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I love Ludington’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show as much as anyone. But I have to say I was more excited about the fireworks Mother Nature shot off over Ludington on May 3, 2019. I had a front row seat from the balcony of our home as the fireworks lit up the harbor.

A diseased tree had split in half about four feet up from the ground and a bird made a beautiful little nest in the remaining top of the stump. I put my 14mm wide-angle lens extremely close to the nest. This photograph was taken close up yet does not look like a typical close-up. With a wide-angle lens, if you do not get very close to the subject, the subject will look tiny and the photograph will often lack emotional impact.

Sleepy Time – Brad Reed While my aunt Sheryl was vacuuming her living room, she looked through the large picture window and noticed a fawn sleeping peacefully in her pachysandra bushes right next to the house. She immediately called my dad and me and we rushed over with our cameras. I put my lens right on the glass of the window and made this image. I love the heart shape of the bushes that surrounds the beautiful sleeping fawn. Nikon D800. F1.4 at 1/640, ISO 100. 85mm lens at 85mm. On a tripod without a flash. May 13, 2014 at 9:59am.

 While shooting the sunset out at the Ludington State Park, I was disappointed at the lack of color in the sky. The water however, was radiant and beautiful. I knew that I had to act quickly before the color and light disappeared. I thought about what I needed to do, changed lenses, and got off three shots before it had faded away and the water went back to normal. While I typically shoot the “grand scenic” type images, it paid off to step outside my comfort zone and challenge myself. I came out with an image that I absolutely love!

Mid-to-late May is a magical time to step inside northern Michigan forests. The leaves on the hardwood trees have formed but are most likely not yet full-size. The forest is splendid, especially because the not yet fully-grown leaves leave more space for sunlight to reach the forest floor. May 22, 2020 was a picture-perfect day for my wife, Debbie, and me to hike the morning away on the Mt. Baldy Trail at one of the Mott conservancy trails along M-22 north of Arcadia. We observed many scattered trillium and other wild plants the first half-hour but when, after a couple of miles of hiking, we came upon this hillside covered with trilliums, I felt like I had entered a trillium dreamland. It was time for me to stop and try to find a picture-perfect spot to plant my tripod and make an image worthy of what I was seeing and feeling. My wife knows me. She knew this was going to take time. When I am blessed to find a scene like this, I know better than to rush; I want to make the best art I can, art that moves me and hopefully others. Debbie likes to keep moving so, as she often does, she hiked on, leaving me to catch her when I knew I was finished, knew I had made an image I felt good about. Thank you, Debbie, for putting up for years with my stop-and-go approach to hiking; I know it is not easy sometimes. We had already hiked several hundred miles together in 2020 before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In all that time, I never made a photograph that moved me like this one. Our reward that day was curbside-pickup takeout sandwiches and beer from Stormcloud Brewing Company in Frankfort, savored with a tailgate picnic at Frankfort beach.

The White River Light Station near Whitehall, Michigan is a beautiful lighthouse. It also has a very informative museum inside. Shortly after making this photograph, I laid down in the grass and warm sunshine and took a nap. I woke myself up snoring. I guess I needed some rest.

Michigan abounds with new life in spring. I love traveling the countryside looking for views like this one along Iris Road in Mason County.

Often when my dad and I travel together in his truck on photo adventures and he is driving, I am worn out by the later afternoon. It is a common occurrence for me to take a nap in the truck while he continues to look for photographs. Today at Stocking Drive at the Sleeping Bear Dunes, I woke up from a long nap to find my dad photographing some trillium he had found alongside the road. I dragged myself out of the truck and grabbed my camera and started looking for my own photographs. Soon I was full of adrenaline and wide-awake making this image of a lone trillium. Nikon D800. F2.8 at 1/5000, ISO 1600. 14-24mm lens at 14mm. Handheld without a flash. May 16, 2017 at 4:49pm

This is the view from the top of the De Zwaan Windmill, located in Windmill Island in Holland, Michigan. Mesmerized by the endless fields of tulips, I locked in on this particular area of one field. I patiently waited for the sunlight to reappear from behind a large cloud and then for the wind to die down enough to make the photograph I had envisioned. D800, F11 at 1/320, ISO 1600, 70-200mm lens at

The older I get, the less pressure I feel to fit in with the crowd. My parents have always taught me to be comfortable being myself, but sometimes that comfort doesn't come for people until they are older. I was inspired looking at these red tulips and how they stood out from the crowd. I shot them with my 85mm 1.4 lens at an aperture of 1.4 so that the extremely shallow depth of field made them sharp and all the other tulips blurry.

I have no regrets for shooting abstract photographs that rarely sell. I could sell lighthouse photographs until I am blue in the face, but my real passion with my camera is to photograph the abstract and overlooked parts of the beautiful world around us. This scene was a reflection in the fountain in front of the library on the campus of Michigan State University. F1.8 at 1/1250, ISO 100, 85mm lens at 85mm

My dad and I often tell our photography workshop students they need to think of themselves as puppeteers. We try to control exactly where the viewers of our work will first look in our photographs. By using a super-telephoto 600mm lens as well as a 1.4 extender, I had a very shallow depth of field. Then I moved within 15 feet of the flower, which is as close as that lens will focus. Finally, I set my aperture to F5.6 in order to have the shallowest depth of field possible. This combination of lens choice, closeness, and aperture helped me isolate one tulip in this photograph.

I have always enjoyed the challenge of building strong, unique compositions utilizing reflections. In order to get the building, red roof, and tower of Au Sable Point Lighthouse to show up in the reflection, I had to lie on my stomach in Lake Superior. Thankfully, it has been a record breaking warm winter, but the water temperature still had my full attention. F8 at 1/200, ISO 100, 18-50mm lens at 18mm

Timbers and exposed iron bolts are all that remain of the Mary Jarecki, one of the many ships to founder along the Lake Superior shoreline. The shapes and patterns of the shipwreck fascinate me. F14 at 1/80, ISO 200, 14-24mm lens at 14mm

I have only ever witnessed one better particle ray in my lifetime. That was back in 2004 when I shot “Sunburst.” Tonight, was a close second! I made this image off Uncle Budde and Aunt Sheryl’s deck. I was out of breath from running as fast as I could with my gear to get in position before the light show started to fade away. I could see Rachel down the beach at the water’s edge at Stearns Beach.

I spent a lot of time underneath Coast Guard helicopters during more than 30 years driving Coast Guard rescue boats and training others to command and crew them. On this 1987 day, Active Duty and Reserve Coast Guardsmen taking part in a two-week “boat school” were conducting “helo ops” on Lake Charlevoix aboard Station Charlevoix’s 44-foot motor lifeboat with an HH-3F Pelican helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City. The precision drills included hoisting a boat crewman to the helicopter in a rescue basket. Skill and teamwork was always paramount and on display. “Always Ready” “44345 Fire Rescue”

From atop a high sand dune south of Big Sable Point Lighthouse, I could see the light projecting from the lamphouse intersecting with the light of the tail of the Comet NEOWISE. I decided to try to make a tight image that would emphasize that connection of light in the starry sky. Showing less of the light tower and none of the keepers’ dwelling kept the focus on the story I wanted to tell. Less is so often more..

A beautiful red barn sits among a field of blossoming fruit trees early this morning along Morton Road south of Ludington. The fruit fields and rolling hills of Mason and Oceana counties are breathtaking right now. Tourists flock to this area for the fall color tour, but I don't think it holds a candle to the spring blossoms. F6.3 at 1/125, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm

I can remember climbing on this old carferry propeller down at the Loomis Street Boat Ramp with my brothers when we were young kids. This is the first good picture I have made of the giant bronze propeller. F10.0 at 1/250, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm