A couple more shots I took a couple weeks ago on a chilly but beautiful enening at St. Joe, Michigan.

This shot came immediately to mind when a couple people mentioned composition for a magazine cover shot. For this one I wanted to get a lot of the detail of the ice, and some of the clouds at the top of the frame (of which I trimmed a good bit out of this crop). This leaves plenty of room for headline and text on the side. I may just submit this one.




This one is pretty self explainatory, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. I really had to do some contorting on the ice to get it.





And this shot is just to show you I wasn't the only fool out there freezing my butt off for a shot. But I felt like a true student of Gary's when I looked around and saw that out of the 4 photographers that were there when I arrived, I was alone for the last 45 minutes or so.

Hate to bring my own topic to the top, but I was looking for some critique on the second picture. I was hoping to get more of the light itself in the frame, but the way I was situated I just couldn't. Of course now that I have my shiny new 19-35mm lens I could do it, but that's the way it goes. So let me know what you think, and especially what I could have done better.
Thanks

That second shot is a difficult one to do with the lighthing. Opening up a stop and the tower gets better, but the sky might wash out.

This would be a good place for one of the graduated Neutral Density filters Gary has mentioned in the past. Set in a vertical position, it could have held back the sky while allowing the tower to brighten up.

Your super-wide Zoom would also give you some interesting images from way out there on the ice.

But I guess that's now something to put down in your PDA for 2004! The ice is probably too 'thin' now.

You probably needed to be on the other side of the tower for the right light, Mike! Yeah right! Looks like a job for photoshop. I like the shot of you kneeling in the snow. First look, I thought you were up to you waist in snow! lol

Beautiful pictures!

Little Traverse Bay is STILL covered with frozen ice... might be gone by 4th of July!

Calling for the "ICE BREAKER MACKINAW"

Actually Bob, that isn't me in the photo, I'm behind the camera (where I belong) . I saw that guy set up and thought I might be able to make a decent photo out of it.

I actually didn't think of using a grad ND on that middle shot, I wish I would have.

Speaking of the Mackinaw, I'd love to get a good photo of it in action sometime. I got a few of it in port at Charlevoix this winter, but it just isn't the same.... Saw one in the Leelanau county paper of it breaking ice around Northport and thought how great it would be to shoot that myself.

Nice shots Mike - unfortunately they brought back memories of my month long freeze (a.k.a. visit) to the Winter Wonder WASTELAND of Michigan last month. I was so cold during my photo visit to the Grand Haven Lighthouse that I couldn't feel my fingers and what I could feel of them was a piercing, throbbing pain that shot up my arm like flaming daggers. By the time I ran back to the truck I was in tears. It took 20 mins for me to get feeling back in my fingers. My finger tips hurt for three days after that. I could barely touch anything without a shooting pain that caused me to drop anything I might try to pick up! The experience scared me so bad that I didn't leave the hotel for a week! (That's why a Florida girl like me shouldn't visit cold states during the winter!)

They really are nice, but just not something I want to see right now. Give me about six months in the Hot Florida Sun and show them to me again - they will probably be the coolest pictures I've ever seen then. I do however like the color contrast in the third picture.

Wow, the things we'll do for an image.... Hope these didn't send you into a bout of post traumatic stress.

After this winter, I'd probably have a similar reaction to sunny skies and Florida temperatures. It would be a shock to my system.