Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. ~Lao Tzu~
These are just a few of the beautiful images made within the myriad of pine forests in Northern Michigan earlier this autumn!
To say the least, this year has been wildly different for all of us. As for myself photography wise I wasn’t able to do much traveling, as I’m sure many of you also encountered.
I did manage to make quite a few photographs this year that I really love though.
So these are my personal favorite images from this wild and crazy year, 2020!.
They aren’t in any particular order. I do hope that you like them and that they bring you some sense of peace and happiness in these very difficult times!
I hope that you enjoyed this look back on my Best of 2020 images!
My wish for this coming new year for everyone is that all of us in the world are able to experience a safer, healthier, happier, more peaceful, and more beautiful life in 2021!
My very best to all of you,
Cheers,
Rachel Cohen
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Fall in the Allegheny National Forest in PA. this year was a spectacle of gold when I visited! Here are a three of my favorite images from the visit.
Thanks for taking a look! In my next post which should be coming up soon, I’ll be sharing some of my favorite images of 2019. So stay tuned for that!
As we’ve just passed spring tulip time, I wanted to share with you a couple of lovely and fresh spring tulip images. These are very subtle in color and to me have a light and airy feeling. I wanted to portray soft sunlight and a different type of look than my usual bright and very colorful images.
I hope you enjoy the simplicity and quiet beauty of these lovely tulips!
“Just living is not enough… one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” ~ Hans Christian Andersen ~
Thanks for stopping by!
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This year has gone by really quickly. So much so that I didn’t think I would actually have time to get together my usual end of the year post. These ten images are my personal favorites for the year, or my “Best of 2017”.
This is the 6th year that I have done a “Best of” at the end of the year, and I would like to thank Jim Goldstein for graciously hosting the Best Photos Project each year. You can check out mine and many many other photographers end of the year posts on his blog!
If you would like to see my “Best of” for 2016, you can find that here.
Also if you’d like to go back to 2015, you can check that out here.
One of my favorite sunsets of this year!
After a very stormy spring day in SE. Michigan I was happily surprised by an amazing array of clouds as they moved quickly by during a sunset on a local farm!
Beautiful reflections on an early autumn day!
You’ll see this lake featured twice here in this post. This image was on a cloudy and extremely still, fall day. The trees, especially the birches gave beautiful reflections in the water!
Fallen leaves in shades of gold.
After all of the leaves had fallen and nothing was left except the crunch of brown and gold underfoot I decided to make just a few images of these beauties!
Lovely sparkling dewdrops on the grass in the early morning!
I had a lot of fun during a couple of fresh and dewy mornings this year photographing the sunlight as it danced off of the dewdrops in the grass. As a lot of you know, I love nature abstracts!
Lovely tulips at the 2017 Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan.
I was extremely happy to have had the opportunity to go to The Tulip Festival in Holland, MI. this past spring!
Beautiful and very colorful stones from Lake Superior!
Every time I’m in Marquette, Michigan I always enjoy the beautiful assortment of rocks and stones in the area. These colorful stones on Presque Isle are some of my favorites!
A wonderful sunset from Presque Isle Park in Marquette, Michigan.
While at Presque Isle Park I almost always make time to stay for the sunset. It almost never dissapoints!
A golden start to autumn at Munising Falls in Munising, Michigan!
Munising Falls is beautiful no matter what time of year, but fall is always my favorite!
This was an especially beautiful day along Lake Plumbago in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan!
Lake Plumbago is one of those places I pass by quite often while in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I would have to say that for me it has almost always been foggy and or raining when I pass by. That of course has its own beauty, and I have plenty of photos from that type of weather, but this time there was a striking difference, and actually quite welcomed!
One of my favorite places to stay on Mackinac Island!
I have always loved the look of yellow houses with white picket fences, so naturally the first time I set eyes upon the Windermere Hotel on Mackinac Island, it became a must for me to stay there! It is filled with Victorian charm and has such a lovely presence on the Island.
It just happened that this year while on the Island I was graced with bright blue skies which made a wonderful contrast to the beautiful yellow color of the Windermere!
I hope you’ve enjoyed a tiny glimpse into the year of 2017 with me. I wish all of you a very Happy and prosperous New Year, both in your lives and in your photographic adventures! 🙂
I’d like to end this post 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.  ~ Edward Abbey ~ 🙂
I was fortunate to be able to attend The 2017 Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan this spring. I have been one other time but that particular year the tulips hadn’t even begun to bloom.
I was rewarded with beautiful tulips and daffodils this year at the festival, among many other types of flowers.
The lovely purple tulips above were some of the last I was able to see that day as the sun got lower in the sky.
The images below give you some idea of the abundance of tulips and wonderful color there at the Tulip Festival!
Just lovely little daffodils set against brightly colored tulips at The 2017 Tulip Festival in Holland, MI.
Beautiful rows of tulips with trees and flags in the background at The Tulip Festival.
Enjoying all of the many varieties of tulips at The 2017 Tulip Festival in Holland, Michigan!
One very early morning just a few days ago I decided to take a drive in the countryside on some local dirt roads. It was foggy and nearly dark when I started, but as the sun rose I was rewarded with an amazing sunrise with golden rays of light streaming through the trees as I drove along.
The image above is a tighter version of the first tree I saw, with many streams of light coming through the fog. Simply dreamy to me!
Stunning Golden sunrise through the fog!
In this next image I got as close as I could to a cornfield with a lone tree and an amazing sunrise just atop the tree! What a glorious morning! As the nights are cooler with autumn having arrived, I hope for a few more mornings to enjoy the fog before it turns to frost!
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Well, now that spring is fully here in Michigan, I have been thoroughly enjoying our warmer weather, and taking the time to go out in search of what is blooming. I had been afraid with a couple of late freezes we had that some early bloomers would have been affected. Thankfully most everything came through unscathed!
The daffodils this year got pelted with a bit of spring snow early on, but as you can see from these images, they rebounded nicely and we had some really beautiful blooms!
Sun drenched daffodils on a spring day!
I have been out nearly daily in the last week or so in search of blossoming crab-apples of various kinds, as well as cherry and apple trees. I have found many beauties, but this one is the first one I have processed of the flowering tree blossoms. A lovely white crab-apple with a bokeh-licious background in raspberry pink!
Beautiful crab-apple blossoms against a background of raspberry.
Another beautiful daffodil enjoying the warmth of the sun!
For some reason, I usually miss the hellebore coming into bloom each year, but this year was different! I actually got to witness several different varieties in bloom!
These were beautiful in a pinkish purple hue!
Really lovely pink Hellebore , fully open.
Spring seems to pass by so quickly, and in no time at all it will soon be summer, but I will be outdoors as much as possible while the air is still a bit cooler, the rain more frequent, and the mosquitoes not out in force yet, enjoying all the spring finds that I can!
I hope that wherever you live, you make sure and take plenty of time to enjoy your outdoor environment too! 🙂
Behold the humble sunflower! Could there be a happier and sunnier flower? Enjoy these images and quotes!
A beautiful flower with a sunny disposition!
I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it. And that’s such an admirable thing. And such a lesson in life.
~Helen Mirren~
Wonderful sunlight streams through this beautiful half of a sunflower!
Does she realize she looks like a sunflower, ready to rain sunlight on all who look down upon her?
~Simone Elkeles~
“Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It’s what sunflowers do.”
~Helen Keller~
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These images speak for themselves. What more can me said about gorgeous morning sunlight! Pure happiness!
Wonderful morning sunlight illuminates these lovely purple orchids!
Gorgeous and golden marigold in the beauty of the rising sun!
A bokeh delight in the fresh summer grass!