In 2013, the Great Lakes were hit by the polar vortex. A friend of mine sent me a message saying that the Saint Joseph lighthouse had iced over, creating this beautiful ice sculpture.

I spent a couple of weekends travelling back and forth to photograph the lighthouse while it was iced over. On January 26, 2013, I headed to St. Joseph at midday to see if the skies would clear. The clouds were pulling away from the horizon, so I realized there might be a sunset, so I decided to stay.

I had no idea how to get to the other side of the channel to photograph the lighthouse from a different angle. A young woman who was there graciously offered to show me how to get to the other pier.

At sunset, only about two to three dozen people were still there. All of a sudden, the sun dipped below the clouds, and the lighthouse lit up pink. There wasn't enough time to change positions to get a better angle, so I just started shooting. The sun directed the performance art. I had never seen anything like it. The lighthouse has not iced over like that since. It was indeed a once-in-a-lifetime experience.