Our August Calendar Desktop Wallpaper returns us to the Lower Peninsula and Lake Michigan in Muskegon. This is one of two lights at the Pere Marquette beach, the South Pier Light to be specific.
The story attached to this photo is one that is behind the scenes. I started with a blank canvas like a painter standing in front of the easel. The process began in the backyard and looking up at the sky. “It looks like a nice sunset tonight.” Then checking online for the time of the sunset and the location of the sun on the horizon during sunset and consulting a map app to determine the exact location I should be standing. As the artist, I knew I could not control where the source of light would be located, but I knew I could control my location. And then I knew I needed to frame the scene for the final composition.
When I got to my spot, I was pleasantly surprised to find another photographer set up in the exact same location! Not only did I make an awesome photo, I made a new friend.
Full disclosure: I was not really scheduled to photograph dancing bacon.
This past week however, there were expectations that did not come to fruition. The kind of missed expectations that would even surpass absent ballerina pork!
The notable expectation was a predicted thunderstorm with lots of night lightning.
I love photographing lightning.
Perhaps I should rephrase that. I love getting that perfect lightning shot.
The last time I captured that perfect lightning shot was in 2013. Since then, the past couple dozen times going out, I came up empty handed. Unmet expectations. And it’s way worse than being rejected by pigs in tutus!
So earlier this week when I was expecting sunshine, I got this instead:
When expecting a lightning storm, I got this:
And when expecting the northern lights, I got this:
The moral of the story is really quite simple: Be Tenacious! Just maybe, serendipity will be on your side. If not, just maybe an equally compelling story is unfolding. Look for it.
If it ends up being lemons thrown your way, make lemonade! (They go great with Pork Chops!)
This is the Lake of the Clouds in the Porcupine Mountains. It is a designated State Wilderness Area, tucked away in the western Upper Peninsula. And by “tucked away,” I mean, Detroit is closer to Baltimore than this location.
This view is an easy drive up the escarpment and is even wheelchair accessible from the parking area. Or, it’s also some beautiful and somewhat rugged hiking!
The right-click on the image from your computer and select set-as-background. If you have the option, I recommend using the CENTER option. STRETCH may skew it a bit, unless your monitor is 16:9. And be sure to share the love with all those buttons below! ENJOY!
There are icons in West Michigan. This is definitely one of them. In the community of Macatawa in Holland, stands the Holland Harbor Light, AKA, Big Red.
Right click on the image to save as wallpaper or background, or save to your mobile device for wallpaper.
At every wedding, behind the scenes, about a hundred and one things don’t go according to the script. And there’s no way you can prepare for every possible contingency.
Thankfully, I’ve NOT seen them all, but I’ve seen a few. The rings that were left at home. The nearby tornado. The band that was late. The dress that wouldn’t bustle. No utensils for the cake cutting. Um, Aunt Flo.
This all ties into another wedding tip featured here on the Picture Michigan blog, and that is to have a great Mistress and/or Master of Ceremonies! They will have access to all vendors, keep an extra eye on the weather, and have your Contingency Kit handy.
I’ve heard this called an emergency kit or a wedding-day survival kit. This is not a stash of items you know you will need during your wedding day. This is a kit of stuff you hope you will not need. But you have it in the event of a hiccup.
First off, troubleshoot with those involved in the planning of your big day and plan according to your events. Items in a contingency kit for a December wedding may be different than for a July wedding, which also applies for an Arizona wedding vs. a wedding on Mackinac Island.
Secondly, be less-than-obvious. Who would have thought we’d need a pair of pliers to bustle the wedding dress??
There are also a ton of lists online.
Here are some items that may go beyond things you’ve already considered or found.
Find a tool called a Leatherman. It’s a handy tool that’s kind of like a Swiss Army Knife, except without the fork and spoon. This handy tool includes a pair of pliers and screwdrivers.
A small penlight. Seriously, ya just never know.
Those feminine hygiene products you think you may not need because the bride won’t need them this week. It does not mean a bridesmaid didn’t loss track of time.
A sewing kit is very obvious. Safety pins not so much. Have a variety of them handy!
Medical tape is like duct tape junior. A smaller role makes it convenient.
Things that are normally in a purse such as makeup, clear nail polish, hair spray and so on, should go in this kit. Add to it a travel-size bottle of baby powder.
Travel-size of nearly everything available is a good idea.
Bic lighter.
Superglue.
Straws.
Spare cash/change.
Extra phone battery/charger.
It’s a stressful day. A little stress relief can be as close as a shot of nicotine and/or a shot of libation. It’s okay. Just make sure there’s a little mouthwash nearby too!
As for the tornado, I really have no contingency for that one. The small tornado touched down a few miles south of the wedding location and we were a few miles north for a photoshoot with the bridal party.
Funny thing about it all, was that we were completely unaware until we returned. We never heard the sirens.
It was windy and the rain was torrential. The bridal party was huddled under a gazebo during this photoshoot. We all had planned on the possibility of rain. The ceremony and reception was scheduled to be outdoors and under a tent. All went well. The pictures turned out awesome!
I just didn’t know what direction I wanted to go with this post. Originally it was going to be called The Evolution of Muskegon’s Ice Caves. But they’re so darn cool! I just want to share the cool pictures of them and drop the technical garbage!
So I’ll combine the two ideas and tone down the technical garbage and keep it cool.
Here’s a picture of a surfer dude. It was taken January 4. He is approximately where the Ice Caverns are today. They started forming five days later. More on that in a second.
The pictures in this article are all captioned with the date it was taken and noting either Portal A or Portal B.
You see the circles around a couple sets of people. They are standing near the two entrances into this set of caves and caverns. If you want to see this exact location, go here to google maps (opens in separate window/tab) and it’ll help to be in satellite or earth mode.
So surfer dude is enjoying some heinous waves in a strong solid wind. Yes, it was windy. But in a funny way, it was the calm before the storm. Five days later, January 8, the East Coast was dealing with Winter Storm Juno. Here in West Michigan, we were dealing with the Winter Storm we called Thursday. Well, actually, we called the day of the week Thursday.
The forecast was for “near-blizzard” conditions. Here at the lake we exceeded those condition and approached hurricane conditions. 45 mph winds and 65 mph wind gusts. An inch of snow an hour.
A few days later I found the beach.
Yes, I know, the above picture I featured in a blog post from a couple months ago. But ya gotta admit, it’s sick! It’s cool! And I did say I was gonna keep this cool!
Looking at the following two pictures, also taken the same day as that cool picture of the above lighthouse, you can see the beginnings of what are the ice caves. In fact, I would dare say the caves and caverns are already there. That is, they are hollow but closed.
Before the winter storm we called Thursday, we did have a couple days worth of gale force winds Tuesday and Wednesday. These ice cliffs had already started forming, but not nearly as impressive as they are in these shots.
Scroll back up and compare the following two shots with the panoramic picture. You should get a sense of the scene. You’ll also note that the water surface is frozen and chunky.
So you’re catching this, right? Above, the surface of the lake is frozen and chunky. On January 11, with a high temperature of 34 F. And then the next day, January 12, for the sunset, I’m standing (actually I was laying on my belly) at the same location, just facing a slightly different direction. High temperature this day is 33 F. (Can you find the swimming duck?)
A few days later is hit 40 F. Warm. Wind. Energy creating an undulating sea. The surface of the lake is not frozen, a little chunky still, and it moves up & down. Grab the Dramamine.
Let’s fast forward about a month. Not a lot of change was occurring, nor was I predicting ice caves here. So I didn’t photograph this particular ice shelf.
It was February 12 I walked the breakwater a couple times. Once during the midday and once after sunset. This first half of February was a little warm, with daytime highs in the upper 20s F and even a couple upper 30s F.
We’ve already seen how the air temperature can effect the surface ice. A daytime high temperature of 33 F means most of the day was below freezing. Yet the ice had the capability to melt. Plus a little wind will break that surface ice. Now remember, Lake Michigan is an enormous body of water with a constant temperature ranging from the 40s to the 50s.
This above shot shows Portal A. That is the entrance to the caverns nearest the breakwater. On this particular day there was a lot of broken surface ice. It was also windy. Not crazy windy. Not gale windy. Maybe “small craft advisory” windy.
I’m standing on the breakwater while photographing the scene in the below picture. I recall feeling at my feet the WOOMPH energy when these waves crashed. It was quite sensational, but I have to note that the wind and waves and energy and resulting spray would be considerably less that that night of January 8 when we had near hurricane force winds.
Looking closely at the above photo, you can see through the ice cave. To stand at this exact spot today (March 6), you would see something radically different. From this spot, which I have identified as Portal A, is actually a small ice canyon. It’s about 5 to 6 feet deep and about 10′ to 15′ long. The Portal A entrance is a small hole only about 2 feet high.
Fast forward seven hours, shortly after sunset. Calm.
A few days later, Muskegon is still in the middle of a weather trend that is definitely winter. It snows every day and we’ve not witnessed an air temp above freezing. On this day, the high temperature was 10 F. These folks are looking into what is now Portal A. They are looking at surface water. Scroll up three photos and you will see approximately what these folks see.
A couple key components continue as the days progress. The winds have died down and the temperatures continue the way-below-freezing trend. The walls and domed ceilings of these ice caves remain in tack, though completely unseen from the breakwater. And the floors are becoming solid.
During the past couple of months, and especially during the night of Winter Storm Thursday, winds howled, waves crashed, water sprayed high into the air, and simply froze in place. droplet by droplet. It seems like a bit of a stretch of the imagination.
But hear me out on this one. In the below photo, I’m not really sure what these two are doing. They may have detected something I detected a few days prior to this shot and they were checking it out. While I was walking around that spot on the breakwater, the sound under my feet gave off a resonance that was notably hollow. Scary hollow. Thin ice hollow. Is there another ice cave under their feet?
Another observation made, in terms of the evolution of the Ice Caves and ice bergs lining the beach, is that they do move. Albeit, slowly. The particular Ice Cave is tucked in along the breakwater. It will shift very little compared to some of the other ice formations that I have witnessed during the past couple months.
I mention this as a reality check. A safety check. This ice is unstable. And keep in mind, it is floating. It’s all interconnected, and parts of these ice formations are gripping the breakwater and the beach — giving them SOME foundation. But still floating on a massive body of water. Water with temperatures well above freezing and constantly moving and flowing, even below the Ice Cave.
Here are the rest of the cool pictures plus a video tour like you’ve never before seen!
And the video tour of the Muskegon Ice Caves!
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