Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

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Night #1

We went to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan during a very specific week in August, a week when the moon wasn’t filling the sky with light, in order to capture the dark skies there and the Milky Way hanging high overhead.

I concentrated on driving, my sister took the pictures as we went over the bridge.

The season for Milky Way core shooting is coming to an end. Soon it won’t rise high enough for us to see it, and we’ll have to be content with the memories of magical clear nights filled with stars. Because certainly that’s what it’s always like when you’re out under the stars shooting the Milky Way. Right?

Sure it is.

Under the bridge before we drove over it.

So that Monday at the end of August my sister and I packed the car and drove all the way up from southeastern Michigan, across the Mackinaw Bridge and into the interior of the eastern part of the Upper Peninsula.

That’s Mackinaw Island over there.

We set up camp and then decided we’d head up to Whitefish Point for the sunset. And, if we were lucky, a bit of Milky Way practice too.

Lots of families had spent the day at the beach.

The Milky Way core rises early in the night at this time of year, so all we had to do was wait for it to get dark. The minutes ticked by slowly as the light faded and many families came in from the beach, packed their kids and stuff into their cars, and drove away.

This is a uniquely built lighthouse.

But many other people were still out on the beach as the skies darkened, slow to leave Lake Superior and a day filled with sunshine, splashing in the lake, and looking for that special rock.

The day’s light fades.

According to what I could find online the Milky Way would be visible around 10:15. By 9:45 we were getting tired of waiting and I climbed out of the car to do a test shot from the parking lot to see if it was there.

If you look at this in a dark room and make it bigger you’ll see satellites flying all through the sky.

Unfocused and with no composition to speak of, the image is over exposed on purpose so I didn’t have to wait 25 seconds just to see what was up there. We were very excited to see that the Milky Way was indeed hanging over our heads.

So off to the beach we went. We had planned to shoot from down near the water, but there were hundreds of biting flies down there. I felt more comfortable up on the boardwalk where the night breezes kept the flies at bay.

Over exposed on purpose again, just to get a quick image to see where the Milky Way was in relationship to the lighthouse.

Besides, this wasn’t meant to be our real night photography session. We’d come up to Tahquamenon Falls State park to shoot the Milky Way over the falls. This was just a practice session, nothing really important.

Once I established where the Milky Way was, and got the stars in focus, I settled in to get a serious shot. But there were still people walking up from the beach, flashlights shining on random things. Car taillights and headlights were shining on the lighthouse when you least expected it.

The red from car taillights lit up the side of the lighthouse. And of course the lighthouse beacon made plenty of light too.

Not to mention the actual light from the lighthouse which every 14 seconds would blast two times. My sister counted the seconds for me as I tried to avoid the light. Though to be honest the beacon light looked kind of cool on the back of the camera and I didn’t mind it so much at all.

But then there was that red light near the bottom of the frame. I couldn’t tell what it was, while looking through the lens, but the camera was definitely picking something up. It was annoying, and meant that I really needed to limit myself to the top portion of the lighthouse.

Easy enough to crop out that bit of red at the bottom. Turns out it was an exit light inside, above a door, that filled the room with red light.

And as I focused on the sky above the lighthouse there were, of course, planes to contend with. You can take a series of images, all in a row, and then ‘stack’ them in a software program and the parts of the images that aren’t the same will be removed. So I took 7 or 8 images, and if I wanted to I could stack them and all the planes and satellites would be eliminated.

Or…you could just say, that’s cool, look at all the stuff up there in the sky!

Well, I got the shot without the beacon, but there was a plane flying through the Milky Way.

I didn’t take a lot of images that night. I probably should have gone down to the beach and worked on my original composition plan. It was a warm, beautiful night. But we were both tired from a long day and this was just a practice shoot anyway.

A car’s headlights lit up the side of the lighthouse, but I sort of like this one.

Right?

In the end I liked a couple of the images. And I’ll definitely go back on another clear, warm night. A night with a breeze to keep the flies away. Maybe a night earlier in the season when the Milky Way will be visible later in the night and fewer people will be around with their flashlights and headlights.

The northern end of the Milky Way, right over our heads. So many stars, such a lovely night.

And of course I still had the Milky Way shoot above Tahquamenon Falls to look forward to. This was just a practice session, remembering how to focus and camera settings and stuff. But you’ll have to wait to see how that one turned out. I haven’t processed those images yet.

Heck, just retelling the story of our very long first day in the UP has exhausted me! But I hope you enjoyed your short trip to Whitefish Point on a warm August night!


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Waiting

I know you’re all waiting to see how the night photography worked out on my recent trip to the UP. After all, that was one of the main reasons we went. But I just haven’t taken the time to process those images yet.

I will soon. Promise.

This must be a self portrait of the family that camped in our site just before we did.

Meanwhile I thought this series of pictures from our campsite picnic table might make you smile.

We noticed the chalk image, left by the prior campers, as we were setting up our tents. My sister and I wondered why the mom was frowning. Though as kids we camped in a big green army tent with our large family and we can say with some expertise that there were many reasons for a mom to be frowning while camping in a tent. With kids.

Looking a little worse for wear. I bet mom was frowning even more after the rainy night.

The first night it rained a bit and the third night it poured all night. When we got up the fourth morning the entire artwork was gone.

Our imaginary family is only a memory.

But I have it for posterity. I’m hoping mom is smiling more now.


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Camping in the UP

The last week of August my sister and I planned on traveling to South Dakota for a little vacation. Why South Dakota you ask? Well…I have a friend there who lives on a ranch and the skies are really dark. Exactly the perfect sort of place for night sky photography. So we arranged to spend a few days there, watching the sky by night and exploring the area by day.

Our campsite had lots of shade. And mud.

But the title of this post is “Camping in the UP” you say? How does that relate to South Dakota?

Well, sometimes life gets in the way of plans, and it turns out we needed to be closer to home this year. Luckily Tahquamenon Falls State Park in Michigan’s UP had just reopened after some bathroom renovations and there were lots of open camp sites.

I snagged one and we adjusted our plans.

The upper falls and late summer goldenrod.

There’s so much to see in the eastern part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, so we used the campsite as a home base and set out exploring. On our very first day we stopped by the Tahquamenon Upper Falls AND Whitefish Point!

Lots of people out at Whitefish point at sunset were looking for Yooper Light rocks.

And that’s after driving all the way up there, across the Mackinaw Bridge and deep into the northern woods. It was a long day, but we had beautiful, hot, blue sky kind of weather.

The next day at Whitefish point the weather was decidedly different.

And in Michigan you know not to waste a second of it! It could all change tomorrow! And of course it did.

When it was cold and windy outside we did the museums instead of the beach.

It was still cold and windy the third day when we visited Grand Marais. Usually the stone picking there is spectacular, but it was so windy we didn’t stay on the beach long.

There were people out there looking for rocks. We were not those people.

We did end up at the local diner for some lunch.

A nod to nostalgia on a cold afternoon.

And on the last full day of our trip we explored the coast of Lake Superior, heading east along the Byway to Sable Falls…

The short trail back to Sable Falls includes over 300 stairs. Just a heads up.

…and Point Iroquois Lighthouse.

Such a beautiful place.

We had a beautiful day and found some beautiful rocks to remind us of our trip.

Thursday was a wonderfully warm day, perfect for sitting near the water.

We explored the back roads and found a unique bakery.

Wonderful baked goods out in the middle of nowhere.

And then we had lunch at a sunny little inland lake before we headed back to camp for our last night.

So peaceful!

We enjoyed a last fire at our campsite before we turned in for the evening. It would be an early morning the next day if we were to beat predicted rain and get camp packed while things were still dry.

Of course we had to have one last s’more too.

And then it was time to head back home.

Early morning light on our empty campsite. Bye site 171!

Oh…what about night sky photography? Did we get any of that done?

Some of the lower falls on the Tahquamenon River.

Well. I guess you’ll have to tune in to find out. But what do you think?

Intrepid explorers.


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Black pants

Remember when you were young and you enjoyed the thrill of trying on new stuff in the dressing rooms of department stores? You didn’t always think so, but probably everything looked good on you.

Fast forward (and I do mean fast) about fifty years and you have an event you need to dress up for and you’ve donated all your work clothes because you’ve been retired almost ten years. Not that any of your work clothes would be right for a dressed up event anyway, but they’d have been better than the uniform you wear these days.

Shorts, T-shirts, crocs, ratty jeans.

No, the stuff you wear now isn’t the sort of outfits you can dress up. Or even down for that matter, they’re already about as down as you can get.

So you reluctantly go to the mall, because buying clothes online just isn’t working, and the mall was where you used to go when you needed something fancy. But the mall is different now, with most of the stores you know gone, some actually standing empty.

You decide to stick with Macy’s, where you rarely shopped as a kid because they were too expensive, and even there you find racks filled to overflowing with stretchy weird clothes, not neatly organized, not much in your size.

And your experience in the fitting room is even worse. Nothing fits. You don’t know what size you are anymore. You’re not sure if you gained this much weight or they are making the sizes smaller. The prices aren’t smaller, that’s for sure.

You settle on a pair of black pants that look sort of OK.

The young clerk ringing you up asks if you’ve found everything. You laugh and say you drove an hour to buy a pair of black pants. She nods as if she knows what you’re talking about. She doesn’t.

And you head back home and vow to go through your own closet because surely there’s something there that will be dressy enough to get by.

Cause everything goes with black pants.


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Name this bird

Sitting at the dinner table last night I was watching the birds come for their own suppers. I had spread some black oilers on the deck railing and refreshed their bath water in anticipation of watching them while we ate.

Hmmm….who’s this little lady?

The fresh water was a big draw as any number of birds showed up for a quick bath. Then this bird arrived. She didn’t look like any of my regulars.

Well, she likes oilers, that’s a clue.

Bigger than a gold finch, about the size of a warbler, but not a yellow warbler.

She kept an eye on me but didn’t budge.

Greenish gold with darker wings and a little tuft on white near her shoulder.

After she ate she hopped on over to the bathing area.

Luckily my camera was right behind me on the kitchen counter, and the bird wasn’t upset by my reaching for it.

One by one she told the bathing birds to get lost.

All these shots are through a window, with reflections splashed across the image.

Then she hopped in for her own bath.

I think, based on my Michigan bird book, it’s a female Evening Grosbeak.

She had a nice, long bath.

We’re not supposed to have them around here, though they were here a couple of winters ago. Mostly they live way up north. So it could be something else.

And then she was gone.

What do you think?


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Looking for a new mom

Hey there, it’s me, Penny.

See, it all started yesterday when my mom said we were going on a ‘venture. I could hardly wait.

Let’s go mom!

She said in order to get ready for this ‘venture we should all go for a walk. So my Auntie B and mom and I went up the street. And then I saw this noisy water thingy!

On our walk I showed off my obedience skills..

I’ve seen it before on other morning walks, but for some reason this time I thought I should investigate. After all my Auntie B was with me and I had to show off make sure she was safe!

Note the tongue action.

So I check it out. Very thoroughly. And loudly.

I barked and barked and tried to bite it and I ran around and bit it from the other side and mom and Auntie B were laughing and so I ran and jumped higher and bit it some more!

This is so much fun, mom!

I was sooooo happy even though the noisy water thing was still going so I guess I didn’t beat it up too bad.

That sure felt good on a hot day!

Then mom said we had to go and I was sort of sad, but happy too, you know? And I walked my mom back home and up the driveway…

Come on mom, I deserve a treat!

…and then we got to play towel face, which is one of my most favorite-est games…

I’m adorable…right?

…and then we got in the car and I got to sit in the back seat with my Auntie B. I was soooo happy.

OK! We’re on our ‘venture now!

And then we ended up here. At that kennel place where mom left me before.

What the heck, mother?! I am NOT going to look at you!

And then she carried me inside and gave me to some girl I don’t even know and she and Auntie B left!!

So now I’m here and I’m seriously thinking I need to advertise for a new mom. Cause she tricked me. And I’m pretty sure I’m the one supposed to be doing tricks, not her.

It’s in my contract somewhere.

This is my bed at home. I miss my bed.

I miss my flowers and my daddy and my Auntie B and my castle. But not my mom. Cause she tricked me.

These are my flowers on the grounds of my castle. I need to be there to guard them!

What do you think?

I can’t smell the flowers from in here!

I’ll tell you what I think. I think one of you guys had better send a cake with a hacksaw in it! That’s what I think!


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Little smiles

Trent, over at his blog, often posts about things that make him to smile. It’s part of a weekly thing that I haven’t been organized enough to participate in regularly.

It’s not that I don’t have things to smile about. It’s just that I can’t seem to coordinate that event with writing a post about it. Because usually the events that make me smile are small, almost imperceptible, and they often get lost in the bigger things that color my days.

I’ll help you with weeding, mom!

But this afternoon while I was weeding the gardens surrounding our house, I started to grin. I have to say they are beautiful this year. And that alone should make me smile.

But my smile for this week was more specific.

So anyway, I was weeding a garden I generally ignore. A couple decades ago this was a vegetable garden but it turned out the sun beating on the back of the garage was too hot, so for the last several years we’ve been tossing in ‘wildflower’ seed, sometimes purchased from the Vermont Seed Company, sometimes purchased from Home Depot.

Taller than the average gardener.

I can’t honestly remember where this year’s seeds came from, but they look to be mostly coreopsis and zinnia. Most year I totally ignore this once the flowers are up. But this afternoon I ventured in, intent on pulling out some really tall weeds.

The garden wasn’t designed for people to walk in it, so I was picking my way through, trying to do the least amount of damage with my big feet, pushing aside the tall zinnias which are taller than me.

From the garden in the front of the house. Also spectacular.

I suddenly felt like I was doing the breast stroke among the blossoms, pushing them aside to move forward in the sea of pink and red and yellow. I thought of my friend, Bob, and how he’d have liked that turn of phrase, swimming in the sea of zinnias. How he probably would have commented on it, and the pictures of flowers growing here.

And I smiled.