Todd and Brad Reed’s Michigan: Wednesdays in the Mitten

Lake Michigan went wild today. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Lake Michigan can go from being flat and calm to rough and angry. The intense color in the sky, mixed with the wind and waves, set my spirits free tonight along Stearns Park Beach in Ludington. D800, F22 at 1/160, ISO 800, 300mm lens at 300mm

Lake Michigan went wild today. It never ceases to amaze me how quickly Lake Michigan can go from being flat and calm to rough and angry. The intense color in the sky, mixed with the wind and waves, set my spirits free tonight along Stearns Park Beach in Ludington.

I was recently chatting with a young man in the gallery who was a foreign exchange student at a high school in southern Michigan. When he first saw Lake Michigan, he could not believe how large and how beautiful it was. He proclaimed, "Lake Michigan is as good as it gets!" I made this image in front of Point Betsie Lighthouse and the color is real. Go check it out for yourself if you are in doubt. You won't be disappointed. D800, F2.8 at 1/1600, ISO 100, 70-200mm lens at 200mm

The lookout on M22 between Elberta and Arcadia is one of our favorite spots to stop and look for photographs of Lake Michigan. On this particularly windy day, I hiked to the top of the tall flight of stairs to photograph from the stable platform at the top. It was worth the hike.

The Lake Michigan shoreline can change in a blink of an eye. Tonight, at the Lake Michigan Campground in the Nordhouse Dunes Wilderness Area between Manistee and Ludington, I was amazed at how quickly the sand on the left of this image was being undercut and caving in. The small outlet was growing in width before my eyes.

The Mackinac Bridge, which connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan, is five miles long. I have photographed it many times, but had never gotten a nighttime shot I liked. When we first started shooting photographs for the Wednesdays book, I had a "must shoot" list in my head and making an image like this was near the top.

With just seconds remaining in 2014, I click the shutter and capture this image of the New Year's Eve ball drop from the rooftop of Snyder's Shoes in downtown Ludington. The sky was filled with streamers and the crowd was roaring with excitement. What a way to end a great shooting adventure with my dad and the rest of Team Reed.

Ludington is the place to be on New Year's Eve. The fireworks display after the ball drop is even more impressive than the fireworks during the 4th of July. I love my small hometown and I am proud to be from Ludington.

By getting very close to the frozen life ring with the front of my wide-angle lens, I can emphasize the orange-red color in the foreground of this photograph. I then compose the photograph so the red lighthouse at Grand Haven is at a dynamic diagonal to the life ring. Together, they create a powerful point/counterpoint of color in this otherwise monochromatic scene.

Kris Stewart and his family have owned the Toonerville Trolley and the Hiawatha riverboat for over 30 years. If you want to see wild Michigan black bears and have fun with the entire family, take a day to travel on the small Toonerville Trolley train and then float down the Tahquamemon River on the Hiawatha riverboat all the way to the Upper Tahquamemon Falls. Kris has a wealth of knowledge and is an expert navigator and ferryboat captain.

I was excited to discover the colorful rocks on the bottom of Lake Superior at Twelve Mile Beach would reflect on the underside of the surface of the water. Once I made this discovery using my underwater camera housing, I quickly tried to build a composition in my mind that would be powerful and unique. After having the vision, it was just a matter of changing my location and waiting for a big enough wave.

I was excited to discover the colorful rocks on the bottom of Lake Superior at Twelve Mile Beach would reflect on the underside of the surface of the water. Once I made this discovery using my underwater camera housing, I quickly tried to build a composition in my mind that would be powerful and unique. After having the vision, it was just a matter of changing my location and waiting for a big enough wave. D7000, F8 at 1/1000, ISO 800, 10-17mm lens at 11mm

Distortion is not a bad thing in photography; you just need to be aware it is happening and compose strong images working with the distortion. My underwater camera housing is set up to use my old Nikon D7000 camera body along with a fisheye 10-17mm lens. I made this image at 11mm knowing it would be greatly distorted, but I really liked the end result.

Looking like a sun worshipper, the face of a giant ice formation juts toward the sun along the Lake Michigan shoreline at Ludington State Park. The nature-made ice sculpture warms my heart on an ice-cold day. The beauty I find at almost every turn during winter in Michigan gives me a sunny attitude.

A motorist reaches the 45th parallel while northbound on M22 along Grand Traverse Bay between Suttons Bay and Omena. I am glad to also be heading north on this glorious autumn morning in Northern Michigan.

What a day to be at Grand Traverse Lighthouse at the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula. Both the 1852 light station and the fall color are picture perfect this morning. I am impressed with how well maintained the buildings and grounds are.

One of the many magnificent historic homes in Marshall looks spectacular to me in the light and shadow of a sunny April morning. In the 19th century Marshall thrived by being a busy crossroads town partway between Detroit and Chicago. Today, Marshall thrives by attracting people to experience the amazingly well preserved and restored grandeur of its past.

One barn window frames another as I peer into and through an old barn south of Leland in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I have tried to make this image several ways but this view feels the best. I love the rich tones and textures I see in my viewfinder.

This historic barn in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore south of Leland has been a photographic muse of mine for several years. When I photographed it after a heavy snowfall earlier this year I noticed the star ornament near the peak of the barn roof. I am thinking this grand old structure certainly looks like an autumn star today.

The forests of Michigan ebb and flow in response to the forces of nature and man. I am increasingly aware of the life cycle of trees and how dead trees can still be attractive, especially with just the right complement of living things around them. I found this dead tree in a tiny lake near Glen Arbor to be strangely beautiful.