Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed: A Michigan Tribute

This is the first photograph I have ever made of a Michigan coyote. Photographing a coyote has been near the top of my bucket list for several years. This wily coyote was circling around in long grass to get closer to a herd of deer. I shot this photo with a 600mm telephoto lens from about a 800 yards away near Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Leelanau County. Hopefully next time I will be able to get closer, but I still really like this environmental portrait of the large coyote.

This alpha doe was protecting her family from a hungry wounded coyote near the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Leelanau County. To get a little closer to this scene, I used a 1.4 extender on my 600mm lens. That made my lens 840mm and with my cropped sensor my lens became 1260mm at F5.6.

Something about this dead tree attracted me to it when I spotted this snow-covered bog along US131 north of Manton, Michigan, and decided it would be a good place to make some early morning images.

Butterflies have fascinated my six-year-old daughter Julia since she was about a year old. She often tells my wife, Betsy, and me that if she only had one wish in life it would be to grow a pair of butterfly wings and be able to fly. When I spotted this butterfly shape on some tree bark, I immediately thought of Julia.

An outdoor photographer is dwarfed by the large Northern Michigan bog he is exploring on a winter morning. The bog lies along US131 north of Manton, Michigan.

One of Michigan's best assets are the pristine forests that cover the state. I love watching how the forests change as you move farther north in Michigan. These trees at Wilderness State Park look more rugged and "Northern" than the trees to the south in Ludington.

Wilderness State Park near Mackinaw City is one of Michigan's best-kept secrets. With Lake Michigan as its border, the Wilderness State Park is a glorious glimpse of what Michigan may have looked like 100 years ago. Wild, pristine, diverse, and glorious are just a few words that come to mind when trying to describe Wilderness State Park. I look forward to spending quality time exploring more of the park in the future.

It always amazes me how living things survive and even thrive in the toughest environments. I spotted this colorful lichen growing from a heart-shaped knot in a rotting log at Wilderness State Park north of Cross Village, Michigan, on a cold February day.

When my dad stumbled upon these tiny red flowers and fungi, it totally brightened my day. We had been photo hunting for over six hours without much success until we found this scene. Finally, our artistic souls were happy again. Never underestimate the power of flowers.

Looking like a corsage decorating a log, lichen abloom in February adds a burst of color to the winter landscape at Wilderness State Park.

I love how the color red on these tiny flowers rockets out and grabs your attention. I used my 105mm macro lens and tripod to isolate these flowers against the snow in the background. I love the mysterious world that macro photography helps our eyes to see.

It looked like the world’s largest bulldozer had been at work in the Straits of Mackinac, pushing thousands of tons of rare “blue ice” into mountainous piles near Mackinac Bridge. Actually, forces of nature—wind, waves, and the expansion of ice—teamed up to break the blue ice, drive it ashore and stack the broken sheets. This February 23, 2012 morning was the first time Brad and I ever saw the blue-hued ice. We had seen photographs of the rarely occurring natural phenomenon but thought they must have been taken in the arctic, not Michigan. Seeing is believing!

I had seen extremely blue ice on television and in other people's photographs, but I had never witnessed it myself. For Week 8 of "Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed," my dad and I drove four hours north to photograph the Mackinac Straits area. As we drove down a steep hill and got our first look at the straits, we knew we had hit the jackpot. In front of us were miles and miles of massive piles of neon blue ice.

After careful risk assessment, my son Brad has worked his way to the top of one of the tallest mounds of ice piled high in the Straits of Mackinac. He is determined to make a close-up image of one of the nature-made ice sculptures with the Mackinac Bridge as the backdrop. Knowing from my many years of ice rescue training in the Coast Guard that "no ice is safe ice," I am standing by with an assortment of ice rescue gear to assist if necessary.

It took me over an hour of walking, crawling, praying, and sweating to make my way out on these jagged, slippery ice mounds in the Straits of Mackinac. I had seen the large chunk of ice that is on the left side of this composition from shore and I was determined to make it out to that point in order to line it up with the Mackinac Bridge in the background. It was totally worth the effort and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

As the sun rose in the east this morning, the pink light reflected in the west over Lake Michigan. I used my external flash to add detail to the blowing dune grass in front of me as I made this picture inside the Ludington channel. The soft morning light made for a peaceful start to my day.

This structure was built in 1892 to house the oil that lit Pointe aux Barques Lighthouse. The bright red cylindrical iron structure, while eye-catching, was built strictly for function to serve as a safe storage facility for the oil. Its red color alerted people to the fire hazard posed by the oil and any other flammable liquids that might have been stored there.

Today was my dad's and my first visit to Point aux Barques Light, near Port Hope, Michigan. The light helps ships avoid the very shallow waters of Lake Huron near Saginaw Bay. I love the birch tree in the foreground and the popcorn-cloud sky as the backdrop for this beautiful piece of Michigan history.

Looking through my viewfinder, my mind sees a picture-perfect Victorian mansion on the main street of St. Louis, Michigan. My heart, though, keeps seeing visions of one of those collectible ceramic gingerbread-trimmed houses that are part of a ceramic Christmas Village. This looks like a dollhouse for sure. The architecture and pastel trim give the grand home a most uplifting feeling. I feel privileged to see this Gratiot County Historical and Genealogical Society Historic Site for the first time.

This winter has been one of the mildest winters on record for West Michigan. Normally on January 31st, the channel in Ludington would be frozen. Unfortunately this winter we have had very little snow or ice. Hopefully Jack Frost will reappear soon.