Todd and Brad Reed are a father-son outdoor photography duo based in Ludington, Michigan. They are now blessed to be teamed up with Rachel Gaudette as well.
Todd Reed has been recording Michigan scenes for 50 years. In 1967, Todd graduated from Ludington High School and then attended Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City for two years, earning an Associate's Degree. In the fall of 1969, Todd attended Michigan State University for two years and earned his Bachelor's Degree in Journalism.
Todd spent the next 23 years as a journalist and photojournalist for the Ludington Daily News, where he earned dozens of industry awards for his news writing and his news and feature photographs portraying the beauty and telling the stories of everyday life in small towns and rural areas.
Todd is considered one of the leading photographers in the United States. Todd's love of the Great Lakes was enriched by 33 years of service in the United States Coast Guard Reserve, from 1971 to 2005. In 1988 the Coast Guard honored him as its Reserve Enlisted Person of the Year. Todd has three sons, Tad, Brad, and Willie and a wonderful wife Debbie.
Brad Reed never planned on being a photographer, but growing up he always jumped at every chance to go on adventures with his dad throughout Mason County and West Michigan while Todd was working for the Ludington Daily News. Without a camera in his hand, Brad didn't realize until he was an adult that he was learning to see the world in photographs. Brad also learned from watching his dad that extraordinary photography requires chasing the light, capturing the defining moment, and good people skills.
After graduating from Ludington High School in 1996, Brad attended Calvin College and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education. After a short stint teaching and then working at the family wholesale beer distributorship with his Uncle Budde, Brad returned to college at Grand Valley to work on a Master's degree to follow his mom, Kay Marble, into the world of Social Work. In January of 2004, Brad once again followed his heart, but this time into photography. He has quickly become a national leader in his field. Brad lives with his two talented kids, Julia and Ethan, in an old farmhouse just north of Ludington.
Rachel Gaudette was born and raised on Weldon Creek Farms in Custer, Michigan in the eastern region of Mason County. Being around nature helped her appreciate its beauty at a young age. The Shoup family farm is nestled between Weldon Creek and the Pere Marquette River. Rachel took many long walks in the woods with her family along these two beautiful bodies of water. Although she didn't start capturing these moments with a camera until later in life, they will forever remain in her heart.
After graduating from Mason County Eastern High School in 2004, Rachel studied at West Shore Community College from the fall of 2004 until the spring of 2008. She graduated with two Associate's degrees: an Associate of Applied Arts and Sciences in General Studies as well as in Marketing and Management. Rachel has worked for Todd and Brad since June of 2010. In 2015 she was promoted to the general manager position and is the leader of the Team Reed staff. She wears many hats at the gallery and wears them well. Rachel is an excellent problem solver and leads Team Reed by example. Rachel is the mother to three amazing kids who help her every day run the family farm which specializes in providing some of the best freezer beef in the state of Michigan. Rachel is pleased to have her work displayed at Spectrum Health Ludington Hospital, and alongside Todd and Brad's work at Todd & Brad Reed Photography Gallery in downtown Ludington.
In 1998, Todd's image "God's Light," which shows a lightning bolt hitting near the Ludington North Breakwater Lighthouse, won third place overall in the Nikon International Photography Contest. In 2005, Brad's image "Power & Light" won runner up in the emerging artist category in the Nikon International Photography Contest. The powerful image shows pink-orange light painting an angular rock and a crashing wave along the Ludington North Breakwater. The North American Nature Photography Association has featured several of Todd and Brad's images and they have both won numerous awards from NANPA. Many magazines, including Traverse, Bay Life, Michigan Blue, Midwest Living, and LAKE, have also featured the Reeds' photographs and galleries in their publications. Rachel's image "Namaste" won the West Michigan Tourists Associations statewide photo contest in 2014 and appeared on the cover of their travel guide in 2015. Todd had an image featured on the cover of Outdoor Photographer in the October 2016 issue and a six-page article focusing on shooting fall color around the state of Michigan. Several of Team Reed's self-published books have earned international, national, and regional awards, including best coffee table book in North America. Todd and Brad have participated in Art Prize every year down in Grand Rapids and have been popular with voters.
Todd, Brad, and Rachel have a simple approach to photography. They choose subjects that touch them in emotional ways and strive to convey their emotions through the photographs they make. They are known for saying that good photography is all about feeling. To see and appreciate a scene in the natural world is one thing; the artists' challenge is to capture visually the emotions of that scene and that moment. It is simply a matter of being present at those rare moments and letting the heart guide the composition.
In 2000, Todd released his first book, Ludington Point to Point. This book covered the waterways and countryside between Big Sable Point and Little Sable Point Lighthouses. This book sold out in 2005.
In 2005, Todd and Brad collaborated and released their first joint book, Lake Michigan Point to Point, a visual journey of the waters and shores of the same region. This book sold out in 2015. In 2006, Todd and Brad released their first DVD, Lake Michigan Point to Point.
In 2008, Todd and Brad released a new fine art book and DVD called Ludington State Park: Queen of the North. The book and DVD feature beautiful photographs from inside the 5,300-acre Ludington State Park. This book sold out in 2015.
In 2010, Todd and Brad completed their 365 Project, a year-long photo shoot in which Todd and Brad each shot one photograph daily during 2010, posting them weekly on their website and Facebook. In Spring 2011, they published all 730 photos from the project in a limited edition fine art book entitled 365 – A Year in the Photographic Lives of Todd and Brad Reed. The book sold out the day it was released! Todd and Brad also released a 365 DVD, which includes all 730 images from the project, as well as interviews with Todd and Brad. They republished the book as a soft cover edition, and still have copies available.
In spring 2013, Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed: A Michigan Tribute was the grateful offering of a father and son who set out weekly for a year seeking, discovering and revealing Michigan's natural heart and soul with their cameras. They traveled throughout Michigan, shooting from sunrise to sunset every Tuesday of 2012. Besides shooting still photographs they shot HD video and every week produced a 7 to10 minute video of their photographic journey. Todd and Brad captured 1,014 Michigan moments, all of which are featured in this 400-page hardcover art book and 2-disk DVD set from the project. This book won the Gold Medal Ben Franklin Award for the best coffee table book in North America. This book sold out in 2016.
In 2014, after the success of their award-winning book, Tuesdays with Todd & Brad Reed: A Michigan Tribute, the father and son duo decided to once again take on a yearlong shooting project, this time photographing the splendor of Michigan's Lower and Upper Peninsulas every Wednesday. This year long exploration of the best of Michigan's landscapes and scenery culminated in their book, Todd and Brad Reed's Michigan: Wednesdays in the Mitten, which they self-published in the spring of 2015. Todd and Brad set out every Wednesday for a year discovering and revealing Michigan's natural heart and soul with their cameras. Todd and Brad then went through every image they shot on Wednesdays in 2014, selecting only the best for this new book. Once images were selected, they started laying them out in the book, thinking of how they wanted the images to look side by side, and how they flowed through the book. After the images were placed, Todd and Brad took to their keyboards, writing the different sections of the book. 
Wednesdays in the Mitten is the largest book Todd and Brad have ever produced, measuring 18.5-inches-wide by 12-inches-tall and containing 224 pages. For this book, they wanted to bring Michigan to you in a big way, with some photos measuring as long as 37 inches over a two-page spread. They decided to feature fewer images in the new book, but showcase them bigger and better than ever before. The book also comes with a DVD containing a slideshow of all the images from the book set to beautiful music. This book won the Silver Medal Ben Franklin Award for the best coffee table book in North America and they still have a few copies available.
In 2016, after searching far and wide throughout Michigan for magic moments to photograph, Todd and Brad longed to come home. They needed to get more intimate again with their own backyard—the Lake Michigan shoreline and connecting waterways and lands within a couple hours drive of their splendid lakeshore hometown, Ludington. For more than two years they traversed the west shore of Michigan from Grand Traverse Light at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula to Big Red Lighthouse at Holland in search of the visual wonder of the Michigan outdoors in their West Michigan backyard. What a ride! In 2018, Todd and Brad's book Wonderous West Shore was a celebration of the beauty they found. Todd and Brad paired the images down to those that they found most wonderous and representative of this splendid region. The images that appear in Wonderous West Shore are intended to increase appreciation for this amazing region as a whole more so than for any particular location. This book won the Silver Medal Ben Franklin Award for the best coffee table book in the Great Lakes Region. This book sold out in 2019.
2020, Brad and Rachel completed shooting a photo a day and published a joint book in the spring of 2022. 2020 was a leap year, and it was also the ten-year anniversary of the acclaimed 365 book that Todd and Brad published, so Brad and Rachel decided to call this the 366 Days of Beauty in the Year 2020 by Brad Reed and Rachel Gaudette.
Also in 2020, Todd completed his 50th year of photographing Michigan! The team worked extremely hard on presenting the 50 years in a beautiful coffee table book titled, Todd Reed: 50 Years Seeing Michigan Through a Lens.
After self-publishing nine international award-winning coffee table books, they focused on writing and designing their first children’s book. They Call Me Eagle Eyes was published this summer.
Todd, Brad, and Rachel's photographic artwork is featured at Todd & Brad Reed Photography Gallery, 114 West Ludington Avenue in downtown Ludington, Michigan (map).
You can order books, calendars, puzzles, magnets, prints, canvases, and framed pieces by telephoning the gallery at (231) 843-0777 or by visiting our website at toddandbradreed.com. Any image can be ordered in multiple sizes and formats.
Team Reed also puts on acclaimed weekend workshops in their hometown of Ludington. Details on the workshops can be found on our website's Workshop pages.