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Old enough to explore, a fawn pauses to check out a potential threat at the edge of its still small world in a swale between dunes near the Sable River. Hundreds of park visitors swimming, fishing, or just sitting on the beach have no idea the nearby swale is the fawn’s first home.

Old Mission Peninsula Cropped Vertical

Mackinac Island Mackinac Bridge

Old Mission Peninsula

Workshop at Ludington State Park

Today on the Little Cedar Creek near the Muskegon River, the golden light hitting the trees created a beautiful reflection. The hardest part of making this image was avoiding my own reflection.

Big Sable Point Lighthouse has a lot of history. As for our family, both my brother Budde and son Tad got engaged at the top of the 1865 structure. On this April day, I made this image then spotted a couple at the water's edge obviously getting engaged. I recorded their historic moment with my camera from a distance and later gave them a photograph.

A Big Day

The Ada Covered Bridge was built in 1867 and has stood the test of time. Next to the bridge is an impressive railroad bridge that is still in use. I was fortunate today to have a Mid Michigan Railroad train go rumbling by just as I got into position to make this image. I wanted good depth of field in this photograph so I set my aperture at F8. In order to have a fast enough shutter speed to freeze the speeding train and shaking earth, I needed to rob the ISO bank. I set my ISO to 800 and was able to get the look and feel I wanted in this photograph.

On one of the high spots of Victory Township, northeast of Ludington, this windmill stands out against the sky. It is one of the spots I gravitate toward when the sky looks as if it will turn brilliant.

I love when the sky looks more ominous than a scene out of my favorite Peanuts cartoon strip in which Snoopy, at his typewriter on top of his doghouse, begins: "It was a dark and stormy night

365 Week 13

June Has Arrived - Panoramic

Evening Tranquility

Last night after I got done watching a movie at the theater, I drove out to the First Curve on M116 at the Ludington State Park to see if the Northern Lights were out. I knew they had been out the night before, but the clouds were so thick in our area, you couldn't get a good photo of them. The application, Aurora Forecast, that I use on my iPhone, was measuring a level 5 on the KP scale. Usually at a level 5, you can see a tiny bit of color with a trained eye and some of the white pillars if they are out, but your camera will pick up the color much better. Standing in the parking lot of the First Curve, I could see the white pillars, but no color. It took me a few minutes to get my boots, warm clothes, headlamp, and hat on and to get my camera pre-set at the truck. I hustled up the small dune to the north of where I parked with my camera and tripod and this was the first exposure I made. It turned out to be the best shot of the night because the light show was short lived. The red light in the foreground is from a car's headlights as it was approaching from behind me at the very end of the exposure. I was fired up to say the least.

Spring Meadow

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.

May