This year has flown by really quickly and took me kind of off guard as far as coming up with my Best of 2022 or favorite images of the year. This is a group of images that I both enjoyed making and really love. I hope you all enjoy them as well!
“Loon Lake Pink Fog”“Point Betsie Sunset 1”“Kingsville At Home Again”“The Way You Move Me”“Light of the Pines”“Greening of the Forest Floor”“Spring Tulips 1”
“Detroit Skyline 101”“Solar Burst Summer 2”“Lake Erie Lights and Reflections”
2022 was a really different year for me. These past 2 years honestly have been quite unusual for me and all of us I’m sure, in one way or another.
I hope that the New Year, 2023 brings all of you excellent health, great experiences, wonderful times with friends and family, and joy and success in your lives!
“Light of the Pines” Looking up through amazing tall pine trees with a view to the bright blue sky! “Living Among Giants” Beautiful sunlight was shining through the leaves of the smaller deciduous trees that were growing within the giant pines! “Feel the Force” Another pine forest and another look, straight up!
These are just a few of the beautiful images made within the myriad of pine forests in Northern Michigan earlier this autumn!
Here we are again at the end of another year. And as has been customary for the past many years I have selected some of my personal favorite photographs from the current year, 2021.
These images aren’t in any particular order, but they do show some of where I’ve been this year and the scenes that gave me a feeling of peace, or a sense of excitement.
I hope you all enjoy them as well!
“Atmospheric Engagement” A very calm and peaceful start to sunset. The horizon in the distance is almost invisible and the clouds above seem to be hovering heavily over Lake Michigan! “Sun Going Down on Me” One last look at sunset on Lake Michigan in summer. High above the beach on the stairs I was observing the golden glow making everything shine and placing the trees in silhouette!“Pittsburgh Scenic View 5” On a beautiful late evening in Pittsburgh, I stayed watching the cable car go up and down Duquesne Incline. Such a gorgeous summer scene of this fabulous city!“Sunset Upon Colchester Ontario” Deep orange and gold hues in the sky and over Lake Erie as the sun set in Colchester, Ontario! “On A Quiet Marsh Morning” I enjoyed many hours along the Marsh Boardwalk at Point Pelee National Park in Ontario this year. The lush green aquatic plants, beautiful clouds, and peaceful sounds of the new day were very special!“Point Pelee Marsh A New Day” Another fabulous morning looking out at the boardwalk and marshland at Point Pelee National Park during summer! “One Day At A Time” I really enjoyed this sunrise on a warm late summer morning in Colchester, Ontario on Lake Erie.“Point Pelee Endless Skies and Sand” I enjoyed many days at Point Pelee National Park this year, and one of my favorite things was to experience the ever changing view both of and from the tip of Point Pelee. “Swiftly Moves the Storm 2” Strong current and heavy storm clouds when a early autumn rain storm passes by on Lake Erie. “Take A Walk With Me” We had a late but amazing fall color season in Michigan this year. The maple trees put on quite a show! “Winter Wonderland Dream” Who doesn’t love a winter wonderland! This was a particularly inviting scene to me with the snow laden branches in dark contrast to the water, as well as the slight glow of a morning sunrise!
I hope that all of you have a very happy New Year, and that 2022 gives you plenty of adventure, enjoyment, good times, and most of all to stay healthy while enjoying whatever it is that you love to do!
Spring seems to start of pretty slowly here in SE. Michigan, but once the temperatures warm a bit, which they did to a very large degree this year, the garden blooms begin to appear quickly!
These are some of the first flowers to bloom in the garden this spring, after the initial daffodils and crocus.
The lovely light purple Iris basking in the warm light of the morning sun makes a lovely image!
“Dahlia Darling” Beautiful mauve and white petaled Dahlia!
The Dahlia were especially beautiful with their large blossoms, and stunning colors!
“Iris abstract” I love the different varieties of Iris, and this one was one of the first to bloom this year!
The small details in this purple Iris was one that was perfect for a macro shot!
“Peony in Peachy Pink” A beautiful macro of a peach and pink hued Peony!
The peonies are still blooming, but this one was the absolute first to blossoms this spring. The hue was a bit different this year, with more of a peachy hue. I think it makes a beautiful macro!
As spring draws to an end, I’ll be photographing all the many blossoms that pop up, and sharing more garden photos here on my blog.
I hope that you too are enjoying whatever is blooming in your area, and your garden! You just gotta love those garden blooms!
Here we are at the end of 2015, and what a year it’s been! As I’ve done for the past four years in a row, I am posting my favorite images of this past year. Not necessarily the best, but my personal faves. It was hard to narrow it down to only ten, but I finally did after a lot of going back and forth. These are not in any particular order and are of several different subjects. I hope you enjoy them! If you would like to look at my 2014 year in review you can check that out here. Best of 2014
Jim Goldstein in his Blog Project has hosted the year in review or top 10 images on his blog for a number of years, and I always look forward to it!  There are photographers from all around the world with amazing images! I hope you’ll check out his blog and take a look at the wonderful array of photographers and gather inspiration from their images! His post should be up in the early part of January 2016!
“Kayaking at Miners Falls” Gorgeous blue waters of Lake Superior at Pictured Rocks National Lake Shore in summer!
“Great Lakes Autumn Waves” A beautiful and windy day on Lake Superior near Munising in autumn!
“One Very Fine Day” This was a fabulous day in Marquette Michigan on Presque Isle Park!
“Life is But a Dream” This was one special sunset on Lake Michigan! The waters were like glass, and the whole world seemed alive with the colors of sunset. There were several people kayaking and canoeing on the smooth water! Dreamy!
“My Sweet Lady” This year was a great year for peonies! I particularly loved this huge specimen!!
“Grape Hyacinth”2 One of many beautiful Grape Hyacinth this spring!
“Beautiful Cedar Falls” I had the opportunity to go to Hocking Hills in Hocking County Ohio this summer. The many waterfalls in the location and the amazing rock formations were wonderful! The summer was a dry one, so the water flow wasn’t as strong as I would have liked, but it was beautiful to me anyway!
“Afternoon in Shades of Gray” This scene in late fall with a beautiful snow just begged for black and white processing!
“Sweet Potato Mash” I had a year with a lot of motion blur abstracts, and this is one of my favorites!
“Song of Light” A bokeh delight in the fresh summer grass! One of my favorite bokeh-licious abstracts this year!
As we end this year and head into 2016, I’d like to wish everyone and their families all the best in the New Year. I wish you all good health, good times, plenty of adventures and family to enjoy it with!
I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes:
May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. Â ~Â Edward Abbey ~
It’s summer and it’s such a great time of year to get out in nature so I’ve been taking full advantage of the warm days and great things happening in the garden and other local green areas!
Here are a few photographs of my recent nature abstracts from the garden. I hope you enjoy them! 🙂
Ferns in a simple but beautiful pattern.
“Fern”
Green ground cover with a few of the rosettes having bloomed yellow.
“Yellow on Green”
Green ground cover in the shape of rosettes.
“Living Green”
These purple flowers have just begun to burst forth.
“Never Ending Dream”
Here’s the one image that is not like the other! These purple flowers are just starting to bloom. There are rows of them dreamily layered behind each other!
Well I can’t believe it’s already June! Spring is almost gone, and summer just around the corner! I’ve had the opportunity to do a bit of traveling recently so I’m sorry if my posts have been a bit infrequent. Hopefully I’ll be able to get back into a better schedule pretty soon!
I’m usually a person who tends more towards colorful images as most of you may have noticed. In this post though I decided to convert a few of my more recent images to monochrome. They definitely take on a bit more moody feel.
It’s not that I don’t like working in black and white, I do, I love it, and sometimes it’s really the only way to go. Â These images below work well in both black and white, and color in my opinion.
Here in this post you’ll find the monochrome conversions. If you’d like to see the color versions, check out  —>“Old Man’s Cave Upper Falls” here.
“Old Man’s Cave Upper Falls” monochrome
For the color version of “Dappled Forest Magic” check it out here. —> “Dappled Forest Magic”
“Dappled Forest Magic” monochrome
I hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather, and making some fun travel plans for the summer!
With spring in full swing here I thought I’d bring you a few of the recent images from what seems to be about peak for our spring happenings, at least as far as tree blossoms go!
The crabapple blossoms were amazing this year, so here is just one variety in beautiful soft sunlight!
“Crabapple Blossoms”
We had a robin nesting in a magnolia tree. I wasn’t able to get close to the nest for three reasons. Firstly I didn’t want to disturb the nesting process. Second the nest happened to be higher up than I could see into, and thirdly the robins were so protective that even coming withing twenty feet or so, they’d start swooping down on me! I took this image as the robin perched in a nearby crabapple tree as the blossoms were just starting to come out.
I never got to see it but the Robin’s eggs did hatch and the baby birds were born and eventually flew away without me being able to see more than a peak of a baby beak!
“Robin in Spring”
I love Hostas and they came up pretty quickly this year. I went out after a spring rain one day and made a few nature-abstract images with these beautiful plants. Here is just one example.
“Hosta in the Rain”
I hope you enjoyed a bit of my local spring happenings, and I hope whether your area of the world is in spring or fall, that you are experiencing a beautiful season!
Good Magical Morning! Well, okay, it’s not morning at the moment, but it sure was when I made these photographs! Although it is spring, I am still awaiting the arrival of real blossoms. Consequently each morning I take a walk in the park and woods looking high and low for some new spring growth or burst of floral loveliness!
This morning I noticed that the grass was starting to turn a lovely shade of green rather than the brown of winter. The grass was also covered in tiny dew drops left over from a very humid night. As the sunlight rose above the horizon I lay down on the wet grass and began making photographs of the tiny world below. All I can say is that it is purely bokeh-licious magic!
I hope you enjoy these photos as much as I enjoyed making them! 🙂
On a very very cold winters walk not too long ago, I ventured out towards the woods. The trees and everything else I could see, was covered in gorgeous glistening Rime Ice. Well, I say Rime Ice because it didn’t seem to meet the conditions for Hoar Frost. If you think you can tell the difference, feel free to leave me a note!
The sun had only been up for a short while when I first went out, but by the time I reached this location it had been out for a while. Still low enough though to capture the beauty of the sunlight on the branches. There were some pretty nice long shadows on the snow also.
I came away with totally frozen fingers despite wearing gloves, but it sure was lovely! We’ve had so many dreary winter days so far this winter. Today happened to be one of them, but on this day here, the sun was shining brightly with pure blue skies.
At least for a couple of hours or so till the clouds moved it! 😉
“Frosty Forest”
Beautiful sunlight on frosty trees.
“Forest Shadows”
Sunlight through frosty trees and long shadows on the snow! I decided to go monochrome on both of these images. I think it works well here. How about you?
