If You Freeze It, They Will Come

Jim Burnham

16 min readFeb 17, 2016

A photo pilgrimage to the Ice Caves of Northern Wisconsin. Part 1

“A million miles from nowhere, is better than going nowhere, a million times.”
― Anthony Liccione

And then what happens when a million other people show up?

TouristsRecord number of people out to see the ice caves

And when it gets airplay on the radio and posted on every news website on earth, they will come.

I made the decision to drive 540 miles north to the Apostle Island National Lakeshore after seeing some of the photos being posted online. I was wrapping up one last week at my regular job and built in some time off before starting another. I saw it as an opportunity to start finding interesting places to photograph and although it looked like 100,000 other people might have had the same exact idea, I scheduled it on a Monday and Tuesday so to minimize the weekend crowds I was reading about.

[See the full photo portfolio here: http://www.artistasylum.com/icecaves]

So I floated the idea to my wife, saying that I’d like to do something cool before I started my new job and the ice caves would be a great place to go photograph. And the response was, “I would love to go see that”. “But,” I said, and continued with a long list of why the family would want to avoid doing this:

We would have to go on a weekend and I want to avoid the sheer number of people that are going to inundate the area on Saturday and Sunday.
It’s kind of hard to get good shots when there are 100+ people constantly in the frame.
We would have the kids with us and you know they would hate it, because a kids job is to hate things that you like (except for sugary cereal, in which case they are always on board).
We have been through enough Winter in central Illinois, why would they want to go 500 miles NORTH?
The drive is 9 hours long, and I’m NOT stopping.
If you do go on a Monday and Tuesday, the kids have to miss school.

So the list of reasons why I wanted to go alone was growing and although my wife did want to go, she eventually gave her blessing. Under tourist circumstances, I would have been all for the family going. Maybe next time, in the Summer, when it’s not 15 degrees and snowing.

Roots #3Tree roots take hold in the cracks of the sandstone cliffs at the Ice Caves at Apostle Island National Lakeshore.

Just to be clear, when I am out photographing I am not sightseeing. That may sound contradictory, but I’m not visiting an art gallery. I don’t have a set agenda. I have a starting point, but there is no middle point to eat lunch (I only brought a thermos of hot chocolate for the whole day) or any stopping point where I have to pack it up. I may stop and wait in one place for hours at a time. I crawl and sit and watch and wait and move one way then another. Then I walk fast. Then I move painfully slow. The point I’m trying to make here is that I am not fun to be around when I’m taking pictures, unless you are trying to learn how I take pictures, then you can at least pretend to like it. The same thing happens when I’m driving with my camera. I’ll pass a scene, turn around, pass it again, decide if it’s worthy, then turn around again and look for a place to park. If I don’t, then I turn around again and look on the other side. One can get dizzy.

Tree on SandstoneTree roots take hold in the cracks of the sandstone cliffs at the Ice Caves at Apostle Island National Lakeshore.

I left home (Tremont, IL) on Sunday afternoon. The drive up was uneventful, even peaceful, until I got to the dreaded roundabouts of Northern Wisconsin, of course. I’m not sure what crazed British soul got the freeway planning job in Wisconsin, but if they were terribly popular, there wouldn’t be websites dedicated to hating them. I don’t see any “I hate intersections” websites. Just sayin’. Don’t get me started on the “jug handles” in New Jersey.

I arrived in Ashland, about 25 minutes South of the caves, around midnight. I got there right before a Winter Weather Alert. 5–10" of snow was expected on Monday. Great. That means cloudy with a chance of snowballs in that area. I was hoping to get there way before sunrise to take some moonlight shots. Now that idea was scuttled, so I slept in and got out there right after sunrise. The parking lot already had 20 cars in it and the DNR guy was there handing out parking envelopes, not a good sign. Also, all the songs on the radio on the way up were about some aspect of dying, which was unnerving, seeing as I was walking out on the same lake that Gordon Lightfoot lamented about, except in frozen form.

From a quote on a random blog on the internet for example: “We get there early in the morning just before the 2,000 other people arrived”. Turns out that estimate was low. I didn’t realize how many people took President’s Day off. After reviewing my shots, I must have made an unconscious effort to take photos that did NOT have many people in them.

The snow started almost immediately, but I managed to get some interesting large icicle shots like the one above. With heavy overcast skies and flurries, it was hard to get any decent landscape shots. So I stuck close and looked for interesting patterns and people. On the way, someone close by spotted a bald eagle’s nest, with the occupant perched right above it. This was the only time I saw him the whole trip and although my long lens (A Sigma 150–500 telezoom) couldn’t handle the shot under the lighting, I felt lucky to have seen him at all. I flubbed on the shutter speed though. I set my camera at ISO100 and had I set my ISO higher, I could have gotten a sharper image. As is, I was at 500mm, f6.3 @1/50 sec. Tsk-Tsk, I should have been at least at 1/250 on this with a tripod. ISO400 or 800 would have been a good start. The lens is great in good light, though. See my Performance portfolio , most of the shots of the Thunderbirds were with the Sigma.

The EagleThis is at 500mm and is cropped to about 1/9 of the original frame. That tells you how far I was away.

There were a lot of photographers, but even more “cellographers”.

The cellphone woman

The cellphone guy

Now, I don’t have a top of the line tele-zoom (Sigma 18–250 Macro/Zoom), but with the combination of that and the D7100’s 24MP, I was able to crop the hand of the guy on the right and was able to make out not only his glove brand, but the brand of cellphone. And this was taken at ISO100 f/11 @1/8sec. I think I’ll keep this lens.

There were a lot of people who commented to me that it must have been hard to get a shot without people in it. I always told them that sometimes people are the most important part of a photo. For Example…

How big is this ice column? Not easy to estimate, is it?

I don’t know, probably big, but you still are left wondering.

Wait for someone interesting to wander into the photo and it’s all very clear, isn’t it?

Ice ColumnA hiker admires the massive column of ice on the sandstone cliffs at Apostle Island National Lakeshore

Honestly, I wouldn’t stand there.

Because of the heavy snow outside, I couldn’t shoot what I wanted since the wind was blowing snow onto my lens and covering my cameral with snow. I spent a lot of time with my knit hat over my entire camera body. I actually heard someone say “Hey cute, he has a hat for his camera”. I wish I had taken a picture of it, but that would have involved having a second camera or some creative time space juxtaposition. I bet Dr. Who could do it. So I stuck close to the walls and in the caves when they were free of people.

NeedlesCondensation on the cave walls drips over a large surface creating “needles” on the ceiling

Ice does funny things when free to do what ice does

Weird Ice thingsThis looked like buck teeth

It’s Bacon!

It’s (Cave) Bacon!Ice formation on the sandstone cliffs at the Ice Caves at Apostle Island National Lakeshore.

In the caves, I played with some in-camera HDR shots. (Below)
But since the sky and lake were both white, only the lone hiker shows up. That was enough for me.

Ice CaveFrozen ice cave along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

The last shot I took that day was of the crowds heading back to the parking lot (and some late comers arriving) One shot I don’t remember taking gave me the creeps. I don’t remember these two on the right…

Or I was taking the shot and waiting for them to walk out of it, but they stopped for some reason. But I think I actually caught them walking, but at a point where it looked like they were posing. But they look so serious. Photo-bombed by ghosts? With lift tickets?

That was supposed to be my only day out. I was sore from a five mile hike. I was going to head back home on Tuesday morning. But when I woke up at 5am, I saw stars. That means clear weather, and blue skies, at least for the moment. Weather report looked good. I headed back out, but I stayed in one spot for the whole day. Partly because I was sore from walking around the day before, but I also had a pre-visualization of one cliff face that I wanted to happen, I just didn’t know when it would happen. That’s an adventure for part two.

What did we learn today?

If you have a chance to do something memorable, make sure it’s ok with the family, then go anyway.
If you have a chance to photograph an eagle perched above his nest on Lake Superior for 10 minutes, it’s ok to use 5 of those minutes to make a deal with Satan so you can have a 1000mm f4 prime lens on hand. Or just use what you have, but for god’s sake, make sure you have the right shutter speed. kick kick kick
People take President’s day off. WT..?
The ice along the sea caves moves. You don’t notice it, but it moves. You can hear the muffled booms underneath you.
Even though people knew they were going to be walking over miles of ICE, they still wore regular boots and shoes. I’m sure there were many sore bottoms the next day.
Teenagers can be extremely loud creatures. Screaming isn’t exactly what you want with 2 ton icicles hanging over you.

See the full photo portfolio here: http://www.artistasylum.com/icecaves

A photo pilgrimage to the Ice Caves of Northern Wisconsin. Part 2 of 2

“A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.”
― Carl Reiner

I thought it fitting to start part two off with the last photo from part 1. It shows the sheer number of people who were still there in the late afternoon (which in Winter and in that latitude is shortly after lunch). It also shows how the conditions deteriorated by this time, so any ambient light was all but gone and anything would have been obscured by the heavy snow. I decided it was time to follow the hoards back to the parking lot.

[See the full photo portfolio here: http://www.artistasylum.com/icecaves]

Natural BridgeNatural sandstone bridge in Winter at the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

When I decided to make my way back I had walked all the way past the natural bridge. I turned around and looked back and could no longer see where the entrance to the parking lot was. After about two miles, I took the photo above. The entrance is around his left shoulder (his, not yours). I pressed on, legs aching from walking over four miles of snowpack with heavy boots and cleats.

My Camera Hat

I did manage to take a picture of my “camera hat”. I found it on my phone. I already lost one camera to water, I wasn’t going to lose another.

The parking was what I expected. Having gotten there at sunrise, I was able to park in the main lot, so it was an easy drive out. Anyone who got there after 9am had to park down on either side of a 1/2 mile entrance road. If they couldn’t do that, they had to park on the main road.

Day 2

Rule 1, if you go anywhere cool, get there before sunrise. If I had known how clear it was, I would have gone out at 4am and taken some long exposure moonlight shots, but sleep won that battle and I still had to drive 9 hours back. Getting there early has many advantages. I was able to park right at the entrance to the beach and I had time to double back after I realized I left one of my filters behind. When I got down to the shore, I saw there were a few photographers lined up down the ice pack shooting toward the moon, which was a few days past full. I think the better shot would have been the opposite direction, with the moon lighting up the sandstone. Maybe another time. When everyone else packed it up and moved on because the moon shots were going away, I got this one. Right after this, the shoreline was completely engulfed by the fog. But the sun eventually started to clear it away. You can see it in a thin layer which was suspended about four feet above the ice. Very cool to watch it move in slowly…

Sunrise at the Ice Caves
Sunrise along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

…then the sun broke over the ridge…

Morning Light
The sun breaks the ridgeline along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

Walking the Dogs
Hikers move toward the ice caves along a foggy morning at the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

While walking up the shoreline I talked with a couple walking their dogs. I would pass them, then see a photo and stop. Then they would pass me. We continued that waltz up the shore. To this couple: If you remembered the website and see this photo, I’ll send you a print. I didn’t ask their names, but I probably should have. I didn’t have anything to write with and I’m terrible at remembering names anyway. I need some business cards.

Sandstone Slot

One cave that was inundated with people and kids the day before was actually empty this time. It was not so much a cave, but a slot that goes back about 100 feet and ends in a very cramped point, but the sandstone walls go straight up 100 feet on either side.

Cave Wall
Ice formations in a slot along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

The ice on the right looks pretty big in the photo below, but that’s a trick of the 10–17mm lens at 10mm (The D7100 has a 1.5x crop factor so it’s actually 15mm). Point is, I was lined up pretty close to that wall when I took the shot, which makes everything close look bigger and everything farther away look very far.

After that, I moved only about 100 yards farther up the shore. I planted myself at the edge of the general pathway in the vicinity of what I called the church organ. It was one of the more impressive walls of ice. On the right was the towering columns of icicles that looked like pipes on a pipe organ. Then there was the big blue wall (the organ) that everyone stopped to pose in front of. There was also another, smaller, blue wall on the left side, inset into the cliff, but he wasn’t as popular (a confessional?). It was then I made the impassioned plea home to stay just a little longer because the weather was perfect.

So this is where I made my stand for the next seven hours. Compared to the day before, I probably could have gotten a number of better shots had I moved up the shore again. But I had a preconception of this wall, in full sun, with blue sky behind it and bright white birch. I could have moved on and then come back when the sun was on the wall. But I didn’t. I waited. And I started a time lapse. Had I just previsualized the time-lapse, I would have changed my mind. Watch the shadows of the trees move on the ground. You will see what I mean. Ignore the pretty clouds, that was a bonus.

What the eye does not see in real time is that the shadows are not moving toward the cliff AT ALL. They are moving parallel to it. I was hoping for just enough sun to illuminate the whole cliff side, but the sun is still too far south. It never was going to happen. But while I waited, I kept shooting.

This is as close as I got to my pre-visualization

Ice Caves
Beautiful day along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore in Winter

I like this one, but only because it was so hard to get him by himself in the shot. But he unknowingly posed there for as long as it took for everyone to walk out of the frame. When someone walked out, another would walk in from the other side. Thanks for waiting, cross country ski guy! If you whisper “don’t move” enough I think they hear you subconsciously. And he moved away as if knowing I got the shot I was looking for. BTW, this has the less popular blue ice wall. I didn’t want it to feel left out.

Here is the bigger blue ice wall

Ice Wall Photo
A photographer stops to shoot a blue ice formation along the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

I liked this one too, it reminds me of an lone explorer in the frozen wasteland of the old days. A kind of Baroque composition with the diagonals. This is probably more leading lines though with the cliff outline pointing to the hiker.

Hiker
A hiker stops to admire the cliffs along the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

My lone battery was beginning to run out (damn you, Snow Miser, for delaying my battery shipment from B&H), so I started to make my way back to the parking lot. But, I had one final adventure to wrap up the trip. I started to walk with an older gentleman who was pulling his wife on a toboggan. She had bad legs and he was taking her out on her first trip to the ice caves. I probably shouldn’t have been distracting him because he kept running over rocks of ice and occasionally we would hear a groan from the passenger. After that, I kept an eye out for him and we were able to scoot around the obstacles.

We eventually came to the spot with the eagles nest and I pointed it out to him. He invited his wife to stand up and we all took in the view. I talked with them for a bit about how I saw the occupant the day before. Another guy stopped and told me about the time a small bear hibernated in an eagle’s nest once. Then I saw someone moving up on the top of the hill.

Eagles Nest
A Bald Eagle’s nest along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

After that, three kids slid down the side of the hill (that’s the brown streak down the middle). The eagle’s nest is up and to the right. Hoping to get a closer vantage point to photograph the nest, I asked the kids how they got up what looked like a sheer cliff. They led me up to the top via a stairway they had fashioned on the left side. So, not wanting to look like an old guy wanting to look young, (and failing) I climbed up with all my camera gear. They ran up effortlessly. I lumbered. And I think they came up again after that, and they helped me bring my gear up to the top.

Bald Eagle Nest
A Bald Eagle’s nest along the Apostle Island National Lakeshore

Thanks, kid! I got my shot!

When I was done, I followed them down to the bottom…

the fun way.