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

This huge tree in my Aunt Mary’s yard is always so stunning. The green buds were alive with magic light today.

For my dad’s 71st birthday today, the kids and I stood outside his condo on Rath Avenue and waved up to him and my stepmom, Debbie, on their deck. We sang happy birthday to him from a distance. This is one of the super-sucky parts of COVID-19 and social distancing.

The pond at Bespop’s is filled with wildlife. Growing up we would take the rowboat out for rides quite often, making sure to bang the upside-down boat first to scare away the snakes! Today, I didn’t see any snakes, thankfully, but I did find these turtles sunning themselves.

The Mason County Courthouse looked stately as ever today with the beautiful clouds and crisp blue skies above it. The red sandstone was shining bright and the details really were popping in the magic light.

Nikon D810. F22.0 at 1/60, ISO 100. 14.0mm lens at 14.0mm. May 8, 2020 at 4:10pm.

To make this image of a hummingbird feeder in my yard today I put my camera on a tripod. Then I stood on a ladder and shot a two-second-long exposure and rocked the bird feeder back and forth by hand towards my camera.

My parents have several birdhouses around their yard. I particularly love this one. This bird was busy making a nest, and it took a while to capture a sharp photograph of it, but my stubbornness won out.

Ethan has wanted a dirt bike for years and today was finally the day his dreams came true. As he was doing a few laps in the front yard, I made photos of him using a slow shutter speed and panning by hand. Ethan and his new motorcycle look fairly sharp, and the background behind him looks blurry. This effect gives the image a sense of speed and motion.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there! I spent the day with my mom. I am blessed for each passing day I can spend with her. Around 8 PM, I wandered, looking for a photo of the day. This tree was one of many blown down on our farm during the horrific wind storm a few years ago. It was completely uprooted. My kids love this tree and they call it the porcupine tree.

A fisherman on Hamlin Lake enjoys a sunset by himself on a peaceful spring night. While making this image, I got excited thinking about boating this coming summer on Hamlin Lake with family and friends.

Due to the shutdown, we are spending almost all our time between the farm and home. Tonight’s sunset helped showcase the patterns in the trees across our yard. It gave it almost an abstract feel with a touch of realism.

Lisa Cooper called and informed me that she and Paul had some baby barred owls in their backyard near the Lincoln River in Victory Township. It took me several minutes to spot this baby, even though Paul and Lisa were pointing right at it. The little owl blended in perfectly to its surroundings.

I lay on my stomach, trying to get the composition I was searching for. Tulips are one of my favorite spring flowers. The lady who owned our home prior to us, planted many around the yard. I love watching them bloom.

This is the first spring in my new house and yard. Every few days it is a new surprise what kind of plants and flowers will bloom. Today these beautiful little flowers appeared at the base of one of the huge oak trees next to my house.

The red blossoms on this tree stood out among the blue, cloudy sky and really brightened my day.

The Badger looked like a ghost ship this afternoon in the fog. Our biggest tip with shooting photographs in the fog is to make sure to shoot at least a stop and a half, if not two stops, to the plus side of your meter. If you shoot fog photos on any auto mode, your photo will be underexposed.

We had a family dinner at my brother and sister-in-law’s for the first time in a long time because of COVID-19. Paul and Sue’s back deck is surrounded by many trees – you truly feel as if you are having a picnic in the woods! Tonight, we were visited by many different varieties of birds as we enjoyed each other’s company.

The fruit trees in Mason County are starting to blossom. I love this newer sculpture in Waterfront Park that is dedicated to the hard-working fruit farmers past and present in our area.

The blossoms are blooming! I drove the backroads home from Hart tonight and enjoyed the sight of each and every one! I decided to do something a little different for my photo of the day. I used a slightly longer shutter speed to allow for some movement in the wind instead of the typical fully sharp blossom shot I normally would shoot.

Rachel hates snakes with a passion. I hate spiders equally as much. We like to torture each other and text random snake and spider photos to each other. While mushroom hunting with Paul and Lisa Cooper today, I shot photos of this large snake with my iPhone and then sent one to Rachel. I know paybacks will be coming my way soon.