"The Good Life"

This past week my friends Dominique and Simone came up for a visit and to spend some time with me photographing the Grand Portage area. They stayed at Hollow Rock Resort and when they arrived the first thing they wanted to do was have a campfire on the beach. It was a little chilly, but it sure was a beautiful night! The moon was almost full and for a while there was a big ring visible around the moon (you can see part of this ring in the above image). The lake was very calm and peaceful. We visited around the fire for a couple of hours, and Dom spent some time making long exposures of the shoreline by the moonlight. He also had a lot of fun taking pictures of me "stoking" the fire, causing lots of embers to race up into the sky. After letting the fire die down we made plans to meet early in the morning to shoot the sunrise down at the Spirit Tree.

(Below: Moonlight over Hollow Rock)

We ended up having one of the best mornings that I've ever experienced down at the tree. The lighting was incredible. Amazing cloud formations washed across the sky as the sun prepared to break above the horizon. We were also treated with a visit from a couple of otters that swam by and one of them even climbed out onto a rock for a few moments, then slid on his belly back down into the water. After our morning at the tree I had to go to work for the day, but we met up again that night and had another campfire on the beach.

The next day the only real plan was to try and (hopefully) spend some time shooting the foxes that have been hanging out on the east side of the village for the past year. We drove out to where the foxes hang out, and before we even got to the end of the road 2 of the foxes came out of the woods and were watching us as we pulled to a stop along the side of the road. For the next two hours we were able to shoot images of the foxes as they hung around in the ditches and on the rocks adjacent to the road. Dom is an accomplished wildlife photographer and I was very glad that we had such a good day with the foxes. All 3 of us were able to come away with a lot of very nice images of the foxes. Talk about an awesome couple of days.... I really do feel like I live "The Good Life" here on the shores of Lake Superior....

Awesome Autumn

Its been a great year for fall colors. The show came a bit later than what we're used to, but it was worth the wait. I've sorted through some of my images from the past few weeks in order to provide a little "fall color sampler" for you to remember the season by.....

One awesome season has almost passed, another "cool" season will soon be here! I can't wait to photograph all the snow and ice on Lake Superior's shores again!

Thanks to Laurel for the gift and the wonderful quote by Henry David Thoreau, which has been on my mind all day:

"The question is not what you look at, but what you see."

Nightwish

(Above: 10 minute exposure of star trails over the Spirit Tree.... the orange glow is from the lights of the city of Thunder Bay, about 40 miles away)

Oh, I never get tired of creating images like these! Night-time photography is something that I really enjoy, and if you've never tried it, you should. Its a challenge, but the images are sooooo worth it!

(Above: 15 minute exposure of star trails over the Spirit Tree)

(Above: A 1-hour exposure of star trails over my yard)

North/South Fowl and Portage Brook

(Above: Cabin numbers at the end of South Fowl Forest Road)

I took a quick trip up the Arrowhead Trail this afternoon... just had to get out of the house after working on the computer all morning. The morning had been pretty gray, but when the sun came out in the early afternoon I knew I had to get out and do some shooting. I did a little hiking on the Border Route Trail up to the overlooks that look out over North and South Fowl Lakes, and stopped by Portage Brook Falls, one of my favorite waterfalls. Portage Brook is a relatively unknown waterfall, but its a gem. Its a very intimate and up-close waterfall experience, definitely one to see if you have the desire to find it.



(Above: Clouds moving in over the Arrowhead Trail)



(Above and below: South and North Fowl Lakes as seen from the overlooks along the Border Route Hiking Trail)

Autumn Hike, Grand Portage Elementary

Today the Grand Portage Elementary School brought the kids out for a fall leaf hike.... the kids were amazed at all the colors and they all had bags so they could bring a collection of leaves home with them. Everyone had a great time! It was a beautiful day to be out in the woods..... I'm glad to see that the school still takes the kids out on field trips to enjoy the leaves... I can remember doing this when I was in grade school, and it is one of my fondest memories from my childhood.

(Above: Catching Leaves)

(Above: Showing off her catch. It was also Torilyn's 7th birthday today, hence the "birthday crown")

(Above: Gathering Leaves)

(Above: Shaking leaves off the trees for the kids to catch...)

(Above: Milk Break!)