Week 51 – Pickerel Lake

Yes, color!

For the past couple months I’ve been doing black and white images, mostly of architecture and cityscape in Grand Rapids. This week I went a different route. Color and landscape at Pickerel Lake Park, near Cannonsburg, north of Grand Rapids.

It was cool, gray, and spitting a wintery mix of rain and snow. I had in mind more high contrast black and white images. But when I looked at them on a large screen and began to process them, I realized that then needed the hints of color that nature provided.

The first few, below, give you a sense of the mood I started with. Nature seemed bleak, broken, and uninviting.

Still, there were glimpses of life, color and beauty. These two images of small coniferous trees, keeping their green for the winter, stood out, keeping the appearance of fragile but stubborn life.

Even where there were a lot broken dead bits, and the muted colors of Michigan in winter (grey trees, whitish-grey snow, ice, and sky), there is beauty. The next two images, one of them the cover image for this post, are similar. Somehow the color, whether the green of the coniferous trees or the red of the dead leaves and the plants along the shore, provides beauty. So too, even, does the white, black, and gray of the dead trees in the water and ice.

Finally, two images along the lake, in the last part the walk, as you go through Camp Rogers property and then back into Pickerel Lake Park and the parking area.

During the summer, there usually are birds. And the water is teeming with plant life–plants, animals, and insects. The life is not got, of course, but it looks that way. It makes me want to hibernate, until winter and COVID19 are over.

They are a bit more cold and frosty again. The ice almost looks like you could skate in it. Some people in bright toques and scarves, skating, chasing each other and a puck, would be a delight. Classic Canadian, Michigan, and Minnesota stuff. I don’t think that’s allowed in the park. Boating and swimming are not. In any case, we’ve not had enough cold weather for the ice to be thick enough.

Stay safe. And stay warm.