Our own Houdek Dunes was the subject of the winning photo in contest held by Crooked Tree Arts Council in Petoskey. Roger Craton of Harbor Springs took this first prize image (to the right) in October at the height of fall color. This photo as well as others Craton took at another Conservancy property – the DeYoung Natural Area on Cedar Lake – is part of an exhibit called “Sense of Place: Photographs from Northern Michigan Land Conservancies” sponsored by Crooked Tree Arts Council in Petoskey. Photographers were invited to the conservancy lands of four organizations in the region, including the Leelanau Conservancy, to photograph images for the exhibition.

Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine will publish some of the winning photos in their March 2007 issue. You can also see them on display at the Crooked Tree Arts Council in Petoskey from Jan 13-March 3. Following the exhibition at the CTAC, the photographs will travel to the Dennos Museum in Traverse City with an opening on March 24, 2007 and run through June 3, 2007.

Photographer Roger Craton is a retired business executive who lives in Good Hart near Harbor Springs. He says he had seen an article about the DeYoung farm in Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine. “I like to do architectural things and was intrigued by what I had read,” says Craton. He had to bring his car down to Traverse City to be serviced and, while waiting, he took a loaner car out to DeYoung and shot for 2 or 3 hours. A week later he came back with his camera to Houdek Dunes. “I had thought I would shoot the dunes after reading about them on the Conservancy’s website, but when I got there the light wasn’t quite right and they just didn’t speak to me.” But the beautiful fall color in the woods did. “I saw this image and thought it was special,” adds Craton.

Roger has generously offered to let us use his beautiful photos on our website and in our publications any time. “I’m thankful that the Leelanau Conservancy is out there preserving beautiful places like this so that I can go out and shoot in them.” To see more of Roger’s work, visit: www.rogercraton.com. To read more about the exhibit and all the contest winners, vist: http://www.record-eagle.com/2007/mar/23crookedtree.htm. This exhibit has been sponsored in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Triford Foundation and Traverse, Northern Michigan's Magazine.