Lake Superior Provincial Park camping trip

I've just returned from a trip to Lake Superior Provincial Park, which ranks on the shortlist of my very favorite places in the world. The landscape is grand, the shorelines wild and the potential for dramatic skies over Lake Superior keeps luring me back there time and again. During a lakeside dinner of fajitas on Saturday evening, I studied the clouds and predicted a wash out sunset. A half hour later I was sprinting  down the beach with my camera gear to shoot the most dramatic skies and kick ass sunset I've ever hit on Superior. That's the way it works in landscape photography - the best skies often materialize when you least expect them. Here are some of the photos from the trip.


Photo 1 (above): Sunset and dramatic clouds over Lake Superior shoreline in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Canon EOS 5d mark II, 17-40mm lens, Singh-Ray LB ColorCombo polarizer & 3 stop reverse ND grad; ISO 200, 3.2s @ f/20; mirror lock up & cable release


Photo 2 (above): Sunset and dramatic clouds over Lake Superior shoreline in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Canon EOS 5d mark II, 17-40mm lens, Singh-Ray LB ColorCombo polarizer & 3 stop reverse ND grad; ISO 200, 2.5s @ f/20; mirror lock up & cable release


Photo 3 (above): Afterglow over Lake Superior cobble rock shoreline in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Canon EOS 5d mark II, 17-40mm lens, Singh-Ray LB ColorCombo polarizer & 3 stop reverse ND grad; ISO 200, 20s @ f/22; mirror lock up & cable release


Photo 4 (above): A shoreline campfire and playing guitar after sunset on the Lake Superior shoreline in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Canon EOS 5d mark II, 17-40mm lens, Singh-Ray 2 stop hard edge ND grad; ISO 640, 13s @ f/13; self timer (that's me on the right)


Photo 5 (above): Long exposure of clouds (streaking) after sunet on the Lake Superior shoreline in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Canon EOS 5d mark II, 17-40mm lens, Singh-Ray 2 stop hard edge ND grad; ISO 200, 247s @ f/11; mirror lock-up & cable release


Photo 6 (above): Evening light over sand ripples on the Lake Superior shoreline in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Canon EOS 5d mark II, 24-70/2.8 lens, Singh-Ray LB warming polarizer & 2 stop soft edge ND grad; ISO 200, 0.6s @ f/22; mirror lock-up and cable release

Trek to the Peregrine Falcon nest

Photo 1: That's me on the edge of a high cliff photographing a peregrine nest. Thanks to Christine Vance for getting this shot of me with my Canon G9.

Last night I joined some biologist friends to check the status of a Peregrine Falcon nest on the north shore of Superior. The trek to the nest site was fairly brutal... steep bushwacking with lots of places to clamber over boulders and dropoffs. It wouldn't have been so bad, but of course I was carring camera gear which included a 500/4 lens and tripod. Perhaps I'm just a bit out of shape too!

We found our way to an overlook with a good view of the nest (peregrines nest on cliff-face rock ledges). I used my 500/4 lens with a 2x teleconvertor to get enough magnification for a decent shot. The nest was in shadow, making it very tough to get sharp photos at slow shutter speeds with the high magnification and moving chicks. Although these are by no means great photos, it was an incredible experience to see the nest and enjoy the stunning views of the Lake Superior shoreline.


Photo 2: Three Peregrine Falcon chicks in a nest on Lake Superior.
EOS 1DsIII; 500/4IS & 2X teleconvertor