Cold Passage in B&W

For the club meeting this week, this month's subject is winter.  I already had two entries ready, one of the Tahquamenon Falls with a lot of ice and one of St. Joseph North Pier Light with a fair amount of snow and ice.  I was looking for a couple of winter shots that could be converted to for the monochrome category.   I found an interesting angle for the often photographed St. Joe's light.  Lots of good ice on the rail, and a different side of the walk way that I usually don't show.  The B&W angle is very interesting.

ISO 400, f/16, 1/200 sec, 31 mm

NIKON D90/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

Looking for the second entry in the category, I found some shots of a laker taken from the Mackinac side of the straights.  This was taken on a short trip up north in January 2015.  It looks cold.  Both shots look cold.
When I saw this image, I knew where I wanted to go.  Make it look historic.  I wanted to keep it mostly B&W, and not add any off coloring like I've used in the past.  I think this image can carry the load without any distractions.

ISO 400, f/9, 1/1600, 200 mm

NIKON D90/18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6

That just screams Great Lakes in the winter!
Actually both shots do.

Arthur M Anderson

Yesterday was just a great looking day.  After work, did a quick trip to Port Huron to get this shot.  I saw that the Arthur M Anderson was upbound entering the St. Clair River around 3:00 PM.  Plenty of time for me to get into a picture position.  Trouble with shooting freighters is they are so larger, if you get the whole vessel in the shot -evrything is small and un-interesting.  So here is the Pilot House.

Of all the freighters on the Lakes, this is the prize capture for me.  (I wouldn't have driven a hour for one ship for any other ship.)  The reason to me is the history of this ship with its relation the the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  The history is fascinating - as it is brave.

On this shot, I departed from my usual method of trying to get the greatest depth of field - and go for speed.  In this case it worked.  DOF is not much of a concern here.  I wanted more speed due to the long focal length. It worked well here.  The original is very sharp.  Even with a sharp shot, when you blend shots as in my workflow, some of the sharpness is lost.  You can get some if it back with post processing - but not like the original.  If i was going to do something more professional with this shot, I might some serious decisions to make as to what path I'd take.

1/800 f/6.3
Aperture Priority
ISO 200
Focal length 155 mm (232 mm for 35mm film)

Port Huron Passing

Taking a break from last weekend's tour - I spent a few hours in Port Huron to see some of the early shipping movements.  I got photos of four freighters that were new to me, one was an Atlantic vessel.  If I understand all the messages, this is the first freighter from the Atlantic this year going to Thunder Bay, Ont.  This is the upbound Atlantic Huron passing on the far side of the downbound Montrealias.  I'm fairly certain that passing on a curve on the St. Clair River is not in the playbook.  You could hear and see the Atlantic Huron going into a reverse mode - which didn't mean much.  So no collision - no photos for CNN.

1/160 f/20
Aperture Priority
ISO 200
Focal length 50 mm (75 mm for 35mm film)