Discovering the Beauty of Michigan Lighthouses
“Lighthouses are not just stone, brick, metal, and glass. There’s a human story at every lighthouse; that’s the story I want to tell.”
Holland Lighthouse from the beach
During my last visit to the family lake house in September or October of 2022, I had an idea of capturing photo and video of lighthouses in Michigan. I started a new job shortly after and was’t able to start on the project until mid to late April of 2023. I have gotten in four at the writing of this blog post. When I decided to make this a project, I didn’t realize how many lighthouses the state of Michigan has. From what I can find on google, there are 129 still standing in some form or fashion and 24 destroyed. I won’t be able to get to the ones that are no longer with us but I would love to visit the 129 still standing.
Grand Haven Lighthouse Facing Lake Michigan
Grand Haven Lighthouse Facing Lake Michigan
I thought this might be a long term project but I didn’t realize the scope of how long it could take me until I complied a list of the standing lighthouses. Commuting alone to some of them is going to take a while. My hope for the ones that are farther way is to get up there and hit up a couple of them at once. I have been doing ones near the family lake house so far. Moving forward they are going to get farther and father away from either my home or the lake house.
St. Joseph Lighthouse through a log on the beach.
I’m trying to enjoy the journey and not make it feel like a chore. I think if it starts feeling that way I’ll take a break for a bit until it doesn’t feel like that again. I want to find joy in capturing these landmarks. I don’t want to put to much pressure on myself. I was think about getting it done this year but with work, resting and needing to adult I don’t think getting all 129 done is possible with tying to have fun and keep the joy in it.
Drone Photo of top of Grand Haven Lighthouse
Drone Clips are put together to music.
My plan so far is to blog though my process of capturing these beacons of light. I so want to make a book of the photos. I also want to take all the video footage I take and make a compilation video. I’m not sure how the book or video will look like, I think it will be easier to figure out once I have more photos and video. All of it most likely will be for me, part of me is fine with it because that’s why I started the project and the other part is wanting to share and it enjoy it with others. Time will tell what will happen.
I haven’t been to a lighthouse that I can go into yet. I’ve only been able to capture the outsides of them. I want the one of my next ones I can get inside and get a different vantage point from the deck outside. That’s if they let me out there. Here is to, God only knows how long, project full of joy, beauty, and exploration.
