I've been corresponding with the folks of the Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society the last two days. The lighthouse, which is presently owned by Huron County, is in need of extensive work and the Society is working to restore the lighthouse for its' upcoming 150th anniversary, which will be in 2007.

The Society's website is under construction but well worth a visit.

http://www.pointeauxbarqueslighthouse.org

While on a business trip to the Detroit area in April, 2001, I was able to add a few days to the back end of the trip to drive the Lake Huron shoreline up around Michigan's "thumb" which allowed me to visit and photograph the Pointe aux Barques lighthouse. Leaving Detroit that morning was another one of those days when I wondered what I was doing... We've all had them when we've gone lighthousing... Grey, rainy, overcast and generally miserable for photography, or so I thought. This is another case, however, when perserverance paid off! About the time I got to Pointe aux Barques that afternoon, the sky cleared, and the light for photography was wonderful!

This first part of photos is the view when I got there that afternoon.





After driving into Port Austin to find a motel and get something to eat, I drove back to the lighthouse to photograph it in the late afternoon light.







Photographing Pointe aux Barques in the evening is quite a challenge because of the trees around it and the fact that it sits on the "Sunrise Shore" of Lake Huron and not the sunset side. I did, however, get one nice shot of it in the warm twilight that I was happy with.



Those shots finished day 1 and this first of two parts on my first photographic visit to Pointe aux Barques. The sunrise shoot the next morning follows.

Gary

Morning, the second day.

After a great night's sleep after my long driving day, I got up to a cold, crisp, frosty morning with the temperature before dawn hovering somewhere in the vicinity of 15-20 degrees. I drove back to the lighthouse for a dawn photo shoot! (Nobody along to photograph napping, Dave, sorry!)

The predawn light that morning was spectacular, allowing me to get some great silhouette shots of the lighthouse at dawn through the still leafless trees.



A brisk walk from west of the lighthouse to a vantage point to the south of it gave me another shot in the dawn light.



As the sun was rising, this last photo was shot in the warm gold light of what would turn out to be a beautiful and once again long driving day.



After I finished photographing at Pointe aux Barques that morning, I went back into Port Austin, had breakfast, checked out of the motel, took some 600 mm shots (300 mm + 2X teleconverter - I didn't have the 500 mm monster along that trip) of the Port Austin reef lighthouse and then started driving. Around Saginaw Bay to Sturgeon Point, and then I made a mad dash across the state after deciding to photograph Little Sable at Sunset! I made it with about 20 minutes to go until the sunset and as this last photo shows, it was worth the mad dash!



One of the things that I like about living here in Michigan, is that if you really want to, you can do lighthouse photography on both the sunrise and sunset sides of the state in the same day! Hope everyone enjoys this little photo odyssey.

Gary

Point aux Barques is a very nice light in a great setting. I believe it was the first lighthouse we specifically set out to see (the beginning of the fall into obsession...). The blue sky in the second picture is a very interesting shade. Thanks for sharing, Gary.

Dave

That blue was courtesy of a color intensifying polarizer, Dave. I'm not sure that I like the effect all that much, but it was one of those things I had to try.

Pointe aux Barques would make a great HL, IMO at least!

Gary

Gary, As usual your pictures are absolutley fantastic. What a beautiful light and setting. Now if HL could only capture the sky along with the light.

Bert

Excellent images Gary. I think my favorite of the two are the wide left to right shots. The first is the Fisheye shot at the very top with the real blue sky and waves. The other would be the similar image with the pink morning light. Nice job with all the images. JB

If anyone is interested, the images shown on this thread are also contained in a new Pointe aux Barques photo gallery on my website:

http://66.216.33.125/Pointe%20aux%20Parques/PointauxBarques1.html

Along with links to the Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse Society's webpage.

Gary