Maelstrom: n. def: a violent or turbulent situation.

The word maelstrom is defined as a violent or turbulent situation. Example, last Saturday at the St Joseph North Pier on Lake Michigan. The winds were a constant 30-40 mph with gusts to 60. The waves were 11-16 feet according to the near shore forecast. The temperature was in the upper teens. There was horizontal sleet... just all the great stuff to make for a memorable photographic outing! John Black, aka JWB was being pessimistic on his chances for getting some decent photographs from Saturday at Grand Haven on the other thread where we started this discussion. I don't know what you got, John, but here's the first shot I scanned this evening from St Joe taken around the same time you were shooting at GH. Suffice it to say that this one's a "keeper" IMO!

Maybe the best part is that I've got 3 more boxes of slides to sift through from that outing.



If anyone is curious about the phototechie stuff, this was shot with one of my Nikon F5's using a Nikkor 300 mm f4 AF-S lens on Fuji Provia 400F professional slide film. The camera was in Shutter priority mode at a shutter speed of 1/800th of a sec with an aperature for this shot of f 6.3. By the time I was done shooting, my right side, the right side of the camera and lens body were all encrusted with ice. On days like this, I shoot high speed film and shoot handheld. The buffeting of the wind makes using a tripod about impossible. I would suggest leaving it in the car!

I'll add more to this later but wanted to at least share one of these shots with the wackos and photo wierdos (I guess I'm leading that parade for being out there to shoot this in the first place?) here on the lighthouse photographpy forum.

Gary

I'm sort of inclined to title this pair of shots "Going" and "Gone!"





Gary

All hail King Gary, our mildly insane, usually soggy leader. I'll follow you anywhere, man.
I'll get my prints back today from last week at GH & St. Joe, so we'll see if I got anything like these.
I was surprised you don't like to use a tripod on these days, I'd think you'd want all the support you can get. When it's this windy I keep mine low and either kneel or sit in a low folding chair I carry around. Of course my hands are a little shaky on a regular day, (I know not good for my career, but I hold my weapon firmer than my camera ), but I was able to keep the tripod fairly stable. I guess I'll find out for real when I get my pics back. I'll be sure to post any keepers here.

Hey Mike, the best part about being insane is that once you know you are and accept it, you can really enjoy yourself without worrying about what anyone thinks about what you do. As for usually soggy... more or less on Saturday if you count my right side and the right side of the camera and lens being coated with ice. And nope, definitely NO TRIPOD! Why bother, I was shooting at 1/800th of a sec at f5.6 to f6.3 without any problem. That's more than fast enough to handhold my 300 mm!

One last time with feeling tonight, and then, That's All Folks!

Gary,

Sane or insane, your pictures are great. LOVE that wave action! Really like the first and the fourth. Thanks for sharing.

Bert

Hi Gary, ...I must say the addition of the Lighthouse Photography forum was a great one. I do enjoy reading your posts and seeing the wonderful photos you post. They make me want to pull my old gear out of storage and fire up my Canon A-1 again with my bag full of lenses and accessories.

Like many photographers, I chose to take the easy route and shifted my focus to automatic cameras a few years back. I was getting tired of carrying the "big bag" around. It just seemed so much easier to carry the Pentax 38-200 zoom camera and the Olympus D-460 digital camera. They are small enough to fit in the pocket of my coat. I can easily hide them in the storage compartments of the Corvette. No place to hide the "big bag" in there. They are easy to use and yield good results. Maybe it's time to make a change back to the old ways?

Bob

Great shots Gary! I'm so glad that you guys were out there that day so we could all see what it was like! Can't wait to see everyone else's photos!

Nice shots Gary,

I ended up with some shots that were ok, but after shot 4 they were not worth keeping. I think the photos are telling more of the weather than of the lake. The wind was wicked and the tripod was useless. After the snow hit the lens, the rest of the shots were blurry. Here were the first four. All within a couple minutes of one another(look at the people on the pier). Clear to snow. First three are of the light, last one was where I turned around to shoot the snow fences designed to keep the snow from drifting.

The last three photos were very grey, but I boosted saturation and dropped the brightness to help show what the scene looked like. After shot 4, nothing else was worth keeping as the snow froze to my UV filter. If nothing else, it is indicative of the fury of a great lakes storm.
JB

I think the second shot gives a good feel of the terrible weather (as far as I can tell, since I wasn't there). There's still enough detail from the lighthouses to keep the focus there. IMO as long as you get one or two good shots the day was worth it.

Very nice shots, guys!! Gary not a good day to be out on the pier? I hope to be squared around here by the middle of Jan. so I can get back up for some winter shots. Life has been WAY too busy here the last month or so.