SS Badger

Carferry and Ludington Light

Ice Behemoths

Its About to Pour

Light Dock

Ludingtons Pride

Morning Boat

Night Crossing - Panoramic

The sky looked ominously beautiful over Ludington Harbor Wednesday evening as a storm front swept past. The front of a miles-long shelf cloud dipped down to the water just as the northbound cloud formation was passing by the Ludington pierheads at 9:02 pm.

Out of the Fog

Seaward

The Place to Be

The Place to Be - Panoramic

Watching from our “Crow’s Nest” front porch vantage on the Ludington waterfront, I could see a major thunderstorm approaching from the southwest. If it continued on its northeast course, the lightning would soon be upon us and in line with the carferry Badger, moored dockside in its home port. All I had to do was set up the tripod and camera, adjust the settings, compose the picture, wait for the lightning to show up, and have the shutter tripped at just the right moment. Experience and lengthy exposures of at least 10 seconds increased my odds. I love playing the lightning photography game. Bingo!

The sky is filled with color this morning so I have hustled to get to the waterfront at Crosswinds to make a photograph of the harbor and sky. Steam from the co-generation plant looks from this vantage point like it is coming from the carferry Badger's stack. Ducks provide another added ingredient to the picture. Looks good. F16.0 at 1/13, ISO 100, 80-200 mm lens at 175 mm

Nothing says Ludington better than the carferry Badger and Ludington lighthouse. On this July evening the Lake Michigan Carferry passes the Ludington North Breakwater Light en route to its dock after ferrying passengers and vehicles from Wisconsin.

Nothing says Ludington better than the carferry Badger and Ludington lighthouse. On this July evening the Lake Michigan Carferry passes the Ludington North Breakwater Light en route to its dock after ferrying passengers and vehicles from Wisconsin. Nikon D800. F10 at 1/500, ISO 200. 14-24mm lens at 14mm. On a tripod without a flash. July 21, 2016 at 5:24pm.

Crisp, haze-free air, brilliant light, billowy clouds - all the ingredients that made for a good day for photography - were present on this fine October morning. Throw in the Ludington North Breakwater, lighthouse, and the carferry Badger, and it gets even better. The final ingredient - a location from which to take the photo - brings the mixture together to make a picture better than the sum of its parts.

I cannot imagine a more beautiful location across America for a summer concert than Ludington's Waterfront Park. On this July evening the park is filled with West Shore Bank Rhythm & Dunes concert goers as the Lake Michigan Carferry Badger steams past on one of its daily Lake Michigan crossings to Manitowoc, Wisconsin. The Rhythm & Dunes concerts are one of the highlight events of summer in Ludington.

The Badger looked like a ghost ship this afternoon in the fog. Our biggest tip with shooting photographs in the fog is to make sure to shoot at least a stop and a half, if not two stops, to the plus side of your meter. If you shoot fog photos on any auto mode, your photo will be underexposed.