I haven't been doing much lately in the line of photo stops for those headed up to Door County to do some lighthousing/photography in conjunction with Rosemont this June, so I figured it was time for another insatllment or two. The first two, Manitowoc and Two Rivers were posted on this forum some time ago for those interested.

As you head north from Two Rivers, you can either opt to stay on Wisconsin 42 (that would be a mistake) or, just past the grocery store you can follow County "O" and head to Point Beach State Park where the Rawley Point light is located. When you get there, it's a good idea to just pay the $25 out of state annual park fee and avoid having to pay at Eagle Bluff later. After a couple of times in and out of the parks ($7/visit if I remember correctly) you're ahead of the game.

The Rawley Point light is located just beyond the entry station. There's a storage locker for campground firewood and a trail that goes off into the pines just to the right of it. If you take that trail about 20 yards or so you get a great view of the Rawley Point light to your right. It takes a fairly wide angle lens to get all of the light in the viewfinder from here as you're not that far away.



This is also an excellent place to shoot the light from at night...



This shot was taken on Fuji Provia 400F slide film using an 80-200 mm f2.8 Nikon lens on my N90 body. It was shot at the meter reading. I metered the image as it was framed at 200 mm when the light swept through the field of view, adjusting the exposure reading on several successive passes until I was getting what indicated as a correct exposure. The bright light from the lens, correctly exposed, guaranteed that the sky would be black and, since this was shot at about 10 PM, it should have been. The exposure was only about 1/30th of a sec at f2.8 or something like that. With a slower lens, if you try to duplicate this shot, you'll have more rotation of the beam. The alternative would be to try to shoot this using 800 speed print film if you want to try to get a photo like this.

If you follow the trail that you're on down toward the beach, there are additional views of the Rawley Point light. The CG station is closed to visitors!

The shot below was taken from down on the beach looking back up through the tall grasses. It was intetionally setup with the lens at f2.8 so that the lighthouse would be soft and somewhat out of focus, with the grasses sharply focused to show details.



If you drive up the main park road to the first road to the right, which I believe leads back to a picnic area, you get another but somewhat longer view of the light. The shot below was taken with a 300 mm lens and a polarizer to deepen the sky somewhat.



Those are a couple of ideas for photo ops of the Rawley Point light. I'll probably camp there in June for a night or two. I want to get a sunrise silhouette shot of the light. I'll post that when/if I get what I'm after. Anyone in the area the early part of that week is welcome to join me for a sunrise photo shoot at Rawley Point light.

I'll continue with Installment #4 devoted to the Kewaunee Light next. When you leave Point Beach, instead of turning left to go back into Two Rivers, turn right instead. County hwy O will meander north through the woods for a while and then do a hard (very hard) left, becoming County hwy "V" in the process. Follow that back out to Wisconsin 42 and turn right. Saves you about 15 mintues of back tracking relative to going back into Two Rivers...




[This message has been edited by lighthouse_photo (edited 03-11-2002).]