Photos From The Big Lake and the Time Before Boreas Arrives

Now that the showy colors of fall are decaying on the ground, and the frost appears each morning, and the signs of lasting ice are appearing on the inland lakes, it’s time for me to return to Lake Superior in the mornings. Lake Superior, or called, as recorded in Father Frederic Baraga’s 1878 dictionary, Otchipwe-kitchi-gami, the sea of the Ojibwe people, or simply The Big Lake, is visible from my living room this time of year. With the leaves gone from the trees, I can glance the shimmering water through a tangle of birch and black ash branches.

The sun has now dipped far enough south in the sky that it both rises and falls over the big lake, and for photography the shores near Lake Superior have become world class. Soon those shores will become coated in thick ice and start to rival any winter destination in the world for beauty, and I’ll help photographers discover it during my Lake Superior winter photo workshops.

But now, the jet black basalt, wet with the spray of gales and cold, fall rain, and dewy frosty mornings, or even a thin verglas, contrasts with the bright, crisp colors of a chilly late fall sky.

This is the time of year for transitions, spending time in contemplation, and taking the time to feel as Sigurd Olson wrote in his essay Simplicity, “unlimited time or unlimited room.”

“Life is complicated at best, and those who never break away from normal involvements to the simplicities of wilderness travel cannot know what they are missing, nor what is meant by unlimited time or unlimited room, the privilege of looking at the old familiar world without interruption.”

- Sigurd Olson

Now the northland becomes void of people and spacious without the summer’s and fall’s tourists—most skip venturing into the north at a time of year when the rain can turn to sleet and snow and back to rain again all within an hour. It is not a time for the timid to explore the northern forests and wilderness, but for those that have the grit and fortitude to venture out to Lake Superior for a sunrise, Lake Superior may serve up a sky that feels like a heavy silence and that is at once cold and warm and brilliant.

This changing of the season, this changing of the guard, this time of year when Boreas brings the devouring wind, forces many into the comfort of their homes to spend time reading a book in front of the hot wood stove—through its window a chaos of red and yellow and orange dancing and burning and the charcoal black as coal heating up the cold, bringing warmth to one’s cold feet and cold hands, and the smell of the fire escapes the stove or drafts into a crack in the window seal with the wind of the north with Ullr, Hodr, and Skadi coming soon, the warmth of a house the only escape. The change has arrived.

The changing of the season is here, and we hear it in the howling winds, the gales of November. We hear the change in the crunch of frost in the morning. We hear our breath as it turns into a white cloud floating there attracting our attention until the next cloud replaces it and the chill of the air is forgotten for the spectacle of our visible breath. And then the devouring wind has found us. Most of us hide as trees fall all over the woods.

Except for those that embrace this time, escape to warmth of a house is the only reprieve.

For those that embrace the changing season and the coming of Old Man Winter and the other winter gods, this is a time to feel alive, to feel alone, to feel the emptiness of outside when all the rest hide near their wood stoves.

And the photos, my gods, the photos of The Big Lake.

SmugMug Deal

On my website, I use SmugMug to host my image galleries and handle my print orders. After I made the switch, I increased my sales. One of the reasons for that was SmugMug uses a Publish Service in Lightroom Classic that makes it easy to upload new photos. After I had my price lists set up and my theme selected and modified, adding images to my galleries has become as easy as dragging a photo into the SmugMug Publish Service and hitting the “Publish” button.

I’ve had great luck with them. Even if you aren’t planning on selling your photos, it’s a great website builder that helps you get your photos online as a portfolio.

SmugMug is running a Black Friday deal. It is 30% off any new SmugMug account. It starts on Sunday the 17th and ends at Midnight PST on December 16th. You’ll get a free 14-day trial. If you decide to sign up and pay the fee before December 25th, I also get a commission.

To get the deal, go through my link: SmugMug Deal.

Until Next Time

That’s a wrap. Don’t forget to buy my calendar and I’ll see you again in two weeks.