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I was in Lansing driving west on Saginaw Highway working my way to the freeway after visiting my brother. Then, before me, I spied a humongous plume of smoke. I had to see it up close and personal. I was surprised by how much I had to jump from country road to country road in search of the mighty plume. It was my Pied Piper and I was a proverbial child of Hamelin following, ever following. Finally I arrived to discover that the billowing cloud was being generated by the Ericson Station Power Plant.

The property was surrounded by a barb wire fence and any worthwhile photograph had to show the power plant unencumbered by the fence. I got out of my Jeep and walked around in search of a fence-free vantage point. There wasn’t any. I solved the problem by parking on the far side of the road and climbing, with all the necessary camera gear, atop my Jeep Cherokee. I used my medium format view camera on Gitzo tripod with a wide angle lens and T-Max 100 film.

James Rasmusson is a resident of Holland Michigan who has been creating fine art photographs since the early 80�s. Jim�s photo-art is best known for themes that express the drama and majesty of nature. �I like to underscore the abstract and tease the mind. I am ever alert for juxtapositions that express irony, absurdity, and poignancy. I want people to feel both tension and resolution in my compositions.� Specializing in scenes from the Great Lakes region, the artist�s portfolios also include the Ozarks, Arizona and California, the Florida Keys, River Rouge, Chicago, �Suspended Amusements�, Nightscapes, Winterscapes, Ontario, and the Caribbean. The award-winning photographer�s work has appeared in many publications as...