A Nice Spring Evening?

It was really nice for early April here late last week. Saturday started out nice, but a rain storm rolled through and cooled things down a bit. After dinner, I noticed the clouds to the east had broken up and it was sunny. I figured I would head out to the coast and get some photos. Of course as soon as I headed west, I noticed the sky was completely clear. Just my luck.

I headed over to Grand Haven anyway. For some reason, I really like the photographic opportunities I get there. It should be old hat for me now, but for some reason it's not. Arriving in the parking lot for the lighthouse, I ran into an acquaintance from some of the local Flickr photowalks. We ended up photographing together.

The first thing I noticed was the incredible light. The light after a storm moves through is just great. The dust has been cleaned from the air and the clouds and what water vapor is left, just give a great warm glow to everything. The second thing I noticed that it was windy and darn right cold. I had brought a jacket as well as a sweat shirt. While it was in the upper 40's, the wind chill made it much colder.

The wind however had kicked up the waves and there were some nice high water being kicked up the south side of the pier and the end of the lighthouse. We walked out to the end for a bit and tried to photograph the spray backlit by the sun. After a few minutes of that, we walked back to the beach and set up for the sunset.

The sunset was nice and a cloud bank started moving up from the south. The sky wasn't going to be a total washout after all. We stayed and photographed until about 30 minutes after sunset. I would have liked to stay later, but the wind kicked up and was cutting through my jacket and hood. Since I hadn't brought gloves, my hands were feeling like they were ready to fall off also. We met a local photographer at a local brew house and after a beer and an hour or so of gabbing, it was time to go home. A great evening anyway.

The above photo was the last photo I took of the evening. A 30 second shot, with a aperture of around f11. I had the tripod set low to the beach and I wanted to get the really milky, cloudy water. While there is a hint of it here, I just didn't wait long enough for the sky to darken enough. Next time.