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

Dwight “Scotty” Scott was my step-grandpa. As a little kid, I loved my Papa Scotty. I spent a lot of time at his restaurant Scotty’s in Ludington. Unfortunately, his original restaurant, Scotty’s Wren’s Roost, located on the middle bayou of Hamlin Lake, had burned to the ground a year before I was born. A family friend gave me an original coffee mug from there and I photographed it tonight.

There are so many fun things you can do with your camera. You can take a basic everyday item and turn it into a unique photograph. Here, I took a notebook of Kasey’s and used it for my photo of the day.

I took Rachel’s son David Benjamin pike fishing tonight on Pere Marquette Lake. Unfortunately, the fish weren’t biting, but we still had a great time and a fun boat ride in my dad’s Boston Whaler. We stopped the boat on our way back to the boat slip to make this image of the setting sun.

Some of my favorite memories growing up were made in our apple orchard. The tire swing, baseball diamond, and the biggest dandelions were there. Let’s not forget the apples. We would eat them right off the tree, or make homemade apple sauce, pie, crisp, or butter. The apples that were too bruised I would pick up for my brother, Kevin, to put out for deer. This apple tree is in my yard, and we love it.

From the skate park near the south end of Stearns Drive in downtown Ludington, I made this image of the Ludington North Breakwater Light. I had to stand on my tailgate in order to get the playground equipment out of the bottom of my image..

When I was a little girl, I would pick huge bouquets of flowers from my mom’s garden. I would take them into our playhouse, and using wax paper, I would make them into bouquets that I assumed one would buy from a flower shop. I made handmade cards that customers could include with the flowers. It was a vision of mine to put a sign at the end of our road, and have people come visit us and our garden, and buy bouquets from me.

I am always on the lookout for hearts in nature. I spotted this red heart in a pudding stone tonight while golfing at Lincoln Hills Golf Course in Ludington. When I got home and examined the photo closer, I noticed two more upside down hearts in the photograph. Three red hearts in one photo were pretty exciting!

The kids love gathering the chicken eggs. We hope to set up a stand at the end of our drive one year with fresh produce and farm fresh eggs.

I hadn’t made a photo yet today when I pulled into Brad’s yard. We were all going to watch a movie on the deck with the projector. This white flowering tree with the red blossoms in the background stood out to me.

A doe stood under one of our flowering bushes this afternoon in our backyard when I came home to eat lunch. She just stood quietly eating and looked at me while I walked close to her to make this image.

After a busy few weeks, it was nice to spend a few minutes down by the lakeshore, soaking up the sunshine and fresh breeze. The second curve at the Ludington State Park was especially quiet today

A shelf cloud was forming off Stearns Beach in downtown Ludington today. It was interesting watching the different weather systems collide and then come on shore. The water in this photograph was super calm. Within fifteen minutes, I was watching small white caps

The flowers in my mom’s garden made a great brilliant backdrop to this water-droplet-filled leaf.

Today Rachel and I drove from Kalkaska to Traverse City. Just as we were leaving our hotel on Grand Traverse Bay to head to dinner at the Boathouse Restaurant on Old Mission Peninsula, an incredible sunset erupted out of nowhere. In my dress clothes and dress shoes, I quickly made an image before the light show ended. These colors are 100% real. It was one of the more intense sunsets I have ever photographed.

I planned an early birthday vacation for Brad this weekend. We were supposed to be photographing hot air balloons over Torch Lake; however, Mother Nature decided otherwise. Instead, we drove around exploring areas of the lake we had never photographed before.

If you have never had one of the homemade cookies at the Old Mission General Store, do yourself a favor, and go visit this Michigan treasure. The owners are the nicest people, and the store is like walking back in time. Rachel and I had the best visit there today. I blew my diet, but it was so worth it!

Today, Brad and I explored Old Mission Peninsula. There is so much to see! The Old Mission Lighthouse looked especially stunning today.

After Rachel and I finished eating a wonderful dinner outside at the Jolly Pumpkin Brewery on Old Mission Peninsula, we grabbed our camera gear and walked to photograph the setting sun over Grand Traverse Bay. We stopped so I could make this image of the sun dancing between the trees and their shadows on the lawn of the restaurant. I love finding unexpected photographs like this one.

It was another fun day in the Traverse City area photographing and exploring. We ended up at the Jolly Pumpkin for dinner and hoped to be finished eating before sunset. After dinner, we walked to a nearby beach to catch the last of the sun’s rays.

For an early birthday present, Rachel bought us tickets to go parasailing over Grand Traverse Bay together. It was something I had always wanted to do. At first, she was more nervous than me, but once we got up into the air, she was all smiles and calm as could be. I was the one who was having to work really hard to relax and not freak out. I love this photo of her I made with my cell phone.