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

Brad can be a bit of an adrenaline junkie. I am not. Parasailing seemed to be just the right combination for a surprise birthday gift to him. To my surprise, I loved it! We had a blast, and definitely want to do it again with the kids!

The Princess of Ludington is a new ferry that gives people a shoreline cruise out of Ludington. I think this is such a great idea and an awesome thing for Ludington. I waited until the sun showed through one of the windows of the ship to click the shutter. As Sam Abell, from National Geographic would say, see more and shoot less.

At last, Bespop’s grapes have ripened! I have great memories of picking these with him or drinking the homemade grape juice we made from them on a cold winter day.

This is by far the roughest water and biggest waves I have attempted to photograph in using our underwater housing. Using over six hundred feet of strong line, a full body survival suit, and being tied off to one of the picnic tables at the water’s edge on Stearns Beach in Ludington, I ventured out into an angry, but beautiful Lake Michigan. I got pounded and tossed around, but it paid off.

Lake Michigan was full of dramatic light and shadows this afternoon.

The new trout statue in downtown Baldwin is incredibly well done and is a magnificent work of art. As my mom and I were on the way to Legends Ranch to photograph the Veteran’s Hunt, we stopped to make this image of the towering fish. I used my external flash to highlight the details in the sculpture.

I get excited when I see the turning of leaves for the first time each fall, if it is a fall that lasts a few months, and we have time to enjoy it! This tree in our yard is always one of the first to turn each fall.

Since I was a young boy, my Papa Bill would convince his musician friends to play live music for us at family gatherings or his famous barn parties. One of the staple musicians has always been Al Villadsen and his concertina. Al played again for us today at Wilson Park on Hamlin Lake as we enjoyed our annual Labor Day Marble family reunion.

It is difficult shooting the sunset at home, due to our neighbor’s sprinkler irrigation system running north and south in the field to the west. I have had to work hard to compose shots where the sprinkler doesn’t take away from the feel of the image.

The Wright Family at Thundering Aspens Hunt Club in Mesick have outdone themselves again. Today they let us be some of the first hunters to try their new hunting clays course. Of course, my Uncle Budde beat all of us with his trusted double barrel 20-gauge Winchester shotgun, but we all had fun. Along the way, I spotted this heart-shaped rock and had to stop and make an iPhone image of it.

I was in my van when I saw what I thought was a bee, flying around against the window. I grabbed my camera and put my macro lens on. I then waited until it flew onto a part of the window that would show off its beauty best, without showing what was outside. I learned later that it was a hover fly not a bee..

After getting the kids ready for the first day of school tomorrow, darkness fell quickly. I was not sure what to make for my photo today. I was running out of ideas when Kasey jokingly brought out a mermaid that grew in water. It was larger than my hand but very odd in texture. I made several different images at various shutter speeds while moving the mermaid. I was happy with the way this shot turned out.

I grabbed a single sunflower that had been sitting in a mason jar on my kitchen table and took it outside on my deck so I could make this image. I knew I needed a clean, simple background for the image I had built in my head while eating dinner with Julia and Ethan. The photo turned out better than I had imagined. The details in the clouds disappeared nicely when I exposed for the flower.

Storm clouds can be mesmerizing as they rapidly fly across the sky. These particular clouds seemed to have a wave motion to them. I waited for them to position themselves above the trees in the way that I was envisioning.

When my Grandma Reed died last year, each family got to pick out one of her large Santa dolls. I leave this Santa out all year for us to enjoy and to remember all the wonderful Christmas gatherings at my Grandpa and Grandma Reed’s house. I used my macro lens and made this close-up image tonight.

I was drawn to the design of my butter dish from the second I saw it in the store. Tonight, I focused on showing it off in a unique shot.

Another shelf cloud was quickly heading to shore this morning as I was heading to work. I drove to Stearns Beach and ran down to the water’s edge to make this image before the storm came on shore.

After eating a wonderful dinner at my dad and Debbie’s condo that Debbie had made for us, I walked across the street with my camera gear to try and find a photograph. I was planning on photographing some of the boats in the marina or the Badger, but when I got to the end of the dock and looked down at the water, I knew I had found my image of the day.

Growing up around the farm, we were fortunate for the amount of wildlife we would see on a daily basis. Now my kids get to enjoy the wildlife. We have watched this fawn and her twin all summer.

Another goldfinch was back in the same butterfly bush that I had photographed earlier in the year. This time instead of a green backdrop, I wanted my red house to be the backdrop. I knew the yellow bird would rocket out against the red siding.