Lake Michigan. March 1, 2022

 March 1, 2022, Tuesday 7:42am. Around 38°.

Fortunately the clouds held down the sunlight this morning which gave me more time to photograph. This is over an hour past sunrise and the light is still subdued. The thin sliver of snow on the lower left makes the picture for me with another thin white strip in the clouds in the upper right. 

I was using the Loxia 21mm again with a 6 stop ND filter. Somewhere around here I dropped a 10 stop ND filter a month ago. It was in a case but I don't expect to see it again.

Lake Michigan. February 26, 2022

 Saturday, 2/26/22. 6:38am. 15°

There was hardly any wind this morning though the weather report said there would be 10mph winds. I had not been to the lake since Monday 2/21/22 and with the warming trend over 40° for a couple of days I was not sure what to expect. There were a couple inches of snow most of which had blown off the ice. 

This was with the Loxia 21mm with a 6 stop ND filter.

Lake Michigan. February 12, 2022

February 12, 2022. Saturday morning around 7. Wind chill was below 0.

It's not often that I get to see the ice forming at the lake. The waves were not huge but carried enough force to smash chunks of ice against the ice walls throwing the remnants 30 feet into the air.

 

Lake Michigan. February 10, 2022

 Thursday morning 7:24am around 28°

Started shooting at 6:50am, the weather is warming up into the 40's tomorrow, the time of winter when I feel sorry to see the ice start to leave. Right after taking this this shot I was hit by a wave of water and chunks of ice from my right side. The water froze on my jacket, camera and tripod. My ice cleats kept me planted on the ice - I would never go out here without them.

Lake Michigan. February 6, 2022

 February 6, 2022. 6:51am. Around 20°

Same general spot as the last entry, but a little earlier and the tripod was set a little higher. I was surprised to see how much the ice continued to build up in the last few days. The mound to the right is probably 15-20 feet high and the waves that piled up the ice would have been pretty strong. I probably won't make it back until Thursday and there will be two days above freezing so some of this might be falling back into the lake. I'd like to see this continue into next month. There was a guy sitting on the other side of this ice formation waiting for the sunrise with his camera and tripod.

No ND filter as the water was almost still. I am not sure how I will process this image as I realize that these are not documents. The camera did freeze up twice and I had to turn off the camera, remove the battery and start up again.

Lake Michigan. February 1, 2022

February 1, 2022. 7:27 am. Around 25° with no wind.

Sunrise was around 7:05 this morning and I got to the lake about that time. I went directly to the highest point on the beach which usually forms just north of where the old Wilmette Pier used to be. It might be 12-15 feet high. In the past ice volcanoes have formed here but the ice has continued to freeze a bit further out. The edge of the ice is probably another 50' from this formation which is hard to tell as the 20mm lens I used seems to blend the depth together. The exposure was 13 seconds but the water was hardly moving. I was hoping for some blurred wave action.

The temperature went up to 40° this afternoon and I hope the melting isn't too severe. Another 4" of snow is predicted so what happens to the ice texture is unknown right now. I'm now sure how much time I will have to keep shooting with whatever the winter has left this year.

Lake Michigan. January 27, 2022

 

January 27. A little bit after 8am. Around 20° with light winds.

Shot with a 20mm, I don't know why I focused on the moving ice. I should have focused on the ice cluster as it barely made it into the depth of field.

I didn't feel like shooting this morning, feeling tired getting up at 6:30am and I knew that the wind would not be making any waves. But I knew that I could not miss the opportunity, whether or not an opportunity existed at all. I always have my gear packed and ready, just in case. So I headed out late at 7:30am with the school buses and commuters. And 15-20 minutes later I am at the lake. From my car I could see that new features had formed in the ice.

To my surprise, I saw that a recent section of ice had formed in the last few days, but instead of piling on top of the existing ice to make more shelf ice, it stayed about 50' off the shore. I isolated this section of ice and hoped that the transition of the time, light and ice might make something happen.

Lake Michigan. January 15, 2022

January 15, 2022. 7:13am around 23°.

Pretty strong winds this morning, 15-20 mph. I only shot for 20-30 minutes, stopping when the camera and I were hit with water and ice. The tripod legs were frozen and the filter had ice on it. When the wind comes off the lake it's colder than the air temperature and the water it picks up from the lake turns to ice when it hits me and the gear.

This was shot with a Batis 25mm, a lens that has always worked well for me, though I've been trying to use a Loxia 25mm more. The Loxia is probably sharper under controlled conditions but at the edge of the lake there is not much under my control.

Lake Michigan. January 1, 2022

 January 1, 2022 1:44 pm

34* with 20+ mph winds coming off the lake so it felt much colder. The sting of the snow hitting my face required glasses. Batis 40mm - 2 sec @ f8 with ND 6stop. After 8 straight years of coming here it felt like I was walking onto a new stage, the same as it has always felt.

Lake Michigan Ice. March 1, 2021

 March 1, 2021. 5:35pm

An evening shot, unusual for me. I actually went out to scout the ice as the recent snows left pockets of snow where I could easily sink to my waist. Snowshoes will be part of the plan for next winter.

Lake Michigan Ice. December 26, 2020

 December 26, 7:31 am

Lake Michigan Ice. March 5, 2021

 March 5, 2021. 6:49am 27°

Lake Michigan Ice. March 3, 2021

 March 3, 2021. 6:06am. 39°

I enjoy the morning twilight. I imagine it rotates around the earth, always preceding the sunrise.

Lake Michigan Ice. March 2, 2021

 March 2, 2021. 6:28am 20°

I went back this morning to shoot this scene with a 20mm to compare with the 40 from yesterday. A layer. of pancake ice is rolling with the waves

Lake Michigan Ice March 1, 2021

 March 1, 2021 5:32pm

I haven't made it to the lake in the evening this winter until tonight. I actually went to scout it out for tomorrow morning. This was shot about 10 minutes before sunset. The ice ball is about 2.5 feet in diameter and the wave that dropped it on this ledge must have been a big one. I would have liked a wider lens but only brought a 40mm.

Lake Michigan Ice. January 20, 2021

 01/20/2021 7:04am

The pancake ice started around the second half of January. The last couple of years it has been more common to see it. Sometimes they are small, about 2 feet in diameter, but this year 4-5 feet was the average and they stretched out pretty far. The actual light at this time is bluer than I show here. I just wanted a more neutral color cast for this one.

Lake Michigan Ice. January 23, 2021

 01/23/2021 around 7:15am.

I'm back.

The ice has come back a little later this winter. There was a bit of sheet ice in December but it never built up and it ended up melting away. Then a few storms came and along with them some good sized ice balls, some bigger than basketballs. You don't want to be in the path of a wave carrying ice balls. After that came a lot pancake ice. There are four distinct ridges of ice that have built up, each one the result of a storm that froze. This shot is of the ice when it started building up just several weeks ago.

Trying out a new lens, a 20mm f/1.8. Pretty sharp, low chromatic aberrations, a little distortion but not bad. A big plus is that it has an aperture ring that is easy to maneuver with gloves. but it also has AF/MF and step-less aperture switches which might be moved inadvertently with gloves. Camera gear is not really designed with winter in mind. Not at all.

There is an irony in trying to make fluid and balanced images while standing several feet from the edge of the ice while  trying to configure camera settings with different filters in the cold blowing wind with frozen fingers.

Lake Michigan Ice. March 3, 2019

3/3/19 6:51am

Lake Michigan Ice. December 29, 2018

December 29, 2018. 7:31am

After a week in the 50's, the temperature dropped below freezing last night. It was 29-30°, enough to form a few drops of ice for me.

Lake Michigan Ice. February 2, 2019

February 2, 2019. 6:52am 

Re-worked this picture today. Saturated the sky a bit. Later took out some of the vignetting.

Sunrise on February 2 was 10 minutes later at 7:02. Temperature was around 12° and got up to around 40° in the afternoon so this scene was not seen again.