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Sweet cherry blossoms form a perfect circle that makes them look picture perfect to me. The fruit farmer is not as happy about this picture as I am. It is March and the sweet cherries south of Ludington are blossoming three weeks ahead of schedule, putting them at great risk of frost damage. F9 at 1/200, ISO 400, 105mm lens at 105mm

The long and winding, bumpy, two-track drive to Crisp Point Lighthouse was a big part of the adventure of going there on September 30, 2014. The moody El Greco sky over the lighthouse and Lake Superior as darkness fell added to the drama as I found a vantage where the sensor of my Nikon D800 digital camera, with a 30-second exposure, could accumulate what little light was there. I love how well digital cameras see in the dark!

Wednesday

Finally, a little rain to go with all that sunshine and warmth that has been good for the soul and for growing. F2.8 at 1/500, ISO 400, 80-200 mm lens at 200 mm

I have never seen so many Canada geese goslings in one parade as this morning in the Tobico Marsh State Game Area at Kawkawlin, Michigan, between Bay City and Pinconning. Their two parents, or adopted parents, guide them through the waters of the big marsh near the Lake Huron shoreline. The geese are among dozens of game birds and songbirds seeming to pop up everywhere during my hike through the marshland set aside for them. D800, F5.6 at 1/800, ISO 400, 500mm lens at 500mm

Spring has come early this year and caused an early-blooming Eastern Redbud ornamental tree to bloom in March. The early arrival brightens my day as I head home on Iris Road south of Ludington. F6.3 at 1/320, ISO 400, 80-200mm lens at 200mm

Ludington Lighthouse

Perched

Tonight we had an Easter dinner at my dad and stepmom Debbie's house. Ethan was excited that he got to sit at the big boy table for dinner with some of his "friends." Right after I took this photo, Ethan flipped the table over, fell out of his chair and crawled off to his next adventure. F2.8 at 1/50, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

Waves generated by a fresh spring breeze rush ashore along the Lake Michigan shoreline north of the Ludington city beach. The seasonal cottagers at Epworth Heights have not yet arrived and are missing a spectacular day on the waterfront. F8 at 1/800, ISO 400, 80-200mm lens at 100mm

Todd Reed

365 Week

Brad and I say, "Clouds are your friends." After waiting two hours on Easter at the base of the Father Marquette monument in Buttersville, a bright spot in the fast-moving clouds lines up perfectly with the cross to bring together the symbolic Easter picture I had envisioned when I first saw dramatic cloud formations heading across Lake Michigan. F4.0 at 1/250, ISO 100, 12-24 mm lens at 24 mm

I made this image of the northern lights last night while standing next to my dad on a tall dune near the Beach House inside the Ludington State Park. The lights were barely visible for several hours, but they erupted for less than one minute near midnight. I have never seen as many stars in the sky as I did that night.

Rays of light break through bands of altocumulus clouds. Brad and I teach our photography workshop students: "Clouds are your friends." I am thinking of these clouds as best friends as I stand on the Ludington beach on a late March evening. F7.1 at 1/640, ISO 100, 14-24mm lens at 24mm

Ludington State Park

I hunt. I hunt deer. I hunt them with rifle, bow or camera. I am proud to be each kind of deer hunter. My love affair with deer hunting began when I was a child watching my parents getting geared up to go deer hunting, then anxiously waiting for them to get back home, hopefully with a buck. I loved hearing the stories of the hunts. I couldn’t wait to turn 14, the minimum legal age for deer hunting when I was a boy. The various youth hunts of recent years did not exist then, but when I was 12, my parents started to allow me to come along on their hunting expeditions in the sand dune area of what is now the Nordhouse Dunes Federal Wilderness. My family hunted from dawn to dark. Most of our time was spent sitting alone in fox holes with small charcoal fires in five-pound coffee cans to keep us from freezing to death. It was a great training ground for outdoor photography, which in my early years of hunting I had no idea I would become interested in someday. In between the fleeting moments of adrenaline rush upon spotting a deer and perhaps attempting to bag it, I spent untold hours perched high atop a sand dune taking in and learning to know and appreciate the spectacular dune landscape surrounding me for as far as the eye could see. The deer hunting quest, the incredible view, and even the fresh air ramming into my lungs made me feel most alive. Some of the greatest adrenaline rushes of my life have continued to involve stalking deer with rifle, bow or camera. But my greatest joy in hunting has derived from simply being in the outdoors, studying the landscape, learning to better see and appreciate its beauty, learning to be prepared, comfortable and at home there, having Mother Nature remind me time after time that this is where I belonged and still belong. In recent years, I have enjoyed spending a lot of time in hunting blinds with my camera. For the past several years, Brad and I have been blessed to have a wonderful business/friendship relationship with Legends Ranch near Bitely, Michigan, one of the finest whitetail deer hunting ranches in North America. Manager Robert Sergi and his highly skilled staff have treated us like family, giving us widespread access to their more than 2,000 acres of hunting land. My son Brad and I knew exactly which blind we wanted to be in on this Christmas card morning in 2016. The pine background of Strip Blind provided a beautiful, contrasting background for the falling snow. If a deer came out close enough, it would be framed against the contrasting snow on the ground. We saw several bucks that morning, a couple of them with much larger racks. Brad was photographing a massive buck to our right when I spotted a buck with a smaller but picture-perfect rack coming out from our left only 30 yards away. The shot I had been making in my mind for many years was materializing. Perhaps scenting us or hearing Brad’s shutter fire as he photographed the other buck, the wary buck stopped, looking in our direction. I fired. My “Legendary” experience making the wintertime deer photograph of my dreams was made. The buck walked on.

The jetties at Ludington State Park are always fun to photograph, especially when the waters of Lake Michigan are rough. Today the sun broke through the clouds for a few fleeting minutes and I had just enough time to get into position to make this photograph. F9.0 at 1/160, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

I cannot imagine a more beautiful location across America for a summer concert than Ludington's Waterfront Park. On this July evening the park is filled with West Shore Bank Rhythm & Dunes concert goers as the Lake Michigan Carferry Badger steams past on one of its daily Lake Michigan crossings to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The Rhythm & Dunes concerts are one of the highlight events of summer in Ludington.

This view of Tawas Bay, Tawas Point, and Lake Huron greets me after climbing 70 feet up the circular stairway leading to the lantern room of Tawas Point Lighthouse. The fourth-order Fresnel lens continues to shine brightly at night, warning ships of the danger posed by Tawas Point.