Maple City-based chef educator NANCY KREK ALLEN belongs to the New York Association of Culinary Teachers, Slow Food, and resides in Northern Michigan.

Michigan Sea Grant Extension Educator MARY BOHLING works with coastal communities and businesses in southeast Michigan — including Tuscola, Huron, Sanilac, St. Clair, Macomb, Wayne, and Monroe counties — to address Great Lakes issues.

Grand Rapids-based MICHAEL BUCK extends his seasoned photographic talents into myriad categories, from commercial and corporate work to weddings and editorial features.

W. PATRICK CHAMBERS specializes in architectural photography and has frequently been published in Log Home Living; the Muskegon-based talents images routinely appear in Michigan History and Builders Journal.

BRIAN CONFER worked for several years as staff photographer at Traverse, Northern Michigan’s Magazine; he now focuses on fine art photography and is raising two young boys with his wife in the renaissance village of Elberta.

In his spare time from running a portrait and wedding business studio, Cherry Creek Studios in Traverse City, photographer RANDY GAY uses his photographic eye to capture nature’s beauty. “I really enjoy photographing things that others usually walk by.”

Books by Traverse City-based author JERRY DENNIS – most recently, “The Living Great Lakes” – have received wide acclaim, earned many awards and been translated into five languages.

Internationally recognized outdoor writer and author JIM DUFRESNE has written more than a dozen wilderness and travel guide books. The Clarkston-based adventurer promotes Grand Marais in Michigan’s U.P. as the best place to get away.

While award-winning nature photographer STACY NIEDZWIECKI serves a variety of clients through her Rockford-based graphic design business, Creative Solutions, she leverages her talents in digital art and photography.

From his Grand Haven home base, prolific photographer JOHNNY QUIRIN is a frequent contributor to West Michigan publications, while keeping equally busy shooting school and family portraits.

Having written for and performed on stage, screen and television, Leland-based REBECCA REYNOLDS writes for HBO and has performed at The Improv in New York and on Broadway.

Based in Troy, studio owner and Michigan photographer DOUGLAS SCHAIBLE has been shooting for more than two decades for a wide and growing range of commercial and corporate clients, including GM, Ford and Panasonic. Food photography is his specialty.

KATHLEEN “BIRDIE” SHERIDAN is a Troy-based food stylist whose myriad talents include advertising, marketing and public relations; her extensive list of clients ranges from Bon Appetit and People Magazine to Martha Stewart Everyday Inc. and The Food Network.

As the president of Promote Michigan, DIANNA STAMPFLER blends her years of print and broadcast media experience with her passion for marketing her home state. Editorial credits include Midwest Living Magazine’s 2006 Michigan Travel Ideas.

Traverse City-based PATTY LANOUE STEARNS authored “Cherry Home Companion,” a cookbook, and “Good Taste: A Guide to Northern Michigan Cuisine.” The long-time food columnist and former Detroit Free Press restaurant critic is now a contributing editor to many local, regional and national publications.

Grand Rapids-based JACLYN VISBEEN has extended her broadcast, reporting and writing skills through a variety of media vehicles, including Radio America in Washington, D.C.

PATTY LANOUE STEARNS is an award-winning journalist, editor and author with a passion for food, travel and fascinating people. Her work has appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country. She is author of the gourmet cookbook, “Cherry Home Companion,” and “Good Taste: A Guide to Northern Michigan Cuisine” (both from Arbutus Press). She lives on a lake in Traverse City with her husband, Joe.

MARYKAT PARKS WORKINGER lives and works in her great-grandmother’s 1905 cottage on Lake Michigan. Former editor-in-chief of Lost River Press and Sweetwater Visions Press, she freelances as an editor, writer, and indexer.

Michigan BLUE welcomes story suggestions from our readers, freelance writers and photographers. Submit ideas via e-mail to ljensen@geminipub.com.