Vol XVIII – #2 – Into the Past

Report today by Jim. 

Erhardt Peters walked out onto a snowy Lake Leelanau around 100 years ago (roughly) and took a photo of Maronook, the stately summer residence of Walter Truman Best aka “Maro the Magician” and his wife Allie May Kaiser. Maro died in 1908 at age 39, so at the time this photo was taken, it was probably only visited by Allie, who was very active in the Leland community and founded the Old Art Building. I was determined to recreate this photo this season and thought I missed my opportunity a couple days ago. The ice was solid, but mostly clear of snow. To recreate the photo, I needed snow on the ice and on the house, as well as a cloudy day. I got that today after a short blizzard, but with temperatures rising, the snow was turning to slush fast. I think I got it.

From the snow on the ground and house to the clouds, it was about as good as I hoped, and I appreciate more the effort it must have taken him to set up a medium format camera in the snow and estimate exposure manually without all the cheats we have today. It may have been weeks before he knew if he had the right exposure. I knew right away.

If you want to know more about Maro, go here: http://www.leelanaunews.com/?q=node/23499. If you want to learn about Allie, go here: http://www.oldartbuilding.com/best-theatre/

My brother John got up at sunrise for this shot. The sunrises and sunsets have been especially special lately.

If you follow Keith on Facebook, you get a morning shot from Fishtown every day. This is what it would look like if you stalked him. This is when the snow was coming down fairly heavy.

Biscuit had some friends to hang out with. 🙂