these incredible weather conditions, and common sense says you don't burn when it's 90 degrees with a 40mph gusting wind out of the south......(btw, we had the largest degree swing in high temps from day to day- today !- 44yesterday, 89- officially today).
Funny, when I lived in places like Cincinnati, I worried about tornados. Here, it's definitely fires. We have nothing but miles of woods to the south of us... tinder dry right now.

it's time

2009-05-19T09:16:00.004-04:00

The great morel mushroom hunting season is upon us. They started finding them in the southern UP last week. With this crazy forecast, high of 40 today, 86! tommorrow, that should get em sprouting, although that warm of air might wilt ones already ripe to pick.

time capsules

2009-05-12T18:35:00.003-04:00

oak leaf etchings

Sometimes you find interesting subjects in the wierdest places. This oak leaf was held captive for months by it's stem stuck between two timbers on my back porch. When the gales would come, this thing would flutter in a perfect circle, creating these etchings in the wood of the porch floor. The snows came and covered it up. When the snow melted, the mangled leaf was still there. Finally the stem broke and the oak leaf etching ended. This piece "Oak Leaf Etchings", will be available for sale in my art booth under one of our new collections called "Time Capsules"- a wide variety of subjects showing an era long past, as well as subjects simply showing the passage of time, such as this crumbling oak leaf.

If you haven't noticed, yooperdaily is being neglected due to the onslaught of the art show season. I'm going to find a way to update on the road, but during these past couple shows, it just hasn't been possible.

We will be at the East Lansing Art Festival on the corner of Abbott this coming weekend. - if you're in the area stop by say hi.

wierd day

2009-05-07T17:40:00.004-04:00

Can't say that I've ever seen this before. We had some good size thunderstorms roll over the lake today, complete with hail. As the storm moved slowly across the horizon, this really dark fog would bubble up on the edge of the horizon, then dissapear. It was really wild looking. Any meteorologists out there, I'd be interested to learn what causes this, I imagine an extreme temperature differential. Got some very dramatic sky photography out of these isolated storms. There might be a keeper or two.

Sugarloaf starkness

2009-05-05T08:36:00.002-04:00

a view from Sugarloaf Mountain
Just got back from downstate where the trees are in full bloom, some with leaves on them already, and the grass is oh so green. I guess they've had record rains and it shows with rivers crested over their banks.
This time of year is so fleeting, and the newness of Spring evenmoreso. Up here, the maples are just starting to bud, and there's some patches of grass to be seen here and there. Pictured above is a view from Sugarloaf Mountain. I chose black and white for constrast between the sky, rocks and trees, as there's really not much of anything for color yet. It is pretty amazing on some days, when everything starts to bud, how there can be close to as much color in the trees as in autumn. We're still a couple weeks away.

image candidate for unsolvable puzzle?

2009-04-28T07:38:00.009-04:00

Guess what this is........

I was photographing the ore dock when I looked down and saw these vivid designs in the water. I had to act fast as boats were putting in, ruining the calm waves that were reflecting these colors. .

A lot of people have a fascination with these docks, used to load coal and ore into the freighters. It's easy to see why, they are huge. If you can see at the top, those are rail cars that give you a sense of scale. Marquette has two docks, with the upper harbor one still in use today. Most of the time you see pics of the docks with freighters right next to them. This pic of dock only really conveys how big this thing really is. Marquette Upper Harbor Ore Dock

ka-booooooom

2009-04-26T17:44:00.006-04:00

lightning over lake superior
NO, it's not Billy Mays here.... ;]
It's not very often we get T-storms up here. In the summertime, the front usually fizzles before it hits us, cut off by the cold air of the lake. But this time, two nights ago, the opposite was in the works with warm air heading over the cold lake, and some of the storms held up quite well, our dog will atest to that. Here's a shot of an isolated T-storm over Superior, complete with startrails.

scenes from Superior

2009-04-24T12:02:00.004-04:00

Mesmerizing Big Lake Superior

Lake Superior has finally rid herself of the iceberg shoreline, for the most part. There's still a few bays with some massive ice chunks in them, but those are crumbling fast. I've been thinking to get out on the seasonal roads maybe next week, but with the highlands getting oh, almost two feet of snow the other day, looks like the woods are going to remain snow covered for quite some time.

We had a brief glimpse of spring this morning, guess that's all we get for now. Felt warm 60's ish, no chill in the air. So I thought, good, I'll walk the dog on the beach. Got out there in about ten minutes, then the winds shifted, boom. Fog rolls in, back in the 40's in an instant with the year's first thunderstorms on the horizon. Well, at least it's not snow! and the rain will help melt the remaining stubborn snowdrifts around here! Good riddance.
iceberg sunset

Yep, it's snowing

2009-04-20T09:44:00.004-04:00

When you see stuff like this, you feel reasurred the sun will eventually knock down these monster snow drifts if the temps don't cooperate such as today. We're in line for up to a foot of snow today and tomorrow, but I don't think we'll get it in our location, unless the temps stay a little lower than they are forecasting. Now the highlands, that's another story, look out Ishpeming. I suggested Brian not to run the gas out of the snowblower, sort of as an insurance so that we DON'T get a big late season storm. We'll see if that strategy works.
I tried knocking down a drift next to our yard fence a couple days ago in attempts to keep the dog from zipping up the drift and over the fence.... I had a heavy shovel and could barely get the thing into it, it was frozen solid. Pretty much explains why the woods and seasonal roads are still impassable, blocked by frozen drifts.

the birds are back

2009-04-18T14:12:00.003-04:00

Saw a few flocks of geese fly over,heading north over Lake Superior, high in the sky on their journey to Canada.
Got a nice little taste of Spring the last couple days. Calm as could be, a few wonderful days of sun and temps without a chill in the air.

It all came to a crashing halt yesterday with a temp drop of 20 degrees in 12 minutes in some places, according to the NWS Marquette.

Such is life on Lake Superior this time of year. When the winds change, it can be a shocking experience. I remember one particular time out at Presque Isle, the parking lot was full with cars and people enjoying the day, then the winds shifted. Kids in shorts and t shirts screamed at the swift change in temps(for real) and ran into the heated pavilion. The parking lot cleared in about 10 mins, lol.

I took my dog for a walk on the beach yesterday and it was comical to watch her barking at the melting and moving icebergs. Makes me wonder what goes on in those doggie brains sometimes? Ah,,, Spring has sprung.

two directions, two seasons

2009-04-16T11:09:00.005-04:00

Such was the visual appearance yesterday of arguably one of the most beautiful places in the Upper Midwest, Grand Sable Lake and Grand Sable Dunes in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.

I took a ride yesterday to visit the Agate Lady, Karen Brzys, in Grand Marais Mi. She runs the Gitche Gumme Agate Museum, full of jaw dropping agates and other minerals. Also in the museum is a wonderful historical display from the life and heritage of Axel Neimi,original owner of the museum and mentor to Brzys. This is a must see if you make the trip to Grand Marais.

After our visit, she treated me to a portion of a regular hike she takes in what is basically her "backyard", the Grand Sable Dunes.

Grand Sable Lake, April 15, 2009

Looking south over Grand Sable Lake, you could see a solid dirty ice cover yet, winter's last gasp (hopefully! you never know in these parts). Snow wise, the woods are still heavy with it. Still, a few seasonal roads have too much snow cover to be open yet.

Grand Sable Dunes

Hiking in the dunes proceeding north towards Lake Superior(recommended only for those that understand their limits) the sand was soft and warm, with a neon blue sky and sun a blazin'. It's easy to feel like an ant out here, in the Sahara of Northern Michigan. Wind temps were perfect for hiking at around 45 degrees or so, then when you got out of the wind and in the direct sun at the bottom of a dune, it was downright summer like with warm sun and sand. Just a wonderful day to have the opportunity to take in such a beautiful place, leg exhaustion and sandy shoes well worth it.

Lake Superior-anatomy of a big wave

2009-04-11T12:43:00.005-04:00

The water color on Lake Superior constantly amazes me. These were taken a couple days ago, images have absolutely no saturation added to color, really no post processing other than a balance of levels.

The five deer watching the five fishermen

2009-04-10T12:16:00.005-04:00

Marquette Mi fishing- counted 20 boats before sunrise, with more putting in at the marina.

winter... spring..... winter....?

2009-04-08T21:39:00.004-04:00

Was so cold yesterday with the gales that came through the past couple days, that the ice piles reformed in a huge way on some bays on Superior at least 10-20 ft tall. I ventured out to the north side of Presque Isle out of curiousity and saw this- pretty typical for an April "thaw":
Lake Superior in April, Presque Isle

Went around the other side of Presque Isle, and the air was so clear, I could see Granite Island Lighthouse that sits five miles out- about the clearest I've ever seen it:
Granite Island Lighthouse
After I got the breath pretty much taken away by the absolutely brutal winds howling out of the north,(enough to make your eyes run like a faucet), I was tired of fighting the wind and opted for a more sheltered hike from Wetmore Landing to Little Presque Isle. Ice cleats were necessary as the entire trail was pretty much frozen solid with either sheet ice and snow that had thawed to slush then refrozen. Was a beautiful two mile or so hike sheltered from the wind along the Lake Superior shore- I'll have some pics ready probably tomorrow.

I love April

2009-04-06T21:46:00.006-04:00

Lake Superior surfing,Nate extending the ride, April 06, 09
Wow, is it roaring tonight- the gales and big waves have returned. April usually signals the return of Lake Superior from it's frozen silence. Today was no exception; when the wind blows, the lake roars, literally. With a gale whipping up waves 10-14ft, the surfers were out as well. Some bays in our neck of the woods are ice free, if the waves have a chance to build big enough and overpower the icy slush fields. Unbelievably, others, such as points east of Marquette, the ice is rebuilding, go figure(it didn't get out of the 20's for highs today), and looks like an undulating rollercoaster of pancake ice waves that pile up ice balls higher and higher into tall ice volcanos.
Lake Superior Blue Slush waves
Even with cold air temps, the gradual rising elevation of the sun and solar warming of the sun will gradually win over, and ice will be no more on the mightiest of great lakes, Lake Superior. Here's a shout out to one of our fans, D'andre in L.A.!
Lake Superior Surfing, Dan and Matt

virtual yooperland... and rest of the world

2009-04-03T13:10:00.007-04:00

They're here.
Whitefish Pt Lightouse-google view
Don't have the time to drive to Whitefish Point today? Go there virtually, right now.
Google has come to da yoop. I even found my house for the whole world to see(not too thrilled). It's called Google street view service. Go look for your house, bet you'll find it unless you live on a well hidden remote two track. Google has been driving all over the world with a video cam mounted on top of their car that takes 360 degree images of every road they drive down like every 25 feet or so- with 360 panning available everywhere they drive- up, down, side to side. It is amazing.
Ever been to the Jampot?
It's a bakery run by monks, living in a Catholic Monastery of the Byzantine Rite, in Eagle Harbor, Keweenaw Peninsula. Leave it to Google to capture a couple of these monks leaving the Jampot.
Jampot-google street view
If you come to the Keweenaw during the summer, you MUST try Jampot's Abbey Cake, a fruit cake drenched with bourbon. Everything they have there is GOOD, I like their caramels and carrot cake cream cheese muffins. They have all kinds of jams as well, made from the wild berries they pick themselves.It's a sure thing instant weight gain of five pounds every time we go there!
Proceeding on- to more Googling via street view-
This technology is cool,and compilation of all this information and framework to run all this is mind boggling, but if only everyone used the internet for the good of mankind, know what I mean? I do hope the people in charge of our country's security are taking a deep look at this, but too late now, cat's out of the bag.
Check out the Mackinaw Bridge, you can 360 it to look up, down, all around. All at your fingertips.
mac bridge looking straight up Google street view

Mac Bridge Google street view

Granted, with digital cams nowadays you can get even better pics than this, but you have to physically GO there, and you can't stop on the bridge when driving across. I wonder right now how many people that hate America are combing thru this incredible amount of visual knowledge at their fingertips.

Here's a link of some people in Britain turning back a Google car.

And there have been lawsuits already from disgruntled residents finding out their house has been Googlerized.

When an increase in break ins in affluent neighborhoods is starting to be directly tied to Google street view, this really makes one think if all this info at one's desktop is really a good thing.
I don't have the time, but I'd be interested to see what sensitive areas are being displayed by Google in this street view that you find- that should probably be deleted for the security of the country. A couple months back when I first found out about street view, I toured the streets of Chicago and got an in depth view of Soldier Field, Lakeshore Drive, etc. and was amazed at the detail being shown. Too bad Google can't demand a term of this street view service is to use it in only the best of good intentions.

Ever wonder where a week goes?

2009-04-01T10:24:00.007-04:00

Great Lakes Freighter- complete with mirage

What? It's WEDNESDAY already??? No April fools here. Well, that pretty much sums up my week to this point. It's already midweek, already April and I'm still on March business.
Last weekend we went downstate to do an art show and for some reason it really kicked my butt physically and mentally; it took me three days to recover. We also found out the hard way how much lower Michigan is hurting economically, beautiful show,easy set up and load out, beautiful venue, very low low attendance with very few people buying much of anything. This hasn't been the norm to this point, so, I just rechecked our season and we are spread out pretty good across the midwest.... whew.
When doing art shows, especially slow ones, some quotes from people you interact with are memorable. My favorite from this past weekend was, "Were you THERE when you took the picture"? I paused for a moment, thought how many different ways I could answer that, then rather to confuse... just replied, .... "yes".
We figured since we didn't bring the camera, some spectacular photo op would materialize at some point in the trip. The most memorable was on the return trip going over the Mackinaw Bridge and seeing the ice chunks breaking up, along with a freighter on the open water sailing into the distance. Yep, freighter season is now again open, and I look forward to them returning to the Marquette docks.
This time of year you get some wild distortions of freighters on the horizon, especially when the temps warm up and the lake is still very cold. Mirages occur and the freighters take on ghostlike appearances. I've seen it where the freighter mirage actually flips over so you see an image of the freighter upside down-directly on top of the actual freighter- lots of funny distortion too from the mirage. Here's a couple freighter mirages, and will try to find the one as described above.

Yes, this is a great lakes freighter smooshed by a mirage

virtual rockhounding

2009-03-25T09:57:00.003-04:00

Agate banding

I find agates fascinating. The intricate detail in the banding of these semiprecious Lake Superior gems are amazing. It's been a long time since I actually went looking for agates, but now's the time as the ice mountains recede on the shoreline and reveal a new crop o washed up rocks.
Last weekend I picked up some small polished pieces from the Agate Lady- here's some quick closeups of them with dust, blemishes, etc still in the images. I'm going out there in April to visit her museum and look at more rocks.
The agate I got doesn't have a lot of contrast in the coloring, but when turning it to black and white, the banding is very visible.

ocean jasper
The ocean jasper I guess is just found one place in the world, Madagascar. It's a really wild looking piece of rock.
I think I'll rumage around and see what I have accumulated over the years of my own finds or things I've picked up along the way and see what they look like closeup. When I get these closeup images, I have the ability to enlarge to, oh, 40x60" or so, it's really amazing when you can see the detail like that thru enlargement.

The calendar says Spring

2009-03-24T07:19:00.004-04:00

As I write this, Dr. Tim Hunt and his dogs have probably crossed the finish line of the Iditarod, what an accomplishment. Mary's been keeping a great blog of the experience, go check it out.
Past couple days fro some reason wiped me out with the show we did and prep for show coming up, and I couldn't get the wifi to work in the hotel to blog update, so Yooper Daily is prob gonna quickly become Yooper weekly- at this point that seems more of a reasonable thing for me. My hats off to anyone who can keep a blog daily,, I have failed miserably.
Around here, we are a long way from Spring, although I guess it's techincally calendar Spring, you'd never know it by looking out the window with the exception of the ground becoming visible again in very small patches. Some rivers are starting to loose their ice from the snowmelt, but with Lake Superior choked with ice in many rivermouths, ice jams are a high probability this year. I think the snowmelt is going to be more of a gentle one this year; not like a couple years back where it went literally from winter to summer for a few days, with temps in the 80's quickly melting feet of snowpack, causing the bridge on M-553 to get pulverized by the raging river and flooding closing many stretches of road up here. I remember that year, hiking the Forrestville basin in shin high snow wearing shorts and a t-shirt.

In transition- Lake Superior ice n waves
Hard to believe the ice shacks have to be off the ice next week, wow, April is upon us. Good thing is that the sun is getting warm enough that maybe if good ice is still hanging around well into April, we can get some ice fishing in and get a tan at the same time- why go to Florida when you can have sun n fun on a frozen lake in da UP... positive yooper psychology!

keeping up with the Joneses

2009-03-20T04:04:00.004-04:00

Holy cow, every so often I come across something that really throws me under the bus regarding the advancements in technology related to photography. This time, it's this site where the University of Wisconsin has geotagged spots along the entire Wisconsin portions of the Great Lakes with 360 panoramic images, among other things, the amount of work here is mind boggling. And then there's the whole Google take on providing a 360 degree view of every street in the country. This is a fascinating tool that I've started to use frequently, but scary as well due to obvious security and privacy concerns, which have already been raised by foreign nations, but not us....? Anyway, great job on this project, UW. Very cool. This will be a site I come back to many times.
So back to technology and photography, there are so many cool things I've been dabbling in recently, including the 360 pano thing. It's not like that Apple commercial where the 4 year old pushes a couple buttons and woila! You have a pano! Well, for certain uses it is, but not for high quality seamless panos. There are many more things to consider, such as figuring out a way to place the optical center of the lens over the center of rotation for panos- to be able to actually stitch the work together. This requires a significant investment in special ballheads and brackets for the shooting phase. There's an artist that does some fabulous 360 pano work out east, Christos Palios. For now, his site shows only a slideshow of a few images, but you get the idea. The Chicago Bean one is actually a piece I might consider buying. Looks like he's got the HDR thing going on as well, but IMHO adds his creative artistic take to the scene.
Here's my first lame attempt at a pano a few years back without elimination of parallax(pretty much the 4yr old kid technique) pretty much why I didn't do much more with this until I gained a better understanding of the process and steps required. And it isn't 360, just a pano, but it was a really cool storm that rolled in over the lake and actually produced a baby waterspout that my neighbor and Brian decided to stay on shore and watch.... they got a good sandblasting out of it to say the least.

lake_superior_storm_pano

When the speed of technological advancement overwhelms me -or- I can't get results that are "as good as film" or am spending waay too much time in front of a monitor, I find myself going back to traditional photographic techniques such as large format film. It's nice to have that option in the bag and understand it's strengths in situations where digital just can't handle the dynamic range or produce good enough resolution, believe me, even a 7K digital body isn't as good as LF film yet, but the advances are significant. BTW I'm not yet a big fan of HDR; I rarely see it done where the image is believable. With LF, how long is film for these cameras going to be available? Let's hope for a long time to come.

Americana

2009-03-18T17:15:00.003-04:00

Lately I've been thinking of the past and what America used to be. I always find of interest images that capture the way things were at an identifiable time and place. Images that I find of particular interest are motel signs.

I recently read about Wigwam Motels, I guess it was before my time as I never stayed in one, but was the place to stay in it's time. Photos of these motels can be found on Flickr, here. There are a few still left in existence. I'm going to make it a point to stay in one "down the road". Hopefully we can do the route 66 thing before too many more icons dissapear.
Speaking of, on the road, whenever we are on the road, we make it a point to support family run small business. Nice people, good conversation. BTW, if you ever go to Nipigon Ontario, stay at LaNormandie, run by Guenther. You won't regret it.

In da yoop, you still find "mom and pop" motels abundant. Not the overrun druggie type havens that you read about in large metro areas, but sincere, honest to goodness hard working yoopers running these motels. Driving to the Porcupine Mountains, or Ironwood area, you pass this motel on Hwy 2 I believe. This sign is priceless in so many ways.
Bingos Motel old motel sign

Happy St. Patricks Day (and no storm, lol!)

2009-03-17T09:27:00.010-04:00

Ore Dock worker, Marquette Upper Harbor ore dock
Where's the St. Patty's Day snowstorm? Looks like we get a break this year! There's always April 1. Wow, we've had some beeautiful days these past few, with another day of thawing forecast today, YES. You shoulda heard the snowsleds on the trails last Saturday. That can only mean one thing this year, that there isn't much snow left anywhere else. Guess better late than never for all the biz's that depend on the season.

We should have been a couple days into the Great Lakes shipping season today, but this year the freighters don't return until the last day in March, mostly due to the economy. We'll probably need the breaker this year. The lake is losing ice fast, but our bay is still ice packed to the horizon,(equiv to 8 miles?) we'll probably be the last to thaw from the looks of the satellite image.

On kinda the same train of thought as the previous post, I found an image from the ore docks and shipping season. It's a pic of what I call, "the doorkickers". If you know the appropriate title of the jobs these guys did, drop me a line. When going to the docks to watch the freighters load, this was my favorite thing to watch, how those guys would actually kick a lever that would open the chute and send the ore down the chute into the freighter. The last of the door kickers at Marquette Upper Harbor Ore dock was the end of the shipping season '07 I believe. From there, all the chutes were automated. End of an era, for sure.

Marquette is one of those cities that, you really can't miss it when the freighters are in. With two ore docks on both ends of town, the history of Great Lakes shipping is frequently in the subconsious.

Mesabi Miner backing into Upper Harbor, Marquette MI

One of my images that people in these parts relate to the most is the long gone trestle that would welcome drivers on Front Street. Little by little, time relegates these once unique hallmarks to memories and history.
Marquette memories, Front Street Trestle, "Welcome to Marquette, home of NMU!"

magnificent men and their machines

2009-03-14T10:09:00.007-04:00

Armstead Snow Motors from Seeking Michigan on Vimeo.(double click to watch vid)
Can you imagine doing a donut on one of these? Well, watch the video, lol. I want one!
A few reactions after watching the video on the 1920's snow machine.
1. I bet the logging scenes were filmed in the U.P., heck, judging from snow heights, the whole thing probably was filmed in da yoop
1a. Bet those monstrous logs planed some timber widths you can't find today
2. PETA would have been in protest over the horse scene...!
3. That snow machine is a TANK!. That's about what we need right now as we're being held hostage by frozen solid snowbanks and drifts feet high!
4. The spirit of invention on these old films is inspiring to this day

They just don't build things nowadays the way they used to. Heck, I just recently had to get an estimate on my Jeep because when I was driving, a mean ice chunk or something fell off the back of a plow and took aim at my PLASTIC bumper and shattered it in the very cold weather we had, probably oh, an $800 repair.

How much steel was required to manufacture this? Looks real similar to the tractor in the video, btw:

Keweenaw Toro Tractor

This Toro Tractor at the Keweenaw Lodge will be still standing tall and proud long after many generations of today's cars are in the "scrap" heap. Heck, come to think about it, how much metal can you actually scrap out of a car these days?

Iditarod from a musher's experience

2009-03-12T20:17:00.011-04:00

my 5lb poodle Molly

Here's some pretty good reading. It's a blog from my dog's vet(written by Mary Hunt), who is racing in this year's Iditarod. I'm pretty sure these guys wouldn't recognize me or my dog as we're only in there for the yearly or bi yearly vaccination, but nonetheless it's kinda cool to have an acquaintance that's up in Alaska racing sled dogs right at this very minute.

Here's a pic of Dr. Hunt racing his team at the UP 200 a couple years back. Beautiful day, happy looking dogs. The UP 200 is a rather huge event here in Marquette in February and is a qualifying race for the Iditarod.
UP 200 sled dog race, Dr. Hunt's team

snow,rain,ice and more ice.

2009-03-11T16:02:00.005-04:00

snow sticking to the jack pines, upper michigan

Wierd day yesterday. It snowed a couple of wet heavy inches. Then it rained. I went out and shoveled what I could outa the driveway(amounted to not much more than pushing slush around) and felt something like a shaved ice vendor at a state fair trying to scrape up layers of ice below the slush. Probably should have left the messy slush there, because everything froze with the temps near zero last night. All of that freshly shaved ice that proceeded to get rained on turned to skating rink smooth ice this morning, needed ice cleats to make it out to the mailbox and back today!
With this last storm, Grand Marais Mi got wind gusts up to 70 mph, Houghton, 54 mph. We were largely spared of any snow with the west winds, just real windy and cold.

Here's a crazy story downstate. Looks like a few people down there have it worse than us with the weather or weather phenomenon gone mad. The strong winds off Lake Michigan pushed huge ice piles into beachfront homes on Saginaw Bay downstate,story here. Ice actually piled into homes, up to 12 feet, and did a lot of damage. Happened in a matter of minutes. Guess this isn't the first time something like this has happened in that location. Take a look at all the pics. Some are incredible.

look at all the pretty colors

2009-03-10T08:34:00.005-04:00

Our very colorful weather map this morning
Gotta love it. Here we go again. At least the winds are in a favorable direction for us so this storm doesn't bring pounding snows. And, after this round of artic chill, looks like a warmup back into the 30's by week end. That's what's so cool this time of year. Nothing sticks around too long. I must say, it really doesn't seem like March. Anyone else feel that way? I mean, we still have a TON of snow, the cold is relentless, although we've gotten a few sunny days lately to offer a glimmer of hope that yes, there will be a Spring. As I look out my window and see it start to snow again, I don't despair as I know in a few days the sun will shine again and melt these piles down a little more. I've been thinking about taking a ride up to the south shore of the Keweenaw to see what open water on Lake Superior looks like. I've kinda forgotten with ice as far as the eye can see. Maybe this weekend, after this next round of fun passes, I'll do exactly that.
I have a feeling the ice shoves are once again going to be big this year. Here is a pic from a few years back of the huge blue Lake Superior ice on Keweenaw bay- these slabs were 2-3ft thick. Will have to keep an eye out for these monsters, hopefully we get some good breakup by the end of the month.
Lake Superior Blue ice slabs, Keweenaw bay

moonscape? or just the U.P

2009-03-08T17:35:00.007-04:00

Lake Superior moonscape, lol
Ugggggh. We had such a nice warm up the past couple days. Our snow drifts are now up to the bottom of our windows, instead of the gutters. That's progress! Bummer is it's coolin down again. This is a winter to remember.

Got out yesterday and took a walk around Presque Isle. It became very evident we're gonna have ice on the lake well into spring this year. Saw ice mounds built up higher than I've ever seen them before in parts of the lake.

Seems like EVERYONE was out yesterday. You could almost feel a collective sigh of relief with the warm temps and sunshine. Too bad it's not going to stay with us long. Guess it's a sucker warmup.

Lake Superior pack ice

Almost

2009-03-05T05:07:00.003-05:00

Hi res image of Lake Superior Ice cover
Well, it seems official. Lake Superior ALMOST froze over completely this year. There's still some open water north of Munising. With the very welcome upcoming warming trend, looks like these open water spots will get bigger, ending Lake Superior's deep freeze. I can see a patch of open water directly to the north of us, we must have a heck of a current out there as it always opens up after the slightest warmup.

When it snows lemons, make lemonade

2009-03-03T09:27:00.008-05:00

Shovel Break- enjoying a snow chilled beverage compliments of nature's cooler

Yesterday was better times. There's nothing like the calm after the storm. I found and unburied the lawn chair, and basked in the warming March sun for a bit. That's about the only harbinger of Spring I've noticed this winter, and it was much appreciated. I love days like this when 15F feels like 65F with the warm sun and calm.
I admit it. Last Friday, 2/27, after the third time having our road closed due to white out, I started to think about moving away from here. I think the only two counties in the whole country it was snowing were lake effect capital of the world, Marquette and Alger. It was Friday morning, 5am. Blizzard conditions, looked out the window, all I saw was a drift up to the gutters. Opened the door, had a four foot drift blocking my way out the door. Things were not looking good. We had to travel today to go to an art show in Kalamazoo, no easy drive in good weather.
So I got to it, shoveled a path out to the art van, with snow blowing sideways EVERY direction. I couldn't escape a face full of snow in below zero temps. When it would hit my face, it would melt, then freeze, eyelashes first. I had to load up the art van, which was a pure nightmare. Trying to keep anything snow free was pointless. When I would shovel a working space behind the van, 30 minutes later it was like I never shoveled at all. Same with anything else I shoveled.
Well, we were supposed to leave at 9am, it took us until 2pm just to clear out the driveway. The whiteout didn't let up until about then. However, the authorities decided to keep our road closed until 6pm. Lovely. We end up having to take backroads dirt roads to get on our way, in a heavy, loaded down 2 wheel rear drive extended van. Talk about white knuckling it. We get down to Kalamzoo after about nine hours, and oh how nice it was to see the ground again. Got a good eyeful of it because the way it's lookin' around here, looks like we have two more months of snow cover!
snowdrifts in our yard, 3 feet over the six foot fence

Penguin Migration on Lake Superior

2009-02-26T14:50:00.007-05:00

Marquette, MI Penguins
This is the first time I've had a chance to photograph the penguin migration on Lake Superior. From what I understand, it usually happens mid winter, when the penguins make their way down from the arctic circle to warmer climates such as Upper Michigan. When Lake Superior freezes over, it becomes perfect for this particular breed of penguin(yooperas penguinas)looking for a little more hospitable climate than what is found at the top of the world. Guess you could call these guys the snowbirds of the penguin breed.
Snowmobilers pause to marvel at these lake superior penguins
Currently this herd?gagggle?flock? of penguins is clearly visible heading into town from Harvey on US 41. Who knows where they might be sighted next. These penguins have been generating a ton of interest around town and this is a rare sighting of these elusive birds. I even heard some scientific organizations are planning to make their way here in efforts to catch a glimpse of these rare and beautiful creatures. Global warming? Or, as in our case this winter, being -19 below average, global cooling????

Lake Superior Ice Cover

2009-02-25T11:06:00.008-05:00

Lake Superior covered in pack ice with blowing snow blurring the horizon

It's really starting to look like the arctic around here. On TV6's website they have a funny story about someone putting a row of cardboard penguins up on the ice piles on Lake Superior by the visitor center. Gotta have a sense of humor when the snow starts piling up past the windows.
NWS now says there's significant ice cover on Lake Superior. I wish it would just ice over completely to put an end to the lake effect snow for the year already! It just keeps coming, we have two more systems that are going to move through by Sunday. That means potentially, a heck of a lot more snow with nowhere to put it.

Ah, to see the ground again. Well, we can always go back and look at photos to see what the Big Lake looks like when there's water, not pack ice as far as the eye can see! Here's Lake Superior on warmer days

And one of my hobbies is to photograph the local surf crew, a great bunch of guys. Check out Lake Superior surfing here.

I'm finally starting to update my main photography site. Here's a batch from a wonderful stretch of Lake Superior, called Wetmore Landing.

The question becomes, will we have to rent a backloader this year?

2009-02-23T12:01:00.003-05:00

Brian looking up at a snowdrift
That's Brian. He's over 6ft tall. We got DUMPED on yesterday. AGAIN. We're now over 200" for the year. We have drifts over our 6ft fences. Now I have to watch that my little dog doesn't walk over the fences on some doggy adventure of hers.
blowing snow over lake superior

"Windswept"

And they're off!

2009-02-21T11:52:00.006-05:00

Camera phones line the starting chute like a string of Christmas lights,The UP 200 Dogsled Race, Marquette MI

Made the decision to go to Marquette for the start of the UP 200 sled dog race last night based purely on the weather. It was downright balmy with absolutely no wind, so it felt like you weren't fighting anything, the cold didn't even get to me one bit.

Intrigued by the lead dogs, UP 200 Sled Dog Race, Marquette MI

The UP 200 has become more than just a dogsled Race. It's turned into a celebration of the Upper Peninsula and the winter season. The nature of the event itself ties together all of the towns that serve as checkpoints for the race, with each location having family friendly events and accomodations of their own. A comforting sense of community springs to life, where volunteers put in a lot of time and effort to make this event run like clockwork, transforming it into the event of the season. It would be cool if it was possible to tag along with a musher to see all of the mini events that pop up along the trail route from Marquette to Grand Marais. Bonfires are especially popular Friday night. From a musher's point of view, it must take some getting used to, when approaching each trail intersection and hearing the countless hoops and hollers of race watchers cheering the dogs and mushers on as they wind thru the wilderness.

The UP 200 doglsed race

2009-02-20T12:42:00.016-05:00

UP 200 Dogsled Race- start- Downtown Marquette MI
Tonight's the start of the annual U.P. 200 dogsled race, which will take off from the downtown streets of Marquette Mi. The downtown streets are closed, the starting chute is right down the main drag of Washington Street, with a fun to watch but sometimes treacherous curve at the bottom of the hill by the lake. Some years I've photographed entire phases of the U.P 200, which lasts all weekend long. I like to get perspectives of the race from the deep woods where there are few, if any people, but lots of deer. You can see pictures from the 2007 UP 200 here. It always seems like the coldest day of winter coincides with the start of the UP 200. This year, close, but it will be 5 degrees and little wind, much better conditions than usual. Marquette really gets up for the UP 200 I think in part because cabin fever has really set in by now and people are just itchin to get out and have a good time. When the downtown streets are packed with people watching the race, it's a real festive atmosphere.
I live a little ways from "LakenenLand", a metal sculpture park. I suggest it as an excellent place to watch the UP 200 and the teams come by while warming by the bonfires and enjoying the company of the really nice owner who has opened his land to the public with free access to his sculpture park. It's right on the snowmo trail and he gets visitors from all over the world.

Icy Surfers

2009-02-19T09:19:00.007-05:00

Doh. A surfer apparently needed a rescue yesterday at the breakwall. Guess he got too close, couldn't escape the force of the incoming waves pounding the wall, and became the poundee. He eventually managed to get on the breakwall and to the safety of the other side. It wasn't until he was paddling back in on the other side that the Coast Guard got to him. I didn't see it, I just hope that the guys understand their limits and stay out of these situations obviously for their own safety and of course the downside of bad press leading to ordinances, etc, etc.
Believe it or not, there are still many in these parts that are in denial that people surf Lake Superior. It's a common occurrence in the winter. So I thought I might post a few pics of these guys in their element. I love to watch em and hope they stay safe-9.9x outa 10 they usually do. For more Lake Superior Surfing photos, click on Lake Superior Surfing photos here. For winter surfing photos, click on winter surfing photos here.

icy winter surfing, Lake Superior

icy surfer,Lake Superior winter

Lake Superior waves 18-23ft today

2009-02-18T09:26:00.010-05:00

Big wave on Lake Superior- surfer added by PS for a play on perspective
Big snowstorm blowing in today. They're saying 18-23ft waves out on Lake Superior in open water. Doubt we'll see big waves onshore with lots of pack ice preventing waves getting close enough.

ice in, ice out, ice in....

2009-02-17T09:20:00.007-05:00

Back to winter with no end in sight. The only thing that seems to change is the surface ice in and out with the change of the wind. Here is a pic of massive sheets of ice the size of freighters drifting slowly with the wind on Lake Superior.

off to the races

2009-02-13T18:26:00.004-05:00

snowmobile jumping, snowmobile racesA local snowmobile race
If you ever get a chance to check out snowmobile races be it the X games or a local race, check it out before the winter's over! Races generally run through March, so there's plenty of time to catch a race.
I ran across this bunch of pics and this definitely fits into mid February events up here.
I'm starting the tedious process of keywording and catologuing my library so I can, in the future
1.) find pics..!
2.) make sure everything is backed up
3.) make long needed updates to my website.

Still shooting for early 2009 for a total website overhaul,, yeaaah.

Have you ever seen an icy wave this color?

2009-02-12T11:49:00.006-05:00

Lake Superior, with slush ice waves at the icy shoreline.

Right now,the icy slush is washing up on the ice mountains of Lake Superior and as the waves roll in, they become this baby light blue color. If you haven't noticed yet, I really get a kick out of watching how different weather makes Lake Superior change it's color like a chameleon, pretty much daily.

Lake Superior Blue Ice

2009-02-11T18:08:00.005-05:00

After days of south winds and welcome record high temps yesterday(go figure after the cold cold winter we've had), it's time to stoke up the stove and resume our normal cold winter routine. We are now ensured that we will not see the pavement on our driveway until probably May(hope I'm a bit pessimistic here and not realistic!) as a nice iceskating rink smooth layer of slush ice has frozen up with a uniform consistency of oh, 3-5". I was hoping this warm weather would allow me to chip away at this mess, but the warmth didn't stay long enough.
The south winds have opened up Lake Superior nicely. We will hear the welcome return of waves tomorrow,, which will probably pound down the ice mountains quite a bit. I don't know how much surface ice has melted lakewide, as it's been too cloudy to get a good look at the satellite. Any shoreline facing southeast recieved a heaping of foot thick blue ice chunks over the past couple days. Pictured here is a more delicate breakup of pack ice only a couple inches thick. The sound that goes along with this type of ice is amazing as well, a sea of thousands of pieces of ice "tinkling" with the wind. Lake Superior is always ever changing.

Winter thaw

2009-02-10T14:03:00.004-05:00

Yep, it's here. A welcome mid winter thaw. Amazing, after daily snows that build snow drifts feet high, how quickly it can all melt when the temps go a little above freezing.
Everywhere I look now I see "ugly snow" look that comes with a nice warmup such as what we're experiencing today.
But I found a winter thaw pic that is interesting- it's out at Pictured Rocks looking out over the amazing hundreds of feet tall sandstone cliffs. I imagine the water gets so green like that due to the runoff from the sandstone cliffs and the waves stirring up that sediment. On closer look at the pic, I see big boulders laying on top of the thawing ice mountains. Makes me wonder if the cliff crumbled recently, as is common during the fall freeze and winter thaw. I might add, to hear a boulder that size falling off the cliff into the lake is a humbling experience to say the least, sounds like thunder. Kayakers beware especially in the early Spring when this kind of crumbling activity of the sandstone is at it's highest.

Yooper... Daily....?

2009-02-09T19:30:00.004-05:00

Well, wondered how long it would be before my daily turned into a weekly. I've come to the realization that it's gonna be real tough to post daily once the art show season hits in earnest.
We just got back from a show and I don't know, all of the daily media pounding on the recession has me a bit skeptical. We just had our best sales totals of any year we've been doing this last show and I have to ask, recession? What recession?
I know people are hurting, in some regions of the country very dearly, and people are cutting back. We are cutting back on some things. People are loosing their jobs. But to get our country moving again, the media has to do a better job of reporting fairly what is going on out there when there is good news too. It's easy to begin to believe that, yes, the media is in the bag with Obama and will make it sound as bad as possible to get this upcoming "pork stimulus" bill passed. Personally, I think a little "good news" reporting on the economy would do wonders for getting people to spend again. If you watch a lot of the media reporting on the economy lately, you've already hidden your life savings in ball jars in the back yard for the next five years and the only items you buy are bread and water for survival. I mean, come on, give it a break, media! and I'll give politics a break, that's the last thing I wanted to include in this blog.
Well, tonight is the full moon, and it was spectacular last night. We're clouded over tonight, but if you are in a clear sky location, enjoy! Winter is an especially cool time to experience moonlight, with the reflection of the trees contrasting against the snowy white.Lake Superior, and moonset in the winter

MTU Winter Carnival

2009-02-04T10:22:00.006-05:00

It's here. The all nighter at MTU, where the students put their finishing touches on the giant snow statues that will be judged Thursday morning. You can find out more about the MTU Winter Carnival events HERE.

If you've never been to winter carnival, you should take a trip to Houghton and check it out. The things these guys do with snow and ice is absolutely amazing. The statues can be stories high. The detail is sometimes incredible. I particularly like how they make chains out of ice, that particular object amazes me.

the Grinch statue from 2006, my fav that year. This and a couple others are the only pics that survived an external drive crash in which I lost a year's worth of work. That'll teach ya to back up, eh?

A large statue from 2007 Winter Carnival

During winter carnival, broomball is taken very "seriously". It's really fun to watch and there's games going on all the time.
Broomball "save"!

GroundHog Day already??

2009-02-02T19:54:00.002-05:00

I dunno. I guess it's just been such a cold brutal winter,it seems too early for Groundhog Day this year. No suprise here that he saw his shadow.

Well, nothing new here. Forecast is snow tonight, snow tommorrow, snow the next day.
Pictured to the left is what we sometimes get to awaken to after we get a good blasting of snow. Go ahead, laugh, if you are reading this from Florida,Hawaii, or some other blissfully warm vacationland right now. What really sucks is when you forget to put the shovel next to the door, and leave it where that second shovel is pictured, leaning up against the fence in the background. Then it's fight thru knee high, sometimes thigh high snowdrifts to get to the darn shovel. Fun times.

So much for ice in

2009-02-01T16:23:00.006-05:00

So the wind blows, so goes the ice. There's open water again this morning in south Marquette. I guess when we see it frozen to the horizon one day, in the scope of things, that's really not that far, and pack ice can break up in an instant. Lake Superior is a BIG LAKE. She'll play tricks on ya. Gotta respect Gichigami always.

Today I was hoping I could get outside and pack a few snowballs for our little dog, Molly to go chase, capture, and tear to shreds, which she absolutely loves to do.

Everything is so cold frozen that even when the temp got to around 30F today, the snow still didn't pack. Bummer. Molly's been getting restless from not much exercise, but what can we do? Her little paws get too cold in a short amount of time outside in the snow, and we don't have a place to run her. Doggy treadmill? I don't know.....

Molly, our 5lb dog, playing king of the hill

So, I reached a milestone today. 1 complete month posting everyday on this blog.Not at the crack of dawn on many a day, but still everyday nonetheless.(pat on the back). Don't think this will be sustainable when art shows start up in earnest in May, but that's ok. Y'all don't want to hear from us everyday anyway, eh?

And, it's Brian's birthday today. We're nine days apart. Happy Birthday, Brian!

Iced in on Lake Superior

2009-01-31T08:56:00.004-05:00

We have so much ice on the Big Lake now, I can't remember in recent memory seeing it this frozen by the end of January. If it continues to stay this cold, it might be one of those years we're still seeing icebergs on Lake Superior in May. Ugh.
Well, one thing all this ice is good for is ice fishing. There is a plethora of opportunities with safe ice everywhere. I haven't been out but I'm sure inland lakes have feet of ice by now.
They start 'em young up here- family ice fishing in the Upper Peninsula on Little Bay De Noc

Last night while we were enjoying a brew and fish fry at the Vierling, Terry came up and asked us how the ice was on the lake because he had some guys on the phone that were thinking about coming up with their, I don't know what you call em, ice boats, you know, the sailboats with ice runners on em. I know there's some ice skating smooth looking ice in both Lower and Upper Harbors, but I speculate as well there's an occasional pressure ridge built up,(perfect conditions for a face plant) not to mention these areas are the first place that might open up on a wind shift, but I think we're past that point now with thicker and thicker ice by the day. So maybe I'll wander out there this weekend and look for these ice boats.

In the still of winter

2009-01-30T17:39:00.003-05:00

After the lake is frozen, it's a LOT more quiet out here. So quiet, it's unbelievable, especially when there's no wind. It's a great opportunity to hear the wildlife all around us, especially the coyotes and wolves in the middle of the night. I don't know how to describe it, but sometimes the yipping and howls of coyotes can just cut right thru the air, with their sound waves kinda richocheting off of whatever they hit, creating a wierd mixture of "howling overtones", a crazy phenomenon if you're lucky to hear it. Kinda stands the hair up on the back of your neck. Pictured is a coyote wandering on the tritoned pack ice of Lake Superior. Don't know what drew this fella out there, as it's pretty barren this time of year on the lake.

Marquette Lighthouse

2009-01-29T13:07:00.005-05:00

I have a million photos of Marquette Lighthouse. So, what's one more added to the pile? Just couldn't help myself. The setting sun was giving the sky that winter pastel look and when I got to the lighthouse with the lighthouse reflecting off the ice, there was a few minutes of sunlight left, providing just enough illumination. There were some crazy fishbone designs going on in the clouds above, too. Winter can be so long, but so interesting as well.

Oh deer

2009-01-28T10:06:00.004-05:00

Ya gotta feel sorry for the critters outside when it gets brutally cold like it's been what seems like for weeks now. Another night below zero but it looks like we're finally going to get a "warming" trend. Just in the news yesterday was a very sad story of a dog owner in Hancock that left it's dog outside all night and day and it froze to the ground from it's own body heat. I don't know the exact details of this story, only what was reported in the news. The dog was rescued(a malamute)but as of last report is still not able to stand up and had frozen skin. I certainly hope this dog goes to a home that can care for it properly the rest of it's life, I understand it's 14 years old.
Out at Presque Isle, the "wild" deer are becoming increasingly tame. You know what this means. People are feeling sorry for these animals, probably due to the snow cover and extreme cold, and they are feeding the deer. There's bird seed sprinkled everywhere and an occasional carrot or apple seen here and there. I feel sorry for the deer too, but this is not a good thing as you know what the city is going to do come Spring. Funny, the city has their occasional "deer culling" every few years or so in the name of preventing overgrazing by the deer and guess what? Same old cycle repeats itself.
It's natural for the deer to yard up in the winter, and Presque Isle is ideal for the deer as they can move to different sides of the island to be sheltered from the wind. When Spring comes, they move on, but this feeding I'm afraid is going to be bad news for these deer down the line.

Deer and fawn, Presque Isle winter of 2008-09, showing signs of an encounter with a predator

Hearty Yoopers

2009-01-27T11:54:00.006-05:00

Yep, yoopers are a hearty bunch. This time of year, you can always expect to see the unexpected at some point during the season. Can't say I expected to see this on the iced over shores of Lake Superior a couple days back:

Winter biker, on the iced over shores of Lake Superior

Pffft. The heck with a little ice and snow, those fat tires look like they'll get this yooper thru anything old man winter can dish out.

transition

2009-01-26T17:56:00.005-05:00

Amazing how quick the lake changes. Every day Lake Superior can change drastically. The pancake ice I photographed yesterday was all but gone today. At that location, the ice had frozen over ice skating rink smooth all the way to the ore dock; only skeletal remnants of the pancakes could be seen sparsely along the shoreline. Really if you hadn't seen it the day before, you wouldn't know it had been there.
Where there's still any inkling of open water, which is a fetch to find, just as amazing sounds as sights are to be had. Big sheets of ice are shifting with the wind, coliding into each other like bumper cars. The lake sounds like a big soup of cracking and creaking with an occasional thunderous pop of a massive piece of ice sheet cracking. Tommorrow everything will probably completely frozen stone solid, that's how quick the lake is freezing now.
Lake Superior with pack ice to the horizon

Back in the deep freeze

2009-01-25T10:57:00.004-05:00

Thought I'd venture out this morning and get a little more accustomed to my new 15mm fisheye lens and I'll tell you what, when facing a stiff SOUTHwest wind at -2F, I had eyes instantly running and freezing to my eyelids. Ouch. You would think a wind outa the south would warm things up a bit, but no. An hour later and my eyes are still burning a bit, and I was only out a couple minutes. Makes me wonder how wildlife makes it thru the winter. Funny though, you'll hear birds chirping in this brutal cold just as you would on a warm summer morning.

So here's a couple pics taken in haste. The simplest of tasks get amazingly difficult in this kind of cold, ie. leveling tripod, making sure cable release out of way, changing camera settings with gloves on, etc!

"Pancake Ice", Upper Harbor, Marquette MI, Jan 25, 2009

Pastel snowdrift at sunrise, Upper Harbor, Marquette MI, Jan 25, 2009

It's a blue day

2009-01-24T11:11:00.002-05:00

One could say it's a blue day for many reasons. If you're watching the news media, you may have caught the blurb that today's the most depressing day of the year, January 24th. Well, today, I don't feel that way. You look outside and it's a glorious blue. Blue is found everywhere, an almost neon blue crystal clear cloudless sky, a dark dark blue Lake Superior (where there's open water) and every shade of blue in the snowdrifts. Winter is where you find not much more than the colors white and blue on days like today. So today, I'm going to get out in this wonderfully bright sunshine and enjoy this beautiful blue day.

Looking out over Lake Superior on a cold, cold, bright blue winter day

"Edge of Forever"

2009-01-23T11:16:00.008-05:00

That's what I shared my coffee with this morning, and great coffee table book it is. It's Peter Scott Eide's black and white photographic compilation of 92 Lake Superior based images. I'm ashamed to admit this is the first book I've actually bought in years... no..... decades. This book was worth every penny. I highly suggest checking it out, a very masterfully produced collection of photographs.

"Edge of Forever" cover of Peter Scott Eide's recent release

So, on this day, my birthday btw, it's blowing a gale outside, and is one day away from the national consensus of the overall most depressing day of the year. So, lol, at least my birthday is not on the worst day of the year.

Outside, recently in this bitter cold weather, there are things you see only in winter. When looking over Lake Superior, the lake effect storms were moving off at sunset and the lake was quickly freezing in sub zero temps. When looking towards open water where there was a huge temp differential between air and water, I could see the sky was clear but there was what appeared to be a squall of some sort, but there were no clouds for the squall to come from. The condensation must have been coming UP from the lake creating a lake generated squall at just ground level.
I guess you could call this an "ice fog cloud".

If you've seen something like this, I'd be interested to hear about it.

Closeup view of "ice fog cloud"?

black and white

2009-01-22T08:47:00.008-05:00

I must have black and white on the brain or something. Certain images just lend themselves more to black and white, they take on a whole new meaning, a much more deep and detailed, almost more emotional "look" if you will.
We do a lot of driving during the show season and see lots of interesting things. One of the things I keep a keen eye out for are abandoned buildings that tell a story of a different time, different place. Especially eery are the buildings that look like one day, the occupant(s) just vanished and nothing has been touched since. Here is such a picture, appropriately in black and white:

Haunted house? Looks to me like there's an apparition of someone sobbing in the second floor window.

Note the beautiful architecture of this once grand farmhouse, with curtains from a different era drawn open neatly. First thing that came to mind was Adams Family. Houses like this will never be built in this way ever again, and to see them neglected and overgrown tugs at my heart a bit.

This image would have never worked in color. The black and white defines everything and brings out the "apparition" in the second floor window.

Vivid color is a description that is very much associated with our work, but I find myself being drawn more and more to B&W and the visual definitions only possible through the juxtapositions of light and dark.

The winter Great Lakes surfing story photo essay I'm working on took on a whole new visual meaning with images in black and white. The two terms that keep coming to mind are definition and emotion. Kind of ironic, when not in the too distant past I had the ignorant attitude about black and white as it being bland and boring. It's almost like I'm a music student in college again discovering Miles Davis for the first time,then proceeding to make an uneducated comment to my jazz teacher, (hey Chas!) "What's so great about Miles Davis?" Ooops. An annual essay project was subsequently named in my honor for many years after where each student studied an assigned jazz legend and did a lengthy presentation on the life and music of that musician, which was enlightening and educational. Back then, I became very much enlightened to Miles' music,life and discography,(got to see him live in the 80's) now I am starting the journey of enlightenment to B&W.

Silence

2009-01-21T08:42:00.008-05:00

Recently, you step outside and listen to it be so quiet that the stillness becomes deafening; something seems amiss.
It's normal here to have things a little more quiet this time of year without having Lake Superior, with it's sometimes literally roaring waves, part of the ambience. The Big Lake is frozen to the horizon, but until it's really frozen, like all the way to Canada, the ice could move out tomorrow on a wind's whim and we'd have waves once again.
So back to the strange silence. I noticed this on a recent Saturday morning. We hear less traffic on M-28, a main east west artery in the UP, so much less that at times there's absolutely no vehicle noise. That means A LOT less traffic on the roads.
Saturday morning, hmmmmmm....

Ding! That's it! Where have all the snowmobiles gone???? Vintage snowmobiles lined up in a row

We have a snowmobile trail that is oh, maybe a half mile thru the woods to the south of us. There's NO snowmobile noise this winter, and I mean none. Well, maybe an occasional one or two every other day, but for sure, it's waaaay down this winter.

Then I think back to our expedition to the Grand Sable Dunes at the beginning of January and when going thru Munising and Grand Marais, the two snowmobile capitals of the northern UP, they were strangely devoid of snowmobile trailers, snowmobile semis, you name it some of the things these sledheads possess. One of the motels in Grand Marais said they are 75% down this year and they may close for the winter. CLOSING FOR THE WINTER! IN GRAND MARAIS! Wow, things are bad. On th roads this year, you are hard pressed to pass a single snowmobile trailer. This has really gotta hurt businesses that depend on the snowmobile season to carry them thru the winter. Is it the trickle down economy, or snow everywhere in places where the riders might otherwise come up here? A combination of the two? The solitude of the silence is one of those wonderful things I love about winter, but not hearing the whiz of snowmobiles reminds me that times are tough for a lot of people right now. Having a business that depends on snow has to be a real tough deal because this year we've had it in a big way, lots of it starting early in the season, beautiful fluffy stuff all winter long, and the least amount of snowmobilers I've ever seen. If you're a yooper, this is the winter to hit the trails,as I venture to say you'll have them largely all to yourselves.

Grand Marais Michigan with snowmobilers lined up at the pumps, on a good winter day a few years back

The Day Autumn changed to Winter

2009-01-20T11:25:00.005-05:00

Wetmore Landing, Marquette County Michigan, with winter approaching on the horizon of Lake Superior

It all happened in one day this year, from my recollection. We had some beautiful weather at the end of the autumn season, with temps occasionally in the 60s-70s as random stands of trees in Marquette County held on to the last of their leaves. I took that opportunity to check out some really beautiful areas in Marquette County, including subject pictured above, a stretch of public land along Lake Superior known as Wetmore Landing.

What a surreal day it was, with forecast calling for snow blowing sideways, yet it was 70 degrees and calm. I had dressed for the forecast, with layers under a waterproof windbreaker.

As I hiked, peeled off the layers, happened upon beautiful stands of the last of the color season to be found anywhere, the added beauty of Lake Superior was always present. It was just plain fun for me to experience the changing conditions brought on the by the approaching pumped up cold front, to which the lake effect snow cloud tops looked like thunderheads. With the wind being still, autumn foliage landscape photography was possible, an added bonus. Believe me, once the front hit a few hours later, autumn was over with snow flying sideways, and a drop in temperature of over 40 degrees. It's one of those winters where I haven't seen the ground since.

It's been a long time

2009-01-19T09:25:00.004-05:00

Aurora Borealis over Little Presque Isle, Marquette MI, Lake Superior, USA

One of the things I keep tabs on regularly is space weather. Living on the south shore of Lake Superior provides in my mind, one of the best places in the lower 48 to have the opportunity to see the aurora borealis. Looking north over Lake Superior provides the dark skies necessary for seeing the lights in all of their magnificence, with the ability to see to the horizon, which is very helpful in determining if there's any activity. Spaceweather.com is a great starting point to learn about what's happening in space, run by Dr. Tony Phillips, production editor at science@NASA. It's updated daily and will let you know when there's a good chance to see northern lights. Currently, the lake effect machine is kicking up again, one of the only major obstacles preventing people in this area from seeing the northern lights, and dontcha know, we get snow! Spaceweather mentioned people in the Arctic Circle could see them tonight, but that doesn't mean Michgan is out of the picture. If the auroral oval swings south enough, I've seen many a display when the forecast is only calling for higher latitudes to see them. It's been a good two years since I've seen an active display that had any kick to it. But keep your eyes to the sky. There's still a lot to learn about the aurora.
Go here to view more Aurora Borealis pictures from northern Michigan.

The year of discipline?

2009-01-18T11:24:00.005-05:00

I mean, I guess that's why I started this blog, to do something and stick to it. I don't know if it's inklings of midlife crisis, but I'm realizing more and more that our time on this earth is very finite, even more so the older you get; there's certainly no guarantees in life. So this morning, after reading some of Vincent Laforet's brilliant blog (I was on the topic of photographers being their own worst editors), I went back into my image library of some images that didn't "make the cut" the first time around, usually due to time constraints. The image below is a prime example of this, it's not a perfect image by any means,(in this case due to an inferior extender and poor lighting) but on second look almost a year later, it has some cool things about it:

Unidentified surfer, Lake Superior, Marquette MI

I chose the Lake Superior surfer image for today as I have been working on a couple projects related to Lake Superior surfing, and, once again, I'm off on one of my sidetracked winding tangents. I posted a quick blog here for the local surf crew as I know many of the surfers in the area are getting pics and vids that they want to share, and this would be a great way of having a central point to find those.
I look forward to the feedback on this.

So where am I going with this? Going off on tangents isn't necessarily the best use of time,being reminded once again time on Earth is very finite.

It's hit me like a ton of bricks that structure and discipline are necessary, very necessary to get on top of workflow processes to be more productive. Laforet's final cut blog really struck a nerve with me when I realize I have over a year's worth of images that I haven't even gotten to a second look for the "final, final cut".

Munising Ice Climbing

2009-01-17T08:28:00.007-05:00

It's one of those days, where we've had a string of arctic weather, and it's putting me in the mood of getting reeaally sick and tired of winter. This tells me I'm not getting out and enjoying all the cool things that winter brings, which very much is the case. I've been spending hours daily in front of a computer monitor, feeling like I'm going crosseyed. Lots of jury deadlines coming up with art shows and the planning out of the future year. A few unique editorial projects that came up have been really demanding of time as well, relegating me relentlessly to the basement dungeon to sit in front of the computer some more and "get 'er done". So today's photos are from the archives,from a trip out the the ice curtains of Munising on Sand Point Rd. No ice climbers were out that day,and the ice looked untouched by the hacking of pics and cleats, so it allowed me to get some really nice ice detail shots.

I've been out to the ice curtains before to photograph the climbers, as well as some of the frozen waterfalls in Pictured Rocks,(click here for photos of ice climbing in the Upper Peninsula) and it really is beautiful when the ice has built up and you see a very intense aqua ice blue color. This is due to varying thicknesses in the ice not letting certain light waves thru, a pretty cool natural phenomenon. I'm really hoping this year that the Grand Island channel freezes solid enough to allow safe passage by ski or snowshoe, and the ice curtains on Grand Island hold as they are some of the most magnificent curtains in the area. From the looks of things, we aren't going to have to worry about any thawing in the near term.

My dog knows what's good in life

2009-01-16T09:51:00.005-05:00

Molly, our 5lb tiny toy poodle, relaxing by the fire

Molly's routine is basically this, she sleeps in until about 10 or 11am, usually under the covers in the winter, goes outside and does her business, gets her treat for doing so, hides her treat, gets me to play a game with her where she shows me where she hid her treat, eats her treat, then runs downstairs to the basement and takes a long nap by the fire. Dogs have it soooooo easy and we spoil her rotten, and I mean rotten.

Well, this morning with it being so frigid, little Molly got really cold paws while outside. See, she can't just go out quick and do her business,no, she has to find the right exact spot to her liking, which sometimes takes a considerable amount of time. Well, as you can imagine, I had to rescue her this morning once her paws couldn't handle the cold anymore. Once inside, she bolted to get to her specially prepared doggie bed by the fire, her content look shown in the pic to the left.

Frozen Lake Superior shoreline and windblown drifts

I continue to take the 15mm lens out to learn about it's wide coverage and what the different effects are at different angles due to barrel distortion. Here is a pic I shot a couple days ago showing frozen Lake Superior with some of the barrel distortion corrected in post processing.

I hope to find many uses for this lens as I really like it.