Fall’s Subtle Story

Published on by rdmegr

As I write this on the tenth day of November, fall has entered its final stages. The trees are done showing off, no longer flashing their brightly colored leaves. Their branches are now mostly exposed, revealing the superstructure of the forest.
I traveled to northern Michigan this past week to spend a couple of days exploring the woods, looking for smaller, more intimate scenes that seem to become more evident when the trees stop showing off.

Most of the ferns in the forest were brown and withered. But, at Misty Acres in the Borwell Preserve in Benzie County, I found this bulblet fern that had found sanctuary in the bark of a tree.

At the Houdek Dunes Natural Area in Leelanau County, my eye was attracted to the yellow plant and the green pine tree seemingly enjoying their time in the sun.

I came across these tiny fungi that had latched onto a birch tree. I believe they are called orange mycena.

The Teichner Preserve in Leelanau County is a small preserve on the shores of Lime Lake. There is a short trail that leads from the road to the lake and a spot I call the “Gathering Place.” There, the cedar trees are in a struggle to avoid succumbing to waves that erode the shoreline. Their roots intermingle as if they are holding onto each other for dear life.

I stopped at the Howard & Mary Dunn Edwards Nature Sanctuary in Grand Traverse County specifically to get photos of the larch trees. Larch trees are the only coniferous trees that lose their needles each year. Before doing so, they turn a vibrant yellow.

Along the pathway, I paused to take photos of the brightly colored leaves and needles that were still hanging on.

Here’s a couple of other things that caught my eye along the trail.

At Sunset Shore beach in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, I took time to enjoy the setting sun as a stiff wind blew on shore. In the woods above the beach, I came upon this cedar that grew up around some boulders. All in all, a wonderful couple of days in nature.

Aurora Borealis

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As a result of a severe solar storm, a vibrant show of the northern lights appeared last evening in latitudes more distant than usual from the poles. The internet today is humming with photos from around the northern hemisphere. My wife and I drove about an hour from our home to Wabaningo, Michigan, to watch the show, and what a show it was. Here are some photos.

Our first hint of things to come.

Editing Reality: The History of Manipulated Photography

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I will be presenting two lectures on the history of manipulated photography at Aquinas College this fall as part of the Osher Life Long Learning program. It is a topic that has interested me for many years. Almost since the invention of photography in 1839, photographers have manipulated photos. My lectures will delve in to the methods and reasons for this. The first lecture, which will be presented on Monday, November 18, 2024, will address the manipulation of photographs from 1839 to the age of digital cameras. The second lecture, on Monday, November 25, 2024, I will speak about the manipulation in the digital age, including the impact of artificial intelligence on our conception of the photograph.

The OLLI catalog and instructions for registering for the lectures is available on this link: https://www.aquinas.edu/offices/olli-aquinas/course-catalog.html

I am flattered that OLLI chose to use one of my photographs as the image for the cover of the catalog.

Red Cedar Roots

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Earlier this week, I spent an early morning at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. On my monthly trips to Sleeping Bear, I usually leave home without a plan. When I reach Copemish, two hours into the three hour drive, I check the weather map and decide whether to take County Road 669 to Good Harbor Bay, County Road 677 (the old Benzonia Trail) to Glen Lake, or continue on M115 toward Frankfort to enter the park from the southern end. This week, I knew exactly where I wanted to go and traveled the country roads until I got to Bass Lake and Otter Lake, south of Empire.

Before the dawn on Otter Lake

Sunrise on Otter Lake

Bass Lake and Otter Lake are joined by a small stream. Water flows from Bass Lake into Otter Lake and from there into Otter Creek, which meanders its way to Lake Michigan at the Esch Road Beach. The area is home to a large number of eastern red cedar trees.

I wanted to visit the area to photograph the roots of cedars that had fallen over. Eastern red cedar trees generally have a network of lateral roots not far beneath the surface. As such, the the trees seem to be prone to tipping as the surface soil erodes. I am intrigued by the roots of fallen cedar trees, the way they twist together in the struggle to keep the tree erect. Torn from the ground and bleached in the summer sun, the roots become nature’s sculpture. Here are some of the images I took.

On Display at the Glen Arbor Arts Center

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“Exposed,” by Rodney Martin

My photo “Exposed” is currently on display at the Glen Arbor Arts Center as part of its “Members Create” exhibit. The exhibit runs until August 8, 2024. The exhibit can be viewed online by following this link.

In the 1920s, photographer Man Ray began processing photographs using a process called solarization “to create a photograph that would not look like a photograph.” Ray created his solarized photos by exposing a photographic print in the wet darkroom to a brief flash of light.  Solarization created an unpredictable reversal of tones giving a photograph an otherworldly quality.  I attempted to recreate the effect in the digital darkroom by adjusting the tone curve on this photo of a cedar tree whose tap root has been exposed by erosion along the shore of Sleeping Bear Bay.

Two Mile Tree

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On Saturday, I was in a woodlands photographing a decaying tree to use as background texture in a blend someday. I awoke yesterday morning with the thought of one of my favorite trees and went out early to take a photo. Here’s the result of the blend.

Winter’s Arrival

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Winter finally came to Michigan in a big way. This past weekend in Grand Rapids, we received about 17 inches of snow. Prior to that, the snowfall had been minimal. That was the case in the northern lower peninsula, as well. Frankfort, Michigan, in Benzie County, had just 2.5 inches of new snow in December, 21 fewer inches than normal. So far in January, Frankfort has received 21.8 inches. 

With this blast on winter, I had to drive north to check it out and do some photography. On Wednesday, I visited the Point Betsie Lighthouse, just north of Frankfort, perhaps one of the most photographed lighthouses in Michigan. I arrived about 8:45 a.m. and had the place to myself. No wonder. The wind was gusting to 30 mph and the windchill was about ten below zero. I was able to stand outside for about 10 minutes before my fingers were so cold, it was hard to operate the camera. I retreated to my car, put on some heavier gloves, put foot warmers in my boots and headed up to the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, where I photographed in woodlands, where I was protected by the wind. My 10 minutes in the deep freeze were productive, however. Here are the keepers among the photos I took.