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.
![](https://gmrussell.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/DSC1539_insta-1024x683.png)
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.
![](https://gmrussell.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/DSC1558_insta-683x1024.png)
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!