Lake Michigan Point to Point

Floating lazily down the Sauble River toward Lake Michigan, a maple leaf drifts over rocky shallows. They say good things happen to those who wait; finding a good backdrop and waiting for the subject to come into it is relaxing and often rewarding.

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.

Sometimes it seems like we wait forever for the leaves to turn along the shores of the inland lakes tied to Lake Michigan. Then, seemingly overnight, a glorious change greets us on a morning like this one on Hamlin Lake. My son Brad and I encountered this fleeting scene at Victory Park on Upper Hamlin Lake in mid-October. Brad was still running with tripod and camera for a different vantage point while I made this picture along the park waterfront. Fortunately, I got off one shot before a cloud dropped the curtain on the fall color light show.

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.

My dad has taught me how to use my camera to convey different emotions within the same scene. To portray a peaceful summer evening mood, I stood in the puddle and positioned my camera and tripod inches above the water’s surface. The angle resulted in a mirror-like reflection of the sky and clouds. I also set my shutter speed to 15 seconds to make the water appear more like a painter's palette of colors than a cloudy storm pool.

Autumn along the Lake Michigan shoreline is a quieter time, a good time for spotting wildlife. On a November morning, this buck appeared along the high clay banks south of Ludington, in an area where no hunting is allowed.

Steaming westward toward Wisconsin, the carferry Badger departs Ludington Harbor on one of its daily Lake Michigan crossings. The big ship carries passengers and autos back and forth between Michigan and Wisconsin from spring to fall in almost any kind of weather.

Every summer, thousands of visitors frequent the Beach House, inside Ludington State Park. Weddings, family reunions, and eating ice cream are just a few of the uses for this grand structure.

When I am not working at one of our galleries or taking photographs, I can often be found at the soccer field. As my cousin Ryan and I pulled into the Sterns Park beach in Ludington for a cool-down swim after a few hours of soccer, I noticed a vibrant orange streak of light dancing on the water. Knowing how fast light can change, I did not risk taking time to remove my shin guards and soccer cleats. I ran down to the waters edge and captured the reflections just in time. Needless to say, I got a lot of strange looks as I was photographing that evening.

A valuable composition lesson I have learned from my dad is that visually small objects, or

My dad has taught me how to use my camera to convey different emotions within the same scene. To portray a peaceful summer evening mood, I stood in the puddle and positioned my camera and tripod inches above the water

As I stood in one spot on the edge of Lincoln Lake for over 40 minutes, the sky produced three dramatic color changes. The first display was bright pink with the rising sun. It quickly changed to ruddy-orange and gradually finished with blue-purple. This was my only photograph of that morning that showed the large rays of light shooting toward the heavens.

August looked more like October when I crested a dune to find this view of the Bass Lake dam, the outlet, and Lake Michigan. Like so many small outlets along the Lake Michigan shoreline, the Bass Lake Outlet follows the path of least resistance to the big lake. That path shifts with changing winds and seas.

Few places on Earth offer as grand a view of the sky as the east shore of Lake Michigan. Hikers on the Ludington South Breakwater provide a sense of scale to show the size of storm front clouds arriving in Michigan from Wisconsin.

After leaving a Valentine

A mute swan cruises the Sauble River near its outlet to Lake Michigan on a winter afternoon. Waterfowl flock to the river in winter to find open water. Bird watchers and photographers also flock there.

A bayou along the Seven Islands trail at Ludington State Park turns as blue as the sky on a September evening. The Seven Islands Trail is a treasure trove of beautiful settings. Magic light transforms the view into an extraordinary one.

The night took my breath away, not from trying to breathe the below zero air but from viewing the icy splendor before me on Lake Michigan at Ludington.

Thoughts of a refreshing Lake Michigan swim surface while watching waves splash amidst some rocks on a late September morning. A reality check tells me the water temperature is probably barely above 50 degrees Farenheit. I decide to stick with making a picture of the fresh water.

Rugged ice and towering waves define the Lake Michigan shoreline in the coldest winter months. On cold, clear days when the sun graces us with its presence, the ice displays different shades of blue and white. On this day, my friend, Rob Alway, and I made our way out on the ice and we each came away with some powerful photographs.