JUST ONE MORE

I don’t know how many times I’ve photographed this light house, too many to count. It’s always the Grand Haven pier, but then it’s always new. The only constants are the pier, light house and the catwalk. The sky can have any combination of clouds or blues, and water color, waves and beach always different than last time. Birds come in and out of the frame and direct or indirect, high or low angle; light is always changing. Today the wind was strong, out of the northwest. Low clouds were lined up all the way to the horizon with little, narrow gaps between them. I wanted low angle sun light on the red light house and I had to wait. Being focused and ready when one of those narrow little windows opened and the sun came through, was a waiting game. You might get a minute and it might only last 5 seconds. My fingers ached from the cold and it was difficult holding the camera steady in the wind. But something always complicates the process and you have to work around the inconvenience. You have so many elements working, it’s like juggling 5 or 6 balls, waiting for them to be in a perfect alignment and being ready on the shutter the moment they get there. I took 88 frames this morning; after edits and deletes I had it cut down to 6.
Day before yesterday the remnants of Hurricane Sandy were curling around and down through Ontario, stirring up Lake Michigan. There were 20 ft. waves crashing over the pier and on the beach. The catwalk question didn’t need an answer. It was obvious why, in the old days, they needed a raised steel walkway, with hand rails and a life line from shore out to the light house. This morning the wind still has a cold edge and there are 6 to 8 ft. swells feeding into the channel but the lake has settled down. I decided to stop taking photos when my hands were too cold to feel the on/off switch on the camera. I figured there were a few good shots in there and it would be more rewarding to write and edit with hot coffee and a bagel than to keep leaning into that wind, working for a better photograph. But it’s like picking mushrooms or stones up off the beach. You have 6 in hand and decide to stop after just one more. Then you find #7 and it wasn’t enough after all and you keep looking. You begin to question your own intelligence after you collect #15, the one you promised yourself would be the last one, but it wasn't quite good enough to be the last one. 
I had turned my back to the wind, putting my camera back into its bag. For all practical purposes, I was finished taking photos. Then, for the same reason I suppose that alcoholics take another drink, I reached into the bag and took out a different lens and swapped out my mid range for the big baby. We were close enough we didn’t need the magnification but the “Big Baby”  has an anti-vibration feature that senses and corrects any minor motion, as you trip the shutter. I thought about the cold but it wasn’t going to get any colder, still the sun was getting higher and I might not have this chance again for a very long time. So I took more photos. I caught up with coffee and bagel a little later, exactly what I needed and my hands warmed up just like I knew they would. My hair has a bad case of “Bed-Head” and the runny nose will slow down soon. But I’m exactly where I want to be, doing exactly what I want to be doing.