Ludington State Park Queen of the North

The rich crimson color of these maple leaves stood out in the forest like colorful jewels when I discovered them from afar on the Piney Ridge Trail on a mid-October morning. As the leaves drew me closer, I was also drawn to the beautiful patterns the red leaves and dark branches made against the backdrop of green leaves not yet turned color.

A black squirrel paws beneath the leaves and grass, hunting for food in the Beechwood Campground. The squirrel, a couple fishermen camped nearby, and I appeared to have the campground to ourselves this late October evening. It is fun to see the Ludington State Park campgrounds bustling with people and activity in summer. But the lone squirrel or a deer or raccoon is the kind of company I would rather have.

Mink live all along the Sable River at the Ludington State Park. This adult mink was busy finding food for its young. I watched this family of five hunt crayfish and chase each other for over an hour before making this photograph.

My dad and I study a lot of different photographers and their work. Jim Brandenburg is a photographer I admire. Jim's work has a unique "look and feel" that inspires me. While I was making this photograph on the Sable River, it seemed to me the image had a Brandenburg feel. The beauty of art is that the final image has a mix of my style as well as Jim's.

My great-grandma, Martha Delite Benson, had a passion for finding small treasures outdoors. She seemed to gravitate toward beautiful objects that most people would pass by. I believe her ability to "go deeper" into the scene and find the less obvious beauty in nature was passed down to my dad and me. As I photographed this delicate starflower at the Ludington State Park in June of 2006, I could not help but grin and think of my Great-Grandma Benson.

I love calm mornings when the water is so still it appears to be a steel-blue mirror. On an early morning adventure these lily pads near the Lost Lake Trail quickly grabbed my attention. I set up my tripod in the water and carefully composed the photograph while making certain that none of the reflections of the flowers were cut off. Once the ripples were gone and the water returned to its mirror-like state, I gently clicked the shutter.

I love watching people's reactions to this photograph. I have found that people either really like this image or they don't. Personally, this is one of my favorite photographs I have ever taken. That is the beauty of art. It is in the eye of the beholder.

The island in front of the swimming area at the Ludington State Park has many different names. I know two different families who have named the island in honor of their dogs because it was their pets' favorite stomping grounds during family vacations. The most common unofficial name that I have heard for this glorious piece of God's creation is Blueberry Island.

Tuesday night usually finds my wife singing in the community choir at West Shore Community College. That means that on Tuesdays I get our daughter Julia all to myself. I often load Julia in the jogging stroller and we head off the beaten path looking for photographs. I believe Julia is my muse because every time we go picture hunting together I am able to see the world in photographs better than I can alone.

For the blue heron

After striking down at its prey, the blue heron comes up with its catch so quickly that, according to the electronic data recorded by my digital camera, only one second elapsed between the previous photograph and this one.

After pausing briefly with its catch, the blue heron extends its neck and dumps the fish down the hatch. My parents live near the Ludington State Park. They are most happy if the herons find the fishing good on the Sable River rather than the goldfish pond in their backyard.

I have always found the bark of birch trees to be interesting and attractive. This decaying birch on the Piney Ridge Trail at the south end of Ludington State Park stopped me in my tracks on an April 29 afternoon hike. Though the trunk was badly decayed, the patterns, varied tones and textures interested me. I made this image with budding maple branches as the backdrop. The same scene would look dramatically different on Oct. 27 (see next picture and caption

This decaying birch tree had caught my eye a half year earlier (see the previous picture and caption - "April Look"). But on this late October afternoon the colorful leaves whipping in the wind behind the birch provided a very different backdrop.

Hearing birds sing in the springtime is therapy for my soul. Photographing small birds is a bigger challenge than most people would expect. They flitter around so fast that it is hard to make a photograph that is in focus, sharp, and well composed. My hat goes off to those photographers who make a living photographing birds.

Whenever I see acorns on the ground it reminds me of the acorn fights I used to get in with my two brothers Tad and Willie and my cousin Ryan. We would spend a few minutes gathering our arsenals, stuffing our pockets with as many acorns as possible. Then the acorn-throwing war was on. Oh, to be a kid again.

Some pictures just brighten your day; this one brightens mine every time I look at it. Red squirrel shots are easy to come by, but this little creature looked especially cute when he chose to frame himself perfectly between branches of a white pine tree along the Sable River in the sunshine of a September morning. I can't help but feel good and smile looking at this image.

Staring down a large toad "eye to eye" on the Island Trail at the Ludington State Park was a hoot. I love getting close to my subject and truly enjoy the challenge of trying to show nature from its own perspective. As most fairytale princesses would agree, toads are not creatures of great beauty. However, when you get close enough to a toad that the end of your lens is touching its nose, you realize that toads do have an amazing beauty all their own.

Underway and making way, slow but sure, a turtle plodded along the beach near the Ludington State Park Beach House. The turtle’s slow pace gave me time to create an artistic composition that emphasized the beauty of its tracks. The highlights and shadows resulting from the bright, low-in-the-sky evening light raking across the beach made the tracks more distinct and more beautiful. This is one of my son Brad’s favorite images of mine. Brad was ecstatic when he saw the Fuji Velvia slide of this image after I dug it out of the slide storage box it had been living in for years.

A white egret slowly walks in the shallow waters of the Sable River while hunting for food on a warm fall evening at the Ludington State Park.