Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed: A Michigan Tribute

While driving east across the state of Michigan on M46, my dad and I passed through many quaint little farming communities. St. Louis, Michigan was one of our favorites. This mansion, on the corner of M46 and Delaware Street, greets visitors as they approach downtown St. Louis. The home is known as Colonel Elwell's Castle. I couldn't resist making a photo of this castle guardian.

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.

Having a strong foreground close to the camera is vitally important to a composition, especially with wide-angle lenses. Even though the farm field didn't have much snow left, the snowdrift in the foreground was several feet deep. I walked up and down the road looking for a section of the snowdrift that had dynamic lines and deep shadows, then finally found this composition.

An old barn and old tree hang onto life together in a farm field along M46 in Michigan's Thumb region. I am struck by the contrast between the old farm structure and adjacent gnarled tree and the shiny new farm structures and manicured young spruce trees in the distance.

Our gallery manager, Sarah Genson, has been telling my dad and me for years that we need to go to Frankenmuth, Michigan and get a famous chicken dinner from Zehnder's. Today, for Week 9 of "Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed: A Michigan Tribute" we saw a road sign informing us that we were only six miles away from Frankenmuth. Now we know why Zehnder's chicken dinners are world famous.

It is kind of scary standing on the Jebavy Bridge while taking photographs because the bridge isn't very wide and the cars are flying past. However, it was totally worth it this morning because we had such a beautiful sunrise over the Lincoln River. I would do it again tomorrow to photograph a sunrise this nice!

It is cold but perfectly still this morning as horses catch the rising sun in their pasture at the West Shore Equestrian Center near Sugar Grove, 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.

One of Michigan's most impressive old barns stands out at Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. People by the thousands view this barn on busy summer days. Today however, in the wake of the biggest snowfall of the winter, I am one of only a handful of passersby privileged to see it at its winter best.

A fresh snowfall makes the historic Glen Haven Canning Co. building stand out even more than it already does along the Lake Michigan shoreline at Sleeping Bear Dunes.

The ice has melted today on the Lake Michigan shoreline at Glen Haven. I hike back and forth along the rocky shore in search of the most colorful interesting rock I can find. This one is it; now for just the right moment with a wave washing over and swirling around it.

Boldly beautiful; that is my response to the restored exterior of the historic Glen Haven Canning Co. building at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. A view through one of the many windows gives a glimpse of the equally restored interior that now serves as a maritime museum.

We love including diagonal lines and shapes in our photographs. Angles were everywhere as the ice was breaking up on a sunny March afternoon on Betsie Bay in Frankfort, Michigan.

Standup paddle surfer Larry Bordine gets launched over the top of a wave as he attempts to paddle his way further out into Lake Michigan before surfing back to shore.

Surfer Saeth Gronberg rides a Lake Michigan wave past the Frankfort, Michigan lighthouse on a sunny winter afternoon.

Standup paddle surfer Larry Bordine cruises past the ice-covered Frankfort, Michigan breakwater . Larry is among the hardy Michiganders that make surfing a four-season adventure on Lake Michigan.

With the snow, ice, sunshine, and haze, this aerial photograph of Ludington looks like the old painting of the Ludington harbor that has hung in the local restaurant, The Grand, on Rath Avenue for decades. I have always loved that painting and now I have created my own modern version with a camera.

My dad and I have been trying all winter to take aerial photographs of Hamlin Lake for "Tuesdays with Todd and Brad Reed" but we have had so little snow this year it was never worth our time or money. Our luck finally changed this Tuesday when Dave Johnson from Mason County Aviation took me up in his plane and I captured this photo of Hamlin Lake covered in ice.

As I hung out the open window of a small airplane this morning over Big Sable Point Lighthouse at Ludington State Park, I was struck by how cool the shadow of the lighthouse was. The shadow reminded me of learning about sun dials in elementary school.

I have spent a lot of time photographing and exploring all of the bayous on Hamlin Lake at ground level, but it is so cool to see the South Bayou from the air. Dave Johnson, from Mason County Aviation, took me up in his airplane today so I could get some new aerial photographs of Hamlin Lake.