One a recent trip back to the U.P. I decided to drive out along some backroads I hadn’t been on in over 25 years. I found myself north of Deer Lake and took this photo next to the boat ramp that was put in when I was a kid. (The lake is on the other […]
Flowers
Stormy Flowers
One of my personal rules of photography is that I try very hard to never edit a photo beyond what a realistic view of the actual scene would be. Some pictures need more post-editing than others, but I’ve never been a fan of blowing out the saturation, or other common photoshop habits people have. I […]
Wooden Web
While on a visit to my home town I made a stop at Deer Lake where I’d spent many hours of my childhood fishing and exploring. On this occasion I spent about 15 minutes there thanks to the mosquito convention that was apparently in town. What caught my eye here was the flowers, but the […]
Purple Carpet
Spring is a bad time of year for crawling on your belly to get shots… unless you really like ticks. I don’t think I got any today, though I was sure the whole time I was taking this I would bring home a new friend. Never let it be said that nature and landscape photographers […]
Flower Faces
One of the benefits to keeping pictures that were taken years earlier, is that you learn a lot about editing over time. This photo was taken in Saline back in 2016 and I’d passed over it at the time. But with some creative cropping and better editing knowledge I was able to make something with […]
White Water Bloomers
Bokeh is a fun effect to play with in photos (the repeating shape in the background – it’s formed by blurred light taking the shape of the open shutter). There’s a fun related trick I’ve only tried once, where you cut a shape into a piece of dark cardstock or cardboard and make a lens […]
Frozen Rose
One one of my trips north, during the winter months, I’d stopped at Lake Superior on the edge of Marquette to look for a chance to take some ice photos. The weather wasn’t cooperating, however, and was very overcast and the light was very bad. That turned out to be perfect for a shot of […]
Evening Flowers
One of the great things about using a faster shutter speed is you can get a more dramatic look, with the right combination of light and shadow. I’ve often used this with a setting sun in the background to get a fairly sharp but almost silhouette foreground. What really fascinates me is that this takes […]
Dodging Flowers
Sometimes the best shots are found randomly while you’re driving from one place to another. One one of my trips through the U.P. I drove past an old truck in someone’s front yard alongside the highway. I had to maneuver a bit to find an angle that didn’t show their house and driveway, but I […]