Steven Bourelle Digital Arts

Last Saturday, July 10, we had some thunderstorms roll through the area. We didn’t see any rain here at the house, but just to the north of us a decent sized storm went through in the evening. As sunset approached, I realized that the storm had made it’s way over Lake Michigan and was now directly east of us. Thinking that there might be some good rainbows around, I headed out to find them.

I didn’t have to go far. Just as I pulled out of the driveway a nice rainbow appeared over the lake. Unfortunately there aren’t any clear views of the lake near our house, so I headed south to the beach hoping that the rainbow would hold that long. As I drove I kept catching glimpses of the rainbow and realized it was a full one.  I stepped on the gas a little harder and prayed that the rainbow would hang on and that there weren’t any cops in the area.

When I got to the beach, there was the full rainbow in all it’s glory. I jumped out of the truck, grabbed the camera, opened up the tripod and lined up my shot just as the rainbow began to fade. This image is the result. It’s the only good shot I got before the rainbow was gone. It’s not the completely full rainbow I had hoped for, but it’s the closest I’ve ever came to a full one.

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The tall ship Friends Good Will sails out of South Haven Michigan. It’s a replica of the 19th century sloop that was originally built in Detroit MI in 1811 and served both the United States and the British in the War of 1812. During the war, it was captured by the British and then recaptured by the Americans. It then ran aground in Buffalo and was burnt to the waterline to keep it from being captured by the British again.

The Friends Good Will is owned by the Michigan Maritime Museum and is used as a floating classroom to help educate people about Lake Michigan’s maritime history.

This photo was taken at the 2010 Port Washington Pirate Festival in Port Washington WI. Also in the photo is Port Washington’s famous art deco lighthouse.

This was the second time I photographed this ship. The first time was at the  2009 Port Washington Maritime Heritage Festival. The light was horrible that day and I wasn’t at all happy with my photos. This second time the light was much nicer and I got some fine photos of this beautiful ship. This image is an artistic representation of one of those photos.

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The Lake Michigan fishing village of Port Washington is one of my favorite towns in Wisconsin. It has a wonderful harbor and downtown area and holds many festivals there throughout the summer.  Sitting on top of a hill, overlooking downtown Port Washington, is St Mary’s Catholic Church. This beautiful church was built in 1882 by Luxembourg emigrants.

On our first trip to Port Washington, we drove up to the church to photograph it. I took this picture at the time. I never really cared for the color version of this image, so I decided to try it as a black and white, I still didn’t care for it. Then I decided to try sepia and there was the look I wanted. I feel the sepia image captures the beauty and feeling of the church, it seems to radiate an aura that the color and BW image just didn’t have.

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Here’s the next image in my 35mm slide scan series. Before I put it on Flickr last night, it had never been seen online. It’s also my newest black and white, well sort of anyway.

This photo, taken at the Eureka Sand Dunes in Death Valley National Park, is actually the very first black and white that I made in Photoshop back in 1999. I don’t know if it’s still there, but there use to be a print of it hanging in Speed of Light Photo in Mammoth Lakes. I have no idea what happened to the original black and white file of this image, so I remade it last night.

Eureka Sand Dunes, Death Valley National Park, CA

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