Sunrise at OSU’s Gibraltar Island, Lake Erie, Ohio. July 22,2011, 6:26 am.

July 22, 2011 was a very special day. Jeremy Bruskotter and I were leading our very first weekend photography workshop for OSU’s Stone Laboratory. Home base for our workshop was Gibraltar Island, OSU’s island in Lake Erie. We did this weekend workshop once every summer for several years.

Jeremy Bruskotter at sunrise on Gibraltar Island. July 22, 2011, 6:27 am.

It was a hot weekend so our plan, as much as possible, was to shoot outside when it was cooler. We started shooting as early as 6 am, and in the evenings we stayed out long after the sun had set. In the hottest part of the day we did photo classes in the air conditioned classroom. It was 73 degrees at 6 am, 93 degrees in the afternoon, and 77 degrees by 8 pm.

The northeast cliff and the Needle’s Eye, Gibraltar Island. July 22, 2011, 6:52 am.

The Needle’s Eye. July 22, 2011, 11:31 am.

We had access to a boat so we went around the island to get a better look at the “Needle’s Eye”. At the time it was Lake Erie’s best rock bridge. The bridge succumbed to the inevitable ravages of time and weather and it collapsed some time during the weekend of March 6-8, 2020.

The Needle’s Eye, Gibraltar Island, Ohio. Click the image to see a larger version.

This image of the Needle’s Eye is from the Library of Congress collection. It was created between 1880 and 1899. The photographer is unknown.

Butterfly, South Bass Island, Ohio. July 22,2011, 9:19 am.

Thanks to our boat we could go to nature locations at other nearby islands.

Dusk, Gibraltar Island, Ohio. July 22, 2011, 9:20 pm.

Evening field trip, Gibraltar Island. July 22, 2011, 9:33 pm.

I really miss doing workshops with Jeremy. We were a good team.