Lake Michigan

The remnant of Manistique's old railroad ferry dock gives a bit of historical context to some brand-new condominiums. I'm no fan of waterfront condos; in general, they ruin historic waterfronts. But that doesn't mean I won't buy one when I retire. The railroad ferry mostly connected the Manistique and Lake Superior Railway with the Ann Arbor in Elberta , but for a time it also had a Pere Marquette connection at Northport . The railroad failed in 1968. As recently as 1992, the ferry dock was pretty much intact .

Shot across Traverse Bay on my birthday last winter. Sometime this evening the counter on my photo stream will top 100,000. Thanks to everyone who stops by. I'm grateful for the attention. Explored! [#447 on Friday, August 17, 2007.] Thanks! (No longer in the top 500.)

Explored! [#: 266 on Sunday, August 12, 2007.] Thanks! (No longer in the top 500.) Charlevoix, Michigan, right by the harbor light . If you look carefully, you can see open water on Lake Michigan, beyond the ice sheet and below the horizon. Just barely visible....

Shot from the breakwater at the end of the channel at Muskegon, looking at the small beach within the larger breakwater which protects the harbor. I particularly like the peculiar clouds, which are probably more visible in the larger sizes. It was a glorious day at the beach.

Explored (#51 on Wednesday, September 19, 2007). Thanks! (No longer in the top 500.)

Best LARGE . My father walked beaches, so I grew up walking beaches. Mom would pack a lunch, we'd pile in the car and head to South Haven or St. Joe or wherever. We'd walk, sometimes for hours. Then for a long time I didn't walk beaches. Now I walk beaches again, though not as often as I'd like. This one happens to be Muskegon State Park. Explored (#50 on Wednesday, September 19, 2007). Thanks! (No longer in the top 500. Explore is mysterious.)

Muskegon, Michigan. Best LARGE . Explored (#60 on Wednesday, September 19, 2007). Thanks! (No longer in the top 500. So it goes....

Explored (111 on Wednesday, September 19, 2007). Thanks! (No longer in the top 500. So goes Explore.) Wilfred Sykes ( again ) and an array of pleasure craft about to clear the Muskegon breakwater. Sykes will shortly be turning south, likely for one of the steel mills in northern Indiana. This photo works quite well in the larger sizes ....

Now a NOAA facility, as the sign over the door shows. Apparently this color scheme restores the original, though the materials have changed. Another photo from our Muskegon visit a couple weekends ago. A quick web search demonstrates that this century-old building's had several paint jobs.

We generally head north for Joan's birthday. We've stayed in several towns over the years but Traverse City's been our usual landing place. By late September the bay's sails have mostly taken shelter, but the town's still host to many tourists. This view, from last fall's excursion, is from the Holiday Inn's waterfront. It captures much of what we like about Traverse City, and about northern Michigan in general.

Hoffmaster State Park, Norton Shores, Michigan.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Oh, I love it up here! Empire, Michigan; Lake Michigan to the right. Black & White version here .

Empire, Michigan. Same photo in color . Now you all probably think I shot this in color, then processed it to black & white. Not exactly. The camera's set to shoot in black and white, but Bibble (which I'm using to process the photos) is ignoring what's obviously a flag in the (Nikon RAW) file, so all my b&w pics look like color when I open them. So (generally speaking) I use a plug-in named Andy to convert the photographs back to what I intended. Except, sometimes, the color version's just impossible to ignore.....

That's Jay Burt , who was also taking photographs of the Point Betsie Lighthouse. Not something I'd want to do, but he does get camera angles most of us don't. Jay'd just been warning us about the ice overhangs; there wasn't anything underneath except water.

The Point Betsie lighthouse, north of Frankfort, Michigan. My favorite light, and the best set of photographs I ever took there. There's ICE beneath that snow, by the way. Shortly after shooting this photograph I took a little spill....