St. Patty's Day Sunrise

Its been a little while since I have sat down to write about something photography. I havn't had much time or opportunity to photograph anything. I've heard that the best camera is the one that you have on you. In the last month, I have seen so many opportunities for great photos but only had my cell phone available (which I can take pretty decent pictures with in RAW and edit them) but usually I was on my way to or from work when I can't stop and compose a photo.

But today was different, I woke up at 5:30 and headed to Sterling State Park along Lake Erie in Monroe, Michigan with my camera just to take photos during the morning golden hours. Using Google Earth I had already figured out where the sun was to rise in comparison to the bridge leading to the walking trail at the park. I arrived to the trail head a little after 6:30 and checked the SunsetWX site to see what the prediction for the sunrise was and it looked like it was going to be good.

I got out of my car and walked to the area where I planned to view the bridge and sunrise and started shooting as it was already twilight. I did a few shots with the bridge as the colors of the sunrise grew stronger. I swapped to my 8mm wide angle lens and did a couple shots. I tried to do every shot as low to the ground as possible with my tripod to capture the skim ice on the top of the water. I swapped back to my other lens and tried a few more compositions and then decided to move. I walked back to the head of the bridge and captured some shots using the handrails of the bridge as leading lines toward the sunrise. After a couple different composures I moved away from the bridge and started walking the trail.

The walk was nice. I switched to my 170-500 mm lens since the sun was now well into the sky and decided to focus on capture some wildlife. I stopped and took a few shots of some minks swimming in the water. I started moving back down the trail and almost immediately an immature bald eagle flew about 20 ft over my head. I couldn't get my camera on the eagle and get a picture but it was a nice site to see.

I continued along the trail and spotted some geese and ducks. I seen some deer on the golf course that is adjacent to the park but I could not not get a clear view of them with the camera. I also spotted another eagle flying over the golf course. I stopped a little farther up and took some photos of some geese and ducks. The lighting was awesome with the sun at my back illuminating the subjects.

I decided I would just walk the loop and hope to catch an eagle fly by or something. I really didn't see a whole lot but had a great time. I captured some birds, squirrels, minks, and enjoyed the whole walk.