“Changes of Time”

As some of you may know, being in Michigan, surrounded by some of the Great Lakes, has its perks! Here in this state you are never far from a local lake, and not very far from three of the three Great Lakes either.

I had wanted to get out to Lake Michigan all winter, but with the roads as snowy and icy as they were most of the time, it was impossible.

Recently I had the chance to spend a few days out around Grand Haven, and Holland. I was really surprised at the amount of shoreline change, and drifting of sand that happened over the winter season.

As I mentioned in my last post, the weather most of the time was either raining or stormy.

These few frames here were taken in a brief time in between storms. The sun shone brightly against the sand drifts that nearly covered all of the snow fences.

Pools of water lay on the shore reflecting the wonderful blue sky and clouds in another location.

Lastly, you’ll see more cloud reflections in pools as well as patterns in the sand formed by the water!

Truly it was a beautiful period of time with all of that sky drama. The changes quickly led to another thunderstorm, but it was certainly worth the time there to enjoy these sights granted to me!

I hope you enjoy it also!

"Sand Banks and Sky"
“Sand Banks and Sky”
"Reflections in Directions"
“Reflections in Directions”
"Patterns of Reflection"
“Patterns of Reflection”

“On Grassy Dunes”

Yet another image from the sand dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes. If you’ve been following the blog, you’ll know that I had a big wind problem for quite a bit of the time I was there.

I chose to get down really low for this image. From this vantage point you can see some of the effects of the wind on the grass. I wish you could see how huge these dunes actually are. I usually don’t like to have people in my images, but for this one it would have been nice to have some to show size and scale!

I’m sure many of you have been to this location, but for those who haven’t, it certainly is worth it. The sunset’s along Lake Michigan are a huge plus!!

I hope I’ll be able to process some of those soon. I’m a little back-logged at the moment! 😉

-On Grassy Dunes-

“Twisted Beauty”

I don’t know if you’ll see the interest in this twisted piece of wood that I do, but I thought I’d present it anyway. While at Sleeping Bear Dunes there happened to be quite a bit of wind for most of the time I was there. Many images I wanted to get, weren’t even possible because of the windy conditions. The sand was blowing like crazy! Getting into my eyes, stinging my skin, and of course causing me plenty of worry about my camera!

In the case of this image, I was trying to escape some of the wind by getting down on the ground behind a sand dune. either crouching down or on my stomach. While there I noticed this single twisted piece of wood protruding from the sand. I thought it had a nice curve, and a barren look to it, so I got a couple of shots.

I decided to use this one, which I processed in color first, then decided it would look nice in a monochrome conversion too.

Check it out. See if you see the beauty where I do, and which image you like better. The color version or the monochrome?

Twisted Beauty in color

-Twisted Beauty-

Twisted Beauty the monochrome version

-Twisted Beauty- mono

“Walking the Dunes”

To start of you have to understand that most of Michigan is really quite flat. Not many rolling hills, and no real mountains to speak of. Knowing that, I was quite surprised and happily so at the immense size, and height of the sand dunes at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lake Shore.
I happened to be there when the weather had changed and the summer crowds had gone. There was quite a rain, and wind storm that day, but it didn’t keep me from climbing as much as possible all around the dunes. That’s what they’re there for!
You can see all the many footprints left behind from other people going up and down the huge dunes. The going up was really steep and pretty good exercise. 😉
Coming down on the other hand was really fast, and could easily end up with a person slip sliding down.
It’s a great place to bring kids though, especially ones that are tired of riding in a car. They can climb off all their energy!! 🙂
If you haven’t been to Michigan, make sure you put it on your list, and put Sleeping Bear Dunes high on your list of places to see, have fun, and catch a great sunrise or sunset too!

"Walking the dunes of Sleeping Bear"
“Walking the dunes of Sleeping Bear”