Seney National Wildlife Refuge

We've been fortunate to visit Seney National Wildlife Refuge several times.  Our first visit was in September 2003. We knew it was going to be a great place when we saw sandhill cranes foraging right by the entry sign.  We were thrilled to see bald eagles, trumpeter swans, northern shovelers, loons, green winged teals, glossy ibis, American bitterns, beaver, and muskrats, etc.  We've also learned that by October, most of the birds have already flown south.

But we were "in the neighborhood" and couldn't resist making one loop through the auto trail.  There were still trumpeter swans, a pied bill grebe, assorted sparrows.  The ranger told me that river otters had been spotted - we didn't see those.

But even with most of the birds gone, Seney is still a beautiful place, especially at sunrise or sunset. The clouds were especially lovely this evening.

I never tire of seeing the subtle colors God paints in the sky - unique every day.

More Michigan Fall Colors

As we drove through the Upper Peninsula, the colors were just gorgeous. Sometimes I felt like I was in a fall fairy land!! Sometimes, the forest just glowed yellow!



These were shot on the road going toward Eagle River. There was color everywhere!



We went up to Brockway Mountain. It is a beautiful drive. The weather was not conducive to great photos - too hazy and dark, but the view of the colorful fall trees and Lake Superior is gorgeous.



Here are some shots at a different angle at the top of Brockway. Even on a dull cloudy day the colors were amazing.



I'm also playing with artistic creative images that you get straight from the camera. I've tentatively named this one: Whimsical Fall.

Presque Isle River - at the Isle

The next day I came back to the Presque Isle. I started at the Island on the bridge. The bridge is a suspension, wooden bridge. Anytime you walk on it, it sways both up and down and a little to the side. As a photographer, I've learned a lot of patience. Sometimes it is waiting for the optimum light as a cloud passes over. This time it was timing my shots when no one was walking on the bridge.

I spent a lot of time here - I wanted to get the big picture shot:



This is actually a large, flowing area, one of the channels around the island. I shot that one with my 28-105mm landscape lens. While it does show the big picture, it also makes this large powerful river look small. Even the large trees in the background don't give a good feel for the size.

I also wanted to find the smaller, more intimate looks.

I pulled out my 100-400mm lens to get a better shot of the rapids at the top of the first image. This is up at the top, you can barely see it in the "big picture."



I changed location on the bridge and was fascinated with the way the river water and the rocks had worn jig-saw puzzle shapes into the bedrock.



I was also looking for places where I could get both the stream action and the hint of the fall colors:



I found this composition illustrated the flowing lines and I still got a fall leaf:



This last shot is a really close up, almost a macro shot:




I won't decide which are my best images from this area until I get home. I'll be looking for which images have all the leaves sharp, rather than the motion blur that occurs as a gentle breeze comes through. I also shot for HDR (high dynamic range) which lets me get good exposures for the brightest areas and the shadowed parts.

Presque Isle River

One of my favorite areas in the Porcupine Mountains in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the Presque Isle River. When we were here before I had hiked the lower stretches of the trail along it. This trip I decided to hike part of the upper portion. I had Henry drop me off by the top fall and I was going to meet him down at the picnic area.

I really enjoyed most of the walk. I got a good look at the Nawadaha Falls which was an easy walk from the upper parking lot, but there were too many trees and tree trunks in the way to get a good photo. I started down the trail. I enjoyed watching flocks of small birds dart from the trail up into the trees as I approached. The forest was beautiful. The trail led me high above the river. Most of the trail wasn't bad, but first I came up on a stretch where I ended up laying my tripod down and using hands and knees to get up. Then the trail had a few more ups and downs. I was doing OK. And then . . . right before I got to the much easier boardwalk . . . I looked down on . . . this:




In general, I go uphill much easier than downhill. Yes, I may get winded, but my footing is much more steady and sure going uphill. Perhaps it is because when you are going up if you fall, you are likely to fall forward with not such a great distance to go or that you can catch yourself with your hands. It might be that my center of gravity is more balanced when I'm going uphill. Whatever the reason, I don't trust myself going downhill and take it very cautiously. So when I looked at that stretch from above, I knew I was in trouble. I didn't take long to decide that going down sitting down was the best course of action. And, it went pretty well. But when I got to the bottom, I realized that I had somehow lost the water bottle from my pocket as well as a small amount of money. There was no way I was going back to the top for that.

Fortunately, another family came along. I casually mentioned that there was an unopened water bottle and some money up there. A very nice young man soon reappeared with my lost possessions. Last time I was at that spot, someone else rescued my lens cap that had fallen where I did not have the agility to rescue it. Seems like I need to be more careful at that location since I keep losing things here. But so far, they haven't stayed lost.

As I was taking my last looks before heading on down the boardwalk, I noticed as sign that warned: Steep and rough terrain ahead! Now they tell me!

The rest of the walk that evening was beautiful. Here are two of the shots I took. I made it back to the car and Henry about ten minutes after sunset, before it got to dark to see the path out of the forest.




The fall colors were gorgeous!

Michigan's Fall Colors

We spent several days driving around the Upper Peninsula looking for fall colors. We were lucky to catch them so close to their peak. I love the bright, deep reds, the brilliant yellows . . .