A physical therapist in Fort Wayne, Indiana, our featured Lake Superior photographer for this issue finds release from that intensely emotional, professional and personal involvement by escaping to the wild and beautiful places of the Upper Midwest.

Featured photographer Cheryl Ertelt believes in getting out into her chosen territory, of which the Lake Superior environs are a large part. The Sand River waterfalls tumble joyously through Ontario's Lake Superior Provincial Park on their way to the big lake. A touch of autumnal color brushes the palette with crimson and yellow.

"In my heart, I am a nature photographer," says Cheryl Ertelt. "I enjoy being outdoors, away from the city and all its pressures. I try to shoot images that will take me back to the places I enjoy, and allow me to share my impressions with others through my photography.

Whether from near or afar, the waterfalls of autumn offer brilliant color and stereophonic sound to rival anything produced in Hollywood. Here, the upper falls of the Tahquamenon River in Michigan hurtle over a rock precipice that thousands of years of water flow and ice activity have been unable to reduce to more level conditions.

Shooting transparancies on either Kodak or Fuji films, she normally uses two 35mm Nikon N90 cameras and a variety of lenses, but recently Cheryl borrowed a Pentax 6-by-7 cm camera for a shoot on Lake Superior's Minnesota north shore. She especially likes what she saw in that format.

"I really want to get into the larger format cameras, because nature photos have so much more clarity and impact in the larger images they produce."

All photography ©1996 Cheryl Ertelt. All rights reserved.