The Photographer's Guide to Minnesota's North Shore: Second Edition

years.

Split Rock Lighthouse

INTRODUCTION

While Minnesota is often thought of as fly over country, cornfields and prairie, the 150 mile stretch between the aerial lift bridge in Duluth and the High Falls of the Pigeon River on the Canadian border, is none of that. The North Shore is home to Minnesota’s most scenic and awe inspiring places. There you will find magnificent cascading streams, breathtaking waterfalls, one of the most picturesque lighthouses anywhere and spectacular views of the world’s largest fresh water lake.

Lake Superior can be wild or placid and photo opportunities abound year round. The full moon rises behind Split Rock Lighthouse on a bitter cold night in January and winter ice flows are blown ashore, producing piles of ice shards. November storms like the one that sank the Edmond Fitzgerald, create crashing surf that rivals that of the rocky Atlantic or Pacific coasts. The brilliant color of aspens and birches along the lake and sugar maples in the higher elevations match the beauty of any New England autumn. Stands of lupines and other wild flowers adorn the roadsides in spring and summer.

The North Shore is a land of ancient lava flows where streams have carved their way from highlands to the lake’s shore, creating boulder strewn gorges along the way. The exception is the Brule River which, just a mile from its mouth, splits and falls; half dropping towards Lake Superior and the other half plunging deep into the earth to a destination unknown.

Minnesota’s North Shore is truly a landscape photographer’s dream. Unfortunately, much of the land along the lake is privately owned and off limits to photographers. The good news is that the most scenic places are in state parks, state forests, waysides and pull offs that provide access to stunning sites where a photographer can spend hours upon hours making photographs.

This book will identify what I believe are the most scenic spots along the North Shore and, in most cases, I provide the GPS coordinates of the location. The book will describe the best time to photograph each place. I will also point out when a scene requires a telephoto lens. Otherwise, most photos can be captured using standard lenses with focal lengths between 24mm and 85mm. I’ve included a final chapter that identifies photo locations that are worth considering because they are very near the highway or they are particularly good at certain times of the year.

The book is intended for landscape photographers of all skill levels. Because there are so many waterfalls along the North Shore, I have included a chapter describing techniques for photographing them. The experienced photographer may find limited benefit from this information although I describe some newer techniques related to super fast shutter speeds. I hope that less experienced ones will find the entire section helpful.

Because the full moon rises behind Split Rock Lighthouse in January, the lighthouse makes a great nighttime photo and because the skies above the North Shore are dark and don’t suffer from serious light pollution, I have included a section on photographing at night.

The Split Rock Lighthouse beacon is illuminated once each year and on special occasions so I’ve included information about when it will be lit and how to capture it.

Most of the locations included in the book can be photographed after a short walk. The High Falls of the Baptism River involves a round trip hike of just over two miles as does the hike to the Devil’s Kettle on the Brule River. These hikes are generally regarded as moderately strenuous so I’ve added specific details about what they involve, including the elevation gains. For most photographers, these hikes will not be too demanding even when loaded down with all of their photo gear but photographers who are not in good physical condition should consider whether these hikes are right for them.

North Shore rivers can usually be photographed within a short distance from the parking areas but you can hike a considerable distance along any of the rivers as the photo opportunities seem infinite. For example, the Cascade Falls on the river with the same name is only a short distance from the parking area but the hike to calm water far above means an elevation gain of over 300 feet.

Because photography involves more than simply pointing a camera at a beautiful scene and pressing the shutter, I’ve incorporated a chapter on composition including the rule of thirds, how to create the illusion of three dimensions using two dimensional media, and how to improve a photo by simple housekeeping in the field.

I’ve also tried to address considerations such as white balance, ISO settings as well as appropriate shutter speeds and apertures for the particular photographic situation. I’ve illustrated many compositional elements by using real life photos and marking them up to show problems that need to be fixed and I explain how to fix them.

The book describes essential photographic gear that every photographer should have when photographing the North Shore, explains why the particular piece is necessary and provides an estimate of the cost of these items.

The entire North Shore cannot be photographed in a day or even two days. The distances between some of the best photo locations are long and considerable driving time will be required. Devoting an adequate amount of time to each location requires a minimum of three days. Four or five days will work even better.

The chapters in the book are laid out expecting that you will be driving from Duluth to Grand Portage so references to left or right side of Highway 61 assume that direction of travel.

Remember to stay on the trails and don’t go into places where foot traffic is not permitted. Doing so will not only damage vegetation, it will also result in more restrictions on photographers who visit in the future. Pack out your garbage. If you take it in, take it back out. That includes water bottles, soda cans and wrappers for snacks. Please leave these beautiful areas as clean as you found them. And finally, enjoy your photographic adventure to Minnesota’s North Shore.

In the second edition, I have completely rewritten the chapters on photographing waterfalls and night sky photography, which now includes a section on photographing the moon. Some of the changes I made resulted from improved camera technology while others resulted from advances in my knowledge of the subject.

The second edition includes many more of my photographs. I’ve included those photographs to illustrate the points that I make in the body of the book. I’ve also added some additional locations along the North Shore, most notably, North Shore Drive between Duluth and Two Harbors and the Caribou River.

Upper Gooseberry Falls; late in the afternoon.

CHAPTER 1: PHOTOGRAPHING WATERFALLS

Since you will have many opportunities to photograph spectacular waterfalls on your North Shore journey, I thought it important to offer some suggestions for photographing them.

One of the first issues to consider when photographing waterfalls is the kind of light available. Unfortunately, those perfect sunny days with clear blue skies are the worst days for photographing waterfalls. Bright light produces dark shadows, the whites in the water become overly bright and reflections off the water create glare. In addition, colors are less saturated than they are when the sky is cloudy.

One positive about photographing waterfalls in bright sunshine is that such conditions may produce a rainbow in the falls. When the sun passes through the mist created by the crashing falls, a rainbow will appear. You will need to find a place where the sun is at your back and positioned between you and the waterfall. Locate the rainbow and make your photograph. Of course such locations are not always accessible and the waterfall may not generate enough spray to create a rainbow, but do make the effort to search for one. Bright skies offer other kinds of photo opportunities as you will see later.

Cloudy skies will nicely diffuse sunlight, allow for slower shutter speeds and may increase your chances of capturing a great waterfall photo. Some wonderful waterfall photos have a painterly effect about them that is created by soft diffused light, fog or misty air. Such a mood simply cannot be created when you photograph a waterfall in bright sunlight.

Creating great waterfall shots is not difficult. You just need the know-how. Having a good camera helps but knowing how to use it is the key. That’s why I included this chapter. It will address shutter speed, aperture, ISO and white balance settings for photographing waterfalls. Using a real life waterfall photo, I will identify the troubles with it and show you what you can do to prevent similar problems in your own photos. This chapter will also discuss essential gear.

Take Control of Your Camera – White Balance, Aperture, ISO and Shutter Speed

While you can’t control the skies, you can control your camera. It is as dumb as a rock. It doesn’t know what you are photographing so, if you let it choose the settings, you will capture the photo your camera has been programmed to deliver. Rest assured, it doesn’t know if you are photographing a waterfall or a sunset and it will never give you the waterfall shot you want. With a little knowledge of how your camera works, you too will be creating the kind of photographs you will be proud to hang on your wall.

White Balance

The first thing you should do when photographing a waterfall is make the correct white balance setting. White balance is kind of an odd name for a feature that you adjust based on the lighting conditions. If you are shooting in the shade, set it for shade. If you are shooting on a sunny day, set it for daylight, it is as simple as that. But what does the white balance setting really do?

Look out your window on a sunny day. Take note of the bright areas and those in the shade. Do they look different? Of course they do, but what is the difference? Most people think of shade as an area where an object, like a tree or building blocks the light and that’s correct, but for the photographer there is one other very important difference.

Shade alters the color of the light from white to bluish because blue light rays disperse more easily than the other colors of the spectrum. The human eye adjusts to this color shift so it is hardly noticeable but the camera sees it. The white balance adjustment on a digital camera compensates for the change in the color of light. Film photographers know that when they are shooting objects in the shade, they add a warming filter to compensate for the shade’s blue cast. When they make a photograph where the subject is lighted by artificial light, they will use a cooling filter to remove the red color cast. White balance on a digital camera is like having a pocket full of filters for fixing shifts in color. Use the shade setting to fix the problem of scattering blue light. Clouds also create a blue tone but it is not as pronounced as shade. The cloudy white balance setting adds a warming color but not as much as the shade setting. It goes without saying that when you shoot outside in the sun, use the daylight setting. There are also settings for flash, incandescent and florescent lighting. So, select the white balance setting for the lighting conditions.

Is your waterfall in the shade or the sun or both? If it is in the shade and your white balance is set for daylight, your photo will have a blue