Wisconsin Marine Photographer • Cold Weather Sailing Photography On Lake Michigan

Earlier this fall I was contacted about doing some editorial and commercial photography involving a 40 foot sailboat.  Manitowoc Marina in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, a new dealer in the midwest for Delphia Yachts, had just taken delivery of one of the first Delphia 40.3 in the United States. Rich Larsen, president and general manager of Manitowoc Marina, is an old college friend and we have worked on other marine photography projects before so I was excited about the possibilities.  

We had visions of doing this project in the warmer summer months when we could capture sailing lifestyle photos of with our models in summer clothes.  That previsualization got tossed out the window when the shoot got pushed back to early November, but we would make the best of it.  On day one of the shoot we concentrated on the editorial boat test photos.  The weather was less then ideal with cold mist falling as we sailed the waters of Lake Michigan just off the shores of Manitowoc.  I was really happy the boat wasn’t all white and that the crew had matching red jackets so I had a little color pop with the flat light.  

Rich and I saw a window of opportunity a few days out when maybe we would get some blue skies to get another set of photos that could be used for commercial usages.  When I arrived at the marina that second day we had beautiful light, but flat winds.  The forecast was for the winds to pick up, but for clouds to move in.  We headed out on to lake Michigan with hopes that the wind conditions would improve.  Rich and his son Anders on the sailboat and me using a 16 foot McKee runabout as my photo boat.  We lucked out, not long after we got the sails up the winds picked up and we had a great hour of sailing before the winds got a little to heavy and the clouds moved in.  Even after the the winds picked up we still shot a series of photos within the harbor and up the Manitowoc River so we could get a more urban look.

Thanks for looking!

Mike