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This shot was a TON of work – but I like the result!



We arrived at Miner’s Beach in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore about an hour before sunset to stake out a good spot. The sky really looked like it was going to be promising, so I wanted to find a really special place to create the evening’s photograph.



I was especially drawn to the boulder you see in the photo, but there was a problem – a big ‘ol tree was in the way! It was on the bank, just mocking me. I looked over at my son Grant and said, “I need to move that tree.”



He looked at me like I was nuts, then laughed, then pointed at me and said something like, “Whatever Dad, I’d like to see you try.”



So, with a new determination that only a mocking 10 year old can provide, I went out and tried “rolling” the tree by its roots. To both our amazement, it was actually working – the tree was moving! The more water I got under it, the easier it was to move (of course, I was getting soaked). I finally got it out deep enough to float it, gave it a shove, and away it went.



I looked at Grant and pointed at the boulder. “We need to move that next.”



At first he kind of looked at me like, gee, can he do that? After all, he just moved a tree…



Then he came to his senses, “OK Dad – go ahead and try!”



Yeah, that boulder is just where we found it.



Next, I needed to find the prefect spot, so I used my iPhone compass and FocalWare App to figure out exactly where the sun was going to set. After about 20 minutes of indecision, looking in the viewfinder, trying another spot, etc, I finally decided on the final location.



Unfortunately, directly behind me was a stack of branches that had been washed up on shore and it was hopelessly tangled – no moving those! So, this image was created with a number of sticks poking me in the back, the camera down low, and me, pretty much soaked.



Personally I had a BLAST