What and Where is Door County?
To create beautiful images you need several things: a good camera, appropriate lens, and an understanding of lighting, exposure, metering, and composition. And you also need some interesting subjects to shoot. There are many places in the United States to find interesting subjects: Cape Cod, the Maine coast, the upper peninsula of Michigan, the outer banks of North Carolina, Natchez, Mississippi, New Mexico, the Rockies, the California coastline, and many more. There is also a great place in the northern midwest that photographers from Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin know about but few others do --- Door County, Wisconsin.
Locally, Door County is sometimes referred to as the "Cape Cod of the Midwest." But it has an identity of its own, and in several ways it is a more pleasant place to vacation than the Cape because there are fewer people, meaning less traffic. Door County is small enough that you can stop and enjoy the small towns and scenery in a weekend visit. The little towns and villages offer wonderful restaurants and places to stay, most of them on Lake Michigan. |
Lake Michigan is not the ocean; the smell of salt water and lobsters is not there. But the Lake is a big body of water and it offers plenty of scenery, recreation, and sightseeing. Door County is full of working farms like much of the rest of Wisconsin. You cannot drive anywhere in the County without seeing a farm. Farmhouses and silos sit near the Lake Michigan shore. I started calling them Wisconsin lighthouses. |
Door County is in the northern part of the Door Peninsula. The Door Peninsula is the land area generally north of Green Bay, Wisconsin and surrounded by Lake Michigan on the east and the bay known as Green Bay on the west. You can get to Door County by flying to Austin-Straubel Field in Green Bay from one of several larger airports in the area such as Minneapolis, Chicago, or Detroit, or you can drive. Door County starts about 15 miles south of the ship channel at Sturgeon Bay, the largest town in the County, and runs all the way to the tip of the Peninsula at Gills Rock. The Peninsula also contains Kewaunee County which has some beautiful scenery, including the pretty Kewaunee Pierhead Lighthouse.
The two main highways in Door County are Hwy 42 and Hwy 57. Hwy 42 tours through Kewaunee on Lake Michigan and you can find Hwy 57 near the city of Green Bay. The two highways crisscross just north of Sturgeon Bay with Hwy 42 traveling along the bayside of Door County through the beautiful little towns of Egg Harbor, Sister Bay, Ephraim, and others. Hwy 57 flows along the Lake Michigan coast near some of the wonderful state parks that can be found in the County. The bayside of Door County is more populous than the less settled lakeside.
Shooting in Door County
I came up to Door County to shoot close-ups of the wildflowers and cherry blossoms that abound in Door County in mid to late May. But I found several other things to shoot including lighthouses (there are 10 lighthouses on the Door Peninsula), beautiful (and foggy) harbors, sand dunes, sunrises, sunsets, and more. Late May is a great time to be in Door County because there are few tourists and the hotel rates are still out of season.
Wildflowers
Perhaps the largest attraction in Door County for photographers is the wildflowers. They are everywhere and the best places to shoot close-ups of the wildflowers, especially trilliums and hepatica, are in the state parks. Newport State Park, Peninsula State Park, and Ridges Sanctuary are three of the best places to shoot wildflowers, but you can also find them along the highways and in fields outside the parks.
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Door County contains many other wild flowers in addition to those shown here. They include lady slippers, bluets, trout lilies, and golden fields of dandelions. Ridges Sanctuary contains 23 native Wisconsin orchids and several endangered species of flora. |
Shooting close-ups of wild flowers is a great way to learn about image composition and how to use your camera in manual mode. Close-up shooting requires a sturdy tripod and patience in case the wind is blowing. You will need either a close-up lens or a close-up filter such as the Canon 500D that screws onto the end of your lens. The 500D approach is highly recommended by those who would prefer spending less than $150 versus spending $1300 on a Canon 180mm macro lens, and it is much easier to carry with you at all times.
| If you do not already understand the advantages of getting the correct depth of field for your shots, close-up shooting will help you learn. Using the correct depth of field is critical for shooting close-ups because you often want to eliminate background noise and highlight only the desired portions of the image. |  |
The hepatica and trillium (above) and cherry blossom (below) are good examples of use of depth of field. The depth of field is determined by the f/stop that you choose. F/stops such as f/2.8 and f/4.0 give you little depth of field, eliminating much of the background noise, but portions of the desired image may not be in focus. Whereas, f/stops such as f/11 and f/14 will likely ensure that the image you desire be in focus, but you will get noise in the background that you may not want. The hepatica and trillium were shot at f/11 and the cherry blossom was shot at f/3.5.
Another wonderful place for wildflowers is Washington Island. There, I found beautiful flowers in the old Schoolhouse Cemetery. If you make it to Schoolhouse Cemetery, you will likely be the only one there. It is very quiet, and it will have a calming effect on you as you walk around the tombstones, etched mostly with Scandinavian names. I lingered there for a long time, reading the names on the tombstones while trying to imagine what it must have been like living on Washington Island in the 1850s with access to Door Peninsula limited to the ferry. Nearby is Schoolhouse Beach, which is covered with creamy colored flat rocks (Wisconsin state law forbids removal of the rocks). Try lying flat on your back on the rocks. To get to Washington Island, you drive to Gills Rock and catch the ferry. It leaves about every hour till 5PM or thereabouts. The ferry ride is about 20-25 minutes and it costs about $40 (roundtrip) for two people and a car.
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Cherry blossoms as well as peach blossoms can be found in the many orchards in Door County. It ranks third in the U.S. in cherry production because of its nearly perfect climate for cherries. Falcon Orchard, north of Sister Bay on Hwy 42 is one of the best cherry orchards in Door County. We recommend that you get permission to shoot in the orchards before venturing in. |
Lighthouses
The Door Peninsula has 10 lighthouses, several of them in Door County, but I did not shoot all of them. For a small cost, the Door County lighthouse tours in mid-May give you the opportunity to tour several of the lighthouses.
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The Cana Island Lighthouse is probably the most popular lighthouse on the Door Peninsula, not only because of the Lighthouse itself, but also because of the approach to the Island. You may have to tread some shallow water to get over to the Island. But I have been there several times and so far no treading has been necessary. To shoot the lighthouse just walk out onto the beach and turn around. Or you can just shoot it straight on as Jennifer Richards, one of the participants in my 2004 Door County Digital Photography Workshop, did in the fog during a sunrise. Jennifer applied some PhotoShop CS filters to get the image that you see. Cana Island is north of Bailey's Harbor on the lakeside of Door County. |
| The Eagle Bluff lighthouse is located on a 200 foot high bluff overlooking the bayside of Lake Michigan. The lighthouse is in Peninsula State Park. Peninsula State Park is one of the most wonderful state parks that you will find anywhere. Wildflowers, deer, and wild turkeys are in abundance. |  |
Towns and Harbors
The bayside of Door County is filled with small towns with populations like 250, 383, etc., and each town has a beautiful beach and harbor. One of the prettiest towns is Ephraim sitting on Eagle Harbor. For an early morning treat, park along Hwy 42 and walk to Second Story restaurant in the Ephraim Shores Motel for some coffee or tea and a roll and sit on one of the benches facing the harbor across Hwy 42.
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Another pretty little town is Egg Harbor. This sunset shot was taken from the waterfront in Egg Harbor. All of the towns on both the lakeside and the bayside have hotels and motels in which to stay. In May and early June when the wildflowers are in bloom you can find very reasonable hotel and motel rates and plenty of places to stay. When tourist season arrives, the rates are still very reasonable, but rooms are much harder to find. |
| Door County also has some wonderful restaurants to visit after a day of shooting. Trio in Egg Harbor is one our favorites. It is a French and Italian bistro with country style servings. The image on the right is the garden on the backside of the restaurant. This image is hanging in the entryway at Trio. Mission Grille and Inn at Kristofers in Sister Bay, Sage in Sturgeon Bay, and several others are also excellent places to eat. Other restaurants place signs out front advertising their fish boils. You should have someone explain what a fish boil is before you partake. |  |
Most of the towns have several galleries where artists from Door County show their work. Many of these are open during the wildflower season in mid to late May.
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