If at First You Don't Succeed...

Work has started up for me back in Michigan, but thankfully the marina where I work closes at 6, which means I have plenty of time to go out and take pictures (the sun doesn't set here until almost 9:30). On the other hand, it means less time to be out shooting and (more importantly) processing pictures, so blog posts may be slightly spaced out now. And of course, there are some days when I just don't have the motivation to go out and shoot. Right now, for instance, I'm watching one of the most spectacular sunsets I've seen since I got back from my window, but I honestly just didn't have the energy to lug all my camera gear out to the other side of the county and photograph it. The fact that it's about 50 degrees out and windy doesn't help matters. 

All pictures in this post were taken with an Olympus E-620 and Zuiko 9-18mm f/4-5,6 or 70-300mm f/4-5,6

Whaleback

I've been out twice since my last post, with mixed results. My first trip was to Whaleback Park, a hiking trail relatively close to my house. It got its name for the distinctive shape of the ridge, which, somewhat predictably, looks strikingly like the profile of a whale. It's one of my favorite trails in Leelanau County, both for the stunning overlook, and for the beauty of the woods that cover it. The ascent is typical beech-maple forest, but the vegetation at the top has a much different feel, probably because of the strong winds coming off the lake; the trees are spaced farther out, and there's a very soft-looking meadow of grass beneath. It's really a very ethereal feeling in the spring and summer, especially with the evening light filtering through the trees.

Softly

Where does it go?

To me, the little path through the trees reminded me of some scene from a fantasy novel- it really had a very mysterious quality.

Pink Fringe

And of course there was some nice flower life underneath the canopy.

Sentinels

Harebell

My real intent for the day, though, was to get down to the beach below the bluff, to do some long exposure wave photography; Whaleback is one of the few beaches on the western coast of Leelanau that has rocks, rather than just pure sand- more fun for long exposure shots, if less fun for swimming. 

I should add in a word of caution here: the beach below Whaleback is very difficult to get to, and most people do it by way of an eroded gully below the overlook area. This is not only dangerous, but it's very harmful to the ecosystem on the bluffs, and more importantly fosters erosion on the very fragile bluff area. Not only that, but it's a very, very steep and unpleasant hike back up. I made the descent via an out-of-the-way path that I discovered last summer that takes me to a much less impacted part of the bluff, but that path is rather sketchy and leads past what I'm pretty sure is a hobo camp- not exactly the best place to spend a lot of time. There are much better swimming beaches nearby, which are much more accessible. I wouldn't recommend anyone try and make the descent, unless they're taking pictures and really sure the results will be worth it. 

To that end, this particularly outing was not quite as successful as I had hoped. I made the typical photographer's mistake of not checking conditions, and the day was fairly hazy without any good clouds to make sunset interesting. Moreover, I didn't find as many good compositions on the rocks as I expected to, and even more fatally, I had forgotten to check my camera battery, which ran out just as soon as the sun set. Overall, lots of stupid mistakes that kind of messed up the plans I had.

This was the one good picture I managed to get out of it... Not great, but not too bad. Overall, it was a rather disappointing end to the night. I just put this picture up for a little bit of self-critique... and also because I scrambled all the way up that damn bluff, so I might as well get something out of it.

Peterson Park

But, I guess the whole point of making mistakes is to learn from them. So the next day, I made another trip to the beach, this time to Peterson Park, another one of my favorite picture places, a fair ways north of me. Peterson Park is far more accessible than Whaleback, given that there's a stairway down to the beach, not a sketchy-looking sand cliff. The beach is somewhat different, as well, but in this case, I kind of like it a bit more. The conditions were also a hell of a lot better, with clear skies, and cool clouds. I do wish they had stayed away from the horizon a bit more, but hey, you can't have everything.

Hide and Seek

Orange and Blue

 As most of you have probably already noticed, I often like a vertical "portrait" format for landscapes, as opposed to the traditional horizontal "landscape" composition. In most of these cases, it's because I feel like watery scenes like this one benefit from as much forward-backward perspective as possible, adding to the drama. It's also in part because my cheapo filter holder intrudes on the image rather badly when the camera is in horizontal format, meaning I have to zoom in a little bit, losing a lot of the important wide-angle perspective. Most inconvenient.

Finale

Coda

In all, I'd say I'm much happier with these images. It's kind of nice to know I can learn from my mistakes, at least partially. Hope everyone enjoyed this post! Comments and critiques are always welcome.

-Forest

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