Mt. Josephine Moonrise - January 7, 2012

Here's a shot of last night's moonrise as I was heading home from work. I love it when the moon is passing right over the tree line. It was quite a beautiful sight!

Watching for Meteors

We were out watching for the Quadrantid meteor shower last night. Unfortunately we had quite a few clouds blocking the part of the sky that the meteors were supposed to be originating from. After a while the clouds did go away, but even then all we saw were a few very faint meteor streaks, and only one big fireball. Even so, it was a fantastic night to be out stargazing!

Steamy morning in Grand Marais + Snow flurries on The Grade

This photo was taken the morning of January 3, 2012. It was probably the coldest night so far of this winter, so I figured there might be some sea smoke (steam) rising off the lake in the morning. I was right! I headed into Grand Marais to catch the steam as it rose behind the lighthouse. When I first got there I was a little disappointed to see thick clouds and not much color. Soon after the sun rose, however, the clouds started to break up and color started to stream down from the sun, which was hidden behind the clouds along the top edge of this photo.

After my morning along the Grand Marais harbor, I took a drive up along "The Grade", a dirt road that connects the Gunflint Trail with the Caribou and Sawbill Trails. While I was driving along The Grade I went through several snow flurries, and during one of those snow flurries I noticed how the falling snow was adding depth to the treeline across a frozen lake, and couldn't resist stopping to photograph the scene.

Pancake Ice

So far, this winter has been rather mild with very little snow and days/nights that have been too warm for any serious development of ice on the lake. Last night, however, the temp did drop a bit which meant that this morning there were some nice "pancakes" of ice floating in a couple of areas along Grand Portage Bay. One of these areas (shown above) was very close to my house. How could I resist stopping and making an image of such beautiful ice formations so close to my home?

After photographing the ice I took a drive up to the Mt. Josephine wayside along Highway 61. This wayside was improved by the MN Department of Transportation this year. They replaced the bathroom building, built a new parking area and picnic sites, and last but not least constructed a very nice viewing platform that takes in the view of Mt. Josephine, Wauswaugoning Bay and the Susie Islands. The photo below was taken from this new viewing platform. I have taken many a photo from this location over the years, but I have never seen the trees stand out the way they do in this photo. The lighting was such that it really accented the trees. Even though there isn't really too much snow or ice in the photo, I still think it conveys a strong feeling of winter.

Ice Details

My focus for the past week has been to try and find interesting ice patterns. I believe I have found several that easily fit that criteria, the ones shown here are my favorites from the week. The first one (shown above) is a macro shot of frost on the sheet metal of my truck. This is a very close-up shot that only shows an area about 3x3 inches.



Above: One of my favorite types of ice is shown above, when ice completely coats vegetation along the Lake Superior shoreline. It never ceases to amaze me how things can freeze in such a way, as to have one blade of grass completely encased in ice, like that shown here.



Another fascinating type of ice is when puddles freeze in such a particular way as to have all these patterns within the ice. While walking along the Lake Superior shoreline I found several such puddles. Each one had such unique patterns it was mesmerizing and I had to stop and stare for a while at each one that I came across.

December Dawn over the Grand Marais Lighthouse

I went out this morning with the hopes of capturing the Lunar eclipse, but heavy cloud cover put a stop to that plan. There was, however, a small break in the clouds to the East where the sun was soon to rise. This photo was made about half an hour before sunrise when there was a nice, soft glow of color coming from behind the clouds.

Something New

This evening I tried out a "new" (to me) location along the Lake Superior shoreline North of Grand Marais, MN. It turned out to be a wonderful spot and I had great fun spending the evening shooting here. I still can't believe I've never been down to this spot before! It is just a short walk from Highway 61, and is actually part of the Superior Hiking Trail. Many thanks to my friend Bryan Hansel (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bryanhansel/) for letting me know about this amazing little slice of Lake Superior's shore.



Most of the beach in this area consists of small pebbles, but there is also a small rocky outcrop that juts out into the lake. On the tip of this rocky outcrop is a small island that is only a few feet from shore. It just so happens that the moon was rising over this small island during my visit. Also along the rocky outcrop were several types of plants that were coated in ice from recent waves and spray coming off the lake. As many of you know, winter is a favorite time of mine for photography mostly because I loooooove photographing ice!



After shooting for about an hour and a half along the Lake Superior shore, I headed home for a bite to eat. As soon as my stomach was full I headed back out to do some more shooting. It was a beautiful moonlit night and I wasn't about to let that go to waste! So, I headed up along the Pigeon River and made some photos of Partridge Falls bathed in moonlight. What a great day for some early winter photography!