In my home range of southeastern Wisconsin there are two places that have rarely failed to help me capture the magic of sunrise.  One is where the Pike River empties into Lake Michigan, and the other is Wolfe Lake at Bong State Rec. Area in Kenosha county.  Today is about remembering those often misty and usually colorful mornings spent at the edge of the Wolfe.

As an aside, you have often read about my love of “the edge”.  It’s where sky meets land or forest meets field, where water meets sky or shadow meets light, where autumn meets winter and where danger lurks, the edge is where the power exists and it is where beautiful things happen to nature photographers.

In general Bong has been the single most important location for me, as a nature photographer.  Wolfe Lake has always been a big part of that.  Bong is mostly a large rolling prairie with a good amount of marsh/wetlands, some forest and one true lake.  Wolfe Lake.  Morning fog is common here and that leads to nice sunrises at Wolfe and on the prairie.  The Wolfe provides you with many different cloud forms and a wide variety of morning color.  I have made sunrises on the Wolf in every season.  Bong does not open until 6:a.m. except for campers.  That fact has gotten me in much trouble as I often entered too early, but it has been worth it.

Meet the Wolfe.

As I mentioned, this location gives you different cloud combos and intensity of light on different mornings.  That is what kept one photographer (me), coming back time after time.  Note that the closer I get to reflections that mirror the sky, the closer I get to composing my images with a 50/50 split between sky and water.  Sometimes I will divide them perfectly.

Wolfe Lake is a good friend to the abstract photographer.  Those foggy mornings help to “see”the abstracts, but the reflective quality of the waters also helps.

The images below were taken at the same spot on consecutive days. 

Winter can be at great time at the Wolfe as the crisp light of this season can also make for great sunrises.

Bong in general is under utilized for sunrises.  For you photographers who live in this area, take advantage of those great temperature inversions that take place in autumn.  Bong’s prairie can be amazing. The below photo entitled Firestorm has been very successful for me as a print and a published image.  There are many mornings like this at Bong.

I thank you for indulging me and my passion for the Wolfe and Bong.

God Bless