The Photographer’s Guide to Minnesota’s North Shore

I mentioned this project on my Facebook page, but if you don’t follow along there you might not have heard of it (I guess I did mention it last month). Here’s what I’m proposing:

• I’ll write The Photographer’s Guide to Minnesota’s North Shore over the course of a year. Each month I’ll release two locations and after I finish, I’ll put all the locations into a eBook (electronic book).
• I’m doing it to raise money, so this will be a project on Kickstarter.
• On Kickstarter, you pledge to support my project, but if it doesn’t reach the funding level that I’m shooting for, then you don’t need to pay anything. If it reaches the funding level, I do the book.
• I’m doing this to raise money for a new camera and computer system. Nikon came out with a new camera, which was more expensive than I expected, and the files won’t even load on my computer without freezing it up because they’re so big. I really need to raise somewhere between $3,000 and $4,500 with this Kickstarter. Beside the camera, I also need to pay a graphic designer who is going to do the eBook for me at a very good rate and I’ll need to pay a copy editor unless I can find someone who is willing to do it.

Here’s the neat thing about Kickstarter. I get to set reward levels. So far, I’m thinking about these rewards:

• $10 – A copy of the ebook.
• $15 — A copy of the ebook plus a copy of each location as it is released.
• $20 — A copy of the ebook plus a copy of each location as it is released and a postcard of an image from the project.
• $30 – A 8×12 print signed by me. Plus the ebook plus a copy of each location as it is released.
• $70 — A 12×18 print signed by me. Plus the ebook plus a copy of each location as it is released.
• $110 – A 16×20 print signed by me. Plus the ebook plus a copy of each location as it is released.
• $200 – A one-on-one half-day photography lesson. Plus the ebook plus a copy of each location as it is released.
• $350 — A photo taken during the project just for you. Printed 12×18 signed by me and never printed again. (Limited to 10) Plus a copy of the ebook plus a copy of each location as it is released
• $500 – A full-day photography lesson for you and three of your friends. Plus the ebook for each of you plus a copy of each location as it is released. (Limited to 4) This is a discounted level from my normal small group workshops.
• Probably a couple of other levels, too.

I could use some ideas here. What would you want?

A Sample Location

This is a rough draft of what a sample location might read like. It will have plenty of pictures and should spread out between 3 and 4 pages. I estimate between 600 and 1000 words per location. The final book should be around 20,000 words and 70 pages. Again, I’d love feedback. Artist’s Point will be included as the 23rd location.

Area:  Artist’s Point

How to Get There: You’ll find Artist’s Point in Grand Marais, and it’s one of the easiest and most scenic photography locations on the north shore. At the only stoplight in Cook County and Grand Marais, turn towards Lake Superior until you get to the big U.S. Coast Guard building parking lot. From the parking lot walk towards the lake until you see the sign for Artist’s Point. If you turn towards the right (west), you’ll walk towards the lighthouse. If you turn towards the left (east), you’ll walk towards Artist’s Point. Keep in mind that the shore runs almost due east and west in Grand Marais, so it feels a little confusing, because you expect Highway 61 to run north. If you have this mindset, you’ll be looking south during the sunrise.

Best Season and Date Range: It works for all, but if you want to get a picture of the sun rising over Lake Superior plan to be there sometime between approximately August 25^th until April 20^th. Artist’s Point works best for sunrise, but you can also work at getting a sunset shot of the lighthouse from either the breakwall area or from the Coast Guard parking lot. For the sunset, you should plan on being there between October 15^th and March 1^st, although the sun is more over the lake in November, December, January and February.

Artist’s Point also works well on overcast days for shooting pictures of delicate flowers. You can often find harebells growing out of cracks in the rock. If you look hard enough, you may find some fireweed and columbine. In the woods, you can find more varieties of flowers. I find the bunchberries particularly scenic.

Best Time of Day: Sunrise for Artist’s Point and sunset for shooting the lighthouse. Overcast days for flowers. Midday offers harsh and unphotogenic lighting and makes it hard to shoot anything on the point. Skip it midday.

Area Description: Artist’s Point divides into six different areas: the east bay, the point, between the breakwall and the point, the breakwall area, the lighthouse and the harbor side. Each area offers different views.

The Point almost always works well during the year. Even during the summer when the sun rises to far inland to get a picture of it over the lake, you can still get good color at sunrise. Two small islands sit just off the point and waves break over them anytime the waves are higher than a foot. Watch for reflections in puddles that make great foregrounds here.

The East Bay offers a rocky shoreline, which makes an okay photo, but the real area of interest are the old dock pilings that punch through the beach’s and water’s surface. This works better on the edge of the date range, because you need the sun to rise further north to get it to light up the bay. The north side of Artist’s Point is lined with five to 10-foot cliffs that often are the earliest areas freeze during the winter. They stay in shadows all winter long.

A rocky shore makes up the space between the breakwall and the point. Here you’ll find several large cracks/gullies that split the point apart. These photograph best when the sun is furthest south, so aim for these in January and February.

The breakwall area also gets good during January and February, so if you only have one sunrise, I suggest that you scout both areas the night before to see what catches your attention. Along the breakwall, the rocks are smoother and closer to the water. There is a place with very jagged rocks that works for a sunset. Sunsets from this area almost always have the lighthouse in them. It’s hard to avoid it. Where the path from the Coast Guard building meets the breakwall, you can often find Inuksuit, rocks balanced on other rocks. These are fun to photograph if you have a few spare minutes. Just to the west of the path, the water runs behind the basalt rocks and makes for interesting foregrounds.

The lighthouse: The classic shot in the area is the sunset behind the lighthouse, and it’s best to get that shot from the Coast Guard parking lot with a telephoto. Don’t be afraid to shoot the lighthouse from the breakwall area, because you can often get interesting photos there.

The harbor side of Artist’s Point is characterized by knee high to head high brush. It’s hard to photograph, but in winter before the harbor freezes a good north wind can blow spray over the brush which turns the area into a magical ice land full of unusual shapes and textures. Combine the shapes with a deep blue sky and you have great ingredients for pictures. If you’re into wildlife, I’ve seen otters and a beaver hanging out in this area.

What Gear to Bring: For lenses, think wide for sunrise, something at least 24mm wide (35mm equivalent). There are so many great foregrounds on Artist’s Point that I still haven’t had a chance to shoot them all. With a month or three of dedicated time devoted just to Artist’s Point, you might still not exhaust the possibilities. Every time I go out there I find a new and interesting foreground to photograph.

For sunsets with the lighthouse, you need a telephoto of at least 200mm, but 300mm if better. When it’s stormy and waves are breaking over the lighthouse going to a 400mm lens doesn’t hurt.

The flowers on Artist’s Point are small and delicate. I recommend a 105mm marco lens with extension tubes for getting close.

Notes: Despite being so close to town, you’ll often have all of Artist’s Point to yourself at sunrise.

Shameless Self Promotion

It’s been an exciting year for workshop. All mine have been filling up, and everything is full until my Fall Photography Workshop and my Gales of November Photography Workshop. Those still have spaces. The Fall one is going to be pretty hardcore. We’re going to hit all the great places in the county for fall photography. I’m really excited about it. We’re also going to do a night season which will be fun.

Wonder what it’s like to take a workshop with me. I got this bit of testimony from the last workshop I taught:

• I expected this to be a VERY good workshop and it exceeded my expectations. I’m more than pleased; it was worth every penny. Thanks again for a great weekend. - Linda

If you can’t make one of my formal workshops, I also teach one-on-one photography workshops and small group workshops.

FREE Memorial Day Weekend Photo Walk — Meet at 6am at the Coast Guard building in Grand Marais. The walk lasts until 7:30am.

Select Photos from April

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This is a post from Bryan Hansel Photography. Respond and ask questions at The Grand Marais Photographer Newsletter May 2012.

What Settings Did You Use?

I get asked “What settings did you use?” pretty often, and I don’t mind letting the cat out of the bag, but telling someone the settings for a particular picture doesn’t do that much good without a background in the fundamentals of photography. If you know just a little, you should be able to guess the settings. Here’s the secret to guessing what settings I used on a photo:

Quick-and-Dirty Rules for Aperture

Note that most of the time, but not always these q&d rules work.

Ask yourself this question: Is everything in focus from the foreground near where the photographer was standing to the background near the horizon?

• If yes, then that photo has a deep depth of field (DOF), which means that it was shot with a f/stop of 11 or above.
• If no, then that photo has a shallow DOF, which means that it was shot with a f/stop of 5.6 or below.
• If maybe, then that photo might have been shot with an f/stop of 5.6 to 8 or was focused somewhere that created fuzziness.

Quick-and-Dirty Rules for Shutter Speed

Ask yourself this question: Is the action stopped or blurred?

• If stopped, then it was a fast shutter speed probably above 1/125th of a second.
• If blurred, then it was a slow shutter speed probably under 1/15th of a second.
• If it’s really blurred, such as with many of my Lake Superior pictures, then it was a super slow shutter speed probably around 30 seconds.

The Answer Key

Aperture controls DOF, which is how much appears to be in focus in the picture. Apertures of f/11 and above make lots of the frame in focus. Apertures below f/5.6 often blur the background. For landscapes, you use f/11 and above most of the time, and for portraits you use f/5.6 and below to blur out the background and separate the subject from the background.

Shutter speed controls action. To stop it, you use a shutter speed above 1/125. To blur it, you use something below 1/15. Once you get out into 1.5 seconds or longer is when water starts to get that blurred silky look.

Shameless Self Promotion

We filled my waterfall workshop at Lutsen Resort, so I’ve started a waiting list. If I can get four people on the waiting list, I’ll run a second waterfall workshop on April 13 to April 15 in Grand Marais. Email me at bryan@bryanhansel.com for more information. That leaves only three more workshops that I’m teaching this year:

• June 15 to 16, 2012 - Minnesota Wildflower Photography Workshop at the North House Folk School.
• September 26 to 30, 2012 - Fall Color Lake Superior Photography Workshop in Grand Marais.
• November 9 to 11, 2012 - Lake Superior Gales of November Photography Workshop at Lutsen Resort.

The June workshop started filling up months ago, so if you want to get on it, you’ll need to act quickly. The Fall Color Photography workshop also is starting to fill up. Right now, I haven’t partnered with a local hotel on it, but I’m working on a package, and I’ll announce it if it happens. People that signed up already will be able to get into the package if it happens. It’s pretty far out to think about Gales, but that one always fills up. I also teach one-on-one and small group workshops if you can’t make it to one of my main workshops.

A Shameless Dilemma

A couple of weeks ago, I posted on my Facebook page that I needed 35 people to buy a $100 print so that I could buy a new camera. One person who follows my photos on Facebook mentioned that I should try to get 100 people to buy a $35 print instead. I think that’s a really good idea. For those of you that are thinking, doesn’t this guy save for capital investments like a new camera system; I do, but here’s the issue: I got surprised. I have money set aside to buy a camera, but I wasn’t expecting Nikon to come out with a 36mp camera at the price they did ($3000). This new extremely high MP camera is going to require that I buy a new computer system just so I can process the images, and I’m going to need to buy one new lens because one of my lenses just won’t be up to par on this camera (computer + lens = $3000).

I need a new camera, because my primary camera is from 2005. That’s ancient history in the digital world. It makes great images, but when I see what the new cameras can do, I’m amazed. Plus, I feel like I’m running up against the limitations of this camera, especially during night shots.

The benefit to you is that if you follow my daily photos on Facebook, you’ll see them get better! Plus, I’d make a new ebook called A Photographer’s Guide to Minnesota’s North Shore. I’d even give away my favorite spots and some hidden gems that just don’t ever get photographed.

So, I’m considering starting a Kickstarter project to raise money. I’d have several reward levels, such as:

$10 – A copy of the ebook.

$35 – A 8×12 print signed by me.

$120 – A 16×20 print signed by me.

$200 – A one-on-one photography lesson

$500 – A full-day photography lesson for you and three of your friends.

etc… Probably a couple of other levels, too.

If I could get 100 people to back that project, I’d be able to afford the camera and new computer system. I’d love to hear your thought.

Pretty Pictures from March

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This is a post from Bryan Hansel Photography. Respond and ask questions at The Grand Marais Photographer Newsletter April 2012.

Why did I get so many good ones this year?

I think a couple of reasons: 1. I shot every sunrise and sunset that I could. I missed out on a week when I was under the weather, 2. This year is different. Usually, February gives us lots of ice and clouds, but we had no ice and clear days. That left the basalt on Lake Superior exposed, and 3. The sun rises and sets over Lake Superior during the entire month.

How to Organize Your Photos

Those of you that attend my Lake Superior Photography Workshops know that I use and love Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 for about 99% of everything that I do. The reason that I use it is because it’s an organizational tool and an image processor in one program. It simplifies computer work for the photographer, because it includes almost everything that you’d need, and, in many ways, it works just like the old chemical black and white darkroom worked — you can dodge and burn and make any kind of mask that you can think of.

Here’s what I do to organize my photos.

1. Import all my photos into Lightroom and rename them as I import. I rename the YYMMDD-XXX, so the 17th picture that I took on March 1, 2012 would look like 120301-17. If I shoot a sunrise and sunset on the same day, I start the sequence for the sunset at 250 to 500 depending on how many sunrise pictures I took. I also assign general keywords to the entire import, so from sunrise on Lake Superior in March it might look like: sunrise, Lake Superior, winter, ice, waves, yellow, Cascade River State Park, etc…
2. I sort through all the images looking for images that I can delete and I flag all those with an “X.” I usually delete at least 5 out of 10 photos and sometimes 7 out of 10 photos. I shoots lots of the same composition with different waves until I get the wave that I love, and then delete those that I don’t like. On a commercial shoot, I usually only delete 1 in 10.
3. I then sort through all the photos and flag those that I want to work on. This sometimes occurs with step 2.
4. I also work on rating the images with this scheme: No rating for images that I want to keep but I don’t think will ever earn money. One star for images that might make me $25. When bulk requests for images come in, these are often what goes out. They’re good, but I don’t care if my name is on them. Three stars for stock images that I would like to have my name associated with. Five stars for those signature images and top quality. I use two and four stars as a placeholder until I can decide exactly where they belong. Two stars means I’m waffling between one and three stars, and four means I’m waffling between three and five stars. I basically use the same method as Galen Rowell via Thom Hogan. (If you shoot Nikon you should follow Thom’s website.)
5. I keyword individual photos with more specific keywords as needed. For example, if I used the general keywords in step one, I may refine them with: river mouth, running water, long exposure, blurred water, dreamy, cold, etc…
6. Then I work on those flagged photos and export any five star images to put on my website or Facebook. I sometimes add three star images to my website or Facebook as well.

And that’s it. I can generally get one morning of shooting done in about one to two hours of computer work. So, a sunrise photo shoot usually ends up being about four or five hours of work. That includes the driving, the shooting and the image processing.

Shameless Self Promotion Section

Wherein I shamelessly self promote:

• I still have space in my Spring Waterfall Photography Workshop at Lutsen Resort.
• I made a new Flickr group for people that have taken my photography workshops. If you’ve been on one of my workshops, just join and I’ll approve you. If you have an unusual user name on Flickr send me a note on who you are and which workshop you took. Then feel free to add pictures from the workshop or pictures that were influenced by the workshop. If you haven’t been on a workshop, you can see a few pictures of me doing embarrassing things.

Photography Resources

Speaking of Galen Rowell, you should own one of his books if you’re an outdoor photographer. I was lucky and after he passed away I found many of these books on sale at a book store, so I think I got all three for $15. They’re not that cheap anymore. While some of the info is related to film in these books, most of it is about inspiration, technique and vision.

• Galen Rowell’s Inner Game of Outdoor Photography
• Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape
• Galen Rowell’s Vision: The Art of Adventure Photography

Hope you had a good photography month and a better one in March.

A Few Photographs from Feb

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This is a post from Bryan Hansel Photography. Respond and ask questions at The Grand Marais Photographer Newsletter March 2012.

One thing that I love about January in the northland is that the sun rises and sets over Lake Superior, and it’s easy to hit both during a day, because it comes up around 7:30 am and sets around 4:30 pm. The second is that the shoreline looks different every day. Lake Superior is generally choppy in January, so the ice formations constantly change and with slow shutter speeds, you can blur the water to emphasize the scene. One hint that I have: find a great composition and then shoot 30 to 40 different pictures with different waves. Then narrow it down to 3 or 4 pictures when you get back onto the computer. I delete all the images where the waves didn’t do exactly what I wanted and just keep the ones that I liked.

How to Photograph the Northern Lights

Northern lights fill the sky over Northern Lights Lake just outside of Grand Marais, MN. Image used by National Geographic

Photographing the northern lights is pretty easy and I’ve written about it before for the local newspaper. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how to photograph the northern lights.

1. Find a dark location with a view to the north.
2. Set your camera on a tripod and compose.
3. Switch to manual focus and focus so that any trees in the distance are in focus. You can also set your camera at infinity if your lens has a distance window.
4. Set your ISO at 400.
5. Set your aperture at f/4 to f/5.6. This gives you a bit of focus leeway.
6. Set your shutter speed at 30 seconds.
7. Take a picture. Use a shutter release cord to help avoid vibrations that make your picture blurry.
8. If it’s too dark: bump your ISO up to 800 or open your aperture to f/2.8 or f/4.
9. If it’s too bright: change your shutter speed to 15 seconds.
10. Repeat steps 7 to 10 until you get tired.

Shameless Self-Promotion – Lake Superior Photography Workshops

This has been an exciting beginning of the year for my Lake Superior Photography Workshops. Both of my Winter Photography Workshops filled up (which happens every year, but I still find it exciting!), and I added a new five-day Fall Photography Workshop — in the past, it was the 2.5-day format as my other workshops.

These are the photography workshops that still have openings:

1. Added session! February 24 to 26, 2012 - Winter on Lake Superior Photography Workshop in Grand Marais (spaces left).
2. April 20 to 22, 2012 – Spring Waterfall Photography Workshop at Lutsen Resort
3. June 15 to 16, 2012 – Minnesota Wildflower Photography Workshop at the North House Folk School.
4. September 26 to 30, 2012 – Fall Color Lake Superior Photography Workshop in Grand Marais.
5. November 9 to 11, 2012 – Lake Superior Gales of November Photography Workshop at Lutsen Resort.

Let me tell you a little about the Fall Color Lake Superior Photography Workshop because I’m really excited to offer a five-day photo workshop during one of the best times of the year to photograph the north shore. I really wanted it to be a great value for participants, so I decided that the best way to give you value is have lots of field time, each day includes field time and to top it off, I decided to add three optional sessions. The workshop “officially” begins at noon on Wednesday, but if you get to Grand Marais on Tuesday, you can join me for a Wednesday sunrise session. The second optional session is a night photography session. I’m going to haul a tent out, lights and lots of goodies so we can mess around with lighting and make star trail images. The third is an optional one-on-one feedback session on Sunday afternoon.

I depend on word-of-mouth for advertisement and appreciate any help that you can give me in getting the word out about my workshops.

Inexpensive Photography Resources

Craft And Vision, a company that offers $5 ebooks — I mentioned them last month — just came out with a book called “Making the Print.” I checked it out and it’s really pretty good. Not many people print photos anymore, but if you’re interested in printing, “Making the Print” is a basic and easy to read primer on getting started with print making.

Photos from Lake Superior’s North Shore

A small sample from January. I tried to pick photos that I didn’t post to Facebook where I’ve been trying to post a new photo every day.

Thanks for all the support and continuing to follow my photography. I really appreciate it.

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This is a post from Bryan Hansel Photography. Respond and ask questions at February 2012 Newsletter – The Grand Marais Photographer Update.

Grand Marais Photography in December

December in the northland is the perfect time for doing a little Grand Marais photography. The town is slow until near Christmas, it’s sleepy, we may have snow, we may not and there’s not much else going on. What is going on though is that the sun rises at about 7:30am and sets at 4:15pm, so you can sleep in and still get a picture of the sunrise and you can get home before supper after shooting the sunset. That makes December Grand Marais photography perfect.

December Reflections

December is also a good time for looking back on some of the pictures taken this year. Here are a few that I really enjoyed making this year. Click on the thumbnail to see the full image.

In addition to taking lots of photographs this year, I took a 45 day long kayaking trip. See a picture of what I looked like while taking that kind of trip under the Shameless Self Promotion section.

December Photography Advice

This time of year, Grand Marais photography almost always involves a sunrise or sunset — did I mention that it rises and sets over Lake Superior? To capture it, you need Split Graduated Neutral Density Filters (ND Grads). These even out the brightness between the sky and the ground, which makes a better photo. All of the above sunrise pictures were made with ND Grads and without the ND Grads the pictures would be impossible to take.

Here’s what you need to use ND Grads with your DSLR camera:

1. Cokin P filter ring sized to the filter threads on your lens.
2. Cokin P Holder (saw off two of the slots so you don’t see the extra holders when you use it with a wide angle lens)
3. OR a kit: Cokin Holder plus ring

You then need to buy the actual filters. I recommend getting two ND Grad filters. One soft and one hard. Both in three stops. If you just want to try the filters out without spending a lot pick up number three on the list. I use number two on the list 90% of the time. If you’re going to buy two, buy either both high-end filters or both entry-level filters.

1. High-End Filter 1: Singh-Ray Galen Rowell ND Grad Soft transition in 3 stops: Great for inland lakes and scenes.
2. High-End Filter 2: Singh-Ray Daryl Benson Reverse ND Grand in 3 stops: This is perfect of Lake Superior.
3. Entry-Level Filter 1: Cokin P121: If you just want to buy one filter to try it out. This is the one.
4. Entry-Level Filter 2: Cokin P121S ND Grad: A softer transition. Similar to #1 in the Singh-Ray selection.

To use these filters, you screw the ring into your lens, attach the holder and then put a filter into the slot on the holder. You look through your viewfinder and move the filter up and down and side to side until the transition line (where the filter switches from clear to gray) aligns with the horizon. If the horizon is uneven, you need to align it so it disappears within the unevenness. Setting your aperture at f/8 or f/11 and pressing the depth-of-field preview button on your camera helps you see the transition line more clearly.

Shameless Self Promotion

This is the part of the newsletter where I push my products and services on you. Here’s what I have going on:

• I still do outdoor portraits in December.
• Lake Superior Winter Photography Workshop: This year’s workshop happens on February, 10 to 12, 2012. I love this workshop and it always fills up. At this point, we still have space, but if you’re thinking of joining me this year, you should get signed up soon.
• If the Winter Photography Workshop doesn’t fit your schedule, consider a one-on-one Lake Superior photography instruction or a small group Lake Superior photography workshop. I do these by appointment. We figure out when it works for your schedule and head out to get great pictures and work on what you need to learn.
• Spring Waterfall Workshop and Fall Photography Workshop: I’ll have the dates set soon.
• Gales of November 2012 Photography Workshop is set for November 9 to 11th, 2012.
• With the holidays coming up soon, you should give my 2012 Northern Landscapes calendar away as a Christmas gift or consider giving a print. All my photos are available as a print. If you don’t see the photo online that you want, let me know and I’ll make sure to make it available.

This Newsletter/Blog thingy that I’m doing is available by email. Sign up here. Please, pass this along to your friends (you can email them a copy by pushing the “Share” button below). I appreciate all the support that you have given me over the years.

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This is a post from Bryan Hansel Photography. Respond and ask questions at Grand Marais Photography – December 2011 Newsletter.