So much for ice in

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!

The Day Autumn changed to Winter

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.

My dog knows what's good in life

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.

Thick as syrup

Here is a picture of waves getting cut down by the weight of the ice forming in the water. Hence the description of "thick as syrup".


Lake Superior very icy waves, January 13., 2009

Here is the lake this evening, with ice formed almost to the horizon. All of this ice formed in two days.

Lake Superior, below zero, with ice mountains