Waiting on sunset.....

I've been having better luck with sunrises and sunsets lately.

By that I mean there's been light most of the days I've tried to photograph sunrise or sunset. 

Tonight in Ashland Wisconsin was a good example. 

I got to the shore of Lake Superior a couple of hours before sunset with mostly clear skies and fairly calm water.

It looked likely there would be sunlight and just the right amount of clouds for decent photos.

After about half an hour a breeze picked up and I needed to find a more sheltered spot. I drove around looking for a place with calm water near the shore to use for reflections. 

The picture above is from the place I found. It was still early and I got quite a bit of lens flare shooting directly at the sun.

I tried a little different view, but you can still see all the flare in the image. 

There were some clouds and the scene looked pretty to the eye, but I was having trouble capturing it with the camera. So I had to get a little creative.

With the lens I was using I could just barely reach far enough out in front of the camera to focus on my hand. 

I liked the silhouette and played with the placement of the sun on my fingers. A few minutes later with the sun on the horizon I attempted more standard sunset photos.

I hoped for lots of clouds to catch the colors at sunset and was a bit disappointed with what I got.

The clouds just kept disappearing and the colors were a bit muted.

A sapsucker landed in the tree above me and went to work. Pieces of bark fell to the ground near me as I sat at the edge of the lake with my feet right up to the water.

The good news was; I had sun, some clouds, calm water, reflections and a beautiful night.

So I did the best I could with the conditions as they were.

I waited until the last color started to fade, then put my camera away, folded up the tripod and walked back to the car. Though it wasn't the dramatic sunset I'd hoped for, it was a pretty good way to spend a couple of hours.

Lake Superior springtime...........

It really is springtime in northern Wisconsin.

But you wouldn't know it by the ice still covering Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior in Ashland Wisconsin.

The only open water was at the west end where Fish Creek enters the lake at long bridge.

I made a few images, then drove north along the lake to see if I could find any open water.

Ice was piled up along the shore and there was a bit of water just beyond it.

I really lucked out, as some interesting clouds worked their way across the sky shortly after I got there.

It was windy and 33 degrees, I was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. In order to get the low angles to highlight the ice and clouds I needed to lay on various blocks of ice for extended periods of time.

I was getting wet, cold, and occasionally hurt as some of the ice broke beneath me and I fell into larger sharp pieces below.

The sun occasionally went behind the clouds and it felt much colder as I waited for the light.

Madeline Island is in the distance on the right.

I kept looking for interesting shapes and good color.

Just before sunset, light filtered through the trees to the west and lit a small piece of ice at the edge of the lake.

 I worked quickly as darkness neared.

And just like that. The sun slipped behind the trees and the light disappeared.

We just followed the smoke....

My dad and I were driving along the shore of Lake Superior just outside Ashland Wisconsin when we noticed a big plume of white smoke rising into the sky several miles to the west. He said there was a prescribed burn about fifteen miles away.

I told him I always wanted to get forest fire photos, but never had the chance. I asked if he had time to go and he said sure. I had a camera in the car and my dad as a navigator so we started driving west on highway 2. The smoke was just whitish gray at the time, not the striking orange and red as in the image above. 

We drove about twelve miles west and turned on the only paved road going north through the Moquah barrens in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. We just kept following the smoke and after several more miles we came to a dirt road going west towards the fire.

It was almost sunset as we came to an intersection with another dirt road. Ahead of us was a flurry of activity, many vehicles from various federal agencies with lights on and fire crews in their trucks and walking the roads. A woman in a vest was standing in the middle of the road so I pulled over and parked out of the way. We walked up to visit with her. 

Our timing was great, because this was what we saw just across the road in front of us.

Fire crews had just ignited the blaze and the fire was quickly burning through the under story and up into some of the larger pine trees. 

We quickly got permission to be where we were and I just couldn't believe my luck.

I got my camera out and started photographing the forest fire in front of us. Flames were moving quickly through dried grass and shrubs and then climbing into the bigger trees.

All the colors and interplay of light and shadow was unbelievably beautiful. As I continued to trip the shutter release, I found myself saying "wow" over and over again out loud.

The Fish & Wildlife, or forest Service employee said we had to stay where we were as the fire moved away. I had been shooting hand held, but went to the car to get a tripod as it was getting dark and the shutter speeds were getting slow. 

I checked the ISO, made sure the auto focus was off, put the camera on the tripod and kept at it.

Trees that had been aflame moments earlier were now starkly silhouetted as the fire itself threw colorful light onto the smoke billowing towards the sky.

I just couldn't get over the mixture of light, color, and shadow. Just beautiful.

As the actual flames moved into the distance I noticed the surreal colors on the smoke above.

Some of the crews walked back towards their vehicles before driving off along the edge of the fire.

I kept on shooting and even remembered to look at the bigger picture. The colors were hard to believe.

We stayed for an hour and a half and it was dark as we turned the car around and headed out on the road we had come in on.

About a half mile down the road I stopped to capture this scene giving a sense of scale to the fire. 

The old adage, 'it's better to be lucky, than good' certainly applied here. My dad and I just followed the smoke, 

and had incredibly good luck, as far as location, timing, and fire personnel. What a night.

Birds and things...

I spent a couple of days making images of back yard birds and critters.

 

A male northern cardinal.

 

 

 

Male American goldfinch.

 

 

A mourning dove. I don't know its gender.

 

 

A male indigo bunting.

 

 

A blue jay.

 

 

A black phase eastern gray squirrel.

 

 

A red squirrel.

 

 

A male red winged blackbird.

 

 

An eastern cottontail rabbit.

 

 

A white-tailed deer fawn.

 

 

And a red bellied woodpecker in a maple tree. Pretty good.