Tag: perspective

Friday the 13th and a Full Moon!

June 13, 2014
Big Thoughts PondExpectationsGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLake MichiganLighthouse Beach PierRichard Mack's Blog

Well decisions, decision on this Friday the 13th. There is a full moon this evening…I should have shot it last night as all photographers know, but couldn’t. So now what? Shoot it tonight? Maybe. Or well I laze around and just hang with friends? Hmmm… I will be shooting the next two weeks in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore on Lake Michigan and then up at Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore on Lake Superior. And I’ve been to Lighthouse beach often when the full moon rises…. Ahh the thought process here at Big Thoughts Pond this Friday afternoon… stay tuned!

Expectations vs Going With the Flow

February 15, 2014
ExpectationsGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganRichard Mack Photography

Yesterday I was planning to fly around Chicago and make some late afternoon images of the city with the ice out on Lake Michigan. Yet the day’s overcast didn’t lift as expected by noon, so we waited and waited and I kept in touch with my pilot until I had to make the final decision of go or no go. Because the sky was still a high overcast it would have been just a blown out white sky – not what I was looking for. With great reluctance based on what I could see, what the satellite images said and my gut feelings I made the choice to call it a day and try again soon before it all melts. And of course right after I made the no go call the sky cleared! It would have been one of those days where you were either a hero with a great shot or the goat because it just didn’t work.

With 88% of all five Great Lakes frozen over it is a historic winter. As part of my Great Lakes Project and a book with the working title The Sweetwater Seas, you just have to shoot as much of the winter scenes you can. Lake Michigan is 77% frozen over with ice, hasn’t happened since 1993/94 winter. As an aside, the book project has become a bit more interesting and I am currently working with a TV Producer and a writer to see if more can be done with this project. It has been very interesting and insightful to get other folks input into one of my book projects rather than working it alone. We have refined the direction of the project and as all projects do you may plan on going one way and end up a totally different direction.

Because it was also a full moon evening I went down to Lighthouse Beach once again. With the clouds still on the horizon to the east I knew seeing the moonrise in time to get a shot of it would probably not be in the cards. Yet the beauty of the sky and ice gave me a lot of things to do in a few ways. The 15-20 foot ice cliffs with the thinner ice out beyond in white were beautiful in the evening light.

Changing your expectations of what you planned on at any one time often leads you to unexpected pleasures. Going with the flow of the day can lead to something not planned and yet maybe better than what you had planned – you may never know. I am very happy with what I found on the beach that evening. I am glad I wasn’t so disappointed with not flying that I didn’t come on down to the beach. The clouds kept the moonrise out of sight until it was too dark to get a good photograph so my hope of getting the moon and ice this year has disappeared. Yet other images did present themselves.

Ironically as I pulled into my garage I saw the moon up in the sky – way too late for any photography. For the most part it is always best to shoot the full moon the day before, in this case on the 13th not the 14th because it rises about an hour before sunset giving you enough light in the landscape to balance with the exposure for the moon. The last shots I did were over 2 seconds in length, so the moon would actually move in the exposure and make it look oval.

Too see more images use this link:

https://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/LHB140214

Cheers,

Richard

 

Expanding Your Creative Mind… Make it a New Year’s Resolution?

December 28, 2013
ExpectationsGreat Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLighthouse BeachPhotographyRichard Mack Photographywinter

This morning I just had to get out and see what the lakefront looked like today. Of course the fact that it is sunny and warm had a lot to do with it, but more importantly I felt I just had to get down and see what kind of images I could make. How creative I could be and how I might be able to do something different than I usually shoot. The urge to photograph pushed me out the door. To see more from my shoot today use this link: https://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/LighthouseBeachWinter/

I’ve talked before about creative thinking and making sure you “move outside your box” when shooting. Get lower, higher, tighter, wider, details, entire landscapes with lots of sky – all of it. Yet we tend to shoot the way we shoot. I have had the pleasure of being on location with another photographer a lot lately. One who does not think or see the way I do. It is a pleasure to watch how she moves and sees the same place I do. We come back with very different images. While I like what I shoot, there are many I look at from her and say, wow, wish I had thought of that, you see the world in such a different way. We can discover the same effect by looking at other peoples work online. A lot of people influence us as photographers. We see their way of seeing. Some do this for a living, many do not, yet they seem to have an eye for composition and a way of seeing the world.

Now when I shoot, especially some place like Lighthouse Beach, as I have shot it more times than I can count, I think of how others might approach this place. I am sure if I was shooting with someone else we would certainly come away with very different images, but it is that way of seeing, your way, my way, which sets us apart as storytellers. We take each other’s work into account and adapt it to our own style.

Today I was thinking not so much of the grand openness of the landscape but of the details which would show what the shoreline looked like. How the ice and snow had piled up and looking at the connection between the lake and the ice. That line in the sand if you will. I was also fascinated by how many people were down there looking at the lakefront as well. Many climbing to the edge to peer over and see what the intersection of water and ice looked like.

One interesting observation was the old pier at the north end had been almost completely obliterated by the sand and ice. Is the sand higher because the water level is lower or has the ice just pushed the sand up and over it? Here are two images, one from a few summers ago and one from today.

To see more from my shoot today use this link: https://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/LighthouseBeachWinter/

Will any of these make it into my Great Lakes Project? Never know until it is finished. And might I add the working title has changed to Sweetwater Seas from Twenty|Ninety-Five. Go ahead and guess as to the meaning for each of these working titles…go ahead and make a comment below – will be interesting to see everyone’s ideas. It will look at all five Great Lakes and how we as mankind have had an effect on them only in the last 200 years even though we have been living along them for thousands of years.

My other goal for this coming year is to really get back to working on this project and hopefully have it 95% shot by the end of the year. A big task and a lofty goal but if you don’t set your goals high what are you shooting for?

I hope you all have a great 2014! Let’s see our world slightly differently this year and yet put our own style in our storytelling.

Here is to a great 2014!

Happy New Year,

Richard

 

Sunrise, Lighthouse Beach

October 2, 2013
Great Lakes ProjectLake MichiganLake MichiganLighthouse BeachLighthouse Beach PierQuiet Light PublishingTwenty|Ninety-Five

I went to Lighthouse Beach this morning for sunrise. I wasn’t really planning on it but as I was awake at 5:15 I thought get down there! As you may know I have shot this particular area of the beach many, many times over the years as it is only a mile and a half from my home. It will certainly play a part in my book Twenty|Ninety-Five on all five of the Great Lakes.  I often wonder if I can see anything new, shoot a new view or make a more compelling image having been there so many times. But as I tell folks it is all in the way you see things and you must try and change your perspective, view point and work with how the light plays out in front of you to create a compelling image. No two moments will ever look the same. Maybe similar, but certainly not the same.

This morning I wanted to get down low and use a wide angle lens to get in close to the image and let it stretch out in front of the viewer. Then as the sun cracked the horizon I realized a long lens would be a different perspective. In addition the sun was coming up where I have wanted to see the moon rise for many months so I could work it into the image with the pilings. The sun instead of the moon at this moment.

When I arrived there was a gentleman already there who is a member of a camera club and wanted to shoot for a photo contest the club was having. We talked as I set my equipment up and he asked me if he could watch and learn. Of course. He also asked me to tell him my thoughts as I choose where to place the camera. It was an interesting experience which I enjoyed. Kind of like a mini-workshop!

Here is a link to the images from this morning. Only a small amount of adjustments have been made in Lightroom so far. Hope you enjoy the images! Maybe these will become a part of my book on the Great Lakes, Twenty|Ninety-Five which I am currently continuing to work on.

https://www.mackphoto.com/BlogImages/Great_Lakes_Project/LighthouseBeachSunrise/index.html

Peace,

Richard