ROCKY SHORE AT EVANGOLA STATE PARK

Rocky shore, Evangola State Park, Lake Erie, New York

I like to go back to locations where I had some good photography before and try to approach it in a way that tells the story about a place maybe even a little better than the last time. We camped at Evangola State Park at Lake Erie in New York 13 years ago and the conditions where almost identical. A gorgeous sunset that illuminated the beach and rocky shore is hard to beat . It’s easy to fall for the colors again, but it is the structure and texture of the layered rocks that make this part of Lake Erie’s shore so attractive. Good texture goes very well in black & white and in order to predict the results better I set the camera to my stored monochrome mode, which includes a red filter applied to the scene. So, what if I don’t like the results of my presets that I can see already in camera? As always, I shoot in RAW mode and all the information, including the colors, are still in the resulting file. I can go back to any color setting if I want to. This time the anticipation met my story telling intend one hundred percent. The choice to be made was only between different compositions and how the elements of the landscape were put in the frame. I wanted the texture of the rocks but also give a sense how incredible big Lake Erie really is. Finally I love when it comes right out of camera…

Nikon Z6 II, Nikkor Z 24-70, f/4 S, GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head,    @ 24 mm, 1/3200 s, f/11, ISO 200,

NATURE CLICKS #627 - FORSTER’S TERNS

Forster’s Tern, Lake Erie, East Harbor State Park, Ohio

Our second campsite on the way to the coast of Maine was in East Harbor State Park in the Sandusky Bay area of Lake Erie in Ohio. The beach there gets some protection by four artificial breakwater rock structures, made out of piled up boulders and rocks. These stretched out little islands were a perfect resting place for a good number of gulls and Forster’s Terns. While I was swimming there I realized that the birds didn’t seem to be bothered by my or other people’s presence. I went back to shore, picked up the camera with the 600 f/6,3 lens, and waded slowly back to the rocks. Standing in the water up to my hips I had a great time watching the birds and shooting pictures for twenty minutes. I just want to share some of my favorites today.

There were enough rocks to sit on but some terns had obviously a reason to chase the competition away.

I love the gesture of this Forster’s Tern, taking care of its feathers.

Many terns were in process of changing from their breeding to the non-breeding plumage.

Ring-billed Gulls are a bit larger than the terns and shared the same habitat.

MARBLEHEAD LIGHTHOUSE

Marblehead Lighthouse, Lake Erie, Ohio, Nikon Z6 II, Nikkor 16-35 mm f/4, GITZO tripod GT2931 Basalt, KIRK BH-3 ball head,   @ 31mm, 1/250 s, f/10, ISO 100

Back from a 29-day trip to the coast of Maine I’m working my way through the photos that were created during this journey. We took some time to get to the Atlantic Ocean and camped at or near several interesting places along the route. In the next few weeks I like to share some of the pictures with you here in my blog and hope you may enjoy them.

We love lighthouses and since we traveled along the shores of three of the Great Lakes (Lake Michigan, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario) we had the opportunity to visit at least one of them.

Nikon Z6 II, Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2/35 ZF,   @ 1/8000 s, f/2, ISO 100, I have neglected this lens with manual focus for a little bit recently. I know this is a mistake because the optical quality it can produce at f/2 is unmatched by any of my other, ”more modern” lenses. A good reminder to use it again more often…

Marblehead Lighthouse is at Lake Erie and located between Toledo and Cleveland in Ohio. It is a true beauty of a lighthouse and with the keeper’s house just next to it, it is one of Lake Erie’s most-photographed landmarks. It is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the Great Lakes and has guided sailors safely along the rocky shores of Marblehead Peninsula since 1822.