The Lake and the Lens

The winners of our third annual photo contest

Grand Prize

Nickelplate Beach • Huron, Ohio
By Todd Sechel of Amherst, Ohio

It’s his favorite thing to do in the world. Sechel wakes up before the sun rises, heads north until he hits the lake and then decides where he will take pictures that day. “I go east or west depending on what the sky looks like,” he explains.

On the day he took this picture, Sept. 29 of last year, he went west — to Nickelplate Beach. It was chilly out, but the water was still warm, creating fog on the shoreline. “The quality of light that day was very interesting,” he says. “You could barely make out the horizon line.” He took the photo with his Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

Unfortunately, such days have been few and far between since his wife made a two-year commitment to working in central India, which Sechel points out is landlocked. He took this shot while back home on vacation.

There have, however, been plenty of opportunities to take photos. While overseas, Sechel has traveled to Dubai, Cambodia, Thailand and within India to the Taj Mahal, Goa and Varanasi. He has trips planned to Malaysia and Vietnam.

Still, those places are not Lake Erie. Sechel, his wife and their 2-year-old son, shown on his first boat ride in the photo above, are coming back home this August. “The opportunity to travel has been wonderful,” he says, “but the three of us are looking forward to heading home to be closer to friends and family and getting back to enjoying our summers on Lake Erie.”

Both his parents and his in-laws own boats. “It is pretty much understood,” he says, “that if the weather and the water are good on a weekend, we are all going boating.”

Then there’s his passion. “There’s nothing quite like those early morning hours spent on the shores of Lake Erie.”

First Place Winners

People

The Grand River • Caledonia, Ontario
By Annette Koolsbergen of Hamilton, Ontario

Around here, we think of Annette as our designated blue heron photographer. Her image of the mighty bird took third place this year and first place two years ago.

With this image, we saw her talents in a new light. Nature photography requires patience, but this shot of her husband, Fred, took great technical ability. “The skier cuts the water twice as fast as the boat’s 34 mph speed while water is being sprayed into a rooster’s tail,” she says.

The human eye can’t see that kind of detail. Not unless you set the shutter speed on your Canon EOS 40D to 1/1600, your focal length to 100 mm and your ISO to 320. “It’s the magic of photography that stops a moment in time to capture the beauty of the sport,” Annette says.

We also like the intensity shown on Fred’s face. He’s been skiing on the Grand for 30 years, and on that day, as his wife says, “Fred was playing hard.”

Nature

Lake Erie Metropark in Rockwood, Mich.
By James Phelps of Southgate, Mich.

Phelps has taken many photos of this tree, where a pair of bald eagles can often be found, but this time was different. There was “the stunning early-morning colors and stillness of a later-winter morning,” he says.

Phelps has been taking photos most of his life. He went digital in 2003 and is now armed with a Canon EOS 5D. For this shot, he used a tripod and a cable release. It was in the mid-20s, so he had on his usual garb for such outings — Under Armour, boots, warm hat and a coat. He wears a thin pair of gloves, with a warmer pair over them till he’s ready to shoot.

His advice for other photographers? “Get out before the sun comes up.” And scout out your locations ahead of time. “The morning sun moves fast,” he says. “So you need to be ready.”

Architecture

Huntington Beach • Bay Village, Ohio
By Nick Allen of Medina, Ohio

In 2001, Allen bought a cheap point-and-shoot to take on a vacation to Europe.

Now, 10 years later, he’s the kind of guy who wakes up early in the middle of winter to take pictures at the beach with his Sony a900 DSLR. On the day he snapped this shot, it was worth it — both the expensive camera and the getting up early.

The bright morning sun hit the lake in such a way that it created a bluish haze on the horizon. “I found myself just staring,” he says.

He set up his shot with the break wall in the bottom center of the frame, “so that it would draw the viewer’s eyes to the horizon, where the mesmerizing haze was giving it kind of an infinity feel.”

Allen shoots year round, but prefers spring for nature and wildlife because “everything is coming back to life from the winter freeze.” Late fall is his favorite season for architecture because “gloomy weather and leafless trees add a touch of drama to the photograph and lets me put a different spin on something that has probably been photographed the same way many times.”