Last Friday afternoon, I just had to take the afternoon off to go out to Lake Michigan. They were calling for waves in the 4-10 foot range from St Joe to Grand Haven. Well, suffice it to say that the waves didn't quite live up to the forecast but there was the occasional 7 footer that slammed into the end of the South Haven pier throwing a billow of spray to the top of the lighthouse and beyond. I ended up shooting that afternoon with Mike Hershberger, a photographer friend from Elkhart, Indiana. I banged off two rolls of slides, some at 300 mm, a lot with my 500 mm, and a few at 700 mm (500 mm f4 + 1.4X teleconverter). I was taking care of some other stuff this evening - returning a 20x30 photo of Cape Hatteras that I had done that normally hangs in the home of a friend here in Kalamazoo that had been on loan for my gallery show. I'll try and get some of the slides scanned and posted here tomorrow eveing.

Gary

OK,later than I expected, but here are some shots from South Haven last Fiday when I took the afternoon off. These first two photos were taken using my 500 mm f4 AFS Nikkor lens (aka "missle launch tube" according to DaveH) from up on the bluff in front of the church if you're familiar with the beach area in South Haven. If you're not familiar with the area, that translates to about 1/2 mile from the lighthouse. Vertically, these shots are full frame, they were just cropped some from the right and left sides. These first two photos were shot on Fuji Provia 400F professional slide film in the shutter priority mode at a shutter speed of about 1/1600th sec at f5.6 or so.





This last photo was shot using the 500 mm + a Nikkor TC-14E AFS 1.4X teleconverter on Fuji Provia 100F slide film. That translates to a 700 mm f5.6 lens with the teleconverter in place. This shot was taken at 1/500th sec f5.6. The full scanned dimensions of the slide are shown, nothing was cropped to give you an idea of the difference in magnification of the two lenses, compare the space above and below the lighthouse to the top/bottom of the frame. From a compositional standpoint, sometimes you get an interesting composition by locating the horizon either very low or very high in your frame. It's probably better to keep a slice of sky than none at all if that helps any of you in composing photos. I was quite pleased with the results I got with this teleconverter, which is fairly new. My older Tamron 1.4X AF teleconverter had some light fall off in the corners that this one doesn't have. If you shoot with Nikon gear and intend to buy a Nikkor teleconverter let me share the following tidbit of knowledge. Nikon makes two different types of teleconverters. One type (the TC-14E and TC-20E specifically) works with the newer AF-S I and AF-S II lenses and DOES NOT GIVE YOU AUTOFOCUS with the older AF-D lenses. The older Nikon teleconverter will work with the AF-S type lenses but doesn't give you full advantage of the autofocusing capabilities of these lenses. So, if you're going to go that route, make sure you know what you're buying before you do so. Aside from the light falloff that I noted above with my older Tamron AF teleconverters on my fast 500 mm f4 lens, they're good pieces of equipment and considerably cheaper than the Nikon version(about half the price of the Nikon).



I'm sort of inclined to title this last shot "Neptune's Fingers" as the fingers of water coming up almost give the impression of the fingers of a giant hand reaching up out of the lake... but then again, it's getting late... Anyway...

Enjoy!

Gary

Fantastic shots Gary!
You out did yourself on this one.
Rick

I have to say Gary - it was easier to send my vote in to Bill H for my favorite HL's than it would be for my favorite "Gary" pictures. Please don't ever ask us to pick our favorites - we may have to send you back the whole list of pictures with #1's written infront of each one!

I'm starting to feel like a parrott when I see your pictures. . . "Beautiful Gary, Beautiful!" *Ark* "Polly want a cracker?" :p

Gary,

I have to agree with BonnieJean! With all those #1's on your pictures how would we ever pick out the best. They're all good!

Having said that! How were you ever able to pick out the picture of Grand Haven for the 100 pictures. Everyone that has seen it here thinks it's absolutely fabulous. I can tell you that I'm glad you chose it, but from all the good pictures you have, it had to be very difficult. THANKS!

Bert

I sat down with the slides after sleeving them Bert at a light box and pulled a couple that jumped up and screamed "scan me!" the loudest. There are a couple of posts last month to this forum. The following URL takes you to one of them that contained the image that became the fundraiser print:

http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/cgi-bin/forumscgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=40;t=000186

There are some wave photos and spectacular sunset images on another thread on here at:

http://www.lighthousekeepers.com/cgi-bin/forumscgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=40;t=000187

The choice, however, was entirely John's from the photos that were posted on those two threads. I think he chose very well!

There are a very large number of other slides from that shoot that I have yet to scan. There may be some other real gems in there that I just haven't really completely seen. I guess time will tell.

Gary

Late Wednesday a Low Pressure sstem will form over the Great Lakes. On Thursday afternoon, winds will begin to pick up over Lake Michigan. I don't have estimates yet, but expect big waves on Lake Michigan on Thursday Night into Friday. Watching Fox news, the pressure gradients (Isobars?) were very close together, much like it was for that gale we had Last November. Hopefully we can see some of the 8-12 footers we did last year. The wind will be running the length of the lake, North to South. I guess I will cross my fingers and likely head out to Grand Haven Friday Morning.

JB

Tomorrow Morning they are expecting 6-9 foot waves on Lake Michigan diminishing to 5 footers later in the day. I will be out there and if anyone heads up to Grand Haven, look for the guy with the N65. Best of luck, and BE SAFE!
JB

WoW this is kewl... Thanks for sharing....