Winter

On an icy February morning, the eye of a female Golden Eye provides the lone spot of bold color in an otherwise monochromatic winter scene. The duck's brown head and grayish body distinguish it from its male counterpart, which is largely black and white with green head.

Epworth Aglow

Underwater Ludington Channel Cropped Pano

Blue Skies at Big Sable

I think Andrew Wyeth would have loved to create a painting of this maple tree if he had seen it on this November day. I loved the monochromatic color palette and the hints of color provided by the relatively few maple leaves still helping the snow to decorate the tree. I love the way my camera painted this scene with light.

Kitch-Iti-Kipi

On Saturday night my family had a 34th birthday party for my older brother. We went to dinner in Manistee and then drove to the Big M Trail Head to cross-country ski in the moonlight. We were excited to see that volunteer members of the Manistee Cross-Country Ski Council had put out luminaries in front of the warming shelter. F2.8 at 30.0, ISO 200, 18-50 mm lens at 20 mm

The night took my breath away, not from trying to breathe the below zero air but from viewing the icy splendor before me on Lake Michigan at Ludington.

Color emanates from the sky on the Ludington waterfront on a January evening. It is 15 minutes after sunset and the color is much more saturated than at sunset.

I have a teaching degree and several credits towards a master's degree in social work, but as I went down those roads in life I found they weren't for me. I took the road less traveled, followed my heart, and went into photography full time. As in the Robert Frost poem, that has made all the difference.

Dune grass, that a week earlier blended in with a sand dune, stood out against the snow that painted the dune along the Lake Michigan shoreline near the Ludington State Park Beach House.

My dad and I would probably never have ventured across the ice on Lake Superior to the Grand Island Ice Caves if it were not for Facebook. We both spend a lot of time on Facebook looking at other Michigan photographer's work. Several people had been posting excellent photographs of the ice caves near Munising, Michigan and we knew we had to go. We called our friends Mike Schlitt, Bill Dietrich, and Wally Barkley and the five of us made the journey to Grand Island. D7000, F9 at 1/60, ISO 100, 10-20mm lens at 10mm

Wednesday December

Ludington State Park

Like a 747 dwarfing the smaller planes at an airport, a mute swan makes a big impact as it touches down near smaller waterfowl on the Sauble River at Ludington State Park.

After the Super Bowl last night, I decided to stay the night in Silver Lake at the hotel with Julia, Ethan, and the gang. On my drive back to Ludington this morning, I had to pull off the road and climb the observation tower near the corner of Conrad and Old US-31 in order to photograph the awesome clouds and colorful sunrise.

Wednesday December

Grand Island Ice Caves

Some trees look almost human as they strike individual poses against the landscape. I was photo hunting in Victory Township, northeast of Ludington, when this tree and the atmosphere surrounding it caught my eye.

One of the highest dunes in Ludington State Park offers a bird's eye view of one of the forests tucked between dune ridges at the park. Lake Michigan lies beyond as I look west.