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Many of our photographs are long time exposures that are shot on a tripod. We use time exposures because we photograph long after the sun sets below the horizon. This was a thirty second exposure, at F-stop 3.3, and at 100 ISO.

The ice breaking tugboat Manitou was called into Ludington's port this week to attempt opening a path so other vessels could get back out onto Lake Michigan. I watched this small tug work for over an hour to get about a thousand feet. To my surprise, the mighty little ship made it out to open water.

One of Michigan's most distinctive and attractive lighthouses, White Shoal Light, has helped guide mariners safely into and out of the Straits of Mackinac for more than a century. I passed by this lighthouse at a distance on a Coast Guard ship a few winters ago but today the Shepler's Lighthouse Cruise boat Captain Mike Rossman brings me close enough to fill my Nikon's viewfinder even with a wide-angle lens attached. F8 at 1/800, ISO 400, 14-24mm lens at 24mm

Epic Manistee Blast

 I'm not a fan of the cold. I actually really dislike it. What I do love though is shooting. I will withstand freezing cold temperatures and wind chill, if it means I can get my camera in my hand and experience the beauty that surrounds me. To some it's fun to shoot when the weathers great, but to me, I long to shoot through it all!

Unique photographs are often right in front of our eyes. Looking closer for pictures opens a new visual world featuring more detailed, stronger views of its parts. On this summer night, the base of the Pentwater South Pierhead Light provided an abstract view of the moon rising.

The 112-foot-high Big Point Sable Lighthouse towers over the shoreline and forest in this November 4 view from the Ridge Trail. A giant white pine provides a counterpoint for the composition I had envisioned weeks earlier before the color peaked.

One of the most impressive aspects of the Shepler's Lighthouse Cruise is the expert lighthouse history narration provided by volunteer members of the Great Lakes Lighthouse Keepers Association. Dick Moehl and Terry Pepper tell us of the ongoing extensive efforts to restore St. Helena Island Light, its outbuildings and boathouse. They are always looking for more volunteers and donations to assist with the project. F7.1 at 1/1000, ISO 400, 300mm lens at 300mm

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

Winter Workshop

Sunset at Little Sable Point Lighthouse

Magic Light in Manistee

Wind contorts my face, waves roar and crash just short of the feet of my tripod, sun gleams and dances across the water, clouds paint the sky. I am in my glory. This is as good as it gets for a Lake Michigan photographer. These are the days I dream about and rarely experience. This mid-September day of 2001 on the Ludington waterfront was one of the best moments of my life. My camera recorded it so I and others can experience it again and again.

I never tire of photographing the Ludington lighthouse, especially when it looks as magical as on this frigid January morning. I have gotten in place before sunrise, anticipating sun and steam as soon as the sun can hit the lighthouse and Lake Michigan waters around it.

The brilliantly colored rocks along the Lake Michigan shoreline at Point Betsie Lighthouse make the perfect foreground for our photographs. Today, with several workshop students, we found a storm pool just south of the lighthouse. I lay on my stomach and put my tripod very low to capture the reflection of Point Betsie Lighthouse in the storm pool. The light rain we had a few minutes earlier made all the rocks wet, which in turn made them more colorful.

Long since abandoned, the medieval looking Waugoshance Light has endured since 1851, with the help of its iron plates. Its birdcage lantern is a rarity among Michigan's surviving lighthouses. F8 at 1/800, ISO 800, 80-200mm lens at 165mm

Grand Traverse Lighthouse

Calm Night In Pentwater

Calm Night In Pentwater - panoramic

In the workshops my dad and I lead, we tell our students not to be afraid of turning their cameras vertically. Some of our favorite photographs we have ever made are vertical images. On this day I took a horizontal photograph and a vertical photograph about 10 seconds apart. The composition in the vertical photograph was the definite winner.