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After spotting and making an image of a dozen yellow iris flowers blooming in a marshy area on the Island Trail, I followed one of our main teaching concepts and moved "twice as close" and "twice as close again" and began looking for a stronger, simpler image that would reveal the true beauty and detail of the yellow iris. I liked this image better than the first shot, which failed to make the final edit of my images to be considered for this book.

My great-grandma, Martha Delite Benson, was originally a Shoup and was born and raised near the farm where I took this photograph. It is still in the Shoup family. I love how life on this farm, and many other farms in Mason County, seems to move at a slower, more peaceful pace. F8.0 at 1/400, ISO 640, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm

In the last couple years, I have started noticing rocks shaped like hearts on Michigan beaches. Tonight, I am photographing this one in front of the Whitefish Point Lighthouse on Lake Superior. A workshop student once asked me how I find so many heart-shaped rocks. I thought about it for a while and decided that somehow they must find me.

My dad and I showed up at Crystal Mountain hoping to make our first ski runs of the season only to find out they were closed for three days to make snow. We decided to explore the mountain on foot with our cameras instead. I loved the howl of the wind and the blowing snow in my face. I have not had that much fun with a camera in a really long time.

This seagull has to be in its glory, bathing in sunshine and near 50-degree temperatures as it soars along the Lake Michigan shoreline on one of the warmest January 31sts in Ludington's history. The sun is lifting my spirits too.

After nearly 14 hours of driving, boating, and photographing, I decide I have earned my favorite Northern Michigan dinner, planked whitefish. Miraculously, I somehow get an outdoor table at Stafford's Pier House, 10 feet from the water and right in front of one of the most beautiful classic yachts I have ever seen. Fantastic summer evening, fantastic meal, and world-class Michigan view. It doesn't get any better than this. F4.5 at 1/80, ISO 100, 14-24mm lens at 24mm

Spotted Redone

Ion Blasts Ludington

Taken at Gerlach Workshop in Munising

The Start of a Legend

Tahquamenon Falls River Reflection

The moon setting over the Ludington North Breakwater Light is a view that I never get tired of trying to capture. At first glance you would think this was another sunset photograph until you look at the amount of light hitting the front of the lighthouse. As the sun is coming up, the moon is setting in the distance.

This huge white oak on our family farm is a favorite to everyone, especially my brother, Jimmy. With my three kids and my arms wrapping around it, we barely touch fingertips..

One of the most ominous shelf clouds I have seen in years screams ashore toward Harbor View Marina in Ludington Harbor on the evening of July 26, 2020. These stormfronts tend to be such fast-movers, often advancing at 20 to 40 miles per hour, that I know I have to anticipate them and be in a good position to photograph them well in advance. For this storm, I set up my tripod and camera on the third-floor, outdoor deck of our waterfront home and waited to experience and record the storm.

A wild flower fights for space in a colorful sea of purple loosestrife--an invasive species which, despite all its beauty, threatens indigenous plant growth in the Pere Marquette River marsh and other wetlands connected to Lake Michigan. I must admit, I would hate not seeing its annual return.

Clouds are your friends. I preach this to my photography students at West Shore Community College more than they want to hear it. Clouds can add great ingredients to outdoor photographs. Sometimes, like on this fall evening, they make powerful subjects by themselves. At times clouds appear heaven sent. This one, over Lake Michigan, looked like an angel to my wife and me. We named it "Robbie's Cloud" in memory of an angel in our lives.

White camas flowers bask in the warm sunlight of a late June evening in the dunes at the south end of Ludington State Park. Summertime visitors seeking solace and new discoveries might want to consider a hike in this less-traveled region of the park.

While photographing morning light striking an American Flag and flagpole at Ludington Municipal Marina, a rainbow appears in the western sky over the marina. This is a bright spot in a day that will be marred by yet another Lake Michigan drowning at Ludington. F5.6 at 1/250, ISO 100, 12-24 mm lens at 24 mm

Last night I shot this scene of birch trees lining a creek along Fisher Road. I liked it then; I like it even more today in better light. Stands of birch trees are a dying sight in Michigan. I am happy to come back to them and appreciate them while they are still standing. F16.0 at 1/15, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 200 mm

If you love to find incredible beach rocks and occasionally add a few to your personal collection, I highly recommend taking a trip to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior. The diversity of the rocks in shape, color, texture, and size is mesmerizing. The roar of the waves and the sound of the rocks moving against each other have a strange calming effect on me.