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Like ghost ships, the twin carferries Badger and Spartan emerge from the fog while docked in Ludington harbor. For as long as I can remember, I have loved viewing the ships at their docks or underway. Perhaps, the most fascinating aspect is seeing how dramatically changing light and atmosphere can change the view.

My favorite tugboat, the John Henry, is back working in Ludington harbor. I get myself to the west shore of Pere Marquette Lake by 7:00 A.M., in time to compose the picture and wait five minutes for the sweetest light. F5.6 at 1/125, ISO 100, 12-24 mm lens at 22 mm

The lure of a Michigan salmon, steelhead, brown trout, or walleye is irresistible for many anglers, no matter the season. Here anglers pass Big Red Lighthouse in Holland en route to their favorite Lake Michigan fishing grounds. F6.3 at 1/400, ISO 100, 80-200mm lens at 80mm

Hamlin Lake is one of the largest manmade lakes in Michigan. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, lumber barons cut down thousands of trees in the area and then built a dam on the Sable River to create what is known today as Hamlin Lake. Many of the old stumps still remain on the lake bottom and they actually move around the lake because of the snow and ice. These two massive stumps near the Lost Lake Island move a few feet every winter. F5 at 1/400, ISO 100, 14mm lens at 14mm

Hamlin Lake is one of the largest manmade lakes in Michigan. Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s, lumber barons cut down thousands of trees in the area and then built a dam on the Sable River to create what is known today as Hamlin Lake. Many of the old stumps still remain on the lake bottom and they actually move around the lake because of the snow and ice. These two massive stumps near the Lost Lake Island move a few feet every winter. F5 at 1/400, ISO 100, 14mm lens at 14mm

By closing the aperture down on my camera lens to a tiny hole at F22, I knew I could create hundreds of little star shapes on the surface of Lake Michigan today while photographing at South Haven, Michigan. Because so little light was entering the tiny hole in my lens, I needed to bump up my ISO to 800 in order to get a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the motion of the rolling water. We teach all of our workshop students to operate their cameras in full manual exposure so that they can be in control of how their photographs look and feel. F22 at 1/2500, ISO 800, 70-200mm lens at 200mm

A puddle left by an overnight rainstorm mirrors the tugboat Edward E. Gillen. Perhaps it is because of my nautical background, but tugboats tend to attract my photo eye. Maybe it is simply that so many of them seem to have such character.

It is often hard for people to believe that photographs like this can be "real" and not just a bunch of computer manipulation. You have to train your eye to see where the color is really hiding. Tonight, I found the intense color on a small area of water on Hamlin Lake near the Middle Bayou. I used a large telephoto lens to show the viewer the real color. F9.0 at 1/8000, ISO 100, 600 mm lens with 1.4 extender at 850 mm

It has been interesting watching this old abandoned home near Silver Lake change over the last 20 years. My guess is that within the next year or two a good portion of it will collapse.

After nearly two hours of shooting stormy seas battering the Manistee pier, a little sunshine finally finds its way partially through the clouds, providing a wider range of tonal values for the black and white image I want to make of this lakeshore drama. Good light is worth waiting for. The added light also enables me to close my aperture by two more stops to render more of the scene in sharp focus while still stopping action. F11 at 1/800, ISO 800, 80-200mm lens at 200mm

The tug Undaunted pushes the fully loaded Pere Marquette 41 barge toward its homeport of Ludington after passing Big Sable Point. It is a delightful day to be a Lake Michigan sailor or a waterfront observer of this Great Lake and the big ships that ply its waters. F8 at 1/6400, ISO 100, 80-200mm lens at 200mm

When I was a kid, my brothers and I spent a lot of time climbing trees in our neighborhood near Lake Michigan. One of our neighbors had a huge old beech tree in his yard and he would let all the neighborhood kids climb it. While I was photographing this tree in Marshall, Michigan, I could hear all the laughter and voices of my brothers and friends in my head and it made me smile.

My dad and I enjoy photographing these Scottish Highland Cattle south of Hart, Michigan. This one stared me down and looked as if he might charge at me at any moment. I know that little wire fence would have done nothing to protect me, but I couldn't resist trying to make this image. I love his swagger.

Workshop at Ludington State Park

Our assistant manager, Rachel Gaudette, lives very close to Ford Lake in the eastern part of Mason County. For several years, she has been telling my dad and me to shoot a sunrise over her lake. Today, I finally took her advice and was blown away by the gorgeous sunrise that erupted.

Today for Week 15 of "Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed: A Michigan Tribute," our gallery managers, Sarah Genson and Rachel Shoup Gaudette, and I shot photos at Rachel's parents' farm on First Street, east of Custer. As Sarah and I were driving to the farm, we spotted these two horses in the Shoup's field. Right away I thought about our photographic concepts of "the little object in the big world" and "clouds are your friends." F9 at 1/160, ISO 100, 70-200mm lens at 70mm

Every spring since I was a very small child, I have spent time in the Michigan woods with my family looking for morel mushrooms. Today, I had the amazing honor of hunting for the elusive mushrooms with one of the best morel mushroom hunters in North America. Roger Thurow, a Scottville, Michigan native, has won the national morel mushroom hunting championship multiple times. He took me to a few of his favorite spots and showed me the ways of a master. I will never forget this day. My wife, Betsy, and our kids enjoyed eating the bounty.

Mid-May is one of my favorite times of the year. The woodlands are coming to life and there seems to be a new visual discovery to be made at every turn. I love the way trillium were blooming at the base of a tree trunk along M22 near Empire.

Fawn