Hundreds flock to St. Joe to snap photos of frozen lighthouse

SAINT JOSEPH, Mich. -- Cold temperatures didn't stop hundreds of people from stepping out on the beach. At Tiscornia Park in St. Joe, Michigan, hundreds made their way out to take pictures of the frozen lighthouse.

The ice on Lake Michigan is melting, and fast.

Which means photographers have to work even faster.

"There's never the perfect photo, you're always striving for that," Mike Smith, a professional photographer, said.

He drove all the way from the Chicago area, just to get a look at St. Joe's lighthouse.

"The side of the lake offers us the best opportunity to photograph the lighthouses capsulated in ice," Smith said.

"It's unusual, because every winter it has a different shape," Ray Ostrander, another photographer, said. "Earlier this winter, it almost looked like a scarecrow."

"Braving the elements to see something like this is well worth it," Deb Cummings, who came all the way from the Ypsilanti area, said.

But not everyone took pictures.

"Nature is incredible," Charissa Thomas, a beachfront goer, said. "And this is a perfect showcase."

It was her first time seeing the lighthouse frozen, and she was glad to take it all in.

"It's beautiful," Thomas said. "I come up here in the summer, and it's just a beautiful little town, but the ice just adds so much more to it."