Lighthouses and sunrise are like mac n’ cheese and brisket, fish and chips, or Yoopers and buffalo plaid. If you’re watching sunrise along Lake Superior, and the entirety of the Great Lakes, it’s likely there is a lighthouse nearby.

Michigan is home to ~138 lighthouses, and roughly 58 of those are in the Upper Peninsula. Lake Superior itself is home to 78 lighthouses.

Given that I am just 3,000 feet from the Marquette Harbor Lighthouse, it appears in either the background or the foreground often.

In addition, I’ve watched sunrise Whitefish Point Lighthouse, Old Mission Lighthouse, Seul Choix Pointe Lighthouse, Harbor of Refuge Inner Lighthouse, Split Rock Lighthouse, Sand Point Lighthouse, Peninsula Point Lighthouse, Gladstone “Lighthouse”, William Livingstone Memorial Light, and probably some others that haven’t come to mind just yet.

However, I’m not always looking to photograph the lighthouse, sometimes it’s in the foreground, the background, or left out altogether. After all, sunrise doesn’t always align in the direction of the lighthouse. Next up, would love to see some East Coast lighthouses at sunrise.