traverse of the grand sort

It's been a long time. I apologize. The bad news is that my laptop, a Toshiba Satellite A105 series, sadly met its maker last month, taking with it everything I had not yet backed up. Thankfully, that wasn't too much. The good news is that I was still under a service contract at Best Buy, Best Buy honoured the $1000 that I spent on Zorba almost three years ago, and gave me a credit. I used this towards a new MacBook, and I think we'll be very happy together. After two Toshibas with nearly identical demises (having to do with the power input), I am done with Toshiba. Since I was also done with HP, I narrowed my choices to either Sony or Mac, and I took the plunge and went Mac. It's really neat. I might write a whole blog about it on my other blog, but since this is about photos, let's pick up where I left off, shall we?

To refresh memories (yours and mine alike), when I last pblogged, I began pblogging my trip Up North--meaning to the northern half of Michigan. I covered Sleeping Bear Dunes, and now I'm on Traverse City and the surrounding area. Beautiful, beautiful places. See for yourself!


I thought this was a cool shot from downtown Traverse City. It's one of those obviously picturesque, old-fashioned downtown areas that I kind of love. I've been trying to develop a better eye for photographic patterns, and I like the lines in this shot. 1/80, f/11, ISO 200.


All over northern Michigan, the smell of Kilwin's fudge infiltrates said picturesque downtown areas. This is also something that I love. We stopped at Kilwin's more than once on that trip! I'm partial to the mint fudge, myself...such a delightful shade of sea foam green. 1/40, f/3.5, ISO 200. Shot through a glass display case with a circular polarizer.


I love a rich blue colour for the skies in my photographs, and I often underexpose a bit to get it. I didn't have to do a thing to this in Photoshop besides clone out a little dust speck and bring out the red in the chimney just a smidge. This is definitely one of my favourite shots from Day One of the trip. Oh right, the subject. It's Old Mission Lighthouse. We headed up the Old Mission Peninsula in late afternoon, with plans to photograph at the point and eat at the Peninsula Grill. We weren't sorry, because of shots like this, and also because of the potatoes at the Peninsula Grill. They were garlicky and buttery and full of potato goodness. I think they were the best potatoes I have ever had, and I've had a lot of potatoes. 1/80, f/11, ISO 200.


This might not be the best swimming water, but it makes for more interesting photo composition than your average sandy beach! Taken from just in front of the Old Mission Lighthouse, this is the northern end of the Grand Traverse Bay. 1/80, f/11, ISO 200.


Grand Traverse sunset...emphasis on grand! When we left the Peninsula Grill, we walked outside into one of the most beautiful sunsets I'd ever seen. So we got in my car and floored it back to the "scenic lookout" that we'd seen on the way up and managed to catch the tail end of the sunset. I don't often wish for a tripod, but I wish I'd had one for this shot so I could have used a lower ISO. The original is a bit noisy, but it reproduces well enough for web. 1/200, f/8, ISO 1600. Reds enhanced a bit in Photoshop to bring out the rays.

I hope it won't be too long before my next blog, but you never know, I guess. Next time: More from Up North, but from the Upper Peninsula.

up north

Michiganders refer to anything north of Clare as "Up North." It's just an unwritten rule. It's always capitalized, to the point that it's even pronounced with capitalization. In fact, Clare, although it is located right in the middle of the "hand" and just about as far as possible from any state or international borders, is home to a large "Michigan Welcome Center," right off of Highway 127, the main artery that bisects Michigan vertically. Kind of amusing.

Anyway, in June 2008, I went on my third trip Up North. It was my last trip Up North as a Michigander, taken just a couple of weeks before I moved back to Chicago. I was with four of my favourite road tripping buddies, and it was our annual birthday celebration, since four of us have birthdays between mid-May and mid-June.

Our first stop was Sleeping Bear Dunes, a national lakeshore located near the pinkie finger of Michigan's mitten, just west of the Traverse City area. After paying a nominal admission fee to enter the park (good for the weekend, although we had too much to do to go back), we took the scenic drive through the park. We didn't stop at every point of interest, although I think we hit the most important ones. It probably took about 2 hours in total, just because we stopped for quite a while at one of the turnoffs.


Our first view of the dunes and a spectacular vista with Lake Michigan in the distance. I love the way that the sky turned out in this photo.


Okay. Noted. I did not attempt to scale the bluff.


However, I did take a photo of others trying to scale the aforementioned steep bluff. This photo is as-shot. I promise, I didn't tilt it or take it from an odd angle to make it appear even steeper!


This view was worth the drive already, and this was only the first stop on the trip.

Up next: more from Up North!

hills of the irish kind

Goodness sakes. It's December 21st and this is my first post of the month. Things have been busy, to say the least. I finished my penultimate semester of my undergraduate degree, earning a 3.9 cumulatively in my 24 glorious credits. I'm never taking a legitimate double course-load again. What was I think when I signed up for that?!

Today's photoblog installment is from November 10. Jules, my best friend, and I went to the Irish Hills in southeastern Michigan. It's an area that was settled by many Irish immigrants, allegedly, because the rolling green hills reminded them of their home country. She's always wanted to go, and I'm always up for seeing something new, so we took a free Saturday and made the short trip. We were surprised at how kitschy-touristy it was. Most of the souvenir shops and "attractions" were closed, but I felt like we'd driven into a 1960s family vacation, complete with a giant statue of Paul Bunyan (not pictured) and wooden buildings labeled "saloon" and whatnot.

The area (as pictured) was beautiful. We first stopped at Wamplers Lake in Walter J. Hayes State Park, and then drove east on US-12 until we reached St. Joseph's Church, situated on the south bank of Iron Lake, and home to a memorial to the Irish Potato Famine. The experience marked an important step in my photographic experiments as I saw the advantage of using higher numbered f-stops for large subjects, like landscapes. It was cloudy, so I couldn't use the really high numbers without compromising ISO, but I was able to try shooting on 8 and 11. Since I'd mostly done sports photography with the camera up until this point, this was new and exciting for me.


Wamplers Lake in the State Park. 1/200, f/11, ISO 200.


Wamplers Lake. Jules and I had to laugh about the swan, because we had a hilarious experience with swans in Toronto in July. I'll share that story sometime. My short story about it is going to be published in my school's literary magazine this spring. 1/250, f/11, ISO 200.


Memorial to the Irish Potato Famine at St. Joseph's Church on US-12, east of Cambridge Junction, MI. 1/60, f/8, ISO 200.


Iron Lake behind St. Joseph's Church. I love the way that the sky was reflected in the lake. It was such a beautiful day. 1/80, f/8, ISO 200.


Iron Lake. I would love to live here, for about a weekend, and then I would start missing stoplights and convenience stores and highways. But it sure is pretty. 1/100, f/8, ISO 200.

Next up: probably another skating event, and then my trip to San Francisco.

michigan of the lake variety

I am so behind in photoblogging. My best friend, Emilie, updates her blog more than I do, and she's in Lesotho, without any regular internet access. Of course, Emilie is also talking to actual people when she blogs, people she will not see again until early 2010 at best. I am talking to myself. Of course, since I drive over an hour every day to commute to school and back, I talk to myself quite a bit. This is nothing new; it's just with pictures.

A few weeks ago, on my way back to Lansing from Chicago, I decided that I wanted to take photos of Lake Michigan. I got off of I-94 in southwestern Michigan and drove towards the lake. I ended up in one of those private, rustic communities, but rustic in the sense that they have a lot of "TOP SECRET PRIVATE DRIVEWAY" type of signs and strategically-placed fences, so you can't glimpse the lake for anything. I thought about hopping a fence, since most of the houses looked empty, but decided to just drive a bit further north in search of a public lake viewing area. I stumbled upon Warren Dunes State Park, a favourite weekend destination of many a Chicago-based youth group, including mine. I think I only went on the trip once, though. I'm not a big beach person. I am, however, big on photographing big lakes.


Big lake with little waves, taken while crouching down so waves look bigger. A little bigger. Maybe.


This probably breaks some rule of basic photography, but I love taking pictures of water into the sun. I love the glare.


Not the best picture in the world of a dune, but probably not the worst either. The small dots in the middle are cute kids that kept climbing up them just so they could run down. I don't think I ever had that kind of energy.

I've been a busy bee lately. I have photos from the Irish Hills to post, as well as ones from my Thanksgiving-break trip to San Francisco. I might post a few more skating ones in the near future, too.

animals and apples!

It's been a while. The month of October has been...well, let's just say that I'm glad to see it go. The University of British Columbia will receive my application to their MFA in Creative Writing program this Friday, providing that I don't drop the ball, and then, sometime after 3.30 Pacific Time on Friday afternoon, then and only then...I will breathe. I will probably also nap. And then I will have a better November.

So while I catch up on the photos I took in October, allow me to be a little random with tonight's post. I give you: animals! and apples!


About a month ago, two of my friends came to visit another friend and me in central Michigan. We went out Saturday night, and on our walk back to my friend's house, we sort of adopted these two adorable kittens. They just appeared lost, and they were so cute! When we woke up on Sunday morning, they were still there, sleeping under a bush in her front yard.


Awww, hand holding! The kittens, since no owner was found, are now living with a friend of aforementioned friend's dad. But sometimes, when I look at the pictures, I pretend they're mine. I've never had a pet.


Taken from the parking lot at Uncle John's Cider Mill in St. John, MI. I'm assuming this is where the apples come from, but I guess I could be wrong. We usually go straight inside the cider barn, so I've never ventured into the...what's the word for this? Orchard? Do people still say orchard? It sounds so very "Johnny Appleseed."


This is why Michigan's unemployment rate is so high! Who wants to work for a dollar an hour?!

Coming soon: sports. Lots and lots of sports. And maybe some music.

and so autumn begins

I celebrated the first week of autumn by taking some photos of my campus during one of my breaks. And if the past week is any indication of what is to come this semester, it may have been the first and last time for idle photography during the weekday.


After careful consideration, I decided that this tree, outside of the Kirk Center, was the best subject, with the greatest percentage of reddish leaves in direct sunlight.


I'm not sure how I feel about this one. The library is the most architecturally unique/kind of odd-looking building on campus, but it's difficult to get a good angle with a 50mm lens, because the square is so shady. Maybe I'll do better in winter. I finally settled for using the tree branch to accent the photo, but I'm not sure about the contrast of it, and then of course, there's the fact that it looks a lot like a creepy branch hand. Don't look at this for too long if you're prone to nightmares.


And attached to that odd-looking façade of the main door of the library is this stone turret contraption. Don't look at me, I didn't design it. But the stone turret really is kind of pretty. It took some effort, but I found a shot that wasn't ruined by power lines.


The weird black squirrels on campus are forever indebted to the Class of 1938's thoughtful gift of a stone water fountain that is always on. Wildly refreshing!

Next time: kittens! Then I'll finally be caught up and I'll have to actually start taking new pictures. Or posting old ones.