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Fall color stretched as far as the eye could see, and the morning mist allowed, as I stood in awe at the edge of the Manistee River High Rollway, also known as the Buckley Rollway. This is, without a doubt, the best grand scenic vantage point for fall color I have discovered in Michigan’s Lower Peninsula. How is it that I had never been to this magic spot before?

Upon our arrival at Country Dairy in New Era, Michigan, Brad and I are immediately attracted to one of the dairy farm's unofficial greeters, Holstein "19445." She is amongst the many attractions at Country Dairy, which range from seeing cows up close and personal, to viewing and learning about real dairy farm operations, including tasting some of the farm's products at their restaurant and farm store. F4.5 at 1/800, ISO 400, 80-200mm lens at 35mm

For this shot, I put my camera on a tripod, used my 70-200 mm zoom lens, focused on the yellow bush in front of me, set my aperture to F22, my shutter speed to three seconds, and my ISO to 100. Once the camera started to expose, I carefully zoomed my lens from 70 mm to 200 mm creating beautiful art inside my camera. F22.0 at 3.0, ISO 100, 70-200 mm lens at 200 mm

Discovering the woodlands in the Claybanks area of Oceana County carpeted with trillium is for an outdoor photographer like winning the lottery. Brad, our business manager Sarah, and I go our own ways to capture our personal vision of the flower story we want to tell. For my part, I find three trillium flowers that I can place front and center in my composition. Focusing on them while letting the rest of a hillside full of flowers show up more softly in the middleground and background tells the rest of the story without stealing the show from the "stars" in the foreground. F9 at 1/100, ISO 100, 14-24mm lens at 24mm

Ludington State Park June

A redheaded woodpecker stands out in golden evening light in the front yard of John and Susan Persson's home along the Lake Michigan shoreline north of Summit Park. I was looking for wildflowers to photograph when someone else spotted several woodpeckers. F4.0 at 1/250, ISO 800, 500 mm lens at 500 mm

I marvel at how exquisite this lighthouse lens is as I view it from the underside in the lantern room of South Manitou Island Lighthouse. The beautiful and effective Fresnel lighthouse lenses, built in France in the 19th century, still grace a handful of Michigan lighthouses.

I select this trillium to stand out from others in its vicinity. I want to convey the feeling of this one flower being surrounded by others, but I want the attention to be only upon this one. Like a golfer selecting the right club, I select the right lens to accomplish the mission

Marching with Mom

Earlier this morning we had a hard rainfall that left large puddles along the sides of the road going through Stearns Park in Ludington. With the wind off of Lake Michigan and the sun shining down, the puddles became beautiful reflecting pools. F9.0 at 1/250, ISO 100, 18-50 mm lens at 50 mm

I wonder what the view from the Manistee River High Rollaway looked like in the 19th century when lumberjacks were rolling logs down it. I know for sure the view looks splendid roughly a century and a half later. This lookout near Buckley south of Traverse City belongs on every Michigander's fall color tour bucket list.

This was the first time I experienced being able to stand in a seemingly endless field of trilliums. It was magical. Even with the frosty nights the last few weeks, this trillium is still looking up. F14 at 1/100, ISO 400, 18-50mm lens at 18mm

The Shining

I am back in the same orchard along Pere Marquette Highway near Kistler Road to take a picture at 11:00 A.M. as part of a worldwide photo shoot sponsored by the New York Times. This time I will include the blossoms I chose to leave out two days ago when the opportunity to photograph children playing in the dandelions presented itself. F7.1 at 1/250, ISO 100, 12-24 mm lens at 24 mm

I wonder what the view from the Manistee River High Rollaway looked like in the 19th century when lumberjacks were rolling logs down it. I know for sure the view looks splendid roughly a century and a half later. This lookout near Buckley south of Traverse City belongs on every Michigander's fall color tour bucket list. D800, F22 at 0.3, ISO 100, 24-70mm lens at 34mm

Lying in the middle of a hilly, curving country road is not a good idea, but it was necessary for this photograph. Luckily Sarah Genson and my dad were my spotters and helped me avoid being run over. I used my largest telephoto lens in order to soften my background and get rid of the "junk" in the rest of the scene. F8 at 1/250, ISO 800, 600mm lens at 840mm

The Sun of God

My wife Betsy and I left for Hawaii today. While we were flying over the mountains in California on our way to the Los Angles airport, I used my iPhone and took this photo out the window of the airplane. I loved the patterns on the Earth in the foreground of the photograph. The patterns helped create a very three-dimensional feel to this photograph. F2.8 at 1/1000, ISO 70, iPhone camera

The view from the top of South Manitou Island Lighthouse is well worth the long climb up the circular stairway to the top. The lighthouse has helped guide ships through the Manitou Passage between the island and Michigan's mainland since 1872.

A chipping sparrow chirps away while basking in the morning sun near the top of a pine tree in southern Oceana County. The bird seems as excited as I am that the sun has finally come out on this April day. F4.5 at 1/4000, ISO 800, 500mm lens at 500mm