Michigan City Lighthouse

As carved in stone on the side, the lighthouse on Lake Michigan in Michigan City, Indiana, was built in 1858.

Lighthouse in Ice House Conditions

A spell of very cold weather in early January 2018 left Lake Erie frozen. I made it a point to visit Headlands Beach State Park to seek the winter spectacle that included sheets of ice stacked in layers along the shore.

Also making an interesting sight was the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater lighthouse surrounded by snow and ice.

The sand on the beach was frozen with hundreds of footprints made before the arctic air had set in. It also made walking on the beach much easier.

And yes, it was very cold on this day and felt like walking in an ice house.

It Won’t Be Long

I made this image of the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater lighthouse in January 2018 after brutally cold weather that froze Lake Erie.

As I post this it is still early November. There will be some cold weather and even winter storms but its still early to think about Lake Erie freezing over.

Nonetheless, it’s coming. This image was made at Headlands Beach State Park.

Anchors Aweigh

The original lighthouse in Vermilion, Ohio, on the shore of Lake Erie was razed years ago, but the town has built a replica.

The lighthouse stands in front of what was a museum, complete with a ship’s anchor on the lawn.

Both were standing watch over the lake during a recent visit that I made.

I Found Erie Harbor North Pier Light on the Second Try

Last summer I paid my first visit to Presque Isle State Park near Erie, Pennsylvania, with the primary purpose of seeing the two lighthouses located there.

It took me a while to find the first of them, Presque Isle Light. I made wrong turns a couple of times and traffic was heavy, it being a Sunday afternoon.

I decided not to even try to find the other lighthouse located in the park, Erie Harbor North Pier Light. That would wait for another day, which turned out to be a weekday in late August after school had started and traffic in the park was much lighter.

I was able to find the lighthouse without any problems, but was slightly disappointed that it was not nearly as grand as Presque Isle Light or a number of other lighthouses that I’ve photographed.

As its name suggests, Erie Harbor North Pier Light is located on a pier. From a photography standpoint, it is best photographed in the afternoon. I was there in the morning.

I have this lighthouse on my list of places to revisit this summer.

Yes, I’ve Been to Marblehead Lighthouse

Someone on Facebook saw a recent image that I posted of a lighthouse in Maine and asked if I’d been to Marblehead lighthouse on Lake Erie near Port Clinton, Ohio.

It was a legitimate question to ask given that I live in Northeast Ohio.

Yes, I’ve been to Marblehead and I posted an image from there last year. Maybe it didn’t make it onto Facebook from my website from this website.

Whatever the case, here is another image I made at Marblehead that day that shows not the lighthouse and the keeper’s house.

I like this image because of the contrast between the growing shadows of late day and the golden hour light that is present on the structures.

Had I been much later in arriving all of this scene would have been in shadows.

Providing Light From Atop the Rocks

I earlier published an image that I made at Bass Harbor Head lighthouse in Maine. It was the first lighthouse that I ever photographed.

Made in October 1978, it would be decades before I again photographed another lighthouse. In recent years I’ve developed an interest in lighthouses although most of those that I photograph these days are on the Great Lakes.

My first attempt to photograph Bass Harbor was at the entrance level. That was the image I posted earlier.

After making it, I noticed that there was a way to climb down the rocky knoll upon which the lighthouse sits.

The sun was sinking fast and casting warm light on the rocks and the lighthouse itself. My earlier photograph does well in showing more of the lighthouse itself, but this angle provide more context, including giving a hint of why the lighthouse was situated here in the first place many years ago.

It Was Along the Way

My interest in photographing lighthouses is of recent vintage. Although I’ve had an interest in lighthouses for awhile it didn’t crystallize until I bought a book nearly two years ago devoted to lighthouses of the Great Lakes.

That has given rise to a fantasy of making a trek to photograph all of the lighthouses of the Great Lakes.

That won’t happen, but I can “collect” photographs of as many of them as I can.

This image of the Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse was made on slide film during an era before my interest in photographing lighthouses had blossomed.

I was traveling with a friend back to Traverse City, Michigan, after a day trip to Sault Ste Marie to see the locks there.

While passing through Mackiac City we stopped so I could get some photographs of the famous Mackinac Bridge from the shore.

The lighthouse just happened to be there so I photographed it. I didn’t make many images of the lighthouse and if I get back there again I’ll have to remedy that situation.

Just in Time at Marblehead

Marblehead Light is the oldest lighthouse in continuous operation on the Great Lakes. Opened in 1820, it stands 40 feet tall and today is part of Marblehead State Park.

The park itself is relatively new. Marblehead Light is among the best known and photographed of Lake Erie lighthouses, but it has been a latecomer to my list of lighthouses that I’ve photographed.

A friend and I paid a visit to Marblehead last July, arriving late in the day because we also wanted to make sunset photographs on Lake Erie.

Had we been much later we would have not had direct sunlight on the lighthouse. By the time we left, the sun had already dipped below the tree line.

Threatening Skies at Tawas Point

It has been an on and off stormy day near Tawas Point State Park in Michigan. We were visiting the lighthouse there and hoping that the rain held off.

It didn’t and we had to take shelter in the gift store until the rain passed.

Once it did, I had one of those opportunities that often comes right after a storm. There was a break in the clouds that allowed sunlight to come through against a backdrop of the back edge of the storm.

The result was about as dramatic an image of the Tawas Point lighthouse as I’m ever likely to make.