The Great Lakes Region

  • First Light at Voyageurs National Park

    Bymichael

    Every photographer eventually builds a list of parks they have confused with each other. Voyageurs National Park and Isle Royale National Park share enough surface characteristics that the confusion is understandable and common. Both sit at the top of the Midwest. Both require a boat to access the interior. Both have the mosquitoes that the northern lake wilderness produces in June and July. Both sit under dark skies that produce the aurora photography that brings serious photographers to the upper Midwest specifically.

  • The Light at Isle Royale National Park

    Bymichael

    Every photographer eventually builds a list of images they have studied so carefully they can almost feel the conditions that produced them. The Northern Lights above Lake Superior, reflected in the still water off an Isle Royale shoreline, is on that list. It is the photograph that requires mosquitoes, a boat, advance planning, and the particular willingness to commit to a wilderness island in the middle of the largest freshwater lake in the world on the chance that the aurora will appear.