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I spent years on Coast Guard boats watching Lake Michigan waves curl and break. Their power and beauty demanded my attention then and commanded me to photograph them.

Emerald Sea

NBetsy’s cat Buffy is simply the coolest cat alive! He acts much more like a dog than a cat. He loves attention and comes when he is called. Buffy is a lap cat and a sweet boy.

The view between swipes of the windshield wipers becomes beautifully distorted as I stop momentarily to appreciate the springtime view of a Buttersville hillside near the Pere Marquette Cross. F4.0 at 1/200, ISO 800, 12-24 mm lens at 22 mm

The sky was on fire! The layers in the sky were subject enough, I decided to simply pair them with a silhouetted tree line. This was one of the best sunsets of 2020 so far.

We look forward to celebrating the Easter Vigil every year. My dad has had a solo with the choir for as long as I can remember. With the churches closed due to COVID-19, my kids could not imagine an Easter without it. They came up with the idea to have our own at the farm. My son, David Benjamin, made the cross they decorated with Easter lilies, my dad sang his solo, and we celebrated in our own way. It will be an Easter to remember.

Sometimes the least expected subject can be fun to photograph. This helium balloon weight was the perfect abstract subject tonight.

On my daily drive through Stearns Park, I noticed the mix of sunlight and a snow fence creating a graphic shadow on the pavement. I pulled over, grabbed my camera and made this photo. The entire process took less than one minute. I love when everything comes together that quickly. F10.0 at 1/30, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

Sometimes you must look a little deeper to find inspiration as an artist. Tonight, I was struggling to find something to photograph. Eventually I found this piece of window art that hangs in my living room. I was pleased how the final image turned out.

Time appears to stand still as I look past classic cottages toward Lake Michigan at Epworth Heights. The summer resort north of Ludington is one of many private summer retreats established more than a century ago at dozens of small Great Lakes ports frequented by ships transporting vacationers to and from large city ports. Many of these association retreats appear similar today as in the heyday of Great Lakes cruise ship travel.

Lined up in the sand like beached sailboats, frozen sand sculptures created by the wind catch my eye along the Lake Michigan shoreline. Looking down as you walk often leads to interesting discoveries that might easily be missed. F22 at 1/60, ISO 800, 80-200mm lens at 165mm

Stained glass windows have always been one of my photography muses. I found this beautiful window at the Lakeview Cemetery in Ludington.

My front door has the most picturesque designs in the glass. I have always admired these types of doors, and now I have my own.

For this shot, I put my camera on a tripod, used my 70-200 mm zoom lens, focused on the yellow bush in front of me, set my aperture to F22, my shutter speed to three seconds, and my ISO to 100. Once the camera started to expose, I carefully zoomed my lens from 70 mm to 200 mm creating beautiful art inside my camera. F22.0 at 3.0, ISO 100, 70-200 mm lens at 200 mm

I admitted to my love of solar lights in an earlier caption. Here is yet another solar light that graces my deck. This one is a wind chime and provides me with beautiful music on windy days. Because it reminded me of the Earth, I decided to spin it while exposing my photo of the day.

Always looking for a unique angle or perspective for my art, I hung over the edge of the waterfall at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum fountain. I used my external flash to illuminate the underside of the waterfall and the cement wall. The bright blue sky added a lot of pop to this image by making colorful streaks in the waterfall as I aimed my camera upwards at a 45-degree angle to create this image. F22 at 1/250, ISO 400, 18-50mm lens at 50mm

I love how the light and shadow is playing today on the La Grand Vitesse sculpture and the Calder Plaza. I am especially impressed with how beautifully Alexander Calder's famous red sculpture stands out amongst and yet complements the neighboring buildings in downtown Grand Rapids. F9 at 1/125, ISO 100, 14-24mm lens at 22mm

La Grande Vitesse, created by Alexander Calder for the City of Grand Rapids in the 1960s, has become the iconic symbol of this West Michigan city. Today is my first time photographing the 42-ton stabile. I love making art out of other people's art. F11 at 1/320, ISO 400, 18-50mm lens at 46mm

On our way to make photographs of the "Calder" in downtown Grand Rapids today, I noticed the awesome reflections in the windows of this building. Each pane of glass was making its own unique version of window art. F13 at 1/80, ISO 400, 18-50mm lens at 50mm

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.