Eighteen Mile Creek in WInter There are several places around that I like to visit repeatedly and the Eighteen Mile Creek gorge is definitely one of them. While any place will change based on time of day, weather, and season, this gorge does so in a very pronounced way. It does so especially at its very end, where the creek ends and the lake starts, at its mouth into Lake Erie.

There are beaches on both sides of the creek mouth and both change in shape and size dramatically throughout the year under the natural forces of weather and the lake. In winter, the changes take on a different scale. The banks have several feet of piled up ice that can look like the arctic if photographed up close to deceive perspective. Some sections of the creek, where the flow is slower, are completely covered with ice and snow that can collapse when temperatures warm up.

On this night I wanted to capture the monochrome nature of the frozen gorge. The cloud cover was thick and I did not think the sun would show up. I planned photos of water, ice, and snow, feeling very cold, chilling to the bone. The days leading into this photo expedition were on the warmer side, clearing sections of the creek and allowing the ice around to collapse and become unstable. As a result, sections of the hike were rather challenging. Crossing some side branches of the creek also became more challenging due to the increased flow compared to summer.

Sunset over Eighteen Mile Creek in WInter At first, my photographs revolved around my plans. SInce it had been a while since the last snowfall I missed the pristine whiteness of a fresh snow cover. The ice and snow were on the dirty side making it tough to capture and later present pristine winter landscapes. I kept trying anyway. I went for a few documentary shots dirt or not, and I found a few angles where light and angle helped obscure the dirt.

Then the dense clouds started breaking up and some light showed up. All of a sudden everything looked completely different, within literally just a few seconds the mouth and its surrounding area went from a black and white winter landscape to a colorful scene with the sun taking center stage and shining through the narrow opening on the horizon, giving color to the sky above. An unbelievable transformation, well worth being there.

That brings be to another though. There is a photography saying "f/8 and be there". On many web site they rip it apart discussing the merits of not using f/8 at all times. It may just be me, but I've always understood this one differently. I always took it as that the aperture does not matter at all if you're not there. And here, that definitely was true, even though I had f/11 set on my camera.

But nature was not done yet! Out of nowhere a flock of geese showed up and flew towards me. Good that they're noisy and gave me a heads up on their arrival. I think I had about five seconds or so to to get the camera back into position and ready. I saw them heading up the sky towards the bright orange opening on the left. Not having time to mess with the camera settings I knew I was in for a slow shutter speed and would end up with a bit of motion blur and somewhat abstract feel to the flock. I also knew I only had one shot at getting the flock where it would stand out the most. And the geese did just what I was hoping for and all paraded into the opening almost at once. The shutter clicked, the geese moved into the dark clouds, and the moment was over.

The Always Changing Eighteen Mile Creek in WInter And now it was over. I still had to find my way back through the woods and was not going to wait for darkness. The clouds thickened too again and made it unlikely for a colorful show to follow this sunset. I gambled, packed and left. This one time I was not punished for my early departure. All and all, a wonderful evening with some wonderful surprises. The whole time I did not even notice the temperature was down to 25 °F. Actually, I did notice just before starting my way back. I took a few sips of water from the bottle hanging on my belt and had to crunch some chunks of ice!

f/8 and have fun being there!

Equipment used:

• Nikon D600
• Nikon 24-85mm Nikkor Lens
• Manfrotto tripod (055MF3) and head (496RC2)
• Think Tank Speed Demon Waist Pack
• Exposure delay mode of 2 seconds, no remote release
• Nikon Capture NX2

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