I recently had an opportunity to photograph the Point Aux Barques lighthouse.  As it turns out this particular lighthouse and surrounding area has quite a history.  
The lighthouse is located seven miles northeast of Port Hope on the point of the thumb area of the state of Michigan.  This is on the coast of Lake Huron.  
Because this part of the lake has some shallow spots and is treacherous (especially during storms) for ships, a Life Saving station was built near the lighthouse in 1875.  
​In the mid 1800's about 2,000 ships were traveling the great lakes and many passed this point in Lake Huron.     

That life saving station at Point Aux Barques operated from 1875 to 1937 and has been credited with more than 200 rescues.  
In April, 1880 they answered a distress signal from the J.R. Macgruder.  A crew of seven men began rowing out toward the ship.  The stormy waters took six of the seven rowers.  This is the first recorded life loss among the Life Savors on the lake.  
In November of 1877 the Berlin ran aground.  After rowing 8 miles, the oarsmen saved 2 crewmen.  Four other crewmen lost their lives that day.  
In September of 1879 the Jacob Bertchy hit ground and started taking on water.   The Lifesaqving crew rescued 33 crewmwmbers and 19 passengers during a night long rescue effort.  

In November, 1893 the Albany and the Philadelphia collided in these waters and most of the crews lost their lives despite attempted rescue efforts.  
In 1906 the entire crew of the Wyoming was rescued.  The Life Savors made four trips, rowing about 32 miles at night in a storm.  

If you are going to be near Caseville, Port Austin or Bad Axe in the thumb, a visit to this lighthouse is well worth the effort.  Historical information is available at the lighthouse. You can visit the web site  www.PointeauxBarquesLighthouse.Org

My first camera was a Pentax Spotmatic.  Great camera.  
Then I bought Canon AE1 cameras and some Canon lenses.  
I dabbled in digital at first with a Nikon folding Coolpix and it was a pretty good camera.  But when Canon offered their first Rebel digital SLR, I bought it.  
After several different Canon bodies  and some good Canon lenses, I finally discovered Sony.  
Now I'm a dedicated Sony user.  Why? 

Well, it's complicated.  I discovered that in most of their cameras, image stabiliation is built into the camera body.  I prefer that over having it in each lens.  
I also discovered that Sony bought Minolta and some good Minolta lenses were available for Sony a-mount cameras.  They are relatively inexpensive.  And they work great on full frame digital body.  I have a Sony a99 full frame camera.  

The Sony cameras have well developed live view.  When I put my eye to the viewfinder, I see what I am shooting.  When I take the camera away from my eye, I see what I'm shooting on the LCD screen.  It's automatic.  It works everytime.  I don't have to go into a menu system to turn on live view.  
With my Canon 70D, I did need to go into the menu system to turn on live view.

The sensor in my Sony a6000 APS-C sensor camera is slightly larger than those in the Canon cameras.  Not a big deal, but I like it.  

The Sony cameras give me a photo file that is dense.  It is a 6,000 by 4,000 pixel file with 350PPI density.  My Canon camera provided a file of 72PPI density.  

Auto focus is very fast on my Sony cameras.  Canon is catching up now, but I have enjoyed faster auto focus for some time.  

However, I do have one complaint - many of the Sony lenses are very expensive.