Feature Photo
The Story Behind the Photo
When a place is named Superior, you expect to be impressed when you get there. And impressed I was when I made my first-ever visit to the greatest of Great Lakes this past June. I've been dreaming about the north shore of Lake Superior since I was a little kid, fueled by its reputation as a powerfully rugged landscape - the quintessential Canadian wilderness. So as my kayak-topped Toyota rolled west from Sault Ste Marie and the landscape got noticeably more impressive, it was obvious I had reached the big lake that had filled my thoughts for so long.
My specific destination was Lake Superior Provincial Park, where I pitched my tent at the Agawa Bay Campground. Only a thin strip of beach separated my campsite from the water, and there was barely another person in the campground. What luck!
I planned an ambitious shooting schedule for my 5 days in the park, focused primarily on landscape photos. My goal was simple: to walk away from the trip with a handful of strong images to definitively show the rugged beauty of the Superior shoreline. And so I photographed.
The best thing about Lake Superior Provincial Park for photography (besides the scenery) is the access you have to scenic bays and harbors. You can drive to a half dozen amazing spots, which makes it easy to be there before dawn, or to stay long after the sun has set. One of my favorite locations was Gargantua Harbour, where I spent several hours one evening.
There was a small stream outflow on the cobble beach at Gargantua, which I gravitated to as soon as I stepped onto the shoreline. I used my wide-angle lens to shoot a myriad of compositions of the wet cobbles in the foreground of landscape photos. As the sun dipped lower in the sky, the cobblestones were aglow with saturated light. I put on my macro lens to shoot some close-ups of the wet rocks, with a small aperture so the whole photo would be in focus and the slow shutter speed would blur the moving water. I added a blue-yellow polarizer to intensify the colors, and fine-tuned the composition as the sun dropped below the horizon.
Two weeks later, I had completely forgotten about photographing this series of rocks. So it was a sweet surprise to find this photo when I got my slides back from the lab, and began to weed through the 60 rolls of film I'd shot. Although my goal had been to photograph the big and powerful landscapes of Superior, it's this small detail image that strikes me the most. In fact, it's my favorite photo from the entire trip!
Technicals:
Canon EOS 1N; EF 100/2.8 macro USM
Velvia rated at 100, pushed one stop
Cokin Blue-Yellow Polarizer
mirror lock up and cable release
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