Lake Michigan Point to Point

As steam rose from the still waters of Silver Lake, the sun peaked over the trees and illuminated the scene before me. I captured this image early in the morning before the daily barrage of boaters flock to their playground.

A Sailor's Morning - Panoramic

Some of my best photographs happen by accident. Before I took this photograph, I was struggling to compose a photograph of an abstract ice pattern below my feet. The shot was not working, so out of frustration I stood up and looked away. The tops of sailboat masts inside Snug Harbor Marina caught my eye. I casually snapped off one exposure and then went back to shooting the ice. Upon returning home to edit my work, I instantly knew that none of my ice photographs would go any farther than the editing table, but the sailboat masts were a sure winner.

A Northwester churns up Lake Michigan, turning the lakeshore dunes into a sea of blowing snow. February days like this one make most people long for spring. I never want to miss a good Northwester any time of year.

Displaying more lights than a Christmas tree, the carferry Badger stays very alive even while docked in Ludington Harbor between Lake Michigan crossings. The coal-fired steamship carries passengers and automobiles between Michigan and Wisconsin.

Large waves washing a feather and stones up onto the Lake Michigan beach near Pentwater caught my eye as my older brother Tad and I were walking along the beach. I had to move quickly before the next crashing wave whisked the feather away.

Hurtling forth and plummeting down, breaking waves capable of overpowering almost anything in their path rush toward the Lake Michigan shoreline. On this November day, no one and no vessel dared to challenge them.

Of course there is no midnight sun in Michigan, but I could not resist naming this winter Lake Michigan shoreline image after the midsummer Arctic phenomenon.

People who have not spent a lot of time along the Lake Michigan shoreline might find it hard to imagine that sunsets exploding with the most vivid color imaginable really do occur. Actually, the best color appears after the sun sets. Those who stay longer, relax and watch are often rewarded with a kaleidiscope of changing color.

More red than the Red Sea, Lake Michigan changes color like a lava lamp in the red light of a September sunset afterglow. This scene presented itself only seven minutes after the "Sea of Confusion" scene.

Wind contorts my face, waves roar and crash just short of the feet of my tripod, sun gleams and dances across the water, clouds paint the sky. I am in my glory. This is as good as it gets for a Lake Michigan photographer. These are the days I dream about and rarely experience. This mid-September day of 2001 on the Ludington waterfront was one of the best moments of my life. My camera recorded it so I and others can experience it again and again.

For years, I have enjoyed observing sailboats swinging from their mooring buoys with the wind in the harbors along the Lake Michigan shoreline. This summer night in Ludington harbor I watched the water and sky around a sailboat on the hook on Pere Marquette Lake transform from electric orange at sunset to shocking pink minutes later.

Many of my summer evenings in Ludington are spent with family and friends. I had not shot any photographs for a few days, so on this evening, my wife, Betsy, and I politely excused ourselves from a family gathering and drove to the First Curve at the Ludington State Park. A delicate blade of dune grass first caught my eye. I lay down on my stomach and started shooting. Summer

Big Point Sable Lighthouse guides mariners safely past its treacherous shallows as it has since 1867. The famous landmark stands guard at the north end of a C-shaped 35-mile stretch of Lake Michigan shoreline that meanders from Big Point Sable to Little Point Sable. Big Point's tower rises 112 feet from its base to the top of the lamphouse.

I have learned hundreds of photography hints from my dad, but one of the most important things he has taught me is that the sky often displays the best color about twenty minutes after sunset. I had just captured the Breezy Night photograph when Betsy and I drove further into Ludington State Park to look for more photographs. As we passed over the Sable River Bridge, Betsy noticed a heron in the water below. I grabbed my gear and I was off. To get the best photograph possible, I knew I would have to get in the river. Not wanting to threaten or disturb the heron, I waded ever so slowly to within fifteen yards of the bird, and quietly captured the photograph I was looking for. Thanks for the helpful hints, Dad.

The first two weeks of October are a glorious time of year along the Lake Michigan shoreline. For several decades, I have told my photography students more often than they want to hear, “Clouds are your friends.” Early October is a great time to experience sunshine, fresh breeze and crisp, clear air painted with billowy clouds. When these conditions exist, the dune grasses and beaches appear most alive, and so do I! I visualized this image months before making it about 2001 when we lived near Lake Michigan at Crosswinds south of Ludington. My beloved Labrador retriever Beamer and I passed this spot during our daily hikes through the dunes to and from the beach. For several months, this particular stand of dune grass stood out to me from hundreds of others. I wouldn’t let Beamer go near it because I knew it had the makings of a great image; I imagined what the scene would look like in the sharp “magic light” of October. One early October morning, as Beamer and I were passing by this special spot, there it was! Mother Nature had brought all the ingredients together. All I had to do was turn around and take Beamer back home, grab my Nikon F100 and tripod and finish making the photograph. Since I had the image designed in my mind for months, all that was left to do now was fine-tune it artistically and nail it technically. That meant applying years of experience to make certain I made a perfect exposure on the Fuji Velvia transparency film I was using at the time. Almost two decades later, this image remains one of my favorite lakeshore images because it is so experiential for me and others. Brad and I say good photography is all about feeling. I can touch, taste and smell this image. I think a lot of other people feel the same way. The image puts me there; it puts others there.

Among the most amazing nights on Lake Michigan are those when the color in the sky refuses to diminish even when the viewer's mind says it is too dark to be so vivid. I could no longer see the camera controls on this night when the sea and sky turned black and blue.

Epworth, located just north of Ludington, is beautiful every day of the year. The large hillside, with a scattering of majestic old homes, makes for wonderful photographs.

A great challenge for my dad and me is to find new and creative ways to photograph the same subject. Fortunately, the ever-changing skies of the Lake Michigan shoreline work in our favor. On this morning, I had just captured the Little Sable Christmas Eve image and I was determined to find another beautiful photograph of the lighthouse. With the snow no longer falling, I waited for a fleeting moment of sunshine to illuminate the lighthouse against a stormy sky.

Being there, just being there to patiently watch the rising sun first strike the tips dune grass and then slowly paint more of the grass is a mezmerizing experience. On this October morning, a pink sky finished the Lake Michigan Shoreline painting.