A few nights ago, sailboats of various sizes and classes filled West Bay for the yacht club races. I was amazed at how close some of the boats came to each other. The billowing sails in a variety of colors made for a perfect summer evening photoshoot.
Last weekend, the sun shone one minute, followed by rain the next. But the amazing cloud formations were the real story.
As one of the founders of the Northport Arts Association, I’ve been invited to participate in their latest exhibit: THE ORIGINALS: NAA FOUNDERS SHOWCASE. It’s a Retrospective of NAA’s Roots, as they’re calling it. I’m showing two of my photographs. The first is a pair of great egrets taken at the Venice Area Audubon Society Rookery in Florida. The second is a scene from Sleeping Bear Dunes that shows Otter Creek flowing into Lake Michigan at Esch Beach. The opening reception is this Saturday, August 23, from 4-7 p.m. The exhibit runs through September 9, with the art hall open Tuesday through Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. Would love to see you.
D. H. Day’s iconic farm lies in an open meadow within the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. Day, known for developing the historic village of Glen Haven, named his farm Oswegatchie after the upper New York community where his father was born. Always working to strengthen and diversify Glen Haven, Day raised 400 hogs and 200 Holstein cattle, feeding them hay and corn grown on the property. Like many photographers, it’s one of my favorite subjects. When I took pictures of Oswegatchie last Thursday, I took the most common view in the first image. But I also worked to capture the 116-foot-long dairy barn from other angles, trying to show its other features too, like the poured-concrete silos, octagonal cupolas with bell roofs, and flared eves that permitted water drainage. I took the last image from the #3 overlook on the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive. It was morning and the fog nearly hid Pyramid Point and the Lake Michigan horizon in the background.
A seasonal back road near my home offers a variety of habitats, including woods and wetlands. I’ve found several keyhole meadows behind the woods. I love them because deer often feed in these protected areas. On this particular morning, I found a doe and her fawn just outside one of them.
These sunflower images were taken along U.S. 31 N between Traverse City and Elk Rapids. They invited car stoppers and gawkers.
I’ve been itching for a good sunset, but the Canadian wildfires created too much haze. When I saw some blue skies yesterday, I got my hopes up. As sunset time approached, I headed west for a Lake Michigan sunset. I started at Tiesma Beach on Platte Bay, but the view was over the dunes. So I moved on to Platte Point, where I got the water scene I was looking for. While the hazy skies still occluded the sun as it approached the water, time at the Lakeshore is always good.
The Canadian wildfires have dimmed our sunny days to hazy gray-browns. And cast a pall over some of my photography, too. Undeterred, I headed to the Lakeshore with friends Don and Diana Burton to share another backroads adventure. I introduced them to Thoreson Road with its rolling meadows, historic farms, and abundant plein air painters capturing the scenery. We all agreed that the jewel of Thoreson was the secluded beach off Sunset Trail. Several pathways led to the beach, but we chose one with stairs. Even though it was Saturday in high summer, the beach was nearly empty with lots of room to roam the fine sugar sand. The smoke occluded many of the lake views. Sleeping Bear Point was barely visible across the bay. Still, we spent a peaceful morning enjoying the water as we walked the beautiful beach.
