Windy Weekend

It's been strange weather wise the last week. From a snowfall of what seemed like 10 inches a day the weekend before Christmas to rain and 50 degrees. With freezing rain and messy roads in between. Pretty much all the snow is melted now, but it being only December, there will be more.

I woke up Sunday morning to high winds battering the house and the sound of a big bang. Taking a quick walk around the house didn't reveal anything wrong. Figuring it was a piece of debris hitting the house, I pretty much forgot about it.

I had been wanting to go out to Grand Haven to get photographs of waves hitting the lighthouse. Checking the webcams for the area showed that indeed they did have waves and they were big. Of course, once I hit the road the snow started and the roads got slippery in the Grand Rapids area. For some reason, they were dry closer to the lake shore.

I'm not sure what the winds at the lake shore were, they were reported to be gusting to mid 40 mph in GR. They were definitely higher at the lake. While I thought I had dressed warm, it quickly became apparent that a stocking type hat in high winds doesn't really cut it. I made a note to myself, once again, to look for warmer hats.

The other problem I had and one I had not thought of, was controlling the camera in high winds. The wind was high enough, that I had trouble keeping it focused on a single target. I ended up searching out pieces of fence or posts to help steady the camera. Even that was not an optimum answer. I'm not sure what else I could do. A tripod would blow over, unless it was weighted down with more weight than I wanted to carry.

I ended up cranking up the iso so I could get a fast shutter speed in the light, and quickly filled up 3 memory cards in 3 different locations. I don't think I spent more than 15 minutes or so in any one spot, but I was glad to get back to the warm car. I did get some photos I liked though.

Once I got back home, I finally figured out what the bang was that woke me up. We lost a big piece of trim on the garage. I still haven't been able to find it.