A Weekend in St. Ignace

So for the past few days I’ve been on a mini vacation with Maegen, her mom, and a family friend of theirs with her twin daughters. We went up to St. Ignace, MI and also visited Mackinac Island.

Boy did we get lucky.

It was the weekend of the Race to Mackinac and the boats arrived on the day we visited Mackinac Island itself. Also, we watched a small fireworks show. Other than the sightseeings, we also got to see some pretty sights, the Mackinac Bridge being on of the prominent ones. Another reason we were quite lucky was of the weather. As you’ll see, there’s plenty of blue skies (also, thank you polarizing filter).

My favorite reason why we were lucky is that we caught a drum and bugle corps rehearsing one morning. The part of this which was my favorite was making great images of the tuba section practicing in the water itself. The weather wasn’t too hot that day, high of mid-80s, but why not practice in the water, right?

When I saw the group in the water, I immediately kicked off my shoes and hiked up my shorts to get as far into the water as possible. Boy was this fun! I didn’t get too close to the group because I didn’t want to get in every photo Maegen was taking from the shore.

I was also glad to have a chance at doing a night star trails image. I wish we could’ve stayed longer for more images, but we had to leave early the next morning for me to catch a train back to Champaign – and back to reality. You’ll see this image as the last image in the gallery.

Overall, I would love to visit again – it’s quite the different place compared to Champaign.

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My Fourth of July

So this year was the first year I didn’t watch a fireworks show in McHenry at Peterson Park. It was kind of a weird feeling, but refreshing at the same time. I’ve seen fireworks in Chicago and San Francisco, but Champaign has practically been my home these past years so I knew I couldn’t just sit around in my apt. not to watch those. So I packed up some of my gear and took for Dodds Park from campus via my bike (which I may not do again until I get my brakes fixed!)

In previous years, I’ve had countless images of the fireworks in the sky, so I knew I needed to step it up and include some foreground elements for interest. After walking around for some people who could make for a good foreground element (this was about 45 minutes before the show was to start), I found a spot in which a couple was close to me, to make for something to add to the frame. Looking in retrospect, I wish I would’ve been able to see them both, but it adds to the frame nonetheless.

I’ve picked out my favorites, using various crops and of course included some of the pre-show activities which I shot. Since I wasn’t there for work strictly, I mainly rested up from the bike ride and recharged with a chili dog, brat and a mini funnel cake (McHenry’s has always been better than what I had here in Champaign, sorry vendor-who-I-will-not-name).

The main gist of my setup, for those who care, was my 5D2 @ 16mm, generally at f/8 ISO 400 on bulb and I would vary the time depending on what was going off, and shot in RAW. I also brought a 7D for some “stock video” for my archives (why not right?)

Enjoy!