Miscellaneous Images

This is the second day I have been home sick on the couch with bronchitis and I am getting restless. A few moments ago I snuck outside with my camera and photographed the morning light hitting the frost on the hood of my red truck. Shhhh, don't tell Betsy! F9.0 at 1/200, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

Preserve the Light

Pere Marquette Cross

January 22, 2010” “He is risen!” That familiar Christian declaration of faith in Jesus as savior came to mind on January 22, 2010 as I lined up the sun with the cross marking the long-recognized death site of missionary explorer Pere Jacques Marquette. According to the Jesuits, Father Marquette died on May 18, 1675, near this hilly spot between Pere Marquette Lake and Lake Michigan. I had been trying to make a sunset image like this for years, regularly scouting the potential from across Pere Marquette Lake during evening drives home. On this day the cross, sun, clouds and color combined to create a view better than I had ever imagined. One glance told me this was the day! But the sun was not quite lined up. I quickly calculated that if I could get to the end of the Ludington Yacht Club peninsula in time, everything might align. I drove the two blocks quickly, jumped out of my truck with my camera, 500-millimeter lens and tripod and ran until I ran out of land. Still the sun did not line up with the cross. Fortunately, a cold spell had built up the ice on Pere Marquette Lake. I did not hesitate to keep sprinting onto the ice. Twenty yards of running without falling on the slick ice later, everything lined up. I mounted the camera on the tripod, fine-tuned the tripod position and fired. Then I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God for good ice. I lived a few blocks away from this cross for more than a dozen years. During all those years of passing by the monument, almost daily, I had made only a few images of the cross that pleased me. None of them held a candle to this one. This image is especially dear to my heart not only because of its Christian symbolism but also because I have always loved and valued history, including the history of Father Marquette’s Ludington connection. Ludington was recognized as the death site of Father Marquette by generations of local Native Americans and settlers. In fact, when the area was first settled, Ludington was named Pere Marquette in honor of Father Marquette. The town was years later renamed Ludington in 1864 at the request of the most powerful lumberman in Pere Marquette at the time, James Ludington. The Pere Marquette River, Pere Marquette Lake, a street, a township and much more remain named Pere Marquette. Many different crosses have marked this spot over the centuries. This cross was erected in the 1950s as a community project. In 2019 and 2020, a new base for the cross was built through another community effort, and the cross has been put back in place to tower over Pere Marquette Lake. A lot of people believe that cross belongs there; I am one of them.

Ludingtons Newest Lighthouse Styx Restaurant and Bowling Alley

January 22, 2010” “He is risen!” That familiar Christian declaration of faith in Jesus as savior came to mind on January 22, 2010 as I lined up the sun with the cross marking the long-recognized death site of missionary explorer Pere Jacques Marquette. According to the Jesuits, Father Marquette died on May 18, 1675, near this hilly spot between Pere Marquette Lake and Lake Michigan. I had been trying to make a sunset image like this for years, regularly scouting the potential from across Pere Marquette Lake during evening drives home. On this day the cross, sun, clouds and color combined to create a view better than I had ever imagined. One glance told me this was the day! But the sun was not quite lined up. I quickly calculated that if I could get to the end of the Ludington Yacht Club peninsula in time, everything might align. I drove the two blocks quickly, jumped out of my truck with my camera, 500-millimeter lens and tripod and ran until I ran out of land. Still the sun did not line up with the cross. Fortunately, a cold spell had built up the ice on Pere Marquette Lake. I did not hesitate to keep sprinting onto the ice. Twenty yards of running without falling on the slick ice later, everything lined up. I mounted the camera on the tripod, fine-tuned the tripod position and fired. Then I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God for good ice. I lived a few blocks away from this cross for more than a dozen years. During all those years of passing by the monument, almost daily, I had made only a few images of the cross that pleased me. None of them held a candle to this one. This image is especially dear to my heart not only because of its Christian symbolism but also because I have always loved and valued history, including the history of Father Marquette’s Ludington connection. Ludington was recognized as the death site of Father Marquette by generations of local Native Americans and settlers. In fact, when the area was first settled, Ludington was named Pere Marquette in honor of Father Marquette. The town was years later renamed Ludington in 1864 at the request of the most powerful lumberman in Pere Marquette at the time, James Ludington. The Pere Marquette River, Pere Marquette Lake, a street, a township and much more remain named Pere Marquette. Many different crosses have marked this spot over the centuries. This cross was erected in the 1950s as a community project. In 2019 and 2020, a new base for the cross was built through another community effort, and the cross has been put back in place to tower over Pere Marquette Lake. A lot of people believe that cross belongs there; I am one of them.

My sister-in-law, Misty Reed, was born and raised in Pentwater, Michigan. The house she grew up in is just a block away from the beach and it is a family tradition to walk down and watch the 4th of July fireworks. Tonight, I was fortunate enough to join her and her family for some beautiful fireworks.

One of the greatest visual spectacles of the year along the Lake Michigan shoreline is the Fourth of July fireworks displays held in port communities. For this one in Ludington I planted my tripod in Lake Michigan so that my camera would be immersed in the fireworks reflections.

We found an old garage on the south side of Muskegon with a roof that created the American flag out of shingles. It was the coolest roof that I have ever seen. Someday I would love to do this on my garage.

This sign above Pere Marquette Sport Center in downtown Ludington leaps out with its message to fishermen. I have fond memories of going into this store as a boy to buy bait and other sporting goods with my grandfathers, father and brother. It was called Tuck's Sport Shop then and was owned by our neighbors, Tuck and Ivadel Daugherty. F11.0 at 1/8, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 100 mm

Some of you may recognize this house as the original location of the Todd Reed Gallery. My dad and stepmom lived in this house from 1990 through 2000 and the gallery was in the living room for most of that time period. We had a lot of great times as a family in this house and enjoyed great neighbors, too. F8.0 at 1/80, ISO 640, 18-50 mm lens at 26 mm

Ludington 2022\2023 New Years Celebration. This is Day one of Celebrating Ludingtons 150th Year

If you love to find incredible beach rocks and occasionally add a few to your personal collection, I highly recommend taking a trip to Whitefish Point on Lake Superior. The diversity of the rocks in shape, color, texture, and size is mesmerizing. The roar of the waves and the sound of the rocks moving against each other have a strange calming effect on me.

After photographing two other details of the carferry Spartan, I know I have found my picture of the day. Nature's work and man's work have combined to make what I find to be a very interesting sculpture. I don't think I will find the ice building up on the Spartan's bow and anchor chain to look more perfect again this winter. F16.0 at 0.4, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 120 mm

While standing on the frozen shores of Lake Michigan at the First Curve beach inside Ludington State Park, I am amazed to see how much ice has frozen to the old jetties. I keep thinking to myself that the jetties now look like two polar bears side by side. F9.0 at 1/5, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

As fishermen taking part in the national ice fishing tournament held in Ludington head toward their fishing grounds on Hamlin Lake, one of the most unique and artistic fish shanties I have ever seen catches my eye. I decide to make the shanty the subject of the picture and the fishermen the added ingredients. F7.1 at 1/200, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 112 mm

While standing inside the gallery this afternoon and looking outside towards Ludington Avenue, I noticed that our American flag we put outside everyday appeared to be glowing. I grabbed my camera and patiently waited for the wind to gently blow the flag in a rolling pattern of red, white, and blue. In less than three minutes, I had made the best American flag photograph of my life.