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The first two weeks of October are a glorious time of year along the Lake Michigan shoreline. For several decades, I have told my photography students more often than they want to hear, “Clouds are your friends.” Early October is a great time to experience sunshine, fresh breeze and crisp, clear air painted with billowy clouds. When these conditions exist, the dune grasses and beaches appear most alive, and so do I! I visualized this image months before making it about 2001 when we lived near Lake Michigan at Crosswinds south of Ludington. My beloved Labrador retriever Beamer and I passed this spot during our daily hikes through the dunes to and from the beach. For several months, this particular stand of dune grass stood out to me from hundreds of others. I wouldn’t let Beamer go near it because I knew it had the makings of a great image; I imagined what the scene would look like in the sharp “magic light” of October. One early October morning, as Beamer and I were passing by this special spot, there it was! Mother Nature had brought all the ingredients together. All I had to do was turn around and take Beamer back home, grab my Nikon F100 and tripod and finish making the photograph. Since I had the image designed in my mind for months, all that was left to do now was fine-tune it artistically and nail it technically. That meant applying years of experience to make certain I made a perfect exposure on the Fuji Velvia transparency film I was using at the time. Almost two decades later, this image remains one of my favorite lakeshore images because it is so experiential for me and others. Brad and I say good photography is all about feeling. I can touch, taste and smell this image. I think a lot of other people feel the same way. The image puts me there; it puts others there.

Among the most amazing nights on Lake Michigan are those when the color in the sky refuses to diminish even when the viewer's mind says it is too dark to be so vivid. I could no longer see the camera controls on this night when the sea and sky turned black and blue.

My sister-in-law Misty Reed likes to imagine that the little feather in this photograph represents her and the big feather represents her husband, my older brother, Tad. I am not sure how the feathers got stuck upright in the sand, but I love the dreamy mood of this photograph.

Lake Superior Storm

Workshop

The golden light of October in Michigan is a photographer's dream. With dark clouds, brilliant fall color, and magic light, this small sailboat in Sutton's Bay looked picture perfect.

The highways and byways of the rolling farmlands north of Grand Rapids are one of my favorite places to find beauty. I love the way this field of corn stretches its way to a hilltop woodlot decked out in fall color.

Flowing Beauty

Storm in Manistee

Epworth, located just north of Ludington, is beautiful every day of the year. The large hillside, with a scattering of majestic old homes, makes for wonderful photographs.

Generally, to make a powerful grand scenic photograph, you need a strong foreground, middle ground, and background. The trick is to get the three separate layers of the photograph to overlap in a way that the viewer's mind will not get bored and "leave" the photograph. You want to encourage the viewer's eye to move all around the photograph. The viewer will also tend to have a greater emotional interest in the piece of art.

Break Time

Big Waves on Lake Superior

Hard Core

Preserve the Light

Pere Marquette Cross

Being there, just being there to patiently watch the rising sun first strike the tips dune grass and then slowly paint more of the grass is a mezmerizing experience. On this October morning, a pink sky finished the Lake Michigan Shoreline painting.

One of the concepts my son Brad and I emphasize to our photography students is framing. Using something in the foreground to frame or partially frame an image provides immediacy, depth and added interest elements. I framed this shot shortly after sunrise at the beginning of November along the Lost Lake Trail.