It’s winter in West Michigan. We had a heinous storm last week with lots of wind. And a year ago about this time we had a similar storm with lots of wind. These storms churned up enough spray from Lake Michigan to coat the lights in Grand Haven and Muskegon with a thick blanket of ice.

The following gallery does not show howling winds, trees bending over, or heavy snowfall. These are images of winter, evoking what may be the imagination’s longing for an era of serenity and solitude in conflict with the mere means of survival for lighthouse keepers from days-gone-by.

There’s a lot of story-telling within these scenes. It was surreal experiencing it, noticing the way the ice bends as the winds changed directions.

Two different days separated by a year, two different lighthouses separated by fifteen miles.

Grand Haven on 1/8/2014 and Muskegon on 1/11/2015.