Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Photography


by 25 Comments

When a three night reservation turns into two.

Six months ago I reserved a campsite on the shores of Lake Huron during a new moon cycle, intent on doing some Milky Way photography. Many years ago Katie and I camped at this state park and I remembered a lighthouse located just a few miles north that might work for night photography.

This is the Sturgeon Point Lighthouse.

My sister drove all the way up from Alabama just to go with me on this photography adventure. Last Monday we set out early in the day so that we had time to scout out the lighthouse location for potential night shots.

My sister noticed this split in color on the lake.

You see, the weather didn’t look promising beyond Monday night. That’s what happens when you have to book something months out. Weather is always the unknown element. We expected a clear night Monday, but rain and cold Tuesday and Wednesday.

We discussed going back home Tuesday if it was miserable.

Monday was a beautiful day.

And we knew we’d only have one night to get the Milky Way. So we needed to be ready.

The lighthouse was just as I remembered it, standing tall on the shores of the Great Lake. We wandered the beach looking for something interesting to put in the foreground.

The bench might look fun under the Milky Way.

Eventually we decided we needed to be quite a bit behind the lighthouse in order to be shooting Southeast where the Milky Way would be. We found a place that might work, tucked low behind a small dune, and made a big X in the sand so we could find the spot in the darkness of 2 a.m., our planned shoot time.

Probably not this angle though.

Then we explored other places on the site, including Baily School which wasn’t open, but we got an interesting shot through the window anyway.

A school room from back in the day.

We wandered down the beach to the south, thinking maybe the rocks out in the water might be interesting. Even if we didn’t end up shooting there at night, they made a nice, minimal, image in the sunshine we were enjoying.

Maybe we could light paint this rock.

Eventually it was time to go check into the campground. If all three days were as nice as Monday we’d have a wonderful time. If only.

Our campsite, right on the shore, was small, but we managed to make it work.

Maybe the weather forecasts were wrong.

We did note that of the handful of people camping along the shore we were the only ones in tents. Perhaps we were a touch too early in the camping season.

The view from our camp site looked promising.

Not to worry, we each had electric blankets and we were confident that we’d be fine. This was not our first spring camping experience.

Our beach. Though it was too cold to swim.

So…you might ask…what happened on Monday night? Did we leave our nice warm, snuggly beds to drive up to the lighthouse at 2 in the morning? Or did the waves lapping on the shore lull us back to sleep after our alarms rang?

Stop! Don’t drive into the lake!

I guess you’ll have to wait and see.


by 16 Comments

We’re behind!

Hey everybody! It’s me Penny.

Mom says we haven’t had internet for a million years. Ok, maybe it only FELT like a million years, maybe it was just about a week.

Mom told me to sit on this bench. So I did.

Anyway I’ve been to lots and lots of parks lately ’cause mom and dad are getting stuff done on the house and I tend to bark a lot while stuff is being done on the house.

But mom! I’m not sure about sitting next to a BOY!

Plus mom says it’s really nice to have the time to go to parks and work on my behavior issues. Seriously mom? Does it look like I have behavior issues?

Deuce seemed to tolerate my curiosity, but I don’t think he was thrilled to sit next to a GIRL either.

I didn’t think so.

Mom says she has some really nice pictures of me that she will share with you once she gets them edited and stuff. Which could be a million years from now.

Or a about a week.

Pictures in this post were taken by my Aunt Karen, Deuce’s mom.

Hard telling with mom.

Signing off for now, your photography model and exemplary citizen,

Penny.


by 35 Comments

Night adventure

I’ve been waiting for a clear night with no moon and Saturday night/Sunday morning was it. It’s early Milky Way season and it would be visible for a couple hours before sunrise.

I just had to find a dark place to wait.

I got up at 2:00 a.m. Sunday morning, got to Shiawasee Nature Preserve, about an hour north of me, by 3:30. I thought I was prepared. I knew which direction to look. I had the Skyview app loaded in my phone. I had a compass. I’d been there during the daytime and had scoped out a spot to stand that was very near where my car would be parked.

So it was with high hopes I got out of the car in 32 degree weather (but no wind!) wearing a winter coat, scarf, hat, and gloves. I walked the few feet to my chosen spot, set up the tripod and pointed it to the SE. And saw….nothing. A few stars. Nothing much was visible because the light from Flint, 28 miles away, was overwhelming.

I began to doubt myself. Maybe it wasn’t really in the SE. Maybe it was more South by now. After all it was last week I had the training that said Southeast…maybe it moves faster than I imagined. I couldn’t remember the name of the constelations I was supposed to use to find the Milky Way. I couldn’t figure out how to put Antaras (a star) into the Skyview app on my phone to find it.

I was reduced to randomly pointing the camera at the sky in any location I thought it might be and shooting. I saw a few bright stars I thought might be the ‘teapot’ and concentrated on that section of the sky. But that was due South, and I knew that wasn’t right. Still, looking to the Southeast was just too bright.

As I played with my settings I couldn’t check to see if my images were getting better or worse because the back of my camera went black. Apparently I had touched some random button that disabled the live view. Sigh.

I tried the proven trick of upping my iso to the highest it could go, just so I could see what was there, and it was totally blown out white. I tried lowering it some, still white. My fingers were getting cold. My toes were numb. I’d been out there for an hour getting nothing.

In fact, this is my favorite shot from Sunday morning.

My fingers were numb and I didn’t realize I had hit the remote shutter button when I moved the camera.

When I got home I found this image, as the best of the bunch. The Milky Way is in there, if you squint hard and use your imagination. I’ve tried editing it to bring it out more…but I can’t figure that out either on this one. Trying to bring the Milky Way lights up while dimming the Flint dome light is just so hard.

If you sit in a dark room, blow this up, and squint you should be able to see the MW over on the left.

So I reluctantly posted my image on our group’s Facebook page, explaining my issues (well, the issues revolving photography anyway!) and look below at what someone did for me! They edited it so that you can actually see the Milky Way.

Thank you Geralynn Dykstra for the edit!!!!

I’m not so discouraged now. I DID get the Milky Way in the image! I even got stars reflected in the strip of water! I won’t go out to this location for another attempt, there’s just way too much light. But I’ll keep going to dark sky places and I know that eventually I’ll capture the sky the way I see it in my head.


by 23 Comments

Bird saga continues

A couple weeks ago I introduced a friend to the bird magic that is Kensington. You saw the angst with the red headed woodpecker, but there were other bird shenanigans that morning. For instance there was this grackle dad and teenager who seemed not to agree about something very important.

“Hey dad, can I have the keys to the car tonight?“
“No! Your legs aren’t even long enough to reach the pedals!“
“I never get to do ANYTHING!“
“And don’t ask me again!”

Soon dad will be busy with a new brood and teenager will get more freedom. But until then, from the looks of jr’s face, there are more ‘discussions’ in the wind.


by 32 Comments

Bird tails

I was at Kensington last week. We were lucky enough to find the red-headed woodpecker and his friends on this walk.

They don’t care about you, dove, they just want to see me!

Hey, settle down woodpecker, they left enough stuff for all of us.

Yea, I guess you’re right. I feel bad about my behavior now.

Sorry, man. Help yourself.

We can still be friends…right?

Hey blackbird, I was just telling the dove that there’s enough for everybody.

I’ll just take mine to go.

Sometimes I forget it’s not all about me.


by 45 Comments

Karma’s photo challenge – signs of spring around here

As usual, spring in Michigan is a mixed bag. Since we had 60 (15.5C) degree and sometimes higher temperatures in February we were owed several days or even weeks of temperatures in the 30s, (-1.11 C) sometimes lower, in March. With wind and snow to make everything feel extra special.

Still, signs of spring persist even here.

The first sounds of spring, the thing that solidifies the concept of spring for me every year, are the red-winged blackbirds. They announce their arrival loudly with a very distinctive call.

Feathers puffed up to keep warm in our 30 degree windy spring mornings.

I usually hear them before I see them. But a day or so after I hear them singing over in the swamp they will have found my feeder. They come in mass and gobble up everything, much to the dismay of the smaller birds.

“Hey! Do you have food over there?”

They’ve been around for a few weeks now and are disgusted, just as we all were, with that last snow storm.

And when I see my goldfinches start to turn yellow – well – than spring is well and truly on the way. It seems that one day they are all olive drab, and the next day the males are sprouting gold spots.

Diving for goodies fallen from the feeder

And then suddenly those show-offs are entirely, brilliant, yellow.

Almost in full summer uniform.

In fact yellow seems to be the color of spring. Between the daffodils, which are the only spring flowers we can have due to our hardy deer population…

Evening light warms up a chilly spring day.

…to the forsythia in the back yard…

Ok, the forsythia isn’t in bloom here yet, I forced a few sprigs of it to brighten up my kitchen.

…to the cowslips in the nearby woods…

A definite sign that spring has sprung.

…if you see an abundance of yellow around these parts you can almost guarantee spring has sprung.

No guarantees in March, no siree, not around here!

Almost.

Thanks, Karma, for hosting this photo challenge! I remain hopeful that that last snow was our last snow. If you know what I mean.