Joel Dinda's photos with the keyword: empire

I was working with a colleague yesterday when I noticed the picture beside the printer. Lacking a real camera, I whipped out my Treo and captured it with my telephone. The photo reminded me of a similar pic by Brian H , and of one of mine I'd not yet posted. The bluff in the background, here, is Sleeping Bear. Used to have a boss, Jeff Villaire, who vacationed at Michigan's Crystal Lake, spending two weeks every summer on the edge of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Jeff passed away several years ago, but his memory lives on in the office with the photographs he used to decorate the place.

Below Empire Bluff , Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The most impressive structure I've ever found on a beach. Flickr has photographs of this construction dating back some time . It's obviously important to someone.

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Lake Michigan.

Dunes on the left; Lake Michigan on the right, with a skinny beach between. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

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

Empire Bluff, above Empire, Michigan, looking toward Empire, the Sleeping Bear Dune, and Pyramid Point. Taken, I think, in 1998. A few months ago, Brian H speculated that he wasn't likely the only person who'd photographed this tree . I assured him he wasn't. Reasonably sure I shot this with the Nikon N90s. Posting this old and rather poor scan because of the next photo I'm posting . Someday I'll locate the original, and post a decent scan....

In Lake Michigan. The beach below Empire Bluff, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

A version of one of the world's standard photographs : Sleeping Bear Dune through this dead tree from the boardwalk at the top of the Empire Bluff. The tree's definitely a mere shadow of its former self . Lake Michigan and South Bar Lake are visible; Empire Village is just this side of South Bar. And the glorious Empire beach runs along the shore. =================== Evidently the tree's damage was recent, and was deliberate vandalism. See 1Cher's comment , below, for more information. Sad.

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.....

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Certainly by now you know I like foggy days. That's Lake Michigan on your left.

From Empire Beach, Empire, Michigan. Lake Michigan to your right, with a bit of the ice sheet remaining.