Pine Trees

Participants in one of our advanced photography weekend workshops were in photography heaven when Mother Nature blasted the woodlands with snow overnight. We didn’t have far to go to find good pictures. This was the view within a couple hundred yards of the workshop’s basecamp–Jim and Carole Smith’s Hamlin Lake lodge cottage on the border of the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness. While assisting Carole and other photographers in making photographs of their choice, I was attracted to the way the snow had “painted” this big tree trunk and the smaller trees surrounding it.

Red pine trees are known for growing tall and straight in Michigan but one or more severe windstorms has obviously impacted this forest near Free Soil, Michigan. Many of the trees have been left bent to varying degrees. F10 at 1/500, ISO 800, 80-200mm lens at 200mm

Dwarfed by the forest, a cross-country skier glides silently along the Logging Trail on one of those winter days that winter lovers live for. I have skied the Logging Trail so many times I have memorized the views that will greet me over the next hill or around the next curve. Yet I never tire of my Logging Trail journeys. There is something comforting about knowing a place. It is a feeling like home.

Waking up to a frosty wonderland, I was on the lookout for a subject to showcase its beauty. These frozen pine needles on Budzynski Road were just the thing.

 

I’ve always appreciated this large tree on Sugar Grove Road. Today, with the snow falling, the atmosphere it created was the perfect added ingredient.

My dad and I try to dress for success when we are photographing in the winter. On this day I had all my gear except my fleece hood. Right before I made this photograph, a large clump of snow fell on my head and went down my back. It reminded me of the snowball fights I had with my brothers when I was a kid.

I have always enjoyed walking along this road, lined with giant pines. Today, I lay on my back, looking up at them like I would when I was a kid. I captured this so that it lives not only in my memories, but out in the world as well.

It was another dreary day here. As sunset drew closer, I decided to take an abstract view on the day. These three pine trees in my yard are pretty ordinary but zooming while exposing gives them a dreamy feel.

 

 

 

At one summer art fair when I was a young boy, I remember hearing a gentleman say to my dad, "That isn't art, it's just a photograph!" Well, everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, and I enjoy the fact that art is subjective. I enjoy making images like this one, where an object that might go unnoticed takes on a new appearance.

 

Trying to show the softness of these white pine needles, I decided to zoom my telephoto lens during a long exposure. I made several shots at different shutter speeds and varied the speed of zooming. This shot captured the essence of what I felt.

I was driving around back roads in the eastern part of Mason County, when this scene along Centerline Road made me pull over. There was so much texture in one spot!

We have dedicated Week 9 of "Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed" to our dear friend Carrie Smith Roe. Carrie lost a four-year battle to cancer yesterday, Monday, February 27th, 2012. She is leaving behind three beautiful young children and a loving husband. Carrie was part of Betsy's and my wedding and was a huge fan of my dad's and my photography. Carrie's younger brother, Chris Smith, is my best friend and I made this sunrise photo only a few miles from Chris' house in Lakeview, Michigan.

Man's best attempts to decorate fake Christmas trees with fake snow look dismal compared to nature's best efforts using real snow. I have never seen nature paint trees with snow in Northern Michigan better than on this March morning near Bear Lake.

The Best Mornings