October Highlights

• Way too many photos from Shiras Park
• More company at sunrise than any month to date
• More outtakes than any other month as I loosen the reins on my own editing

October Weather

Coldest Sunrise

17ºF

Avg. temp

38ºF

Hottest Sunrise

61ºF

The sun was visible for 18 of 31 sunrises.

October Overview

Ten months complete. The sun is now passing south in the horizon, past the many places I’ve photographed her earlier in the year. From Marquette, she no longer rises over Lake Superior’s horizon, but from behind the land somewhere towards Deerton.

Beyond the cold days of February, and the early mornings of June, it’s October that has been the hardest month of this project. However, looking back at the photos, though there was very little variety in location, the results were quite satisfying to me.

When it’s cold you can always put on another layer or have more hot cocoa. When the sunrise is early, you can always go to bed earlier and squeeze in a nap. But when it’s October, you can’t cancel Plaidurday or the Fresh Coast Film Festival. There are a dozen destinations I wanted to get to specifically during October, only one of them happened.

There was a stretch of nearly two weeks, where every day I wasn’t working the shop I had a media interview, or a Fresh Coast board meeting, or volunteer meeting, or classroom speaking engagement.

On some days it really broke me. At times I feel that little justice has been given this project. And in the hands of someone else it could be incredibly successful, more all encompassing, and much better photos. I just wish I had the means and flexibility to get to Ironwood on a whim, or Sault Ste. Marie, or the Keweenaw, or the Garden Peninsula. And those are just the Upper Peninsula locations. This doesn’t even detail what I’d love to do with a neutral density filter or telephoto lens. Nor does it detail the spiritual moments I long for chasing the sunrise in the dessert, or the mountains, or the tropics.

More than any other project, this is the one I dream of having unlimited resources. To continue chasing the sun every morning. If I could sell one print a day, I could do just that.

Maybe next year, or 2020 when I hit 1,000.

Songs of October

Music has played a large role in this year's journey. These are the songs that were the theme of October, the ones that were playing in my car stereo on the way to sunrise, in my headphones while editing photos, and the ones being shared with those closeest to me. Check out the entire playlist.

October Sunrise Locations