Sunrise No. 773 of 2,000+
- Sunrise time: 7:58
- Azimuth: 109° ⇡
- Did the sun rise: Yes
- Was the sun visible: In epic fashion
- Felt like: -16 ºF
- Air Temp: -5 ºF
- Humidity: 79%
- Wind: 5 mph ⇡
Exposure
- 35mm
- f/10.0
- 1/400 sec
- 250
Lower Harbor Ore Dock, Marquette, MI
0.9 mile commute
📍 46° 32' 23" N, -87° 23' 20" W
Musings [375 words]
It has taken me 1,271 days to get these photos edited and published, that equates to 3 years, 5 months, and 22 days.
Sometimes I forget this happened, but now it’s here, it’s archived, I can easily visit it and see it in the scope of this work.
Without question, now five and half years in, this is still a Top 5 sunrise experience, maybe Top 3.
It’s not about ranking them, but this morning was beyond special. Every time I would revisit the photos to edit, I would get overwhelmed.
When I began this project, I never imagined a morning where I could experience sunrise wearing my hockey skates.
I spoke to one old-timer out there, he said in fifty years of living in Marquette, he had never seen the ice freeze around the Ore Dock in this way.
If I’m lucky, really lucky, I’ll get to do this again. But there will never be another first time experience of lacing up my hockey skates at dawn, in -16º wind chills, and taking my camera and hockey stick to sunrise.
The irony, I’m not really in love with any of these photos. They bring me back to the place, but I don’t feel they do justice to the morning. Half of them are out of focus. But I was probably skating around, giddy as could be, not knowing what to do with myself.
With this particular edit, I’m drawn to it because I know I was feeling what that person felt. I brought my hockey stick out that morning as well, and I can look at this and pretend it’s me.
This was an all-time life experience. And if you were in Marquette during these few days, you know the buzz that was in the air. Especially coming out of the COVID pandemic, the community came to life in a way I hadn’t seen, as hundreds and hundreds of people took to the ice.
I’ve never felt quite as grateful as I had on this morning. Not so bad that it was the morning after my birthday.
A tale of two mornings
This shoes sunrise from February 11 and February 12, from approximately the same location. This illustrates how shortly that perfect ice lasted.
Outtakes
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This photo edit was so difficult, so overwhelming to me, that, as special as it was, it took me 1,271 days to edit.
I still don’t know if I love the selection, I’m not sure there’s any single photo that represents the morning well. And this photo, I’m slightly annoyed by the cropping, with just a touch of the Ore Dock creeping in. But It does incorporate most of the morning, with a group of ice skater in the distance, a foreground skater, the texture of the ice, and a piece of the Ore Dock.
Maybe, it’s a great photo, but through my eyes, I don’t think I could ever possibly be satisfied. It was all too special.
I like that, maybe, I can pretend the person with the stick is me.
In love with this photo and the long shadows, and it captures just how far out you could skate.
The north and lesser seen side of the Ore Dock, at least on that morning.
