Winter Sunset in Ludington

It’s been a warm summer here in Central Indiana, so let’s cool things down with a photo from six months ago, when I went looking for some snow and ice to photograph…..

I try to go north to Michigan a couple of times each winter to photograph the lighthouses with the ice and snow. My favorites are South Haven, Grand Haven, and Ludington. These are 3-5 hours away from me. Sometimes I’ll take a few days and visit all three. I keep an eye on the weather and view webcams, looking for accumulations of snow and ice. On this particular trip to Ludington, there was a shelf of ice along the shore, plus ice encrusting parts of the lighthouse. I waited for sunset, then took the photo below:

I liked the two brave (crazy?) people standing by the lighthouse, having walked over the ice-encrusted pier to get there. I also liked the foreground of sold ice, and the midground featuring floating ice. Lastly, the orange sky and blue ice look good together. Sometimes I have to fight the urge to brighten up the ice a bit, making it whiter (as it would appear in daylight), but the sunset light gives everything a different look.

I’m not exactly looking forward to winter, but I will certainly be excited about photographing more snow and ice when it happens.