Lake rocks exposed due to low water levels in Eagle Bay, Lake Huron, east of Port Austin, Michigan, Fuji X100
Yesterday my wife and I took the day off for a casual drive up Michigan’s thumb area with our Alaskan Malamute, Willow. A drive up M25 takes you through numerous little towns along the coast of Lake Huron typically starting in Port Huron, with Port Austin being at the tip of the thumb. We hadn’t been this far up the thumb in awhile, so it was just a day for exploring.
While I didn’t intend to take many photos, I did bring along my Fuji X100 just in case. I am still gaining experience with it, and the more I use it, the more I am really enjoying this camera. It certainly isn’t an “all-in-one” type of portable camera since it has a fixed lens. However, I am finding that the fixed lens tends to make me more selective on my subjects as not everything is a good fit for the 35mm equivalent focal length. All images in this post were made with the X100.
Lake Huron is currently at 11 inches below the water levels from last year. It has been quite dry here for a long time. The link I just gave also reveals some interesting data about historical levels of the lakes. Lake Huron is 58 inches below its all time high August water level recorded in 1986! It is expected to lose another 2 inches by the end of September. That is pretty incredible to think about.
Dried lake bed and rocks, Eagle Bay, Lake Huron, Michigan, Fuji X100
While this may have other ecological ramifications, it also opens up areas of the lake normally covered by water. We stopped at this access point to Eagle Bay where I found dried lake beds and mud caked rocks scattered about the shoreline. What photographer can resist mud caked rocks?! This was a spot to spend at least a little time exploring for photos.
One nice aspect of the electronic viewfinder on the X100 is that it automatically displays a highlighted frame correcting for parallax issues with rangefinder type cameras. This changes with subject to camera distance, so as I was looking and focusing on different things, I was noticing the framing guide jumping around a bit in the viewfinder.
I had the x100 set on auto ISO selection, and set a minimum shutter speed of 1/60 of a second. The rest of the camera was basically on aperture priority. I figured I could hold the camera steady at that minimum speed, so far it has worked out well.
I also did some playing with bracketed shots. This seemed relatively easy to do in camera. Even though the light didn’t really demand it, I did a trial with 3 1-stop bracketed exposures and blended them into the image below.
3 exposure blend using Nik HDR Efex Pro 2, auto bracketing by Fuji X100
I was almost sure I would have image registration issues trying to do a landscape blend handheld. There were some, but using Nik’s HDR Efex Pro 2 instead of Photomatix took care of that for me in this case. I don’t know why one software sometimes handles some images better than the other, but I have learned to try them both. Sometimes the better one is Photomatix.
Tree stump in beach side grasses, Port Austin, Michigan, Fuji X100, Image #TR9636
It turned out to be a pretty good day for exploring. I ended up with a variety of images I liked. You can see from the images in this post that the camera offers the good initial image to start with, and you can go a variety of ways in post processing. There is definitely something to be said for simplicity and traveling light for photography. I learned a bit more about the X100 and enjoyed the R&R time with family.
Meteorologists say that we must get used to more radical weather changes in near future. Last year we had rains almost whole July and then there was hot August and the warmest and most beautiful fall which many people around me remember. Thanks to this the second half of the year was pretty dry. This year is even drier. There are rain showers they are short and weak not giving enough of moisture under trees. Lakes and dams are a lot below their normal water level. If this trend continues I’m afraid that we will get into problems with drinking water in some 10-15 years. It’s not a nice outlook.
The HDR turned out really well, Mark.
It has been much the same here. If it does rain, it is usually quite short. I am really starting to miss a long rain and a good thunderstorm.
Unfortunately, the trend is continuing. The biggest question on my mind lately is if these gradual changes will reach a tipping point and ultimately produce something quite catastrophic.
Thanks Tomas!
I have been to Port Austin many times and over the years have seen the water level drop, but that is an all-time low! I think I might get out there for a day drive thanks for the inspiration 🙂
Alanna
This was the first I have been up there in a number of years. It seems like there could be many opportunities for reflecting pools and rocks if the light is good. Good luck if you go.
It’s amazing what excites us photographers. 🙂 We are dry out here also. I just visited with friends in Durango, Colorado on Sunday. They took me on short hike to Turtle Pond that had no water. They have lived there for 12 years now and never seen it dry. I wonder how many gallons of water that 11 inches equates too. No matter, its a lot. I’m impressed with your images, as usual. However, I’m positive the quality of these images is related more to the photographer than the camera.
Monte, now you have me curious at how many gallons that is… So let’s do the math. 🙂
Lake Huron is 23000 sq. miles x .000173 mile (11 inches) = 4 cubic miles rounded.
4 cubic miles = 4.4 Trillion gallons! 🙂
Holy crap, that’s a lot of water!! Didn’t even come close to my imagination.
Or 8,371,385 gallons per minute!
I hadn’t realized it had been quite that dry that far north…sadly impressive.
It’s nice having a small camera which doesn’t detract attention from casual trip enjoyment but can still return photos as nice as this, isn’t it?
The HDR image is very nice and non-HDR looking…that’s a compliment! 🙂
Earl, I can certainly see the appeal of having a smaller camera while you were touring Italy.
I didn’t want the HDR one to have an HDR look herer, so I am glad it does appear that way to others. I did make a rather grungy version of it, but maybe that is a post for another day.
Those are some really nice images that “your camera took”, Mark! 😉 That’s a impressive amount of missing water, when I think of how much water 11 inches is over the surface area of that lake, certainly more than a few glassfuls!
Yeah, now if it would only drive itself to these spots, it would be complete. 🙂 Thanks Paul.
We have had very little precipitation here and the water levels are quite low as well. Your first two images do a fine job of taking advantage of that. Your handheld HDR looks pretty nice too.
I’ve added Oloneo HDRengine to Nik and Photomatix and find that to be a pretty good piece of software.
I really impressed with the image quality of the X100, even though I know that Fuji is noted for excellent quality, from film to sensors. This was a good choice to bring along on an outing like this. Great photos, especially the dried lake bed.
Thanks Ken. I had to fiddle a little with that dry lake bed photo to make it sing. In the field I thought the composition was interesting, but the raw image (as often happens) was a bit too flat and uninteresting.
Hey, Mark –
Wow, 5 feet below the record high water level – that’s a lot of water!
The 3-shot blend turned out really well – nicely done!
I found lots of seldom-exposed rock to shoot in Door County when Lake Michigan was really low a few years ago. You’re right – who could resist!
:^D
— Jack
No kidding right. Hard to imagine the entire lake dropping that much in such a relatively small period of time. Thanks Jack.