My Michigan

sj-gordon · Jul 4, 2018

When people who have never visitied the State of Michigan hear the name, they often think of Detroit and/or Flint, urban decay, big industry, etc.... Once you go a very short distance from the big cities though it is farmland, forest, lakes and rivers. The vast majority of the state is very rural, for example; to get to a town or city over 10,000 I have to drive over an hour. When it gets hot, we head to "The Lake" just as generations of my family have done. Lake Michigan that is. These were taken this past week-end. yes a 4th of July week-end and there isn't another person in sight on a 90+ degree day. Love being rural.

Jeff15 · Jul 4, 2018

A couple of nice shots...

TreeofLifeStairs · Jul 4, 2018

Yeah, I never would have guessed that was Michigan.

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Jeff G · Jul 4, 2018

Nice, I am envious of a crowd free beach, especially on a holiday weekend. :encouragement:

victoria.harp26 · Jul 4, 2018

Beautiful!

sj-gordon said:
When people who have never visitied the State of Michigan hear the name, they often think of Detroit and/or Flint, urban decay, big industry, etc.... Once you go a very short distance from the big cities though it is farmland, forest, lakes and rivers. The vast majority of the state is very rural, for example; to get to a town or city over 10,000 I have to drive over an hour. When it gets hot, we head to "The Lake" just as generations of my family have done. Lake Michigan that is. These were taken this past week-end. yes a 4th of July week-end and there isn't another person in sight on a 90+ degree day. Love being rural. View attachment 160023 View attachment 160024

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Warhorse · Jul 5, 2018

Both are nice, but the first one is outstanding in my opinion.

sj-gordon · Jul 5, 2018

Thank you everyone for the nice comments. It took being away from Michigan for years to really appreciate how much it influenced my outlook on life. Never saw a crowded beach until I moved away, heck never even dreamed that you might have to PAY to park at a beach. LOL. And the water is fantastic, crystal clear with sugar sand beaches that actually squeak when you walk across them.

WesternGuy · Jul 5, 2018

Nice images. I don't think that I would have known that this was Lake Michigan. Interesting, for me at least, to see all the groynes along the beach.

WesternGuy

b_twill · Jul 6, 2018

Where's that at? May have to take a road trip some weekend!
Looks like a they belong in a "Pure Michigan" ad!
We avoided The Lake last weekend because of the crowds.

jcdeboever · Jul 6, 2018

Yes, MI has many beautiful areas, many gems. I have traveled all over the state, mostly work related. I wish I had taken up photography years ago to solidify my memories.

smoke665 · Jul 7, 2018

I've traveled up the west side of the state, and it does have some beautiful scenery. Nice shots, especially the first.

bulldurham · Jul 8, 2018

I like the idea of uncluttered beaches and while I've only barely made a dent into traveling there (I shall soon enough) I am far more of a less rocky, more sandy kind of beach guy.

One thing I notice most about the first image is that you are not controlling your lens distortion either in the camera or in your photo editor. If you use Photoshop, then distortion control then re-scaling is quite simple as you can see by my edits. Another thing is a bright white sun that late in the day and this too I edited down from a 255 cold white to around 243, 38% value of your lightest beach sand reflection.

sj-gordon · Jul 9, 2018

b_twill said:
Where's that at? May have to take a road trip some weekend!
Looks like a they belong in a "Pure Michigan" ad!
We avoided The Lake last weekend because of the crowds.

Between Ludington and the Ludington State Park.

sj-gordon · Jul 9, 2018

bulldurham said:
I like the idea of uncluttered beaches and while I've only barely made a dent into traveling there (I shall soon enough) I am far more of a less rocky, more sandy kind of beach guy.

One thing I notice most about the first image is that you are not controlling your lens distortion either in the camera or in your photo editor. If you use Photoshop, then distortion control then re-scaling is quite simple as you can see by my edits. Another thing is a bright white sun that late in the day and this too I edited down from a 255 cold white to around 243, 38% value of your lightest beach sand reflection.

View attachment 160157

View attachment 160158

I do like your edit, I have one that is almost 100% the same. For this one I wanted to keep the distortion in to get the entire jetty as well as the shore. Thanks.

sj-gordon · Jul 9, 2018

WesternGuy said:
Nice images. I don't think that I would have known that this was Lake Michigan. Interesting, for me at least, to see all the groynes along the beach.

WesternGuy

Lake Michigan can have some very strong currents due to storm action. Since it is long and narrow water tends to push to one side in front of an incoming storm, then "slide" either up or down the lakeshore. Tends to eat away the sand rather easy. We can go from this, the 25' of beach at the ends of the jettys before you hit water after a strong storm... then it washes back out in a couple years andwe are back to what we have this year again.