Yesterday morning, I woke up around 4:30 and didn’t think I’d be able to get back to sleep. I made the decision to take a look at The Photographer’s Ephemeris, to see when the sunrise would be and how it might look. TPE predicted a 50% chance of underlighting, with the sun rising at 6:04. I didn’t have much time to make a choice, so I got out of bed and decided to just go. I didn’t have much time to prepare, but most of my gear is usually packed and ready to go. I got dressed, got my things, and headed out the door.
Around 5:30, I started to see the blue hour. It was obvious that the sun was going to be rising soon, and I started to feel like I might not have enough time to get into a good position in Grand Haven. But, it wasn’t long before I started to notice fog. The further I drove, the denser the fog became. By the time I arrived in Grand Haven, the fog was thick and visibility was low. At this point, I knew there wouldn’t be much of a sunrise–but I was committed to making this trip work.
I arrived at the beach, and made my way through the dense fog until I could see the lighthouse’s catwalk start to emerge from the unknown. I started walking out toward the lighthouse, soon becoming surrounded by Lake Michigan and fog. Aside from the catwalk and the pier, I could see about 10 feet of Lake Michigan in either direction. It made the area feel isolated, and so much smaller than it really is.
I knew I’d have to be creative with my photography, so I started looking at what options I’d have. I started photographing around the time I arrived at the lighthouse, hoping to find an interesting composition that could make up for the lack of sunrise. Eventually, I found something that I liked: the catwalk leading to the lighthouse, and then the catwalk disappearing into the fog. That image is below, but it’s not my favorite from the trip.
Around 30 minutes into my photography, I thought I was finished. I started to walk along the pier, back to the beach. But it wasn’t long before a fisherman passed me on his way down the pier. I turned around, took of my lens cap, and took a shot as soon as I could. I managed to capture him as he looked at his gear, obviously inspecting something. I like this image the best from this trip, as it shows the most obvious story–and it has a subject other than the lighthouse. While I normally wouldn’t mind images without people, the lack of a sunrise really would’ve made this image feel isolated and lonely without a person there. So, I’m glad I was able to snap this.
As I’m writing this, I have two separate YouTube videos recorded–and I’m in the editing process for the first. I know it’s been a while since I’ve updated my shop–most of these 2021 images aren’t available for purchase, as of yet. That’s another project that I’ll be working on this week. Before I add something to my print shop, I like to make sure it’s cropped perfectly for the print sizes I offer–that way the image shows as I want it to. So, I usually do a bit more cropping than I would for pictures that I upload to the Internet. I’ll have those up soon.
Thanks for reading!