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Sand Waves

Swan on Lincoln Lake in Front of Epworth

Frozen Hearts

Waking up to a frosty wonderland, I was on the lookout for a subject to showcase its beauty. These frozen pine needles on Budzynski Road were just the thing.

Epworth, located just north of Ludington, is beautiful every day of the year. The large hillside, with a scattering of majestic old homes, makes for wonderful photographs.

I have photographed dozens of storms with waves as big as or bigger than those I shot during this February 1995 storm, but this image remains one of my favorite storm images because of the wave’s shape, position in relationship to the Ludington lighthouse, position of the seagulls and drama created by the storm light. I consider this image “perfectly poetic.” As my Grandma Reed liked to say about her small but precisely designed and tastefully decorated home: “There is a place for everything, and everything in its place.” I made dozens of exposures on Fuji Velvia film this day, none so perfectly poetic as this one. My youngest son, Willie, and I watched this February storm for hours, capturing photographic moments during lulls in the blizzard. As sunset neared, I prayed for storm light. If this magic light arrived, it would appear shortly before sunset, and only if the sun could find its way through, or beneath, a band of boiling clouds skirting the distant horizon. It is a photographer’s game of hide-and-seek I have played with the sun and clouds thousands of times. I love winning, but experience has taught me that I am more likely to lose or at least not win big. This time, as I had envisioned, sunlight broke from beneath the clouds, backlighting the waves and the lighthouse. Rewarded by the knowledge of what could happen and by perseverance, Willie and I were oblivious to the gale winds pummeling us as we witnessed the magic light and lake’s fury come together against the storm cloud backdrop.

In stillness, another summer day dawns in Pentwater. The village provides the backdrop for a view of the popular boating harbor from the west shore of Pentwater Lake.

Generally, to make a powerful grand scenic photograph, you need a strong foreground, middle ground, and background. The trick is to get the three separate layers of the photograph to overlap in a way that the viewer's mind will not get bored and "leave" the photograph. You want to encourage the viewer's eye to move all around the photograph. The viewer will also tend to have a greater emotional interest in the piece of art.

January 22, 2010” “He is risen!” That familiar Christian declaration of faith in Jesus as savior came to mind on January 22, 2010 as I lined up the sun with the cross marking the long-recognized death site of missionary explorer Pere Jacques Marquette. According to the Jesuits, Father Marquette died on May 18, 1675, near this hilly spot between Pere Marquette Lake and Lake Michigan. I had been trying to make a sunset image like this for years, regularly scouting the potential from across Pere Marquette Lake during evening drives home. On this day the cross, sun, clouds and color combined to create a view better than I had ever imagined. One glance told me this was the day! But the sun was not quite lined up. I quickly calculated that if I could get to the end of the Ludington Yacht Club peninsula in time, everything might align. I drove the two blocks quickly, jumped out of my truck with my camera, 500-millimeter lens and tripod and ran until I ran out of land. Still the sun did not line up with the cross. Fortunately, a cold spell had built up the ice on Pere Marquette Lake. I did not hesitate to keep sprinting onto the ice. Twenty yards of running without falling on the slick ice later, everything lined up. I mounted the camera on the tripod, fine-tuned the tripod position and fired. Then I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God for good ice. I lived a few blocks away from this cross for more than a dozen years. During all those years of passing by the monument, almost daily, I had made only a few images of the cross that pleased me. None of them held a candle to this one. This image is especially dear to my heart not only because of its Christian symbolism but also because I have always loved and valued history, including the history of Father Marquette’s Ludington connection. Ludington was recognized as the death site of Father Marquette by generations of local Native Americans and settlers. In fact, when the area was first settled, Ludington was named Pere Marquette in honor of Father Marquette. The town was years later renamed Ludington in 1864 at the request of the most powerful lumberman in Pere Marquette at the time, James Ludington. The Pere Marquette River, Pere Marquette Lake, a street, a township and much more remain named Pere Marquette. Many different crosses have marked this spot over the centuries. This cross was erected in the 1950s as a community project. In 2019 and 2020, a new base for the cross was built through another community effort, and the cross has been put back in place to tower over Pere Marquette Lake. A lot of people believe that cross belongs there; I am one of them.

After spending a wonderful night on Old Mission Peninsula with one of my dad's best life-long friends, Andy Gaines, and his wife Wendy, we spotted this scene alongside the road the next morning. As we often do, we pulled over and I hopped out to build a picture I have always dreamed about making.

Farming remains a major, vital industry throughout Michigan, including Scottville. I admire farmers like Tyler Martz who have the work ethic and expertise to till the land. Martz was preparing this field for planting asparagus. The grain storage and other structures of Acres Co-Op, Inc. tower behind Martz's tractor.

Being a guide on the Pere Marquette River involves a lot of work, so being asked to stop and fish while guiding for a couple of photographers is, for Uber Raines, like being sent to trout heaven. I think this view shows why the Pere Marquette was chosen as a National Wild & Scenic River to preserve the natural beauty of the river and control public access to it. F4.5 at 1/400, ISO 800, 14-24mm lens at 16mm

Workshop at Ludington State Park

Break Time

Big Waves on Lake Superior

Hamlin Lake in Fog During Workshop

Hard Core

A well-known fishing hole in front of our family cabin on a large bend in the Pere Marquette River looks tranquil in the sunshine this morning. We often try to put leading lines in the exact lower corners of our compositions. It is not an accident that the water and ice meet in the bottom left corner of this image.