Ludington City Beach/Stearns
Rachel's Day 141 of 366 - May 20, 2020
As I often am, I was in the water during this sunset at Stearns Beach. I had my camera as low as I could without it being covered in water. I adjusted my shutter speed to allow for a capture of a crashing wave just ahead of my lens. This is one of my favorite images I have made so far during our 366 Project.
Cobalt
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.
Sun Ride
Like cowboys riding into the sunset, bicyclists ride toward the sun on the Ludington waterfront on a splendid September evening.
Todd Reed's Day 27 of 365 - Panoramic
Brad and I like to say, "Clouds are your friends." I certainly like the clouds and God beams this evening along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The wind-chill is below zero so I concentrate on the ever-changing beauty of the clouds, looking for the peak moment. This moment feels best; click.
F2.8 at 1/400, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 80 mm
Todd Reed's Day 27 of 365
Brad and I like to say, "Clouds are your friends." I certainly like the clouds and God beams this evening along the Lake Michigan shoreline. The wind-chill is below zero so I concentrate on the ever-changing beauty of the clouds, looking for the peak moment. This moment feels best; click.
F2.8 at 1/400, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 80 mm
Sunset in Front of Budde and Sheryls (6238)
Sunset in Front of Budde and Sheryls
Windswept - Panoramic
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.
Big Sky
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.