Wisconsin Trip (Memorial Day, 2008)

The next trip we took was to visit friends from grad school in Wisconsin. We normally take this trip over Labor Day weekend, but our first born is due around that time.

We've always gone over on the S.S. Badger, a train ferry that was converted to carry automobiles and passengers between Ludington, MI and Manitowoc, WI. It's fairly inexpensive in comparison to having to drive through Chicago traffic on a holiday weekend. Nice way to travel, you can sleep the entire way over.


The Badger has a sister ship, the S.S. Spartan that has been tied up at dock for quite a while. They were built for the same reason at around the same time. The Badger is more advanced and had been heightened, but they are basically the same ships. They run off coal-fired boilers. The ship was fairly desolate above deck due to unseasonably cold temperatures so I was able to get some nice images sans people.





While in WI, we got to spend time with friends and their adorable child who is very photogenic. I had a field day last year shooting him and had a wonderful time taking photos of him again. One of my favorite shots came after some post processing in Lightroom. I swear this kid could be a spokeskid for Oskhosh.





Heading back over, it got very cold about half way across the lake, and there was an odd phenomenon where the sun was out, yet there was a low-lying fog.

Holland Trip

Early May brings about many things in Michigan. The end of college, the start of (typically) reliably warmer weather, and tulips. Holland, MI has a tulip festival every spring to showcase tulips, oddly enough. Of course, the tulips being grown were absolutely gorgeous.



There were plenty of people walking around and getting a shot without anyone in it was amusing, to say the least. This fountain, in the center of Holland provided a lovely backdrop for this shot.

I had just received my new EF 85mm f/1.8 lens, so I had a field day playing with bokeh, as seen in the following images.





This final image gives you an idea of what a field of tulips looks like in May. Absolutely stunning.



More images can be found at my site.

Recent Trips (part I)

In early April, my wife and I took a trip to Houghton, MI to visit her sister, who is attending Michigan Tech. Driving up there after a full days work was not in the cards because a certain hotel decided to stop having a night clerk on duty after 11:30 pm. So we pushed through and drove the full 10 hours in one evening, arriving in Houghton at 3am. It was my first trip to "da UP," as the locals call it. It is truly gorgeous country up there and we happened to catch things right before all the snow and ice had melted (as you'll be able to see in the photos).

We got up the next morning and drove from Houghton to Copper Harbor, the northern most point in Michigan one can reach by car. I couldn't have asked for better photography weather on this day.



This was taken just outside of Copper Harbor. You're looking out onto Lake Superior which still had a fair amount of ice on it.



Another shot at the same location, looking camera right of the previous shot.



This was taken at a different location, further west. This really shows how frozen over Superior still is in early April. The temperatures were in the 40s, yet there was still 2 feet of snow on the ground in some places!








The obligtory Mackinac Bridge shot. It's not the most glorious photo of the bridge that's ever been taken, but I like it. It was incredibly hazy when we drove back downstate.

More images can be found here

More to come later!