I love living close enough to several of the lights on Lake Michigan that I can jump in the car and drive out to photograph the sunset on a whim. Last night was another such evening for me... the target this time was the twin lights on the north pier at St Joseph. Every six months for a couple of days, the sun sets so that you can line it up between the inner and outer light with a fairly long telephoto. Last night, it split the uprights, so to speak.

The start of the show...



...sinking a little further...



...and as the sun sank slowly in the west...



These photos were all taken on Fuji Velvia slide film using a 300 mm lens. I've got the exposure data if anyone would like to know what it was.

ONE NOTE OF CAUTION!!!

When shooting into the sun with a long telephoto lens...
DO NOT look directly through the lens!!! That's like putting a magnifying glass to the retina of your eye... not a good thing to be sure!!!

Hope everyone has a great and especially safe Labor Day weekend.

Gary

A little earlier last night...



This photo was also shot on Fuji Velvia but using an 80-200 mm f2.8 lens rather than the 300 mm.

Gary

Beautiful, Gary, Beautiful!!

Suzanne murphy

Thanks, Suzanne!!!

Here's one last one for this evening...



Gary

Beautiful pictures Gary. Thanks for sharing.

Great shots Gary. Thanks for posting

It's not the living close to the shore that's not fair. Lots of people live near a shore. It's all that photography talent in one person, Gary.

Oh Man! Those wore ALL GREAT! Any one of them would have won the Photo Contest!!!!!!!!!!!

OH WOW!!! Really terrific photo's, thanks for sharing and keep them coming...

Great pictures Gary! We know how great these lake sunsets are. We love being in our boat, on the lake, when the sun sets at the Michigan City government pier lighthouse.

J & M

Thanks all for the kind compliments on these shots. I enjoy being able to share them with folks on here. As for the talent, John, we all use what we have, I've been fortunate to learn to couple my photography talent with my passionate love of lighthouses!

Gary

Beautiful photos Gary!

Jeff would like to know what the exposure data was for those pictures.

Keep up taking those great photos. Thanks for sharing.

Mary and Jeff

Gary, your photos are beautiful as per usual. I really liked the one entitled " a little earlier last night". The reflection on the water from the light and especailly in the forground really captured my attention. One can only hope to learn what you have so succesfully mastered! Thanks!

Bert

Gary -

Beautiful pictures - thanks for sharing with us!! I just love looking at your pictures!

Eskilady

Great shots, Gary! Thanks for sharing them with us.

Bob

OK, Mary, here's the exposure and other photo techno stuff for Jeff.

All of the photos were shot using one or the other of my Nikon F5's and all were shot on Fuji Velvia professional slide film.

Going down this thread as the images were posted:

1) The exposure was 1/13th sec at f11, 300 mm Nikkor f4 lens with the scene matrix metered.

2) 1/60th sec, f4, same 300 mm lens, matrix metred.

3) This was a longer exposure of 1.3 sec at f32 using the 300 mm lens, matrix metered.

4) This photo was shot at 1/160th sec, f4, at 145 mm using a Nikkor 80-200 mm f2.8 lens, matrix metered.

5) The last shot posted was 1/13th sec, f11, Nikkor 300 mm f4 lens, matrix metered.

All of the shots were taken off a Bogen 3021 Pro tripod with a Bogen 3037 pan/tilt head and an MC20 digital cable release.

Hope this helps some.

Gary

Bert,

The shot that you liked requires there to be a fair amount of atmospheric haze and related garbage (aka pollution I suspect) out over the lake and the sun has to sink down into it to some degree or you'll get lens flare when you're shooting straight into the sun. If you look at the shot, you'll notice that the sun is haloed, which is from the atmospheric haze out over the lake. When you meter this sort of shot, you want to let your camera read the bright reflection on the surface of the water. Aim your lens there if you don't have a camera that lets you reposition the focus/metering areas and watch the readings as a bunch of waves lap the beach. What you're basically trying to set up is a proper reflection on the spot where the light dazzles off the surface of the water. That exposure will throw the lighthouse into a silhouette for you which is pretty much what you'll have to live with. Start adjusting either your aperature or shutter speed until when the light is at its peak you've got an exposure reading on your meter that is what you feel is right. When you start, you're going to be over or under exposed most of the time. It's pretty much dumb luck as to where you start. Then start making your adjustments. For my shot, I was at 1/160th of a sec at f4. At that point, recompose your image and wait until you get the kind of light developing from a wave coming in that you want and shoot. I'd bang off a couple of frames just to be on the safe side. I ended up shooting 3 frames with that set up and all 3 had identical exposure settings. All of them were properly exposed. You never know until you get the slides back which one will look the best. So happens for me it was the middle one of the 3 but there's no way to predict that. Hope this helps you some. These really aren't tough shots to take once you know how to meter them properly.

Gary

Thanks everybody for the compliments on these photos. I certainly enjoy taking them and being able to share them here with all of the rest of the lighthouse wackos.

Being a confirmed lighthouse photo junkie of the worst kind, I was back out at St Joe's again last Saturday night. I wanted to shoot again with the sun between the two lights before it drifted farther south on the horizon where it sets, which would mean waiting another 6 months until it was coming back north again. As it was, waited a year for this opportunity, so when it was nice Saturday I just HAD to go back out to St Joe's with my cameras. That said, I'm driving the slide scanner tonight and there will be some additional shots coming either later tonight or tomorrow. I hope all of you enjoy those that are coming as much as the ones that I've posted on this thread.

Gary

Outstanding photos Gary. Thanks for sharing.

Dan