Looking down from old fort, Mackinac Island, Mich by Detroit Publishing Co
This cool old photo from the Library of Congress shows ships at dock on Mackinac Island, including the black hulled steamer Juniata. Head over to the LOC for a lot more from Mackinac.
Intrepid MK2 8×10 at Lake Superior by Kirt E Carter
Here’s a sweet shot large-format, black & white shot of Kirt’s rig for a recent photo shoot at Little Girl’s Point on Lake Superior near the Michigan/Wisconsin border. You can see more on Flickr & for sure check out his website to view & purchase his work!
More black & white photography on Michigan in Pictures & you can click to read more about the Intrepid MK2 8×10 camera.
Gathering Place by Rodney Martin
This Saturday Woodland Studies, a small exhibition of black and white photographs by Grand Rapids photographer Rodney Martin, will be available for viewing at the Glen Arbor Arts Center. Rodney is a photographer who has been featured in the past on Michigan in Pictures, and we’re excited to see his latest work! The GAAA writes:
Martin focuses his lens on the landscape. For the images in Woodland Studies, he zeros in on rivers, woods and orchards in Benzie, Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. His images were created in all four seasons; but they are related by the quiet and solitude he frames. There is little evidence of human habitation in these scenes. Instead, the images are studies of shadow and texture, shades of gray, and the deep and refreshing beauty of places off the beaten path.
Woodland Studies can be viewed in the GAAC Lobby Gallery or on the GAAC website starting this Saturday (January 7th).
Regarding this photo, Rodney shares:
I came across this gathering of roots three years ago when visiting the Teichner Preserve on Lime Lake near Maple City, Michigan. I returned four or five times over the past three years looking for the right angle to get the compelling image I wanted. I finally found it on my second visit this year. I call the image “Gathering Place.” The image speaks to me about community. I have been asked whether I warped this image to make the trees spread out from the middle. I did not. Nature did. The trees on the very left of the image hang out over Lime Lake. I suspect that in a few years the trees on the left will succumb to the waves that eat away at the shoreline and then fall into the lake.
Head over to his website for more pics including a really cool 2021 year in review!
Little Sable Lighthouse 4 by kmoyerus
Visit Ludington explains that Little Sable Point Lighthouse was originally named Petite Pointe Au Sable:
Located in the Silver Lake State Park at the Silver Lake Sand Dunes, the Little Sable Point Lighthouse is a 107′ brick structure, constructed in 1874. This lighthouse is one of the tallest in the state of Michigan at over 100 feet and 130 steps to climb the tower. About 30 miles north, you can visit the other “Point” along Lake Michigan which is home to the Big Sable Point Lighthouse located within the Ludington State Park.
…it cost $35,000 to build and contained 3 rooms. The rare third order Fresnel lens emitted a constant white light, and flashed a brighter light at set intervals, visible 19 miles into Lake Michigan.
The early 1900s saw some changes to the lighthouse. In 1900 the tower was painted white, and an access road and storage building were added in 1902. The name was changed in 1910 to Little Sable Point Lighthouse, meaning “little point of sand,” representing its location which juts into Lake Michigan. In 1977, the tower paint was removed and the original brick exposed.
Over the years, the lighthouse has had 15 keepers; and for one month, a woman took over when the original keeper took a temporary leave. The Sable Point Lighthouse Keepers Association took over the maintenance of the lighthouse in 2005, and it is open to the public from late May to late September.
The Light probably looked much the same in the 1870s as it did when kmoyerus took the photo in early May. See more in their Oceana County gallery on Flickr.
Private First Class Raymond L Hubbard from Detroit by Andrew B Knight
My buddy Cave Canem shared this absolute gem of a photo in our Michigan in Pictures group on Facebook. He writes:
A Special Treat…
“Sitting on top of the world: Of all things, Private First Class Raymond L. Hubbard from Detroit, Michigan chooses a huge exploded naval shell as a sofa as he removes a three day accumulation of Saipan sand from his field shoes.”
Photograph by: Staff Sergeant Andrew B. Knight, US Marine Corps WWII 1939 – 1945
PS: You can see some of Cave Canem’s photos from back in the day on Michigan in Pictures right here!
Michigan Sign at State Line 1958 by State of Michigan
January 26th is Michigan Statehood Day, Michigan’s 184th birthday. I put together some fun facts about Michigan back in 2012. They’re still true and still fun!
I originally got this photo from the Archives of Michigan’s Flickr account, but they’ve gotten rid of that. You can get all kinds of fun stories & facts from Michiganology.org though!
Pinhole: Huron River by Matt Callow
A follower of the @michpics Twitter account recently shared a post from photographer Matt Callow (taken with a paint can) from way back in 2006. It was the last of a three part feature as part of our Michigan Photographer Profiles & I wanted to share it with you all:
Matt writes:
I made this photograph in December 2004, just a few months after I’d moved here to Ypsilanti. It’s a pinhole image of the Huron River running through Riverside Park in Ypsi, taken from the Tridge, the pedestrian walkway that runs under the Cross Street bridge.
I’d been working for science toy company in Ann Arbor, and one of the things we had kicking around in an old store cupboard was a pinhole camera made from a quart-sized paint can, a sample that had never been used. I ended up buying it and taking it home, and then promptly forgot all about it. It sat in my office for months, collecting dust, waiting quietly.
Winter in Michigan is a bittersweet season for photography. On the one hand, there’s some of the most beautiful light, spectacular weather and incredible skies, and those bleak, spare landscapes that I like so much. On the other hand, it’s cold and wet, you can go weeks without seeing the sun, and the simple act of taking a photo becomes an enormous challenge. One particularly miserable Michigan morning, with frozen rain lashing and the icy wind sweeping up the river, I was feeling the itch to go out and photograph. I didn’t want to risk taking a nice camera out into the weather, and one of my cheap plastic jobbies wouldn’t have been up to the low light levels. At that time, I didn’t really know anything about pinhole photography, but for some reason remembered the paint can camera and decided this would be a good time to try it out. I figured that it’s waterproof, and that the long exposure times would mean I could capture what little light there was. So I loaded it up with some expired Kodak paper I’d picked up cheap from the bargain bucket at the photo store, and set out for the park behind my house.
I had no real idea about pinhole exposure times, I just knew they were long. The instructions that came with the camera suggested three or four minutes for a cloudy day, and as it was so dark and gloomy I decided to add an extra minute for luck. I got the bridge, put the camera down on the rail, pointed it at the river, removed the “shutter”, and then stood around freezing in the stinging rain while the camera did its thing. Then I traipsed back home and cracked open the developer.
Nothing came out. Just a blank piece of underexposed paper. But instead of doing the sensible thing and giving up, I headed back out into the elements and had another go, this time with a longer exposure. A whole extra minute of standing there on a bridge, in the sleet, babysitting a paint can. But this time, sure enough, when I got back home and developed the paper, I came out with this image.
I was amazed. I wasn’t really expecting to get anything at all, never mind anything that looked so soft and beautiful and strange. Check out that glassy water! I loved it. And of course I was hooked. Since then I’ve taken many hundreds of pinhole photographs, with all sorts of cameras, some that I’ve made myself or hacked from other cameras, and many more with my trusty paint can. In fact I’ve become rather obsessed with pinhole photography, it can do that to you, you know. And even though I’ve made pinhole photographs that are far superior to this one – better technically and more interesting aesthetically – I’m still extremely fond of this photo, a little bit of unexpected magic that I managed to conjure up on a freezing December morning in Ypsilanti.
Also see…Michigan Photographers: Michpics Talks with Matt Callow (part I)Michigan Photographers: Matt Callow answers Reader Questions (part II)
And thanks to Matt for doing such a wonderful job as Michigan in Pictures’ first featured Michigan photographer!
The Sign by Fire Fighter’s Wife
“The sign says do not enter, no trespassing allowed. With visions of redemption I walk against the crowd.”
-Melissa Etheridge
As usual, Beth shares a beautiful thought to ponder with an equally gorgeous photo. Head over to her Flickr for more!
Letters in Port Detroit by Scott Shields
The Port of Detroit is located along the west side of the Detroit River and is the largest seaport in the state of Michigan:
The port consists of multiple marine terminals handling general, liquid, and bulk cargo as well as passengers. The Port of Detroit’s single most valuable commodity is steel, and the largest commodity handled by tonnage is ore. Other important commodities handled at the port include stone, coal and cement.
…Each year, the Port Authority oversees millions of tons of cargo at 29 private and public sector terminal facilities in the Port of Detroit. International and domestic high-grade steel products, coal, iron ore, cement, aggregate and other road building commodities are shipped in and out of Detroit’s port. It is the third largest steel-handling port in the nation.
More at the Port of Detroit website.
Scott shared this photo back in April in one of my favorite Facebook groups, Detroit’s Urban Beauty. Click to view it in the group & see more of his work on his Facebook page.
Eagle River-Keweenaw County by Kirt E. Carter
Kirt took this photo of the Eagle River with an ONDU 6×9 Pinhole with Ilford Pan F developed in Rodinal 1:50. You can see lots more through his Flickr & check out kirtecarterfineartphotography.com for other photos along with his writings about how he shoots these stunning pics & a link to his book on Northwest UP rivers!!
Michigan in Pictures 
