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It looks like anything but winter through my viewfinder as I photograph seagulls basking in the sun on a January morning along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

Kitch-Iti-Kipi

Mason County is full of creeks, streams, and rivers. I was out driving and found a pretty spot to stop and shoot. Sweetwater Creek is near Branch, Michigan.

I think Andrew Wyeth would have loved to create a painting of this maple tree if he had seen it on this November day. I loved the monochromatic color palette and the hints of color provided by the relatively few maple leaves still helping the snow to decorate the tree. I love the way my camera painted this scene with light.

I have a teaching degree and several credits towards a master's degree in social work, but as I went down those roads in life I found they weren't for me. I took the road less traveled, followed my heart, and went into photography full time. As in the Robert Frost poem, that has made all the difference.

Color emanates from the sky on the Ludington waterfront on a January evening. It is 15 minutes after sunset and the color is much more saturated than at sunset.

A Sunday ride on an autumn afternoon is one of the best things about Michigan. We all have favorite spots we visit year after year to check out the fall color. This is my favorite tunnel of trees and the best image I have ever made there. I had been driving Conrad Road between Ludington and Scottville east and west for days to check the progress of the leaf color change on the massive old maple trees lining each side of the Polcin Farm. On this day, October 10, 2010, the trees and the light looked picture perfect. I set up my tripod in the middle of the road and carefully designed the image in my viewfinder. My camera had live-view capability, but I have studied images in a viewfinder for so long, I prefer, if the situation permits, to be able to still see the world through that little eye hole. I made certain to include everything inside the borders of my viewfinder that I wanted and to include nothing I did not want. Unless we are photographing fast-moving objects where it is impossible to see and evaluate everything visible through the finder instantaneously, Brad and I each painstakingly try to finish in-camera the composition of every image we make. Most of our artwork is therefore created in a 2X by 3X proportion because that is the proportion of traditional 35-millimeter film and now traditionally-proportioned digital sensors. I loved everything I saw in the viewfinder when I triggered my cable shutter release at this moment. Moments later, two people on bicycles pedaled over the hill at the back of the scene. I fired off a few quick shots to capture a peak moment of this added ingredient to the scene. Brad and I like to teach our workshop students that if an element doesn’t add to a scene, it probably detracts. The bicycle riders definitely added a human and storytelling element and, dwarfed by the giant trees, a “little person in the big world” sense of scale. As fine art, I prefer the naturalness of the image I made without the bicyclists, and that is why I selected that one for this book. But the storytelling image with the bicyclists is the one that the national-award-winning Pure Michigan tourism promotion campaign selected for billboards. They wanted the people looking at those billboards to imagine themselves pedaling their bikes in such a spectacular Michigan place. Brad and I pride ourselves on being visual storytellers; I love telling Michigan’s beautiful stories with my cameras.

Like a 747 dwarfing the smaller planes at an airport, a mute swan makes a big impact as it touches down near smaller waterfowl on the Sauble River at Ludington State Park.

My dad and I would probably never have ventured across the ice on Lake Superior to the Grand Island Ice Caves if it were not for Facebook. We both spend a lot of time on Facebook looking at other Michigan photographer's work. Several people had been posting excellent photographs of the ice caves near Munising, Michigan and we knew we had to go. We called our friends Mike Schlitt, Bill Dietrich, and Wally Barkley and the five of us made the journey to Grand Island. D7000, F9 at 1/60, ISO 100, 10-20mm lens at 10mm

My son Brad has scaled the much taller, steeper side of this sand dune at Ludington State Park to gain a vantage point from which he can see almost all of Lower Hamlin Lake. However, the world-class sunrise he was hoping for is not happening today.

I was on the hunt for beach glass on this chilly morning. I hiked a great distance, armed and ready with my camera and ring flash. Unfortunately, I didn’t find a single piece. Determined to make the trek worth it, I found this heart-shaped rock. I loved the bubbles of water as the waves receded.

Carferry and Ludington Light

Some trees look almost human as they strike individual poses against the landscape. I was photo hunting in Victory Township, northeast of Ludington, when this tree and the atmosphere surrounding it caught my eye.

On Sunday afternoons, Betsy and I often take the kids for a Sunday Drive. I enjoy driving around looking for photographs and spending quality time with my family. Today, just as we were ending our drive for the day, Betsy pointed out an orange cat on the roof of an apartment house in Ludington. I love this photograph. F10.0 at 1/640, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm

An immature bald eagle soars directly overhead as I hike a trail through the dunes near the Sable River at Ludington State Park. The bird circles over me, seemingly checking me out, or is it just searching for breakfast? Either way, I am grateful for the close-up view.

Wednesday December

Grand Island Ice Caves

After the Super Bowl last night, I decided to stay the night in Silver Lake at the hotel with Julia, Ethan, and the gang. On my drive back to Ludington this morning, I had to pull off the road and climb the observation tower near the corner of Conrad and Old US-31 in order to photograph the awesome clouds and colorful sunrise.

I have a passion for photographing ice. The abstract shapes and the contrast of tones make for great images. I discovered this scene along the Lake Michigan shoreline in the middle of February. It is one of my favorite photographs.

I have appreciated these grasses for several years in the Pere Marquette River Flats near the former city dump site. They look splendid to me tonight rising above the marsh, backlit by the setting sun. I am glad I took this route home after a long day teaching photography at West Shore Community College. F11.0 at 1/200, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 86 mm