fstopandsee

Every year the city of Sapporo in Japan hosts one of the country’s largest winter events, the Sapporo Snow Festival. This attracts visitors from around the world to check out the many snow and ice sculptures. The best view of the event is from what is simply called the TV Tower. Personally I think it looks like a mini Eiffel Tower. I’ll admit that Mini Eiffel Tower would be an even worse name than TV Tower, so I’ll stick with the official name. This was also my first time travelling with an SLR! Even as I was learning the ropes I was excited to have the city and mountains as a backdrop to the display of snow and lights!

Cold, blue, green, stormy and snowy are all ways to describe Lake Michigan on this day. I always liked the way the snow built up along the shore in the winter. The snow and ice still has beach under it, but soon it will be reaching out into the water and floating away in cold chunks. Even though the clouds on the horizon looked menacing, but they didn’t produce any of the snow that I was hoping for. They did however allow the lake to show off its many colors!

Happy New Year! This picture seemed like a great one for New Year’s Day, just as today is the first day of a new year, this was a great sunrise on a new day. This particular lighthouse is in Algoma Wisconsin and is something that I was vary familiar with growing up, often hearing the fog horn from my house. The ice on the shore was a pretty good indication of temperature I got to enjoy while I was waiting for the sun to rise!

I went to Lake Michigan early one morning to catch the sunrise. It was pretty overcast and cleared up a bit later. I did get some sunrise shots, but I also really like these crazy icicles that were right by the water. The ice went right up to the edge, so I had to be careful not to fall in, as that water looked way too cold for a swim. As the sun broke through the clouds it lit up these icicles just perfectly!

The Forestville Dam in Wisconsin on a cool winter day. In case you couldn’t tell that this is a dam, there is a large sign to inform you. Probably much more helpful for when people are on the water in the summer. Even in the winter, I think the sign made the scene more interesting.

I braved the cold and ice to take this photo. I look forward to a Christmas that looks a little more like this photograph with more snow and ice than I currently have!