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After a chilly and windy opening day of rifle season, David and I were headed in for a warm dinner. The foggy atmosphere surrounding the field was a perfect black-and-white setting.

The bridge on Jebavy Drive over the Lincoln River seems wide while driving your vehicle on it, but as a pedestrian holding a camera, those cars seem mighty close zooming by at 55 miles per hour. While questioning my risk assessment, I made the shot just in time. F8.0 at 1/100, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

I switched deer hunting towers for the second night of the season. Tonight, I sat in my brother’s blind and the rain turned to a beautiful, sticky snow. Within a half hour, I watched this scene turn from brown and kind of ugly, to a winter wonderland. The deer loved the snow too because they finally started moving after the snow fell.

A far cry from the snowy day five days ago, today looks and feels a lot like summer, with the thermometer surpassing the 60-degree mark. Jeff LaPrad takes the opportunity for one more sail into the sunset at the Ludington pierheads. F2.8 at 1/500, ISO 400, 80-200 mm lens at 165 mm

Today was a long day. With a lot of projects going on at work, my brain was tired. It was hard to pull my head together to pick up my camera.

For the third night of deer season, I moved back into the apple orchard tower. It was another slow night of hunting, but the magic light appeared, and I was ready with my iPhone.

The American Flag and the flags of all five Armed Forces of the United States and the POW-MIA Flag flutter in the breeze on Veteran's Day. The flags are located at the Veteran's Memorial on US 10 between Ludington and Scottville at Oak Grove Funeral Home. F6.3 at 1/640, ISO 100, 12-24 mm lens at 17 mm

Mother Nature was showing off her dramatic self this afternoon. I love when clouds layer like this, with the sun backlighting each layer.

This sign at the entrance of Waterfront Park completely captures the essence of our beautiful little town. The Ludington area is quickly becoming one of the top tourist destinations in Michigan and I am proud to call it home. F2.8 at 1/60, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

Our friend Bill Castonia can fix and build anything. My dad’s deer hunting tower down in the swamp along the Pere Marquette River had a bent metal leg that the ice had destroyed. It made the 22-foot tower unsafe and unusable for eight years. Bill came and looked at it and said he could fix it, no problem. A week later I made this image of my dad from that tower as he was walking by deer hunting.

I have been to this spot by the Lincoln River Outlet at Epworth Heights several times this year to try to make a picture. Today, the snow fence patterns and cloud patterns help complete the image I had envisioned. F7.1 at 1/60, ISO 200, 12-24 mm lens at 12 mm

I left work early today so that David Benjamin and I had a chance to get back out in the deer hunting woods. It is nice to spend quality one-on-one time with each of my kids. We didn’t see any deer, but we watched several squirrels while we were out there.

The Cartier Mansion was completed in 1905 and is a work of art inside and out. For a brief moment today, the sun started to shine while it was raining outside. I was trying to get to the beach to shoot, but could tell the light wasn't going to last. The Mansion became the closet outstanding target. F10.0 at 1/125, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 30 mm

My grandma, Dorothy Reed, always loved chickens and cows. She had lots of art that was chicken or cow themed. While photographing this giant metal chicken in front of the Jolly Plate restaurant on US-31 north of Scottville, I was smiling thinking of my grandma in Heaven.

Yowzah! The dawn over Pere Marquette Lake has me scrambling for my camera and tripod. This is one of the most spectaclular sunrises I have ever viewed from my home on the Buttersville Peninsula. F2.8 at 1/15, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 92 mm

I have envisioned this with a sunrise filling the sky and reflecting in the creek. I have many memories playing here. I woke the kids up early to get them ready for school. They stayed in the warmth of the van while I climbed down the steep embankment to Weldon Creek. While the sunrise didn’t show, I am pleased with this black-and-white, and we managed to make it back to the driveway before the bus came. That’s a win-win in my book.

A few trees around the area still have leaves on them, including this birch tree on Conrad Road. The rain and overcast light actually made the yellow leaves pop more in this photograph. F5.6 at 1/40, ISO 800, 600 mm lens with 1.4 extender at 850 mm

I made a drive north today looking for photographs. I ended up at the Grand Traverse Lighthouse on Lake Michigan. The lighthouse keepers had the historic building decorated for Christmas with several beautiful wreaths in the windows.

When the world in Northern Michigan turns brown, the spots of color that remain in the landscape get a chance to really stand out. So it was today along the Pere Marquette River near our cabin. F2.8 at 1/60, ISO 400, 80-200 mm lens at 185 mm

Tonight was Joshua’s turn to sit with me. We donned our hunter’s orange clothing and headed across the railroad tracks to the field. We hunkered down in the corner, waiting for the big one. Hunting with a four-year-old, it might not be a surprise that no deer showed. We had lots of laughs though and he was excited to be part of the hunting experience. Once we arrived home, I played around with a green mason jar.