Northport Photo Exhibit Photographers 2024
Photographers are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Please scroll down to see all.
Paul L Anderson
My love of photography started over 70 years ago when my Dad gave me his old Argus C3 camera. Finding patterns in nature and capturing moments in life that stop you in your tracks….that’s what I aim for. I love shooting people, especially in my travels around the world. Photos that draw you in, make you smile, and make you wonder about the world around us. Photos open us to dream, imagine, and transform.
Lights. She resides around the corner from Glen Haven, one of the best places to catch Aurora in the area, which makes popping out to take photos easy at a moment’s notice.
A week-long workshop with Photographer Gabriel Biderman from National Parks at Night sparked an intense interest in night photography. So, she purchased a second camera and tripod, specifically to capture time-lapses of Aurora.
Now, Michele has captured the Aurora dozens of times and has even seen STEVE, the Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement, at least twice — possibly more. The be-all and end-all for her was a journey to Lofoten, Norway, to watch Aurora unfold effortlessly and right overhead for hours. On almost any clear night you can find Michele out shooting Leelanau County’s beautiful landscape and skies.
Michele Aucello
Michele Aucello stumbled upon photography as a way
to document student learning when she worked as a teacher in
Honolulu in the 1990’s. That naturally led her to document her own kids’ learning and their family adventures.
In 2017, she moved from Honolulu to her summer home in Michigan, where she thought they would only live full-time for a year or two. This prompted her to form a bucket list, and topping that list was catching the Northern
Robert Bayer
I became interested in photography after receiving a "Spy" attache case with a hidden built in camera when I was a child. In the early ‘90s I got hooked again while scuba diving in Cozumel after watching our dive guide glide through the water capturing images of the undersea world. In the early 2000's, I mentioned to a co-worker that I was into underwater photography. He then convinced me to join a local camera club which held monthly meetings and competitions.
Having some of the best photographers in the Grand Rapids area available to me through the camera club, I picked their brains and improved my photography skills greatly. Eventually, some of them
started sharing their "Secret" photography spots or would notify me when a hard to find animal was in the area.
It was through the camera club that I was invited to photograph the athletes in numerous sports for the State Games of Michigan in both the Summer Games and the Winter Games. From my images of the State Games, I was referred to the West Michigan Sports Commission where I was invited to photograph the Meijer LPGA Classic, EPSN X-Games Mastercraft Throwdown, USA Masters track & Field, the first High School Gridiron Classic event and the Michigan High School Gymnastics Finals.
Since moving to Northport in 2016, I’ve done photography for the Northport Performing Arts Center and the Northport Arts Association events as well as local high school sports. In 2021, I had an entry in Art prize, and I currently have two of my images hanging at the new wing of the McLaren Hospital in Petoskey.
Andrew Fleck
Andrew has been taking pictures since he started inheriting old film cameras when people were making the switch to digital. It didn’t help that his dad was the chief photographer at the local paper so old cameras were always around. He still shoots on film because he still gets a rush when the negatives come out of the tank and it still feels like some sort of magic when you make a print in your darkroom in the basement. Moving to Leelanau County a couple years ago means the subject matter is a little different than a city of over a million people but he’s still having fun and taking pictures is just one way he uses to understand his environment wherever he goes.
Rick Gans
“Rick first stepped into a darkroom at a sleep-away summer camp in northern Wisconsin when he was around 11 years old. (Any existing examples of his work from that era are highly classified and suspect.) He next managed to permanently “borrow” his older sister’s Nikon upon entering college. Many cameras followed, including his current preferred one, an Olympus EP-1. After experimenting with several careers post-college graduation, Rick settled into the film production industry, working on crews, doing professional photography and journalism on the side, and eventually landing at an advertising agency and subsequently, the client side, ending his career last year after a 20 plus year stint as an advertising production and marketing consultant. Rick is ambidextrous, and has always been both right brained and left brained, comfortable with a computer, a spreadsheet, a camera, a blank piece of paper, and previously, a potter’s wheel (see ‘experimental careers’). Now retired and working full time in various non-paying community volunteer ventures, he has combed his photo collection and surprisingly, found some decent choices. Maybe more to come in the future?”
Mike Haynes
Mike is a Northport resident and a self-taught photographer. He is a contributing photographer for Pixabay, Pexels, and iStock by Getty Images. Mike also dabbles in writing, painting, and rock art.
Mike uses photography to tell stories and to help others see the world in different ways. Mike’s goal is to demonstrate that even the simplest objects in front of a lens can stimulate curiosity and evoke emotion.
The works on display represent Mike’s attempt to use balance, rhythm and overall composition in order to trigger a response from viewers.
John E. Minar
Since setting up a darkroom at age 13 under the basement steps with the enlarger on the washing machine & the Kodak chemicals in the laundry tubs at night, John developed a passion, for photography. He carried that as photographer for his high school, college newspapers & yearbooks, but shelved his passion for a ‘day job’ for 43 years while raising a family. Manufacturing engineering was his vocation, but his advocation is photography. John has photographed most everything in the Leelanau Peninsula since 1973. While never publicly exhibiting photos before, (except for a county fair), he is excited to share with NAA & neighbors for the first time ever.
Epically in Northport.
Donavan Ochs
From flying kites in Colorado to moving to Northern Michigan at an early age, my eyes have been set on the sky and seeing nature from a different perspective. My interest in photography is to capture the bird's eye view of the world. Since we cannot soar like them our perspective is limited to what is around us. With the aid of a drone I can take a glimpse of the broader horizon and how things are connected on a larger scale.
Mark Smith
I live in Leland and my personal interest is landscape photography. I am privileged to take many pictures for the Leelanau Conservancy and I enjoy meeting the wonderful people who put their land into conservation easements.
I mostly use vintage lenses for my photography as they provide character to my photos.
In addition to photography I am secretary for Omena Historical Society and I do a lot of research and writing about local history in Leelanau County.
You can purchase my photos at Leelanau Landscapes, but I have even more photos on Flickr. Enjoy life. It's a beautiful world out there.
Don Spezia
I have been interested in photography, since acquiring my first 35mm camera. Photographs usually include nature, wildlife, architecture, moments in time, motion, and landscapes. My favorite photographs are outdoors, influenced by the elements of nature. A photograph of something unplanned will will find me, instead of me finding a photograph of something I was hoping to capture.
I shoot 35mm digital with a Canon 90D, a number of lenses; and an occasional iPhone 8 photograph.
I had been a member of the West Shore Camera Club (Muskegon, MI), from 2003 to 2010. I served on the Board as Secretary/Newsletter Editor most of those years.
I have had photographs accepted for showing at various juried Art Exhibits, including a Purchase award at the Muskegon Museum of Art, and various Honorable Mentions at a number of exhibits. The latest was an Honorable Mention for “Abstract Matters” category at 311 Gallery in Raleigh, NC.
I have worked as an Architect as my career and retired to part time in 2017. Other activities include playing and writing original guitar instrumentals. My photography has been used in the CD case design in all of my 8 different music CD's. More information can be found on my website:
Grace Stamos
"Grace Stamos is from Ann Arbor and first became interested in photography during a high school film class in 2014. She has lived in New York City for the past nine years where she continued her photography while in college; for the last year she has studied product photography and worked as an accessories photographer. Grace’s photography focuses on the quiet, liminal spaces in unexpected places and has an interest in how shape, framing and color can transform an object into something more."
Bert Thomas
I live in Leelanau Township, have a lifelong association with this county, and serve as a docent for the Leelanau Conservancy. Photography is a passion for me rather than a profession, and this will be my first exhibit. My interest began decades ago while based in Korea where I obtained my first 35mm camera – a Petri 7 rangefinder. Over the years (and with better gear), photography has become a more serious hobby for me. Wildlife inspires me the most with landscape photography an interest when the mood and occasion strike, usually at sundown. I mostly photograph birds and other creatures which inhabit nearby forests and wetlands. I do all my printing and framing and use conservation quality materials throughout.
Rachel Winslow
Rachel Winslow is an innkeeper, light artist, and self taught experimental photographer living in Leland, MI. Her work focuses on the use of homemade, vintage, and toy cameras to make photographs that are abstract and dreamlike. She has taught countless film photography workshops through the years and her musician portraiture has been featured on national platforms such as Pitchfork, NPR, and more. She's been shooting film for 16 years and is constantly exploring new & unconventional ways to photograph using experimental methods.