The beach sounds like a pretty appealing place to be during the cold, blustery winter, but a photo taken more than a decade ago by Springfield resident Thomas Ala shows a winter beach scene as beautiful as any tropical getaway. Ala’s photo, titled “Winter Waves at Bluefin Bay,” recently took “Special Honor” in the landscape division of the 16th Annual Lake Superior Photo Contest held by Lake Superior Magazine. The photo shows a pair of barren trees overlooking a snow-covered beach with mighty waves crashing on the shore. Ala, a doctor of neurology at SIU School of Medicine, moved to Springfield 11 years ago and has been shooting photos for 25 years. He and his wife used to live near Tofte, Minn., where the photo was taken, and he says a day of winter exploring turned lucky when an easterly storm whipped the lake into a frenzy. Asked what feeling the photo evokes for him, he replies, “Just the power of the Lake Superior. I wouldn’t want to be out there in a small boat!”
