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After a dinner with family visiting from Cleveland, I noticed tiny daisies in the yard of their vacation home. It was covered in them! I crawled around until I saw a perspective I liked.

Rachel and I made the ten-hour drive south to visit my mom in Clarksville, Tennessee today. The house she is renting has a beautiful backyard full of flowers, birds, and critters. This stargazer lily greeted us as we pulled into her driveway.

Flowers along the border of Harbor View Marina sway to the tempo of the brisk breeze. A long exposure allows the camera to paint the movement of the flowers. F11.0 at 1/5, ISO 200, 80-200 mm lens at 165 mm

My favorite yard in all of Ludington is at Mrs. Graczyk's house on the corner of Loomis and Gaylord Avenue. Every inch of her yard is full of flowers and it has a natural look to it. I found this bumblebee while trying to make a photo of Mrs. Graczyk's flowers. F5.6 at 1/80, ISO 1000, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm

Sweet peas still wearing the morning dew create a colorful pattern along Iris Road. I make the picture and then discover my Suburban has a dead battery. Oh well, more time to smell the flowers while waiting for a Good Samaritan. F5.6 at 1/320, ISO 100, 500 mm lens at 500 mm

Wild mustard grass grows all over Michigan and is one of our favorite "added ingredients" in our photographs. Today I wanted it to be the "special of the day," so I got in close and isolated one plant that looked particularly beautiful. F2.8 at 1/500, ISO 800, 18-50mm lens at 44mm

For probably a century or more, wild iris flowers have been popping up along Iris Road south of Ludington. Backlit by the morning sun, this iris looks especially glorious to me. I position my camera so that the shaded side of some dark pine trees provides a clean, simple, contrasting background. F5.6 at 1/500, ISO 100, 300mm lens at 300mm

As I am walking along the marshy shore of Lincoln Lake at Epworth Heights, I notice how some pink daisies are catching the light as they sway in a gentle breeze. I work hard to time my exposure to a moment when several of the daises are sunlit. F5 at 1/400, ISO 200, 300mm lens at 300mm

Daisies make me smile. This little cluster in my backyard made me happy tonight as I searched for my photo of the day.

This wild tiger lily is one of dozens of these colorful roadside attractions lining Meyers Road between Ludington and Scottville. It is a bit breezy so I will have to shoot at a fast shutter speed and bump up the ISO to make a sharp image, but I like the way the picture looks in the viewfinder. F3.2 at 1/250, ISO 200, 80-200 mm lens at 200 mm

A monarch butterfly takes off from a milkweed flower along the west shore of Pere Marquette Lake. The scene reminds me of my childhood enjoying such natural wonders in the fields that bordered our Ludington home. F3.5 at 1/500, ISO 160, 80-200 mm lens at 200 mm

I am thinking I am in the Land of Lilacs as I hike across Mackinac Island en route to makes some images of the Grand Hotel. A horse coach from the Grand Hotel passes by as I pause to smell some lilacs and make an image that makes the flowers appear never ending. Brad and I are finding ourselves in lilac heaven today as we photograph Week 22 of "Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed: A Michigan Tribute." Now we know why so many people flock to the island for the annual Lilac Festival in June. F9 at 1/80, ISO 100, 14-24mm lens at 14mm

The family and I spent the morning playing golf at Golden Sands Golf Course near Silver Lake on this 4th of July. On the way home, I found these wildflowers at the corner of 56th Avenue and Deer Road. The amazing clouds and gorgeous light made a wonderful backdrop for this scene.

One of the many beloved features of Mackinac Island is the lilacs that blossom every spring. The island is full of many different colors and varieties of lilacs. The wonderful smell of the flowers helps hide the smell from all of the horses. F6.3 at 1/500, ISO 100, 18-50mm lens at 35mm

When getting extremely close to a subject with a wide-angle macro lens, you will notice some very obvious distortion, especially near the outside edges of the composition. I loved how this flower and bee on Mackinac Island looked in my viewfinder and I love the final print even more. F4.5 at 1/2500, ISO 800, 18-50mm lens at 50mm

After sitting for a Reed family portrait with Sue Brown, I found these daisies in my Uncle Budde and Aunt Sheryl's flower garden. Daisies just have a way of making people smile. F4.5 at 1/100, ISO 1000, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

This photograph reminds me of The Smurfs, one of my favorite cartoons when I was a kid. It would have been awesome to have one of the small blue figurines I had when I was young to stick below this mushroom. F5.6 at 1.3, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

Today my dad and I were invited by Dr. Heather Keough of the Federal Forest Service to help count the Karner Blue Butterflies that live in the Manistee National Forest. The Karner Blue Butterflies are an endangered species. Dr. Keough and her team are trying to re-grow the Michigan savannah so that the rare creatures can reproduce naturally. F9.0 at 1/80, ISO 100, 300 mm lens at 300 mm

This morning I took two students for a private workshop shooting adventure to Ludington State Park. We headed to the boardwalk on the eastern edge of Beechwood campground to photograph the mid-morning light. One of the students found this water lily and we spent several minutes photographing the scene together. F13.0 at 1/8, ISO 100, 70-200 mm lens at 200 mm

An estuary near my Ludington home teams with new life every spring. Today I am attracted at first by the bright yellow buttercup flowers. But then I see the real prize: Buckeye butterflies that are being attracted to the nectar of the flowers. All I have to do is stay still and wait for the butterflies to come to the flowers in front of me. F5 at 1/500, ISO 100, 300mm lens at 300mm