Photography

Up North: Christmas on the Straits

703 photos became 15 · four days in December 2007 · northern Michigan

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Christmas 2007 was four days in Alpena, up on Lake Huron. In between everything else, I kept finding reasons to go back outside with the camera.

It was the kind of weather that doesn’t let up: storm shelves rolling in off the water, waves breaking over a lighthouse, and the Mackinac Bridge going in and out of the clouds. Closer to the house it was quieter. Grosbeaks at the feeder, squirrels working the snow and a river that hadn’t frozen yet.

A curving shore road under a dark storm shelf, with a band of yellow light on the horizon
A dark storm wall over the lake with a thin line of gold light under it
The Mackinac Bridge in silhouette under heavy clouds, with a bright gap in the sky
The Mackinac Bridge against a pale winter sky, its two towers reflected in grey water
One of the Mackinac Bridge towers and its green cables under storm light, beside a street lamp
A red lighthouse at the end of a breakwater as a wave explodes against the rocks
The same red lighthouse under a lighter, broken sky, with spray coming over the breakwater
Pine trees in silhouette against an orange sunset over the water
A Big Boy restaurant sign at dusk, with the lake and an empty road behind it
Sailboats in winter storage on a rocky harbor shore under a grey sky
A blue-hulled tour boat up on stands for the winter
A river cascade running through snowbanks, framed by a cedar trunk
White water pouring over a rock ledge between snowbanks, soft with a long exposure
A red pine grosbeak and a female at a wooden hanging feeder
A gray squirrel eating in the snow with a black squirrel behind it

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