sand

“Walking Grand Marais”

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Hi everyone. I think I’ll call this talk-less Tuesday! A short post! 😉

This beautiful walkway, or boardwalk out to the shores along Lake Superior was a lovely surprise to me. Heading up all around Michigan’s Upper Peninsula I decided to take a more scenic and longer route from Sault Saint Marie to Munising. Part of that way included passing through Grand Marais MI.

I drove straight up through the tiny quaint and charming town to this spot. I took a few shots, and spent some time walking around the beach. The sun was warm, the breeze was cool, and the water crystal clear, and blue!!

All in all a lovely place and a beautiful scene!! 🙂

“Walking Grand Marais”

-Walking Grand Marais-

“On Grassy Dunes”

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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”

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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”

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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”

“Not Afraid to Stand Alone”

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On the shores of Lake Michigan you’ll see Gulls of every kind, just flying around, diving into the water for food, and walking around on the shoreline casually among themselves.
This beautiful Gull made a lovely subject on the beach. Standing alone, and still, at least for a short while. Beautiful color markings on the bird itself combined with the colors of the sand of the beach and the waters of Lake Michigan made for a nice combination.
If anyone knows what type of Gull this one is please feel free to ID it for me! 🙂

A lovely Gull standing alone on the shores of Lake Michigan!
A lovely Gull standing alone on the shores of Lake Michigan!

“Patterns in the Sand”

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It’s truly amazing what water, and wind can do in creating patterns in the sand. This image is one from the shores of Lake Michigan. I kept going along the shore to one beautiful pattern after another. Simply wonderful!!Image