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Workshop at Ludington State Park

Wednesday May

Munising Falls Memories

My friend, Aubry, texted me that she had just seen two bald eagles perched on a branch near Crossroads Church on US-10 between Custer and Scottville, Michigan. I loaded up my kids and headed that way. We ventured out in the snowy field to each make our own images of these two beauties.

Ludington State Park

Ludington State Park

The Lake Michigan Carferry Badger passes beneath a rainbow on the same October morning I witnessed the other end of the same rainbow appear to land upon a golden dune near my home south of Ludington.

I never tire of watching the carferry Badger sail into Ludington harbor. Of the thousands of times I have seen this grand ship steam into port, this October evening was one of the most spectacular. My wife and I were enjoying dinner at a relative's Crosswinds Estates home, near the harbor mouth, when the Badger and sunset-lit storm clouds approached Ludington simultaneously. Fortunately, I excused myself from the dinner table long enough to shoot as the ship entered the harbor.

As many of you know from the great Facebook debate, I had a hard time choosing which photo to use today. The pears at Meijer that I shot with my iPhone versus the ice at the end of Ludington Avenue I shot with my big camera. After reading the comments and objectively looking at the two compositions, I felt the pears were better art. F2.8 at 1/60, ISO 91, iPhone camera

Don't be afraid to rotate your camera to the vertical position. We often find many new workshop students are hesitant to see the world around them vertically. Practice making photographs both horizontally and vertically.

Rising dramatically from the Silver Lake shoreline, sections of the Silver Lake Sand Dunes look as grand as the Egyptian Pyramids to me on a September day. The light and shadow playing on the dunes often is the best after the masses have left. We love exploring the dunes during the quieter times of year, especially during September and October when the light is often magical.

For just a moment, from my vantage point on Grand Traverse Bay, sailboats underway fit perfectly into the spaces between the sailboats tending from their mooring buoys. My previsualization of what could happen has happened. My visual poem is complete; nothing left to do but to click the shutter. D800, F5.6 at 1/200, ISO 100, 70-200mm lens at 160mm

I have not experienced a winter with this much snow and ice since I was a little kid. I am in heaven this evening at the beach in Grand Haven. My dad and I love to photograph Michigan all year long, but we are especially fond of cold winter days when the sun is shining. D7000, F22 at 1/15, ISO 100, 10-20mm lens at

Fears of a gray day are quickly dispelled by the dawn's early light and color as I look eastward across Ludington harbor toward the Occidental Chemical Corporation plant. This beats the strongest coffee for waking up an outdoor photographer.

There is something about the crispness of all the blue and white colors one sees looking eastward at Round Lake from downtown Charlevoix at the height of the summer boating season. Charlevoix is one of Michigan's most picturesque and popular boating harbors. F13 at 1/80, ISO 100, 14-24mm lens at 15mm