Ice sheets at Twilight, Lake St. Clair, Michigan

Today marked my first “productive” outing in 2013 to my favorite spot along Lake St. Clair.   I did one walk out in my woods a couple weeks ago, but didn’t even take my lens cap off – so I don’t count that.  🙂   I almost made it out here last weekend, but when the forecast was predicting 100% solid grey sky cover, I decided to pass.   The colder weather this week probably helped freeze up the edges more, but most of the lake remains unfrozen thanks to the big thaw we had recently.    The forecast for this morning was predicting partial sky cover (good!), but a bit warmer temps (not so good for ice), but it was plenty cold enough.

In past years, I have been able to walk a bit out on the ice to work the compositions I want, but this time out, I found most of the lake to be open water.  The exception was a small area where there was some ice buildup along the shore, extending perhaps out at most 15-20 feet.    It was quite limiting on where I was able to walk.  On the shoreline to the left of this image just outside the frame are piles of concrete and rocks placed I assume as an erosion preventative.   Stacked up against those rocks are these piles of ice sheets.   It was a bit dicey to walk along this limited area to find elements for a good composition to say the least.   It seemed pretty easy to break an ankle or step the wrong way on the ice and crack your head open.   When the light started happening, I had to take it pretty slow and stuck to only a few spots.

Nikon14-24 on D800 with Fotodiox lens adapter and 145 mm ND filter

It also gave me a chance to try out my new Nikon 14-24 mm ultra wide lens.   My work with my 17-35 on my D800 definitely revealed some of the limitations of this older lens, often getting soft in the corners.   For most shots, it didn’t matter much, and I could easily crop if I needed to as the D800 certainly has pixels to spare.     Even though I have thought about the 14-24 for awhile, I was always concerned that this lens with its dome front element couldn’t accept filters.

I can get by without Graduated Neutral Density filters that I frequently use with my 17-35 by exposure blending.  I didn’t want to give up having a polarizer or solid ND filters I wanted to use more for long exposure photography.   In my research,  I read Ian Plant’s review on the lens, and he pointed to a couple of different options that I didn’t know about.  Needless to say, lens lust set in, and I was craving that extra ultra-wide view.

Fotodiox makes a lens adapter kit for the 14-24, and makes the lens compatible with 145 mm filters.   I must say I didn’t quite visualize what a 145 mm filter meant at the time.   They take up a bit of room in your camera bag.   The photo here also shows my camera hooked up to a Vello Shutterboss wireless remote, which I plan to use to do some long exposure work.   I tried some of that today also, which I will make a separate post about.

New gear always helps a little in increasing the motivation to get out in the cold.  🙂