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Sleeping Bear Area

Enjoying Emerald Lake

A stretch of the Pere Marquette River known as the Claybanks looks like a winter fairytale world this morning as the biggest, stickiest snowflakes I have ever seen cling to everything in sight. Professional fishing guide Chris "Uber" Raines appears oblivious to the elements as he fly fishes for steelhead.

Drama at Bow Lake

Only a few minutes after a downpour interrupted one of our photography workshops and sent Brad, me, and our students scurrying back to vehicles, a rainbow and accompanying storm light appeared in the southern sky. The rainbow sent us all scrambling to make a picture. I remembered a nearby pond between dunes. Bingo! The magic light was reflected in the glassy surface of the pond. Each of us realized this was a spectacular moment in time.

For over a hundred years, these particular dunes on Hamlin Lake have been a popular picnic area for boaters. As a kid, my parents took my brothers and me here often. Now I enjoy taking my kids to the "Hamlin Dunes." F6.3 at 1/1250, ISO 400, 10-17mm lens at 10mm

Today was a difficult day. When my tasks at work are very systematic and methodical, it is hard to shut that off and let my creative eyes SEE possible compositions. It is past sunset and I have not clicked the shutter yet. I stop at the Custer bridge, grab my camera and tripod, and hope that I can make an image I would be proud of. I carefully took several shots, and then sat there in the silence.

Snacking its way to Lake Michigan, water from Bass Lake catches sunlight on a September evening.

Lincoln River in Front of Rods Shack

 

Our friends Dave and Chrissy Hall, lifelong visitors and supporters of the Ludington State Park, graciously offered to take my dad and me in their airplane to photograph aerial views of the park and its surroundings. On a clear May evening in 2007, I made this photo from several thousand feet in the air. The photograph clearly shows the Lake Michigan shoreline, the Sable River, all of Hamlin Lake, Big Point Sable Lighthouse, the Nordhouse Dunes, part of the Manistee National Forest and the entire Ludington State Park.

Ordway Lake

Exploring Lake Louise

 

I love the unique shape of the Muskegon South Breakwater Light. This evening I am also struck by the symmetry of trees framing the lighthouse. I choose to make a long exposure to show the movement of the tree tops swaying in the October breeze.

Canada's Pride

 

It strikes me while I am being stunned by a wintery view of Kinney Creek near Branch that the late great Fred Picker would have loved to have been able to photograph and make black and white prints of this winter scene. Fred was one of the world's grand masters of black and white printing. As much as I love black and white photography, I have chosen to render the scene in color because I think the golden water and green lichen and other hints of green complement the otherwise monochromatic scene and emphasize the stream.

First I am thinking how beautiful Lake Margrethe looks with those big clouds suspended above it. Then I spot a red kayak cruising along the north shore of the nearly 2,000-acre lake near Grayling, Michigan. Just the added ingredient I was looking for! F5.6 at 1/500, ISO 100, 24-70mm lens at 24mm

Hamlin Township