Lake Superior

Thought I'd share a few photos that I took of Lake Superior this past weekend. These were taken along the shoreline about 10 minutes north of Pancake Bay. It was a pretty cool sight to see, with the snow & ice starting to pile up. The colours in the ice was also pretty wild, and totally unexpected. I'm hoping to make my way back there this weekend, to see how that last storm changed things. You can view larger versions on my Flickr site.

Looking out from within an ice cave


A view of the snow & ice starting to pile up


A snapshot of my friend Phil inside one of the ice caves, just to give a little bit of an idea of the size of them.

Yeah, that's pretty wild. Those blues are just gorgeous. Got any more?

I'm still going through a bunch, so there may be more that I may post, but these were my favourite ones. Here's one of some ice formations that looked pretty cool. I thought it looked like a jaw with teeth... I titled it "Winter's Bite"

This place seems made for colour. I'm too chicken to go into the woods.

Lk. Superior is made for Black and White photos in the winter. The bears are still sleeping- don't worry.

Bob

I had the day off, so I took a drive up north again. This time I kept going until I got to the Alona Bay scenic lookout. It was a little bit of a task getting down the steep drop-off to the shoreline, but the trouble was worth it. Here's one of the photo's:



Agawa_Bob made reference to black & whites, so I'll have to try converting some to see how they look. If I like the results, I'll post a few. Thanks for looking.

Agawa Bob is right. Winter scenes would especially look good in black and white. The quality of light and the winter scenes would produce very nice tones, especially on a big negative.

I do the opposite of most people. I like shooting colour in the winter and spring while I prefer black and white in the fall and summer. I have a hard time composing with colour - it introduces too many variables into my thought process. The more colourful a scene, the worse I do. I can see myself eliminating colour photography entirely.

Nando wrote:I can see myself eliminating colour photography entirely.

Ah--a great task for but one man.

Nice shots BJOT

I mean eliminating colour photography from my own shooting, of course... You can't shoot colour like you shoot black and white. One is like rugby, the other is like football. I don't like switching mindsets.

I like number three. The cave, or whatever that icy thing is, looks like a Van Gogh sky. The smooth snow covered ground like a smooth low-lying hills. Good opportunity to add a few more characters and/or objects to the scene to create a surreal Van Gogh-like composition.

Edit: Before Ken says anything, I'm thinking something Van Gogh's 'Field with Cypresses' or 'Two Women in the Moor'. Something like that.

I particularly like the one with your friend... Looks like it could be in a magazine! Or for the Mountain Coop Equipment catalog... since they use their member's photos for the catalog!

Anyhoo, it looks really good... We have been wanting to do the same thing, but just have not found the time (or motivation in my case) to go...

Still slowly sorting through all the photos taken in my last two outings... Here's a shot of an ice tunnel that I really liked. You can view this in full size on my Flickr site.

Oh yeah, and thanks everyone for taking the time to view and comment.

And one last shot from my Lake Superior set. Based on Agawa_Bob's comment about Superior in Winter being made for B&W, I thought I'd try it out. Here's my result:



I don't do a lot of B&W work, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to make some comments. Image can be viewed large from my Flickr site.

I like the black and white. The sky's a nice darkness. The snow has a nice silky feel.
I like the color ice shots also, but I think I like the 3rd one mainly because it really gives perspective to the size of these HUGE frozen water constructions.
That shark's mouth ice formation was another favorite.

I like the last B&W photo the best. The B&W conversion isn't too bad. My first instinct is to cut off the bottom half, however. Have you tried using a normal or telephoto for your landscapes?

Thanks for the feedback Colin. You're about the third person that has mentioned liking the shot with my buddy in the ice cave. It was honestly just a quick snapshot, as he was having a difficult time getting out. I took it just for a laugh.

Nando, I haven't really played around with the crop too much, but maybe I'll try a few different ones. At the moment, all I have is the Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-5.6 and the Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lenses. I've never tried shooting with the 50 for landscapes, so everything has been with the 18-70. I've always been drawn to the wide angle shots, and have a wide angle lens on my wish list as a result. I've never really thought about using a telephoto lens for landscapes, but I'm sure they have their place. Something to consider I guess. Thanks for your feedback as well.