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Keeping On

This view from high atop Big Point Sable Lighthouse shows the layers of dunes and forest between Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake and reveals the vastness and beauty of the remote northern area of Ludington State Park. Brad and I climbed to the top of the lighthouse on an early November morning and sat in the dark, anxiously awaiting sunrise. The light and atmosphere that appeared was well worth the chilly wait.

The lookout on M22 between Elberta and Arcadia is one of our favorite spots to stop and look for photographs of Lake Michigan. On this particularly windy day, I hiked to the top of the tall flight of stairs to photograph from the stable platform at the top. It was worth the hike.

Workshop at Ludington State Park

Hoffmaster Shores

Anyone lucky enough to be standing on the storm-flooded Lake Michigan beach near the Second Curve on October 18, 2007, at 6:49:21 p.m., would have been overwhelmed by the scene before his or her eyes. This was an incredible moment in time, obviously a beautiful, powerful view. But there was something more: an unreal, out-of-this world quality, a feeling that comes to me only when I witness some of the most rare natural phenomenons. A meteotsunami (meteorological tsunami) had flooded the beach.

The Lake Michigan shoreline can change in a blink of an eye. Tonight, at the Lake Michigan Campground in the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area between Manistee and Ludington, I was amazed at how quickly the sand on the left of this image was being undercut and caving in. The small outlet was growing in width before my eyes.

Photos do lie! This photo looks like it was a warm night on the Ludington City Beach. In reality, a storm was blowing in and the wind was bitter cold. It was a great night of shooting the sunset with friends.

As the sun rose in the east this morning, the pink light reflected in the west over Lake Michigan. I used my external flash to add detail to the blowing dune grass in front of me as I made this picture inside the Ludington channel. The soft morning light made for a peaceful start to my day.

Workshop at Ludington State Park

By setting my camera directly on the ice that had built up on the Manistee pier, I could capture the sun dancing on the ripples. Generally, we use tripods, but sometimes the only way to get the immediacy in our photographs, is to improvise.

Crimson Tide

July Blast

Breezy Point at Epworth

I am blessed to have a large family and a lot of roots in Mason County. Today I was exploring some land that one of my family members owns on the Lincoln River.

Epworth

Lake Michigan Afterglow

Epworth Illuminated

Marram grass bends against a south wind as the sun sets on an October evening along the Lake Michigan shoreline at an area of Ludington State Park long referred to as the "Second Curve." The hearty dune grass thrives in an often-severe environment, standing up to the wind and sand that buries it as the grass and its roots slow and stop blowing sand grains.