Last week I was on vacation. I expected to do a lot of photography. Then we got a version of Noah’s flood in West Michigan. It didn’t rain, rain, rain, for 40 days and 40 nights. And we didn’t get a massive flood. But we got several days of rain in a row, steady rain, driving rain, downpour rain, spitting rain, depressing rain. And flood warnings.
Temperatures in the 60s and 70s during the day. We seemed to be getting all the cold and wet weather in the country, while the West got frightening, recording breaking heat added to its drought.
We had a cottage near Lake Michigan booked through Airbnb for the week, but cancelled. The weather looked good for the weekend, so we booked another one for a couple of days. But then cancelled that.
I got a few images on a walk early in the week, but nothing else. I’ve still got a couple days off this week. So I’ll see what I can do in the next couple of days before I return to work.
The cover image is one version of roughly the same image, zoomed in with a telephoto lens. This image is a wide angle version of the same spot, zoomed out. Its from the Pickerel Lake Park northeast of Grand Rapids, AKA the Fred Meijer Nature Preserve. Technically, I think, what you see is an extension of the lake, so “lake” or “inlet” rather than “pond.” But pond sounded better in the title.
I went black and white because the colors were almost entirely green, with a bit of blue in the water and sky. They were distracting and did nothing to show off the shapes and lines in the image. In processing the image, I added some contrast, but mostly I worked to control the super bright spots and the really dark spots.
The rain looks to be slowing down this week, if not disappearing. So, hopefully, we’ll be able to enjoy some early summer weather this week and next.
In any case, stay safe out there and be smart. It’s easy to feel like COVID19 is slowing ending, but nasty strains like the “delta” variant are lurking out there. I’m not so worried for the US and Canada in the short run, but worry about what might happen in the fall, when schools start up again and flu season hits.
For the moment, however, this week, I want to focus on my last couple days of vacation–a “stay-cation” as it turned out–and enjoy a somewhat drier outdoors and some photography.
No Ordinary Light 