We had a light snow last night, and that set the apartment complex’s manager into her usual panic, so everyone had to move their cars for the snow-removal chaps. There wasn’t an inch of snow, and it could have been safely ignored, but Ooooh, Noooo! it had to be scraped up. So, since I had to go out anyway for a couple of items at the local supermarket, I pulled out of the lot, and since the sun was positively brilliant, I had the camera with me.
After a five-minute stop for flour and baking powder, I headed down to the Lake, and got a few rather nice shots:
I swear I didn’t boost the saturation on these; the sun was that bright, and the colours, especially in the water, were really there. The little white line nearly at the horizon is ice offshore.
The ice is further offshore in this direction. We’re looking at a SE angle across the Lake.
A Great Lakes freighter at the horizon, heading south, to the steel mills at Indiana Harbor, most likely. Sorry for the quality, but I haven’t got any more than a 200mm, and the distance was, by my estimate, close to 20 miles. These boats (only on the Great Lakes are vessels of this size referred to as “boats”) run close to 1,000 feet in length, so they are quite visible at these distances. There was a good deal of atmospheric turbulence breaking up the image.
This is a more general shot of the same boat:
Some shots of the water near the shore:
Some ice in the little harbour enclosure … the wind wasn’t able to push these bits away from shore. There were, besides the usual mallards, some goldeneye ducks in the water, but I couldn’t get a shot.
The elecrical generating plant was putting out great volumes of water vapour, brilliant in the cold air:
And some shots of the local farmers’ fields on the way home:
And that’s it … Cheers!
Image
A sunny day, after a light snow …
16
Jan
der Wandersmann 
evawiren
January 16, 2014 at 2:31 pm
This looks like a beautiful winterday. I enjoy the pictures very much
derwandersmann
January 16, 2014 at 4:41 pm
Thank you, Eva. We get so few of these beautiful days in winter, it’s a great occasion when it happens. The Great Lakes region is notoriously cloudy in winter
Deb Platt
January 16, 2014 at 9:23 pm
Beautiful lighting in all of these, dW.
derwandersmann
January 17, 2014 at 12:57 am
Thanks, Deb. I didn’t arrange the light, but I did manage to take advantage of it.
Darko
January 17, 2014 at 2:37 am
Lake look like the ocean. Well, knowing how big they really are, I checked Wikipedia and have found that overall surface of all Great Lakes is a bit over 244.000 square kilometers! Adriatic sea, where I spent some summers back in the old days, is about 235.000 square kilometers 😯
Nice photos!!!
derwandersmann
January 17, 2014 at 2:44 am
Thanks, Dare … I remember that Zephyrine, on MyOpera, said that Lake Michigan looked as big as her Adriatic Sea (she lives in Le Marche). Well, it isn’t, of course, but it’s a significant part.
I don’t know what happened to her blogspot here; she started it and somehow managed to tick off the management.
Darko
January 17, 2014 at 2:49 am
Yes, on the photographs it really look huge 😀
I don’t know her. Some of my friends from OC have decided to stop blogging and I am sorry to hear that because we will lost contact, probably. And some of them opened accounts here but never moved/start blogging *shrugs*
Furie
January 18, 2014 at 8:47 pm
Ice, powder, snow, flour…
Is this a message to a guy in a boat that it’s safe to bring the drugs in?
derwandersmann
January 19, 2014 at 3:43 am
Bring ’em in from Michigan? Not hardly.
pam
January 19, 2014 at 3:23 pm
Nice shots dW. I specially like the thin strip of deep turquoise blue near the horizon line. Land I’m guessing. Very striking. Also like the contrast of the trees and grasses against the snow. It’s supposed to snow here today and tomorrow. I’m ready for some 60 to 70 degree weather.
derwandersmann
January 19, 2014 at 4:06 pm
Back to Phoenix!
Not land … land isn’t visible across the lake from here, it’s not even at “normal” ground level, which is 125 feet above the Lake, and you can’t see the farther shore standing there. The Lake is around 81 miles across at this point, and you have to be in a tall building to see across. The road where I was standing is maybe 100 feet above the Lake. I’ll bring a tape measure next time.
Miska
January 22, 2014 at 9:09 am
Oh snow. I miss that. Lovey shots. I like that you carry camera even when just going for grocery shopping 🙂 I will have to check your area on google maps. My favorite way to “travel” recently.
derwandersmann
January 22, 2014 at 3:34 pm
Well, not every day … it has been so utterly dreary here lately (the Scots say “dreich”), that I simply haven’t taken one. Also, our temps are in the neighbourhood of 0°F, which has a strong tendency to keep me inside, and to move as quickly as possible when I’m outside.
Very good to hear from you … I miss your photography.
Harry...the Man!
January 26, 2014 at 9:30 pm
We still haven’t seen any snow yet in southern England. Plenty of rain, though. Some local roads are closed with flooding. West of here, people have been flooded out of their homes – so I won’t moan.
derwandersmann
January 27, 2014 at 2:52 am
We seem to be getting punished this winter … or maybe it just seems that way. This is very like the winters we used to have here, 30 years ago. We didn’t worry about it much, then, But, to my knowledge, this repeating blast of Arctic cold is beyond my recollection. Leave it to good ol’ Homo Sap to bugger the climate up, eh?
Harry...the Man!
January 27, 2014 at 9:09 pm
Oh yes, leave it to us to upset the balance of nature. Weird weather we seem to be having all year long, nowadays.