Winter

I love finding heart shapes in nature. When I got home today from work and was walking towards my house, I spotted this deer print that looked like a heart. I knew I had found my photo of the day!

Eben Ice Caves

Wednesday Big Sable in Snow

By using the full manual exposure mode on my camera, I set my shutter speed to a half second so that the motion of the rolling waves would show up in my photograph. With the camera on a sturdy tripod, the rocks and snow in the foreground are both razor sharp because they never moved, but the rolling ice in the channel showed motion.

A short way from White River Light Station, a fox slinks between trees while on the hunt. I had come to photograph the historic lighthouse; the fox was an unexpected bonus.

This scene would look very flat and two-dimensional most days. Except for a few fleeting moments today, the light and shadows cooperated and turned the Ludington shoreline into a beautiful arrangement of lines, shapes, textures, and colors that appears to be much more three-dimensional.

Eben Ice Caves

It is amazing to me how often mirages or double images of the shoreline will appear throughout a given year. As I stood on the docks at the Sable Resort overlooking frozen Hamlin Lake, I noticed that the Hamlin Dunes were being reflected onto themselves near the waterline. As I was photographing, the sun appeared and turned the sky a brilliant gold color and the mirage looked even more mysterious.

Unbelievable

Yesterday, while driving through Stearns Park Beach, I noticed a mixture of sand, snow, ice and rocks along the side of the road that looked very cat-like. I put my heavy cold-weather gear on and shot this photo. Seeing it today on the computer, I am shocked at how much it looks like a puma. F22.0 at 3.0, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

I love making abstract art with my camera. With the limestone rock covered in ice, the gold sunshine danced in front of my lens. Moving one inch in either direction totally changed the look and feel of the photograph. I like how this composition feels.

After photographing two other details of the carferry Spartan, I know I have found my picture of the day. Nature's work and man's work have combined to make what I find to be a very interesting sculpture. I don't think I will find the ice building up on the Spartan's bow and anchor chain to look more perfect again this winter. F16.0 at 0.4, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 120 mm

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.

Sunset at Stearns Beach on a Thursday

Epworth Reflection

While standing on the frozen shores of Lake Michigan at the First Curve beach inside Ludington State Park, I am amazed to see how much ice has frozen to the old jetties. I keep thinking to myself that the jetties now look like two polar bears side by side. F9.0 at 1/5, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 18 mm

Wearing my life jacket and ice grippers on my boots this morning, I slowly walked and crawled my way out to the Ludington North Breakwater Light to photograph. My local knowledge and experience had taught me that if I got close enough to the lighthouse, I would probably see a reflection of it on the ice. As expected, the reflection was there. Now all I had to do was wait for the big splash. As you can imagine, I got very wet and cold.

Lake Michigan Caldron

The Holiday Inn Express in Munising, Michigan has become our home away from home when we are photographing in the Upper Peninsula. Thanks to a Facebook alert on my cell phone, I knew the northern lights might appear in the middle of the night. Every hour I got out of bed and went out on the porch of our hotel room to check. At around 4:50 a.m., I could see the lights over Grand Island. I set up my camera and tripod and made this image. In a few short hours my dad and I would be hiking across the ice to photograph the caves on Grand Island.

As fishermen taking part in the national ice fishing tournament held in Ludington head toward their fishing grounds on Hamlin Lake, one of the most unique and artistic fish shanties I have ever seen catches my eye. I decide to make the shanty the subject of the picture and the fishermen the added ingredients. F7.1 at 1/200, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 112 mm