The Wandering Photographer

Favorite Photo Series: Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse

Another of my favorite photos. This one is of Old Mackinac Point Light at Mackinaw City, MI. Shot from South of the light, the image shows the lighthouse in the forground with the "Mighty Mac" (the Mackinac Bridge) in the background.

The lighthouse sits at the northernmost point of Michigan's lower pennisula on the shore of the Staits of Mackinac. It guided ships between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron from 1892 until it was decommisioned in 1960.

In 1889 Congress allocated $5500 to construct a fog signal building at the point. Three years later they approriated $20,000 to add a light station to the property. The light went into active duty in October that same year. The light was closed after the opening of Mackinac Bridge made the navigation light unnecesary.

In 1972 the surrounding park was opened with the light as the prime attraction. In 1989 the park closed and did not reopen until 2000 with the renovation of the fog signal building. The lighthouse renovation, begun in 1999, was completed in 2004 and the building was reopened as a museum. The museum is currently closed for the Winter, however it will reopen on May 6, 2013.

Photo tech info:

• Nikon D200
• Tamron 18-200mm seta at 56mm
• ISO 400
• 1/500th at f/5

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

Favorite Photo Series: D. H. Day Farm

D. H. Day Farm and homestead, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

 The D.H. Day farm can be found along the side of the road on M-109 on the way into Glen Haven and Glen Arbor. The farm is privately owned but it is surrounded by lands owned by the National Park Service (part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The photo was shot on a bright, sunny day in July 2010 with my D300 and 16-85mm lense.

You can learn more about the Farm, D.H. Day and the Sleeping Bear Dunes at the following Websites.

D. H. Day Farm

D. H. Day Family History

Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Favorite Photos Series: Mount Blackburn

View of Mount Blackburn

Here's another one from Kennecott, Alaska. I shot this view from the porch of the Kennecott Glacier Inn. The inn is located directly across the strreet from the Wrangel St. Elias National Park Headquaters and sits a the foot of the Root Glacier. The buildings n the near background at the ol mill from the abandonded Kennecott copper mine. The Mountain in the background is Mt Blackburn.

We spent hours just sitting on the porch looking out over the mountainscape.

The image was made on Fujichrome Provia 100F slide film with a Nikon N90s SLR.

This and other of my images are available for purchase at my SmugMug site.

© 2012 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Mine Building: Wrangell St Elias National Park

Old Kennicott Copper Mining Buildings

 Another in my favorite images series. This was taken during a 2000 trip to Alaska. The location is the abandonded mining town of Kennecott, AK. Kennecott was the home of the Kennecott Copper Company and is now the gateway to Wrangell St. Elias National Park, It is situated at the end of a 65 mile long dirt "highway" at the foot of Root Glacier.

As you can see, the old mining (in this case it is not the actual mine but the mine's mill) buildings make outstanding photographic subjects.

Unlike my more recent photo excursions, I had no digital equipment on this trip. The image was made using a Nikon N90s shooting Fujichrome Provia 100F. I have no recolecion of the camera settings. In the film days a photographer had to be careful of how much film she/he shot. A roll of 36 frame slide film cost about $10 and processing added another $2-$3. On this two week trip I shot about 20 rolls of film, that's 720 exposures. These days I have been known to shoot that many in one day. Isn't digital cool?

The image was scanned utilizing a Nikon Coolscan V slide scanner.

If you get to Alaska, the Kennecott/Mcarthy area is well worth a visit, and since it takes the better part of a day to get there from Anchorage it is best to stay at least 3 or 4 days.

 If you like this image you can purchase prints of it or other of my photos at my SmugMug portfolio www.photowanderer.smugmug.com.

© 2012 Tim Marks all rights reserved

 

Grand Teton National Park

Here is another of my favorite landscape images. In September of 2007 we took a trip out west. It included a week in Jackson, Wy, home to Grand Teton National Park. We didn't always have the best weather, but sometimes a dark and cloudy day can be useful.

I find this shot brooding but hopeful. The mountain rising into the light in the sky gives hope to the dark and dried out meadow in the foreground.

This is just one of many great images I captured in Grand Teton and Yellowstone that trip.

Shooting Info

• Nikon D200
• Nikkor 18-70mm
• Lens at 38mm (effectively 57mm)
• ISO 100
• 1/80 sec at f/8

Prints of this and others of my images are available for purchase from my SmugMug Portfolio at www.photowanderer.sugmug.com or you can click on the "Buy Prints" link at the top of the page.

© 2012 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Michigan: Lake Superior Beach

Pointing the Way: Lake Superior Beach, Keweenaw County, Michigan

In September of 2009 we took a trip to Keweenaw County in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula. While driving south along M-26 on the western coast of the Keweenaw Peninsula we came upon this stretch of sandy beach. Since much of the beach along Lake Superior is rocky this is somewhat unusual. We spent a good hour hanging around, watching the lake and taking photographs. This was one of my favorites

It was shot around noon so the light wasn't perfect but that didn't seem to affect the results. I was attracted by the log laying in the sand, seemingly pointing to the distant clouds (hence the title). I think the cloud formations give a certain distinctiveness to the image.

Living in Michigan I am a sucker for beaches and dunes and we certainly have an abundance of them to photograph.

Below is the shooting info:

• September 10, 2009
• Nikon D200
• Tamron 18-200mm f/4.5-6.3
• 18mm (effectively 27mm)
• 1/130 at f/9
• ISO 100

Prints of this and others of my images are available for purchase from my SmugMug Portfolio at www.photowanderer.sugmug.com or you can click on the "Buy Prints" link at the top of the page.

© 2012 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Dunes and Beaches of the Sleeping Bear

Some of the worlds most beautiful beaches and dunes can be found along the Eastern coast of upper Lake Michigan in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The park was designated a National Lakeshore in 1970 and administration was assigned to the National Park Service.

From the NPS website:

"The Park was established to preserve the 'outstanding natural features, including forests, beaches, dune formations, and ancient glacial phenomena...for the benefit, inspiration, education, recreation, and enjoyment of the public.' "

The Park includes thirty-five miles of Lake Michigan Coast almost exclusively made up of ancient dunes and wonderful beaches. The park also encompasses a number of historic sites, including the Port Oneida Rural District and a nineteenth century US Lifesaving Station at Glen Haven.

The dunes are named after the "Legend of the Sleeping Bear" and the park took its name from the legend as well.

The heart of the park however are the dunes. Here is a few more views from various points along the shore.

It is no wonder that "Dr. Beach" named the beaches of Sleeping Bear Dunes as the best beaches on the Great Lakes.

Hope you enjoyed his look at one of Michigan's wonders.

© 2011 Tim Marks

Easy Black and White with Silver Efex Pro 2

JPEG version of Original RAW file as it imported into LightRoom 3

I captured the above image of The Old Mission Point Lighthouse on a trip to Michigan's Grand Traverse region last Summer. I really liked the composition but like almost all RAW files it needed some post processing to bring out its best.

I took a look at the photo, and noticed a number of things that needed attention in order to make the image reflect what I saw that day.

 Marked up for post-processing

Three of the major problems are shown above. What was a gorgeous blue sky looks faded and boring in the photo. The clouds lack definition and the rails are way overexposed distracting the eye away from the centerpiece of the image, the lighthouse. The entire image looks flat and lifeless.

I opened the photo in Lightroom's develop module and began to process the image.

• Basic Tab - Auto as a starting point
• I adjusted the exposure until it looked right
• I adjusted the black point
• I chose "Strong Contrast" in the Tone Curve Tab
• I set the Vibrance to +43
• In the HSL Tab, I set Luminance Blue -48 and Green -57
• I used the Adjustment Brush to tone down the exposure on the rails

Result is below.

Color Processed version

I thought it looked pretty good except for the fact that I over saturated the sky so it looked a bit garish. That is easily fixed but before I started correcting it I thought, "ya know that might look pretty good in Black and White."

There are a number of ways to convert a color image to B+W. The controls found in both Lightroom and Camera RAW work very nicely and of course you can go through a bunch of steps in Photoshop to get there, but I find working in NIK Software's Silver Efex Pro 2 both satisfying and intuitive.

I opened the image in Silver Efex Pro and started to play with the myriad of presets that come with the program. After sampling a number of them I settled on "High Structure Harsh" ending up with the results below.

Output from Siver Efex Pro 2

Not bad, if I say so myself. Of course there is that nasty bit of flare in the sky (circled). Back in Lightroom I used the Adjustment Brush in Healing mode to replace the flare with clouds. I also further darkened selected spots on the rails to even things out a bit.

The final result is below. I really like the way the clouds form a halo around the tower. I think I'm going to keep working on this one to refine it even more, but as far as I'm concerned this result is not too bad for only about 25 minutes work.

Old Mission Lighthouse at the tip of the Old Misssion Peninsula in Grand Traverse County, MI Half way between the equator and the north Pole (45 degrees North)

Playing around with black and White conversions is fun and rewarding. While I find using Silver Efex Pro easy and fun, if you have any other image editing software, you too can create great Black and White images, just like in the days of Film.

Give it a whirl!

You can see my earlier post about the Old Mission Light here.

© 2011 Tim Marks

Quick Review: Olympus E-PL2 Micro Four-Thirds System Camera and Lenses

William McKinley Memorial and grave site. Canton, Ohio

Note: I know there has been a year long gap in posts on my blog. It was unfortunately unavoidable. But, I'm back and I'll make a sincere attempt to post at least three stories a month in the future. Thanks for all the support.

Introduction of the Four-Thirds camera system allowed Olympus and Panasonic to create high quality interchangeable lens camera systems that are much smaller and much lighter than traditional Full Frame and APS-C DSLRs. The Micro Four-Thirds cameras reduce the size and weight even further, with no loss of image quality. The smaller sensor in the M-Four-Thirds cameras results in a so called lens "crop factor" of 2X, as apposed to 1.5X with my D300 (ASP-C camera). Therefore the 14-42mm kit lens delivers an angle of view equivelent to a 28mm-84mm lens on a 35mm camera.

 The desire to cut weight, and save my poor back, led me to explore the Micro 4/3rds system and I ended up going with the Olympus PEN E-PL2 and the 14-42mm kit lens. The PEN delivers 12 mega-pixel images of a quality indistinguishable to me from my D300, The body weighs only 12-7/8 oz. and the lens add only 5-1/2 oz., My D300 body alone weighs in at 29 oz. (almost 2lbs). As you can see below the Olympus is much smaller than a DSLR.

Olympus PEN E-PL2 with 14-42mm lens sitting next to a Canon EOS 30D with 18-200mm lens

To Round out the kit I added a Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7 pancake lens (3-1/2 oz.), yep the Panasonic uses the same Micro Four-Thirds lens mount, and an Oly 40-150mm (6.7oz.) for a complete package weight of only 28-1/2 oz. (1-3/4 lbs). Thats right the whole kits weighs less than the D300 body alone! I carry it all in an unpadded Duluthpack #100 Double Shell Bag That brings the weight of the entire package, incuding bag, to less than 4lbs.

So, how well does the PEN system work for me? So far very nicely. I was able to take system with me on a trip to Mid-Ohio and used it exclusively. I also to it with me on a visit to Belle Isle Park in the City of Detroit. Despite some limitations I was quite happy with the results.

The image at the top of the page is a shot of the William McKinley gravesite in Canton, Ohio. Shot with the 14-42mm lens set at 21mm and an ISO 0f 200 I was qute happy with the results.Image quality is excelent up to 400 ISO and quite nice at 800. Anything above gets awfully noisy but can be used in a pinch. Below is a photo inside the Canton Stark Museum and a small 100% blowup to show the noise. The photo was shot with the 14-42mm lens at 800 ISO as you can see the noisy is noticable but for my purposes acceptable, especially for online presentation.

Interior shot at the McKinley Presidential Museum in Canton, Ohio

!00% example of noise at 800 ISO

The visit to Belle Isle yield some very nice images as well. These pictures were taken with the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 at 200 ISO.

 Downtown Skyline including the General Motors Headquarters (Renaissance Center)

 Belle Isle Casino (not the gambling kind)

So what is the bottom line? This camera won't replace my D300, but I think I'll be finding myself carrying the Oly more and more often. There are a number of pros and cons. The thing I miss the most from my DSLR is a viewfinder. There is an add-on available but it is way overpriced at $200+. Despite the price I will probably eventually buy one.

Pros

• Extremely light weight
• Extremely high image quality, especially at 200 & 400 ISO
• 12 mega-pixels are more than enough.
• Small package fits in a small bag for a very easy day of carrying

Cons

• Noise at 800 is acceptable, at 1600 not so good
• Viewfinder is high cost extra
• Not a lot of lenses available yet
• Build quality is good but not at a pro level

My recommendation is that if you want a lightweight system camera for short trips or long days walking aroung the city take a close look at the Micro Four-Thirds system. It is reasonably priced and the number of lenses and accessories for it is growing.

Below is my Duluthpack bag with body, three lenses and ThinkTank Peewee Pixel Pocket Rocket. Lots of room in the front pockets for phone, wallrt, etc. Since the bag is not padded I have the lenses in neoprene pouches.

Come back later in the month for some more adventures in photography.

© 2011 Tim Marks

Great Lakes Lighthouses: Old Mission Point Lighthouse

Last week I wrote about The Grand Traverse Lighthouse on Lake Michigan at the entrance to Grand Traverse Bay. Today I'd like to show you some images of The Old Mission Point Light on Old Mission Peninsula near Traverse City.

The lighthouse sits 14-1/2 miles South South East across the Grand Traverse Bay from the Grand Traverse Light and 16 miles North of Traverse City at the tip of Old Mission Peninsula.

Built in 1870, the light was intended to guide ships into the West arm of Grand Traverse Bay. The Light is no longer active as it was replaced by a Beacon 2-1/4 miles off shore.

One of the interesting factoids about Old Mission Point is that it is located almost exactly halfway between the Equator and the North Pole, very near 45° North latitude. A coordinate reading taken form a Delorme software atlas puts it at N44° 59.5' (44.99°).

Old mission Point Lighthouse, another great reason to visit Pure Michigan.

© 2010 Tim Marks all rights reserved