Those who know me fairly well know that I'm not bashful about going out with my cameras in weather that keeps a lot of photographers sitting in front of the fireplace. Saturday, November 30th was such a day! A great day as far as I was concerned... sustained 30-40 mph winds from the northwest gusting to 60+, horizontal sleet, and best of all, 12-16 foot waves on Lake Michigan. That was irresitable as far as I was concerned so off to the lake I went. There have been a few still photos posted on here from what I shot at South Haven and St Joseph that afternoon. I've just added a new page to my website that has 4 animated GIF's on it, three from that day, showing what it was like as those big waves broke over the lights at South Haven and St Joe's. The other was on a bright sunny day, September 10th, 2001 when big waves left over from a storm the night before pounded the pier at South Haven all afternoon.

http://66.216.33.125/Storm_animation.html

These files are graphics intensive and the GIF animations range in size from ~210 - 660 Kbytes so if you're on a dialup modem, please be patient for them to load. I think you'll enjoy them when you get to see them.

Enjoy!

Gary

Very Cool, Gary. Thanks for showing those!!

Very nice Gary. Thanks for sharing.

Great work, Gary!

Bob

Great pictures, Gary.

Love that animation part. It really gives more of a perspective on what the waves do as they crash over the breakwater. Really great! Thanks for sharing.

Bert

I had one roll of Provia-100F that needed push processing that I held until I had a couple more rolls to have push processed. (It's $5 for the 1 stop push on the processing time for 1 roll or 6 so, with atypical patience, I waited until I have 5 rolls that needed pushed!) Anyway, this shot of wave swept St Joe was taken during the gale the weekend after Thanksgiving. This was shot late in the afternoon... the light was failing, shutter speeds that I could use were falling and all the rest of the caveats that go with that, but in any case I did get some good shots off that roll. That has to have been one of the most challenging shooting days I've had in some time. Gale force winds gusting to 60+ and intermittant horizontal sleet. The right side of me, the camera and the lens were all ice crusted by the time I left to go back to the car. This was a photo experience that I'll certainly remember for a very long time!



Gary

That's really cool. Last night at the start of our blizzard here in Portland, Maine, Ram Island Ledge light was getting hammered by the waves. It's amazing how much of a pounding these lights can take.

Another fantastic shot, Gary!

Hey Bill, did you take any photos?

Bob

Just viewed the pictures, awesome! Really shows what the lighthouses are all about. Great shots. Did you have a zoom lens, or were you able to get near enough to take those shots?

Being extremely familiar with Tiscornia Park, I'm getting a really nice chuckle ( ROTFL ) out of the idea of Gary getting close enough to the pier to take that last photo without a zoom lens.

The photo, above, along with another one of Gary's great shots, were two of my Christmas presents this year...and are proudly displayed right next to my HL collection in my den.

Get ready to laugh really hard.... I do sometimes go out on the piers on days like that gang. Definitely a place you're going to get soaked with freezing cold water and very definitely a place where you have to pay very close attention EVERY second you're out there as it is very dangerous. Some of my shots of South Haven of big waves breaking over the light on the south pier were shot from out near the end of the north pier on days like this. On the other hand, you really never need to worry about people wandering in and out of your photos on days like that!

Gary

Gary, I didn't mean any disrespect by my chuckle. I was laughing at the idea of where you would've had to stand/float to take that exact shot without a zoom.

Oh I know what you meant... I just want to make the point that occasionally I do venture out onto the piers even on days like the one when this shot was taken. I was, in fact, out on the pier that day but of course you're right, I'd have to either float or be in a low flying chopper ala Guichard to get the shot that I did without a long lens. In actual fact, that shot wasn't taken with a zoom but rather with a 300 mm f4 fixed focal length lens.

Gary

Great work Gary!!! Thanks!