Month: January 2025

The Beach in January

Published on by rdmegr

Earlier this week, I drove north to Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, my old reliable spot for finding interesting things to photograph. I am sure that I pass many wonderful scenes as I make the three hour drive early in the morning, but Sleeping Bear has my heart and calls out to me in all seasons of the year.

The day was cold and windy. The combination of 20 degree temperatures (Fahrenheit) and winds gusting to 45 miles per hour, created a windchill that hovered in the single digits. Nonetheless, I headed to the beach to see how the shore ice had developed. On my last trip to Sleeping Bear, just two weeks ago, there was no shore ice. But the cold temperatures and high winds in the intervening days made all the difference. As I approached the beach from the parking lot at Esch Road and looked north toward Empire Bluff, I could see that the ice had indeed built up along the shore.

Waves crashed against the wall of ice. I thought of trying to capture some images of the waves, but realized that in the wind and the cold, I didn’t have the patience to stand in wait for the right wave to come along. Besides, once I got down to the shoreline, my view of the lake was blocked by the ice wall, so I could not see the action of the waves and could not anticipate when to trigger the shutter.

I decided that making images along the shoreline would be the order of the morning. Ice balls formed a ridge just feet from the shore, bringing to mind the spine of some ice creature laying in wait.

Along the shore, the sand cracked underfoot.

Otter Creek flows into Lake Michigan at the Esch Road Beach. I visited Otter Creek back in December, expecting to photograph images of snow and sand but was disappointed by the lack of snow. On my trip earlier this week, there was plenty of snow but Otter Creek itself was free of ice except along its shores.

Photographing in such bitter cold calls for some compromises. I returned several times to my car to change camera lenses. There was so much sand blowing in the wind that it would have been unwise to do so on the beach. I ended up leaving my glasses in the car since they kept fogging up. I had to trust my camera’s automatic focus because, without my glasses, I could not check critical focus on my camera screen. A number of images for which I used a slow shutter speed turned out to be blurry. Even on my tripod, my camera shook in the wind.

After a couple hours on Esch Road Beach, I drove to Sunset Shores Beach on Sleeping Bear Bay. The road to the parking area had not been plowed, requiring a short hike through a foot of snow to reach the stairway to the beach. The ice wall at Sunset Shores was not as large as the one at Esch Road, so I could look across the Manitou Passage to North and South Manitou Islands and could see the action of the waves.

At the base of the stairway to the beach, this cedar tree caught my eye. I liked how the pattern of the bark contrasted with the smooth, white snow. I decided that the image worked best in black and white.

The images I made on this trip were serviceable. None are really notable, but they testify to the beauty of the beach in winter. Even without a “prize-winning” image, I would mark the day big success. I enjoyed meeting the challenge of working in the bitter cold. Not surprisingly, I was the only person on both beaches. To have such a remarkable place to myself was a gem. I can’t wait to return.

Otter Creek

Published on by rdmegr

Yesterday, I posted about my visit to Shalda Creek last week. That got me looking back at images I made in December on Esch Road Beach, where Otter Creek flows into Lake Michigan. In my past visits, Otter Creek flowed almost directly into the lake. Conditions have changed, however. Lake Michigan has dropped several inches in the last year, dipping about 5 inches below historic levels and expanding the beach. So the creek has had to cut a new path to the lake. I was surprised to see that the creek has taken a left hand turn and run parallel to the shore for about fifty yards before flowing into the lake.

I came to the beach hoping to make some abstract images of snow and sand mixing together similar to this photograph, which I took last January.

I liked the way the sand and the snow blended together. But, alas, this year there was no snow on the beach. I continued to scout around and found some interesting images along the shore of the creek.

A Visit to Shalda Creek

Published on by rdmegr

Earlier this week, I visited Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Initially, I set out to photograph on Esch Road Beach, but the cold temperature and high winds convinced me that I needed to find a spot sheltered from the wind. I made my way to Good Harbor Bay at the point where Shalda Creek empties into Lake Michigan.

Shalda Creek originates at the west end of Little Traverse Lake and winds its way through wetlands and the forest until it reaches Lake Michigan. I make a point of stopping there on almost every visit to check out the work of the beavers who are altering the landscape as they dam the creek and to enjoy the peaceful surroundings, which I usually have to myself. Notwithstanding the work of the beavers, the creek keeps flowing toward the lake making its mark on the land.

The force of the water continually adjusts the path of the creek as it approaches the lake. Each time I visit, the mouth of the creek has moved a little or a lot.

On Wednesday’s visit, I found the creek had formed a small depression in its path creating a mini-waterfall.

GAAC Exhibit: The Sky Is Always There

Published on by rdmegr

Over the weekend, I attended the opening of “The Sky Is Always There,” a new juried show at the Glen Arbor Arts Center. The Arts Center asked applicants to go beyond direct representation and portraits of puffy clouds “to consider the sky from its atmospheric characteristic to its mythic history.”

I was fortunate that my submission “Noctures” was accepted for the exhibit. Nocturnes is a triptych of photographs of the night sky that I printed as cyanotypes.

From left to right, the images are of a moonrise over Shalda Creek, the Milky Way over Port Oneida, and the northern lights over a farmhouse in Kirkjubæjarklaustur, a village in the south of Iceland.

I shared the inspiration for my entry in my Artist’s Statement: “When my children were young, we would lie on the shore of Sleeping Bear Bay at night and watch for satellites. Those moments when we marveled at the night sky have remained with me all these years. I wanted to recreate that sense of awe for this exhibit.  More recently, my grandchildren and I created cyanotypes of leaves and twigs. We shared a similar sense of wonder as we watched the images coming to life in the developing tray. These experiences gave me the idea to process photographs of the night sky as cyanotypes for this exhibition.”

To create the cyanotypes, I converted my digital photographs to monochrome images and then reversed the tones to create digital negatives. Using a mixture of ammonium iron citrate and potassium ferricyanide, I treated hot-pressed, 100% cotton watercolor paper to sensitize it to UV light.  Then I made a printed image from each negative by exposing the negative and paper to a UV light source. To deepen the blues, I bathed the final prints in hydrogen peroxide.

There are some remarkable works in the exhibit. If you are in the area of Glen Arbor this winter, I encourage you to stop by the Glen Arbor Arts Center and enjoy it. The exhibit runs through March 20.