Winter/Spring 2024-2025 Photography
Well everybody, I fell off the wagon again and haven’t posted a blog in a long time. Rather than beat around the bush, I’m just going to get straight to stories this time and cover both Winter and Spring in this post!
The pre-snow miscellaneous photography
Before winter truly kicked off, I had one photography moment that I should get out of the way as I’m sure most of you might deem this as one of my uglier subjects. While doing some chores before Thanksgiving, I spotted this little guy while I was outside detailing my car, which was just filthly after two trips to Alpena and the U.P. back in the fall.
This is a Crowned Orbweaver Spider!!!
I am typically used to really little spiders or Daddy Long Legs, you know, the critters one would find in their basement. This guy was curled up near his web by the barn door, so I couldn’t help but have a little photo shoot with him.
Also between the holidays, I took the time to do some macro photography as well. During my U.P. trip, I paid a visit to the Yooper Trap gift shop, which also has a connected rock shop, and I picked up a few new specimens for my collection to photograph later on in my home studio. Here are the sample names:
Orange Crystal = Arcanite
Teal Mineral = Amazonite
Purple Crystal = Amethyst
Conglomerate Rock
White Crystal = Scolecite
Then I had a surprise wildlife encounter one day driving home from church!
Suddenly the pheasants have been more frequent with their appearances in the last year than they have been my entire life. I was driving my mother home from church as we saw it. Dad came home separately and it was still there, so I went back to the spot with my camera hoping it’d still be there. Needless to say it was, but this was the best shot I could get as it made its escape.
Then for Christmas, my gift that was partially from my parents and little bit from myself (yes, I helped pay for it with some Amazon points and a little of my own funds), I got a new 100-400 RF lens for my Canon R7. On Christmas day, I got to test it out on my neighborhood deer herd.
The Snow finally came!!!
About a week into the new year, the snow finally arrived! My first bit of winter activity was in the backyard, but this time I was focusing on the birds at the feeder, putting that new lens to work again.
Then about midway through January, we got one of those wet heavy snows that lends itself to some perfect winter photography conditions. When I woke up that morning to the snow conditions outside my window, I immediately got myself ready and headed out for some photography.
The following day, the same type of snow fell again, so I went out for a second outing.
A Day Trip to Manistee
On my next photo outing, I wanted to add some new locations to my winter portfolio rather than photograph the same places again, I so took a day trip up to Manistee to add a few more pieces to my mosaic project. The first stop of the day was to the Manistee lighthouse. That day the wind was wickedly harsh, and the waves coming in off the lake were massive and epic. I could only take so much of the cold, the wind just ripped through my poor gloves and my hands couldn’t do it anymore, but I managed to capture these shots before giving up.
North Pier Rage
After the lighthouse and some lunch, I checked out Tippy Dam a little more inland in the county. Not too terribly exciting in the winter, I’m sure it’s more dynamic when the water is flowing, but I had the time and wanted to make the most of the day.
Then the day ended on a high note…
As I was driving back home, sunset was kicking off in Grand Haven, so I made one last little detour before driving the rest of the way back to Holland. Image Title: Grand Haven South Pier Head Light (Winter 2025)
I arrived at the parking lot just as the sun was starting to descend below the horizon, so I had to act fast. Fortunately for me, the catwalk lights also turned on for the night, and I was able to capture both the stunning lights in the sky and clouds, as we’ll as some beautiful rippling reflections in the water.
Some more doses of Winter
On my next outing, I continued one of my traditional winter outings and did a little bird photography at the lake. Nothing too special this time around, but it’s a way to get me out of the house when the landscape conditions aren’t up to my standard.
A few weeks later, some more snow came and I took the opportunity to make the most of what we got in South Haven. I got a shot of the lighthouse that I really really like, as well as a quick shot at Cascade Nature Preserve. Beyond that, I mainly did some abstract snow shots around the beach the rest of that day. After that, with some rain and warmer temperatures later in the week, the snow was pretty much gone again.
Cascade Nature Preserve (2025)
South Beach (Winter 2025)
Another Miscellaneous Batch
Before getting into my next big highlight, here’s a few more random shots I captured during this time, from creatures big(er) and small, to a couple great moon shots from this season’s lunar eclipse!
The Annual Visit to the Butterflies
As I do every year, I visited the Butterflies are Blooming exhibit at Meijer Garden. This year I took fewer photos than I usually do, mainly because I was try to capture this specific shot:
Tropic Beauty
Every year, the blue wings of the Common Morpho is the most coveted shot of many visitors of the exhibit. When I saw one flutter past this trio of Scarlet Star flowers, the idea for this shot came to mind. After that, I stood very still for roughly an hour, capturing many failed shots where the butterfly just skirted the edge of the frame, or was too close to the camera to actually be in focus before capturing this!
While that may have caused me miss other shots, that’s okay for me because I got one that I actually pre-visioned in my mind rather than just running around aimlessly hoping for one to sit still for me. Now that’s not to say that I didn’t got other shots as well:
Tulip Time in Holland
I then got a little lax with my photography for a bit after that, but then came Tulip Time! Since last year the tulips bloomed early and faded pretty much before the festival even started, I missed out on that last year. Needless to say, I made sure to get a lot of great shots this year.
Zonsondergang
After Tulip Time, we got nailed with a really strong storm that was threatening tornados in our area. Before it got to the point where we had to hunker down in the basement, I captured these shots.
Another Go at Solo Camping
Much like last year, I took a weekend to do some solo tent camping and photography hikes. This year I photographed around the areas of Newaygo, Lake, Oceana, and Mason counties. Admittedly, there was not a lot of exciting places to explore around here, one of the highlights of the area being the many trailheads along the North Country Trail. But all in all, it was a great weekend. Unlike last year, I didn’t have noisy neighbors at my campground, so the sleeping at night was far more successful, even when one of the nights included another thunderstorm.
Since the subjects of this area I chose don’t have much variety, here’s everything from that weekend in one big grid:
With that, that is the end of my Winter/Spring photography adventures. I have a few more shots that I’m still working on at the time of this writing, so those will start off my summer blog, which hopefully I will get out at a decent time.
Thanks for Reading!
Bible Verse Images from this Season
