For about 2 weeks centered roughly around September 7th or so, the sun sets on an angle on the horizon out over Lake Michigan that makes for a nice 300 mm composition with the sun setting between the towers. If you get a good day with sufficient mist in the air out over the lake, the sun is sufficiently attenated when it's at a low angle on the horizon to shoot straight into the sun without getting lens flare.

BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN LOOKING THROUGH A TELEPHOTO AIMED AT THE SUN!!!!

Here's one shot from last year and a few from this year's visual sunset feast at St Joe!



The image bove is titled, "Cirrus Sunset." THe one below got the title, "Firey Climax" as it was just that, a firey climax to a beautiful day to be at the lake!



This next image was shot the same evening as "Firey Climax" but the after the sun was down considerably hence the title, "Softer Light."



One last photo came from this past Monday evening. The sky was heavily clouded making it not the day to be at the beach to photograph a sunset. Sometimes though, good things come to those who wait for the light....

The sun sank down through the bottom of a cloud layer far out over the lake and for about 2-3 minutes there was a glorious red/orange ball that was the sun sinking through the otherwise uniformly blue sky. The lake was almost dead calm - rare for the area north of the north pier at St Joe and the the outer light was blinking on and off, adding it's own reflection to the evening spectacle.



I hope folks enjoy these. There are more on my website at http://www.coastalbeacons.com

Gary

Gary,

It's nice to see a post from you! Seems like it's been a while.

I love the 2003 sunset shots of St. Joe's. Firey Climax is spectacular. How are you going to top these in 2004???

Tammy

As usual, Gary, lovely photos! :-)

Seems like I saw that one somewhere else?? Again I say GREAT WORK Gary!!

Gary it's sure nice to see some of your new photo's. Your work is always an enhancement to the collector forums.

I wish I lived a little closer to attend your art show in October.

Bud, I'm sure you saw the photo of St Joe that started this thread either on here or one of the other websites... probably Shutter City. The other sunset photos are only a week old so unless you've been on one of the other lighthouse photos in the past couple of days, you haven't seen them.

Hi Lorie, bummer that you won't make it to Kazoo for the gallery reception.

Tammy, as for topping these in 2004, depends on what Mother Nature serves up during the storm season this fall and in the spring! If she's as good to me in the coming year as she has been this past year, I won't have a thing to complain about! I got to shoot some very high contrast backlighted wave photos within the last 10 days that are spectacular. I'll try to get another thread posted with a couple of those on it later tonight or tomorrow.

Gary

Tammy,

As for topping what I've posted on this thread, there's a pair of recent wave photos on a thread I just posted, and you can try the following link:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?B66322565

"Two Seconds in Time"

I think you'll enjoy it. If you're on a dialup, this is graphics intensive and the file you're loading is 565 Kbytes so give it time to finish loading - it will come up in a separate window and will cycle until you click the back button.

Gary

Loved the photos -- loved that animation!

Thanks for sharing, as always.

Nice job, Gary, as usual!

Stunning as always!

Fantastic photography, Gary!

Bob

Thanks again, all.. it's nice to be able to share it with others who love lighthouses!

Some killer light. I need to go back again.. I got some good stuff at Pt. Arena last week-end. I met the Lighthouse keeper, so got to get in after hours. I would like to go back again in a few weeks. I will make him a sunset photo. When you out west again?