Take Time for Joy by Mac Anderson and Todd and Brad Reed

I know photographers who set up feeding stations and sophisticated lighting systems to increase their odds of making fabulous photographs of hummingbirds. I appreciate the thought and work that goes into that style of shooting as well as the outcome. As for me, my unplanned, unexpected encounter with this hummingbird at Dow Gardens in Midland is the kind of hunting in the wild approach I prefer. My adrenaline is flying off the charts but I have to work fast and smart to capture the hummingbird image I have always dreamed of making.

The grand porch of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island affords hotel visitors and guests one of the grandest views imaginable of the Straits of Mackinac and the Mackinac Bridge. Today I am most impressed with how the light and shadow are playing on the columns extending across the porch.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I know, but I am thinking God's creations don't get any more beautiful than this snowy owl. It has taken me nearly two hours of not-so-patiently waiting to see this magnificent moment up close and personal with the aid of my largest telephoto lens.

For my second composition of the morning, I ran down to the edge of Lake Michigan and set my tripod up in the cold water. I made sure to have the tallest parts of the old jetties high enough in my viewfinder to break the horizon line of the photograph. I knew this would help tie my foreground elements to my background, which in turn would make my photograph look and feel more three-dimensional. I used my remote shutter release and my iPhone for a stopwatch. Based on the exposure I used to make "Northern Lights Dream" earlier, I calculated that I needed about 18 minutes for my shutter speed. With that long of a shutter speed, I knew the stars would spin in a circle around the North Star. I could see with my eye this fat white beam of light that appeared to be coming from the ground and aiming directly at the North Star. You can see it pretty clearly in the photograph. I have no idea what was causing that beam of light, but it sure makes my composition a whole lot cooler. My dad could even see it five miles south of me as he was photographing from near the end of the Ludington South Breakwater. I made this image at 2:45 a.m. F5.6 at 18 minutes 5 seconds, ISO 200, 18-50mm lens at 18mm

The beach near my Crosswinds home in Ludington often provides me a quiet, peaceful retreat from the often fast pace of life. Tonight I will make this picture and then savor the view for another half-hour while waiting for the moon to descend toward the lighthouse. F11 at 10 seconds, ISO 400, 80-200mm lens at 105mm

Last summer I noticed what seemed like hundreds of stone sculptures built along the rocky shore of Mackinac Island by visitors. Today there seem to be only a few dozen, perhaps because the forces of nature toppled most of them during the fall and winter storms. This one along the west shore of the island stands out today. F9 at 1/250, ISO 100, 14-24mm lens at 24mm

One of my fellow CrossFit friends, Patrick Mousel, was out for a sunset run along the Lake Michigan shoreline at the Ludington State Park tonight. As he quickly approached, I got into position and made this "Pure Ludington" image. F22 at 0.4, ISO 100, 10-17mm lens at 10mm

With the bright sun overhead, I positioned myself so that I could photograph the sunlight coming through this beautiful little sunflower, while still having the farm and clouds in the background. This photograph makes me feel warm and happy. F22 at 1/250, ISO 400, 18-50mm lens at 18mm

The God beams have quickly disappeared and now the sky is flaming red, yellow, and orange. My favorite part of this composition is the lone fisherman standing at the end of the breakwall. He became the little person in the big world and he gives the photograph a sense of scale. The tiny fisherman makes the sky seem 10 times more powerful. F2.8 at 1/1000, ISO 100, 70-200mm lens at 200mm