This year I am really focused on a new project and book on all five Great Lakes, currently titled Twenty/Ninety-Five, The Great Lakes Landscapes. This book will focus on the fact that 20% of the world’s fresh water and 95% of North America’s fresh water are held in these five bodies of water. Think about that. Twenty percent of all the fresh water in the world. Include all the lakes, ponds, streams, rivers and snow and 20% of the water sits in these lakes. And currently there are 42 million people who live along these lakes. Indeed mankind has lived on these lakes for thousands of years yet it is only in the last few centuries that mans impact has been felt in such great ways. I want to look at that impact and how we can insure that our children will have the same benefit of these lakes and natural areas. The book will look at the statistics on the lakes and focus on both the natural and wild areas in the lakes watershed and on some of the cities and industries which lie along the lakes, including how we use the lakes for recreation and commerce. I intend to blog along the way on this project. And since the first trip is upon me next month it is time to start. I hope you’ll join me on this voyage and follow my blog as I examine these great lakes of ours. Like most who live along the lakes for most of their lives I have not been to most of the 10,000 miles of shoreline. I will enjoy opening up my eyes to new places. I hope folks will share their thoughts of their favorite places on the lakes as we go along as well and I invite everyone to leave comments on posts they enjoy or with places they love. This is also an evolving project, one not limited to a book, but to the possibilities of an e-book with video, gallery shows of images and art installations, writings from those working to save the lakes and research the ecology of the lakes.  Now a lot of folks who know me know I’ve been working on this off and on for the last few years, but now it is time to really get serious about it and concentrate on this project. So the adventure begins…

The other day a friend asked me, “So what did you do today?” My answer was complete with all the tasks we undertake during a day and also included my work on my next big project of photographing the Great Lakes. As I explained I was preparing for a trip around Lake Superior in late February she was surprised at how much planning I was doing. Yet to make sure you come back with images you can use and not just nice snapshots from your trip you need to plan. And planning takes time and energy.

I look first to the stars. Will the moon be full during my trip? If I want to have a chance at a full moon shot where do I think I want to be when it happens? Do I need to change my dates for the trip to get a better chance for being in the right place at the right time? What is my goal for this particular trip? Then looking at maps, books on the area, online websites you begin to make a determination for where you want to go. In this case it is even more challenging because I have not been to the Canadian side of Lake Superior and do not know what access I might have in the winter. Searching blogs and online sites gives me some idea. Certainly there will be a lot of serendipity involved in a trip of this kind, from the weather and the light, to the ice flows themselves and my access to the lake. All I can do is prepare myself the best way possible and know the maps and my own game plan. Will it change mid trip? Probably, but with proper planning I can know why and where to turn next. And then serendipity can play with me and I will be ready to capture those intimate moments because I had a game plan in the first place.

The trip is scheduled to start the weekend of February 25^th. So for now you can see some of the shots I have done in the past on the Great Lakes using this link to a portfolio of images on my website. http://www.mackphoto.com/Creative/l-lakes.html (sorry this is in Flash so those with iPads or iPhones won’t see it until they use another way)

I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts on this project!

Peace,

Richard

Many people think a blizzard is something to be avoided, not me! I loved the idea of Chicago being pounded by snow – but then again I had some ulterior motives. I had just been asked by an advertising agency if I had any winter shots in a snowstorm. I’ve also been working on my Great Lakes book project so this would make some great material for that I assumed. I prepared the cameras, got out layers of clothes and geared up for the elements.

I ventured out in the afternoon on Tuesday as the storm was in full swing. I went first to my favorite place nearby – Lighthouse beach here in Evanston, but found nothing striking my fancy this time. I wandered up to Gilson Park, which has sand dunes and trees bordering the beach. I thought these would make good foreground for Lake Michigan lying beyond. Except you couldn’t see the lake most of the time! As the storm cranked up it had sustained winds of 50 MPH with gusts over 70 MPH. This meant that in addition to the snow hitting you full on as it blew horizontally along, the wind was so strong it was picking up water drops from the surface of the lake, freezing them and blowing them into you like sharp little razors. It hurt to be out there!

Now we all know that to see the snowflakes, you need a dark background to show them off, after all white on white doesn’t work. Even when I placed tree trunks in the foreground, or the grasses, it was hard to pickup the snow in the air. I tried both slow exposures and fast ones (at 1/250 second). A little luck, but the best results to me were the blowing snow which appear as clouds of fog coming off the tops of the dunes and those when the lake closes in almost all the way.

Not your typical Chicago Blizzard shots of stranded cars – but a look at what the lake has to offer on such an exciting day!

To see more images from this shoot use this link: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LakeMichiganWinterStorm/index.html

And to see some shots from past years you can check these out:

Winter 2010: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LakeMichiganWinter/index.html

Winter 2008: http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LighthouseBeachWinter/index.htm

Cheers,

Richard Mack

Winter Storm, Lake Michigan

For the last few days we’ve had a winter storm in Chicago which has dumped over 12” of snow. So naturally I finally said it was time to grab a camera and head down to the lakefront and see what images I might find there for possible inclusion in one of my next books on all five Great Lakes.

These images were all shot around the lake front in Evanston, Illinois. Some places you may recognize from previous posts since it is my home town. The storm was in full force yesterday afternoon when I ventured out. The ice has built up tall against the shoreline with the winds out of the northeast and stacking the ice onto shore from the lake. With the dark clouds on the horizon I worked with the clouds, low visibility and starkness of the images in front of me. It will be interesting to see if these ever make it into the book, but it was fun to be out in the weather and making images again! Seems like a long time since I shot anything on this project.

Pier and storm, Lake Michigan

The working title for this book on all five of the Great Lakes is 20%. Named so because 20% of all the fresh water in the entire world lies within these lakes. A drop of water from Lake Superior takes over 400 years to travel through the lakes and into the Atlantic Ocean. It is clear what we do to these lakes now will affect those who come after us for many generations. The book does not yet have a release date since I am just now beginning to shoot most of it.

To see more of the images from this shoot please visit www.mackphoto.com/blog/LakeMichiganWinter/

Enjoy the winter snows! We’re over half way to spring…

Peace,

Richard Mack

Late last week a spring snow storm dropped 12” – 17” on Great Smoky Mountains National Park. This is a rare event, especially in the last few years. As part of my next book project I have been sorting through 30 years of photographs from the park and have found myself woefully lacking winter shots. So with the snow totals looking good, but the temperatures expected to rise back into the 50’s and 60’s, I called my friend who happens to have access to a plane and we took off 24 hours later, on Saturday morning to head down to the snow. This seemed a bit crazy to most around here, since Chicago has been inundated with snow this winter, but it had to be done for the book.

We took off about 6:15am on Saturday morning and flew down the lakefront past Chicago. In the morning light the city looked great from the air and I snapped a few shots as we went by. The remainder of the flight was a beautiful blue sky smooth ride at 9500’. We arrived at the Gatlinburg airport at 10 or so and after picking up the rental car and a bit to eat we were in the park by 11:30. On the drive up the mountains I started to get concerned because I had yet to see any snow! Were had it all gone? The weather reports had said there was even 5” on the ground in Gatlinburg, but it was not here now! I could not even see it on the edges of the cliffs. The farther up we went the more concerned I was that the trip had been for nothing! But then we reached the altitude where the base of the snow started. At the first creek with snow we pulled over and I began to shoot. It was almost like being in overdrive as I pointed the lens everywhere in a mad rush to get images. Predictably, these first shots were not very thoughtful. But after getting this first stop out of the way I began to settle down and really start to see images. As the snow depth increased, so did my concentration. It takes time and an openness to what is presented in front of you to find the images which will tell a story, make people want to linger over them. You can not be a bull in a china shop and just snap away if you want them to be interesting. You must slow down and see.

I worked streams with their snow covered rocks, hillsides with the pines covered with snow, small detail scenes of snow clinging to rocks, and icicles hanging from the cliffs. The biggest problem was it was a blue sky day – making it very sunny with the light casting shadows and making the images full of contrast. Not the best, but it worked and as the sun began to settle into the west the ridges blocked the light and gave me the perfect mix of soft light.  

Because we had only one day, and maybe a few hours in the morning, we could not spend any time hiking into some of my favorite places, but stayed near the main road. We saw a lot of folks building snowmen, even putting them around the antennas on their cars so they drove with small snowmen on their windshields. By evening I went to a few of the overlooks which give you those sweeping look up the valleys. Winter is the best time for those long views of the mountains as the clear air enables you to see much further than in the summer. By now there was also a steady stream of overcast clouds moving in, making a sunset either one of those things that will not happen, or will be stunning. I shot at one overlook and then just before sunset went to the most famous overlook for sunset in the park, Morton Overlook. As I pulled in no one else was there. Guess they all figured nothing would happen this evening. I knew enough to hang out and wait, with the camera setup. This brought a few people to pull off the road, some getting out and looking and then going on, some staying. And then, right on queue and as I thought it just might, the sun went below the bottoms of the clouds and lit up the undersides of the clouds in a spectacular sunset. Now cars were pulling off the road in great numbers! I kept shooting while people talked to me. The show would not last more than a few minutes and I had work to do. Within five minutes the sun was gone and the clouds returned to a dark gray. The day was over. It was time to think about the morning shots over dinner.

Unfortunately, the weather back in Chicago looked like it would deteriorate early in the day Sunday, instead of staying nice until Monday. After much consternation, we agreed we needed to leave at dawn to get in before the weather in Chicago made it impossible for us to get back in the next three days. It would have been nice to have more time, but in the roughly 9 hours on the ground I was able to get enough I hope to fill out the book with the winter shots I so needed.  To see the entire selection of the trip use this link to see my quick gallery of images: www.mackphoto.com/blog/SmokiesWinter/

We’ll soon have a selection of these images for sale online in the Quiet Light Publishing Gallery, http://www.quietlightpublishing.com/shop/Gallery.htm were we already have images from this upcoming book and from the Lewis & Clark Trail American landscapes book.

 

Winter in the Midwest. Always cold. Often snowy. But yesterday’s 8+ inches of snow was perfect around here. It has blanketed everything with a new white layer and softened the sounds of the city. So it was with anticipation I headed once again down to my favorite beach on the way to the studio. Not sure what I would find, as Lake Michigan is different every day and as I left for the beach it was still snowing. The dark clouds overhead contrasted with the white of the ice which had been blown in with the Northeastern winds. It is not often we get this much ice built up on the lakefront here. Alone on the beach, with a cold wind still blowing the clouds quickly across the sky I worked both quickly and quietly. It seemed everywhere I looked there was a new image to be had. A wide shot before walking onto the beach, close up’s of the icebergs, shots of the old pier posts. One thing I like about digital imaging is it seems to capture a much wider range of light, from highlights to shadows. I wasn’t sure the clouds would look as dark as they seemed in real life, but they were coming out in the display, so there seemed to be no need to use the split neutral density filter to bring the brightness back into range. I was very happy when back in the studio on the color calibrated monitor they all looked great almost right out of the gate. Unfortunately I have not found a way to get that same vibrancy and luminosity online yet. Of course we all know that on the web everyone “sees” with a different monitor – most of which are not calibrated so colors and densities will be all over the place. Something which can ruin great shots, especially the one with soft delicate balances in the images such as snow shots.

But the images I found also brought about a starkness to the landscape which I fell in love with. Hopefully the images convey that feeling of isolation and emptiness. Nature is always full of surprises. Ice being blown in from across the lake, dark clouds overhead. Perfect. In the weeks ahead I will be working more with these images and hope to refine some for the fine art prints we sell online. So check back often, and of course you can ad your comments and tell us which ones you like best using the links below.

See more from this shoot using this link to our gallery:  http://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LighthouseBeachWinter/index.htmttp://www.mackphoto.com/blog/LighthouseBeachWinter/index.htm

Happy Winter! Oh, and Happy Ground Hog Day!

Richard Mack