LUTH, Minn. -- A mesmerizing video of Lake Superior ice stacking up along the shore at Duluth's Brighton Beach, shot last Saturday by local photographer Dawn LaPointe, has spread like wildfire across the Internet in recent days.
LaPointe posted the video on the Facebook page of Radiant Spirit Gallery -- the business she runs with her husband, Gary Fiedler -- and it racked up more than a million views in three days. It was shared online by the Weather Channel on Wednesday, racking up more than 6 million more views -- along with comments and messages from people worldwide.
"What has been encouraging to me is the positive feedback we've received from people around the globe," said LaPointe, of Hermantown. "They're appreciating not only winter, which many people complain about, but I also enjoy the comments from people who maybe have seen the stacks along the shore but haven't seen this kind of an event unfolding.
"We've also read lots of comments from people who grew up in Duluth sharing their memories of playing on the ice stacks as children or walking with their father along the ice stacks."
LaPointe said she spent eight hours out shooting photos and video along the shore of Lake Superior on Saturday -- when morning temperatures were well below zero.
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LaPointe was in Canal Park when she noticed the ice had pulled away from shore -- helped along by westerly winds -- and she anticipated that it might start stacking up along the rocks at Brighton Beach.
"The big lake did not disappoint," LaPointe wrote in a post with the video. "The seemingly endless ice sheets broke into large plates and stacked on shore, sounding much like breaking glass."
The plates of ice ranged from about a quarter-inch to 3 inches thick, she said, and piled ashore as sea smoke drifted across the scene.
Radiant Spirit Gallery can be found on Facebook at facebook.com/RadiantSpiritGallery, and at radiantspiritgallery.com.
LaPointe and Fiedler have been recognized for their nature photography and videography. In 2014, Fiedler spent more than 200 days on a solo canoe trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico Provincial Park, taking photos and video along the way.
That same year, one of LaPointe's photos from the BWCAW was selected for a collection of 50 photographs in the Smithsonian Institution's "Wilderness Forever" exhibition celebrating 50 years of American wilderness.
