Michigan Lighthouse Photo Workshop Review
September 2020
Lerro Photography ran a photography workshop of the lighthouses around Ludington, Mich., in September 2020. With the ongoing pandemic, all COVID-19 protocols were followed during the tour.
We started off at Little Sable Point Lighthouse where we shot in the evening and at night. The clouds had rolled in so we didn’t get any star shots, but we still managed to get a few good night shots of the lighthouse with the sand dunes and the lake.
On Saturday morning we met up at Ludington Breakwater Lighthouse for morning shots and the departure of the coal fired steam ferry S.S. Badger. The weather forecast called for storms for the remainder of the day, but the weather was supposed to clear after midnight so we devised a new plan. We met up in the evening at the Ludington Breakwater Lighthouse for the return of the S.S. Badger. It was foggy and misty, which made for some really nice moody shots of the ship passing the lighthouse. From there, we took an extended break and planned to meet back up at 12:30am to travel to Big Sable Point Lighthouse.
As part of the workshop, we had special permission to use the closed road to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse. Access to the lighthouse normally requires a 3-mile round trip hike, but once we met up, I opened the locked gate and we caravanned in our cars to the lighthouse.
As soon as we arrived, the clouds broke and we had clear skies. We immediately went right to work photographing the lighthouse with the Milky Way. After about two hours, the moon rose and gave us a whole new “look” at the lighthouse and the landscape.
After sunrise we took a long daytime break and we met back up at Grand Haven Lighthouse for sunset and night shots.
