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You know summer has arrived in northern Michigan when you start seeing sweet pea along the roadsides. I singled out this flower to photograph from amongst hundreds of sweet peas along the shoreline road south of Onekama. I wanted to show how beautiful these flowers are when viewed up close. F9 at 1/8, ISO 100, 80-200mm lens at 200mm

Some of my favorite memories growing up were made in our apple orchard. The tire swing, baseball diamond, and the biggest dandelions were there. Let’s not forget the apples. We would eat them right off the tree, or make homemade apple sauce, pie, crisp, or butter. The apples that were too bruised I would pick up for my brother, Kevin, to put out for deer. This apple tree is in my yard, and we love it.

When I was a little girl, I would pick huge bouquets of flowers from my mom’s garden. I would take them into our playhouse, and using wax paper, I would make them into bouquets that I assumed one would buy from a flower shop. I made handmade cards that customers could include with the flowers. It was a vision of mine to put a sign at the end of our road, and have people come visit us and our garden, and buy bouquets from me.

I love passing by the Bentz farm on Conrad Road between Ludington and Scottville and viewing the beautifully manicured garden in front of their well-maintained old barns. Today a sunflower rises above others to stand out in front of one of the barns. F4.0 at 1/640, ISO 400, 500 mm lens at 500 mm

My in-laws, Don and Shari Verduin, moved to Ludington in 2009 and bought a house in town. They are both really into gardening and the house they purchased already had an amazing flower garden, but they have made it even better. Tonight, their zinnias caught my attention. F2.8 at 1/80, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm

I hadn’t made a photo yet today when I pulled into Brad’s yard. We were all going to watch a movie on the deck with the projector. This white flowering tree with the red blossoms in the background stood out to me.

The flowers in my mom’s garden made a great brilliant backdrop to this water-droplet-filled leaf.

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.

Daisies are one flower that always seems to make everyone smile. My aunt, Sheryl Reed, has several beautiful gardens at her home, but this daisy garden is by far my favorite. F7.1 at 1/320, ISO 400, 10-17mm lens at 10mm

Just recently I was loaned a 10-17millimeter fisheye lens and I am loving it. Of course the lens distorts the natural world, but we teach our workshop students that distortion is not always a bad thing. In fact, done well, it can really make a scene go from good to great. F3.8 at 1/320, ISO 400, 10-17mm lens at 11.5mm

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.

Rachel’s daughter, Kasey, is on the middle school cross country team at Mason County Eastern in Custer. We were watching one of her home meets when I noticed these sweet peas in a mix of mustard grass. Trying to not crush any of the flowers or mustard grass, I got close to the prettiest one I could find. With my macro lens, I knew I could make the busy background look soft and less chaotic.

Betsy, Ethan, and I all have the flu today. It has not been a fun day to say the least, but making a photo of the day in our backyard does take my mind off of being sick for a little while. F8.0 at 1/60, ISO 800, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm

I hope all of these different varieties of flowers continue to grow in my yard year after year because I do not have a green thumb and I am not great at yard work. I rarely know the names of the flowers until I download my photographs of them and ask Rachel or Betsy what they are.

The bees obviously know the cold weather months are ahead because they sure are busy this evening in a flower garden near Lake Michigan. Bees have fascinated me since childhood so I particularly enjoy photographing them. F4.5 at 1/500, ISO 100, 105 mm macro lens at 105 mm

I have made the picture I set out to make at Epworth Heights this afternoon

Ah, the plants of summer. I love it when the various roadside plants of Michigan begin blooming. I have already spotted many colors and varieties of these plants while traveling the byways between Ludington and Traverse City. But the hundreds of tiny flowers of this big Queen Anne's Lace have caused me to stop my vehicle to appreciate their beauty close up. F7.1 at 1/800, ISO 200, 105mm lens at 105mm

Simplicity.

Using our "twice-as-close" rule, I move right in on some lavender flowers to zero in on a bee harvesting nectar and pollinating the flowers in the process. I want to be as close to the bee as my lens will focus so that almost nothing else is sharp in the picture. I want the image to feel like a bee's field of dreams. F3.2 at 1/500, ISO 100, 80-200mm lens at 200mm

I was on my way to Brad’s when I passed by The Market on US-31. It was closed, but the cattails surrounding it were just waiting to be photographed. I used their exterior lights to add depth to the photo. Cattails always bring back memories of picking them at fair, and then forgetting them in the camper until we would find them exploded the next spring. My mom does not miss those days.