Posted on Aug.17, 2011, under Architecture

(Nikon D700, 28-300mm at 28mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/1000 at f/8.0)

My wife and I are spending some time in Northern Michigan, including Mackinac Island situated between Michigan’s lower and upper peninsulas. The island has a great collection of summer ‘cottages’, most of which are really large homes. They were generally built by wealthy industrialists and needed to accommodate family and servants. A nice example of a typical Mackinac Island cottage is ‘Brigadoon’ shown above. This cottage has a wonderful view of Mackinac Island’s harbor.

I took this shot as we were walking back to our hotel room after having lunch in the main part of town. I took a few different shots and finally settled on this low angle where I took a series of shots for possible HDR processing. However, when I got back to the room and look at the shots I had taken, I knew right away that I had to go with this shot. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a monarch butterfly had flown into the frame in the upper right. It fit so nicely with the sky that it almost looks as if I placed it there in post. I assure you I did no such thing. It’s just one of those lucky things that sometimes happens to photographers.

Processing for this image included some perspective correction and some work in Lightroom and PhotoTools to bring out the color that was present in the scene. As you can see in the raw image below, the bright sun created a somewhat washed out image to start.

Comments and feedback are always welcome. Feel free to leave them below.

Copyright ©2011 James W. Howe – all rights reserved

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