366 Days of Beauty in the Year 2020 by Brad Reed and Rachel Gaudette

For years we have been using this giant stump and root system on an overturned tree at the Ludington State Park as a learning tool for our workshop students. While on our family hike today, I convinced Julia, Ethan, and Aiden to be my models for my photo of the day. I love how this turned out.

Brad was graced with a photo of a hawk yesterday. Today, miles apart from where he made his image, a hawk flew over the heads of the kids and me during a picnic on the farm.

One of the reasons I chose to buy this old farmhouse is because I knew it would fill with natural light most mornings and evenings. The sunset light poured through our sunroom onto Julia as she practiced playing her piano tonight. I used my 85mm lens and shot it with an aperture of F1.4 to get Julia’s near eye and part of her near hand razor sharp, while every other part of the photo had a softer look and feel.

A simple composition can be a strong composition. I liked the framing around the sun by the branches of these trees. You don’t always have to include the entire tree in your image, your brain will complete the missing parts.

The second concept we teach in our 20/20 Vision Workshops is immediacy. What we tell the students is to put something super close to the front of your lens, even if that thing is not the main subject of your photograph. Today, Julia, Ethan, and I went for a walk on the Lake Michigan shoreline at Summit Park between Ludington and Pentwater. I got into Kibby Creek and used immediacy to make this image.

This willow tree frames our backyard view perfectly. The Ohse farm looks pretty tonight.

Betsy, Sean, the kids, and I are making the most of this strange and scary time in our world. What better way to social distance than to take daily hikes. We are blessed to live so close to the Ludington State Park. Our adventure today took us down a long trail off of Piney Ridge Road and we came across this scene at least a mile from where we parked.

I love the silhouette of my daughter. Tonight, we had a little fun out in the dark with a lantern.

One of my most famous photographs from our 365 Project in 2010, was the closeup image I made of Betsy’s eyeball. We turned that photo into a giant mosaic with the other 729 images we shot for that project the following year for ArtPrize. I wanted to recreate that image with our daughter Julia’s eye. Like her mother, Julia has extraordinarily beautiful eyes.

My kids like to give ideas for my photo of the day. Today, they suggested I take a macro shot of some air freshener beads. They reminded me of fish eggs.

Another concept that my dad, Rachel, and I try to use in our compositions is to make sure that the different layers of our images overlap. With this scene, I tried to make sure that the top of the dune overlapped visually into the water. I then made sure the dune grass was high enough into the background layer of the clouds, but not appearing to merge. The tips of the grass fit just right.

The kids and I took a trip into Ludington for the sunset tonight. Although there was only a small portion of vibrant color, I like the mysterious feel.

I am always trying to find x’s in nature because they naturally create dynamic diagonals in my images as well as triangles. This wave breaking over the jetties at the first curve along Lake Michigan at the Ludington State Park made a perfect x

We have been spending a lot of time at the farm during this COVID-19 shut down. Today, my nephew spotted a muskrat in our pond. Thankfully he was feeling photogenic and stayed above water!

Not far from Papa Bill’s house on the corner of Jebavy and Dewey Road, I found this flooded forest. I pulled off the road and got wet feet wading into this newly formed swamp. The image would not have worked if I shot it from five feet farther back. I had to get wet to create the immediacy I needed to put you into the scene.

We have several special buildings on our family farm. One being my Bespop’s milk parlor. Tonight, the clouds and blue sky were the right accent to the weathered building.

While driving home tonight, I stopped on Old US-31 to photograph the setting sun over the Pere Marquette River Flats. I set my lens aperture to F22 to make the sun rays more visible.

With the wet spring we have been having, this swamp is overrun with water. It worked out perfectly to capture the reflections among the clumps of grass. I had to wade in to get the composition that I was looking for. I tried to convince myself that the water was too chilly for any snakes to swim in!

Tonight was the most reflective I have ever witnessed Lake Michigan in my entire life. The big lake was a perfect mirror. The kids were busy running up and down the shoreline as I was making this image. Life in Ludington is such a blessing!

Towards sunset, I took a drive by myself through our woods along the Pere Marquette River. This spot is often forgotten, a path to drive through but rarely to stop and view. It overlooks the image I made on Day 83 of 366. The green moss on this downed log was too brilliant not to stop.