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A local farm field is often a popular spot for Bald Eagles. The snowflakes on this particular day were thick and heavy. Several eagles were flying around, but this one sitting in the tree struck me. Even with all the snow, the white head and tail stood out beautifully.

My dad and I showed up at Crystal Mountain hoping to make our first ski runs of the season only to find out they were closed for three days to make snow. We decided to explore the mountain on foot with our cameras instead. I loved the howl of the wind and the blowing snow in my face. I have not had that much fun with a camera in a really long time.

Taken at Gerlach Workshop in Munising

This huge white oak on our family farm is a favorite to everyone, especially my brother, Jimmy. With my three kids and my arms wrapping around it, we barely touch fingertips..

Last night I shot this scene of birch trees lining a creek along Fisher Road. I liked it then; I like it even more today in better light. Stands of birch trees are a dying sight in Michigan. I am happy to come back to them and appreciate them while they are still standing. F16.0 at 1/15, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 200 mm

Eben Ice Caves

Eben Ice Caves

My dad and I try to dress for success when we are photographing in the winter. On this day I had all my gear except my fleece hood. Right before I made this photograph, a large clump of snow fell on my head and went down my back. It reminded me of the snowball fights I had with my brothers when I was a kid.

Fall Leaves on Conrad Road

Fall Leaves on Conrad Road

Fall Leaves near a barn on Conrad Road

Fall on Conrad Road

I have always enjoyed walking along this road, lined with giant pines. Today, I lay on my back, looking up at them like I would when I was a kid. I captured this so that it lives not only in my memories, but out in the world as well.

When bright sunlight hits water, it creates a wonderful array of sparkles. When those sparkles are photographed, the aperture ring inside the lens makes them appear as perfect geometric shapes. I feel that the sparkles make this photograph a stronger image.

What a View

I have a teaching degree and several credits towards a master's degree in social work, but as I went down those roads in life I found they weren't for me. I took the road less traveled, followed my heart, and went into photography full time. As in the Robert Frost poem, that has made all the difference.

A Sunday ride on an autumn afternoon is one of the best things about Michigan. We all have favorite spots we visit year after year to check out the fall color. This is my favorite tunnel of trees and the best image I have ever made there. I had been driving Conrad Road between Ludington and Scottville east and west for days to check the progress of the leaf color change on the massive old maple trees lining each side of the Polcin Farm. On this day, October 10, 2010, the trees and the light looked picture perfect. I set up my tripod in the middle of the road and carefully designed the image in my viewfinder. My camera had live-view capability, but I have studied images in a viewfinder for so long, I prefer, if the situation permits, to be able to still see the world through that little eye hole. I made certain to include everything inside the borders of my viewfinder that I wanted and to include nothing I did not want. Unless we are photographing fast-moving objects where it is impossible to see and evaluate everything visible through the finder instantaneously, Brad and I each painstakingly try to finish in-camera the composition of every image we make. Most of our artwork is therefore created in a 2X by 3X proportion because that is the proportion of traditional 35-millimeter film and now traditionally-proportioned digital sensors. I loved everything I saw in the viewfinder when I triggered my cable shutter release at this moment. Moments later, two people on bicycles pedaled over the hill at the back of the scene. I fired off a few quick shots to capture a peak moment of this added ingredient to the scene. Brad and I like to teach our workshop students that if an element doesn’t add to a scene, it probably detracts. The bicycle riders definitely added a human and storytelling element and, dwarfed by the giant trees, a “little person in the big world” sense of scale. As fine art, I prefer the naturalness of the image I made without the bicyclists, and that is why I selected that one for this book. But the storytelling image with the bicyclists is the one that the national-award-winning Pure Michigan tourism promotion campaign selected for billboards. They wanted the people looking at those billboards to imagine themselves pedaling their bikes in such a spectacular Michigan place. Brad and I pride ourselves on being visual storytellers; I love telling Michigan’s beautiful stories with my cameras.

Some trees look almost human as they strike individual poses against the landscape. I was photo hunting in Victory Township, northeast of Ludington, when this tree and the atmosphere surrounding it caught my eye.

Wednesday December

Emerging from the White Birch Forest in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore after searching for images of the birch trees and maple leaves in autumn color, I was about to put my camera equipment back in my trusty Suburban when I took in this view less than 50 yards away. It looked and felt like a melody of color, pattern, and texture.