The Best Day Of My Photographic Life

Fall at Presque Isle River. Porcupine Mountains State Park. October 2014.

Fall at Presque Isle River. Porcupine Mountains State Park. October 2014.

Photographers have good days and bad days, just like everyone else. We also have great days and terrible days. The terrible days make us want to throw our equipment off the Mighty Mac and never click the shutter again. No photographer(as far as I know) has ever done this and that's because the highs we get from the great days hugely outweigh the lows from the terrible days. A few months ago I had the best photographic day of my life! This one day will keep me from ever tossing my equipment off that bridge!

When my desire to photograph came back with a vengeance a few years ago I knew eventually I would want to get back to the Upper Peninsula and create some images. I put it off for a while deciding to "re-hone" my skills closer to home first. I ventured to the U.P. a few years ago and fell in love with the abundance of beautiful scenery. That was 2006 and was so long ago that I was still using a film camera(actually I switched to digital shortly after that trip as the lab I was using lost 4 of my 12 rolls of film from that trip). I went back again in 2008 and found it just as amazing! Anyway, a trip to the U.P. was long overdo. 

South Boundary Road. Porcupine Mountains State Park.

South Boundary Road. Porcupine Mountains State Park.

So I started planning. I decided mid October might be a good time to go. There would hopefully still be some fall color and the tourists would hopefully have thinned out by then. I booked my hotel(s), started checking the maps and anxiously awaited for the day to arrive. Finally, departure day - October 15th. I would spend this day on the road traveling 10+ hours to get to the Porcupine Mountains, spend one day there and then travel to Marquette. The travel day started off great with dry roads and blue skies with the occasional white puffy cloud. But as I traveled farther north the blue sky gave way to overcast, misty weather. It would remain this way for the rest of the travel day. I finally arrived in the Porkies in the middle of the night(I was delayed by scenic overlooks and pasties). I went right to bed and hoped that when I awoke in the morning the weather would be a little nicer. My alarm went off around 5:45 in the morning and I was so excited that I didn't even hit the snooze button! I grabbed a cup of joe and headed to South Boundary Road(a beautiful site by itself) which would lead me deeper into the Porcupine Mountains and eventually take me to the Presque Isle Scenic Site. Being as early as it was the sun was not up when I headed out but as it got lighter I could tell that the gray, misty skies had cleared and it looked like I was in for some good lighting conditions. 

“I was seeing photographs before even framing them in the camera’s viewfinder, my head was clearer than at any other point in my life that I could remember and I seemingly floated along the river’s edge for a couple hours going scene to scene and clicking the shutter. ”
Sun shines through the forest at Presque Isle Scenic Site.

Sun shines through the forest at Presque Isle Scenic Site.

When I finally arrived and started the short trek to the river's edge I was certainly not disappointed. The light was great, the river was gorgeous and the October temperature wasn't even that bad. After a few clicks of the shutter I knew it was going to be a good day! I had a feeling come over me that I've had from time to time when shooting in the past but this was stronger. I was seeing photographs before even framing them in the camera's viewfinder, my head was clearer than at any other point in my life that I could remember and I seemingly floated along the river's edge for a couple hours going scene to scene and clicking the shutter. I felt like with every click I was creating a fantastic photograph. I was hoping, unrealistically obviously, that this wouldn't end. Finally and sadly, the sun rose to a point where the light was no longer great for photographing. My U.P. high was wearing off and I was coming back to reality. I got back in the car and travelled to the next destination I had pinned on my map. I would travel to L'Anse to see Canyon Falls and Powerhouse Falls and eventually head to Marquette for the 2nd night's stay. Powerhouse Falls and the Falls River didn't make my "high" return but it was a beautiful and unique place nonetheless. The weather, at this point, was starting to turn again into that gray misty mess I was hoping wouldn't return. It let up just enough when I arrived at Canyon Falls to allow me to photograph for about an hour before the skies started getting too dark to photograph any longer. My day, sadly, had come to an end. But boy what a day it was! The weather turned so bad the next day that I headed home early but there was no way I could be disappointed. I had the best photographic day* of my life just 24 hours prior!

 

*all images in this post, including the slideshow below, are from October 16th, 2014 - the best day of my photographic life.

All images from this post can be found in "Color Imaging" Gallery at www.outdoorimaging.net

There is now a special 4 pack of notecards available on the "Specials" Page at www.outdoorimaging.net containing 4 of my favorite images from this trip.

There is now a special 4 pack of notecards available on the "Specials" Page at www.outdoorimaging.net containing 4 of my favorite images from this trip.

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Source: www.outdoorimaging.net/blog

The Pier Series: Part 2

In doing the Pier Series I wasn't just hoping to "get noticed" or sell images, I wanted to become a better photographer.

A panoramic image of the Grand Haven lighthouse from week 48 of the Pier Series

A panoramic image of the Grand Haven lighthouse from week 48 of the Pier Series

Likely millions of photographs have been created of the Grand Haven lighthouse and pier. Many of them very good and memorable. So why would I want to be just one of millions? That was a question I asked myself a lot while deciding whether or not to move forward with the series. I decided that what I wanted to do was prove, mostly to myself, that I wasn't just one in a crowd of many, that I was and could be a better photographer and create images of the Grand Haven Pier that were unique and interesting. I didn't know if that was going to be possible but I also decided that that would be part of the fun and challenge of the whole thing. So there was the challenge, go to the pier every Sunday for 52 weeks and attempt to create a unique and interesting composition every week. Sounded easy enough. But by about week 7 I realized what a monumental challenge this was going to be. I can't tell you how many times I quietly said to myself, "I have to to this ___ more times?!?!". I know taking pictures of a lighthouse seems quite simple but try and do it  52 different ways! Holy crap! But that's what helped make me a better photographer, being forced to create a different image, of the same place, every week. Heck, just forcing myself to have the camera in front of me at least once per week made me a better photographer. Obviously some images were better than others and on many occasions I felt like I had failed to create something of interest. But again that helped me improve, realizing more and more that failure is what you learn from and if it you don't learn from it you need to move on to different ventures. So being able to learn from my mistakes and "forcing" myself to create something every week were definitely huge gains for me in doing this project.

The setting sun shines through clouds during the 51st week of the Pier Series(12.28.14)

The setting sun shines through clouds during the 51st week of the Pier Series(12.28.14)

Now I couldn't just go to the pier, set up my camera and press the shutter release button. That would simply be documenting and that's pretty boring. I had to create unique compositions and to do that I had to be able to "see" what was about to happen. Knowing, or at least having a good idea of what light is going to do(what I refer to as "seeing") is something that good photographers are capable of and I came to realize that somewhere along the way I had lost this ability(probably because I wasn't creating photographs as often as I once was). But as time went on and Sunday's passed it eventually came back and I was able to obtain a better understanding of what the light would be doing in x or y minutes and eventually knew where I wanted to be to best capture that light. The best example I have of this is from week 51. We had some incredible light when I arrived but I knew(or at least had a good idea) of what the light was going to do. So while other people were fumbling with there iPhones to get pictures(not that there's anything wrong with that), I sat quietly and waited for the light to change. As I waited, I saw waves coming over the edge of the pier and knew that the cloud cover would create an interesting reflection on this water and also knew that if I waited long enough the sun would move to a position that I could include it and the lighthouse and have good exposure throughout the image. The image I created(above) was one of my most popular of the series and one of my personal favorites as well. I'm also fairly certain that had there been similar conditions during let's say week 3 or 4 I would have created a much different and not very impressive image. Learning to "see"(again)  is probably the biggest gain I took from the Pier Series and it's not something that can be achieved by reading a book or watching a YouTube video. It's something you learn by doing. And that's the other big takeaway for me, never stop doing. Once you stop, you're behind and you might not catch up. So even if the motivation isn't there and I'm feeling the "creative drain" I'm not going to stop because I still have a lot of catching up to do.

The final image of the Pier Series. January 4, 2015.

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