Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures…

I Spy You Both……. by smiles7

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
-Albert Einstein

Julie shared this photo back in April of 2021, but I wanted to make sure everybody saw these sweet little fox babies. She has more great photos of these foxes & others having fun on Flickr.

Have a great weekend everyone, and if you have an extra dollar or three & enjoy Michigan in Pictures, consider clicking the Patreon button below to help me reach my current goal, an asiago bacon croissant at Cannelle Detroit! 😋

Tulip Time 2024 … and the cover for 2025

The Winning Tulip by Measie Elizabeth

It’s almost Tulip Time, (May 4-12, 2024) and Discover Holland is once again inviting anyone with a passion for petals to take part in their 2025 Holland Area Visitor’s Guide Cover Contest. They say that the cover shot must be taken in 2024 and stand out when surrounded by other brochures. Photos must be vertical (portrait) in orientation or be able to be cropped as such. The winning photographer gets a $500 cash prize and photo credit when it’s used editorially. The top ten photos each get $50 and the winner of the “People’s Choice” vote online will receive $150.

This photo by Measie Elizabeth was the winner last year. Learn more about the photographer at Measie Elizabeth Photography.

Shelf cloud over the Mackinac Bridge

Shelf Cloud Over Mackinac Bridge by Michigan Native Photography

I saw a couple other photos of this cloud as it rolled across the Straits of Mackinac & northeast Michigan the other day but wowzas – the Mighty Mac takes it!! Our friends at the Earth Science Picture of the Day have an excellent post on the difference between roll clouds & shelf clouds:

Roll clouds and shelf clouds are found near the leading edge of thunderstorms and form when relatively cool air, from the storm’s downdraft, forges ahead into the warm, moist air that’s feeding the storm. The main difference between roll clouds and shelf clouds (both are called arcus clouds) is that a roll cloud is detached from the parent thunderstorm, whereas a shelf cloud (right) is affixed to the base of a cumulonimbus cloud.

NOTE: Just learned that this picture is from 2018 – still love it! (buy it here)

You can follow Michigan Native Photography on Facebook or Instagram and view & purchase more work on their website.

There’s more weird, wild Michigan weather on Michpics including a monster roll cloud over Lake Michigan from June of 2016.

2024 NFL Draft in Detroit

2024 NFL Draft Stage in Detroit by Brad Galli WXYZ

The 2024 NFL Draft kicks off TODAY in Detroit, Michigan. WXYZ Sports Director Brad Galli shared this photo of the stage lit up & ready to go! In case you’re wondering, they didn’t use Ford Field, Comerica Park, Fox Theatre or any of Detroit’s other big venues because the crowd is so massive. Detroit is anticipating 300,000 – 400,000 people over three days!!

I live in Detroit & will be posting a lot of updates to the Michigan in Pictures Facebook & also to my personal Instagram. You can get a lot of general info about the 2024 NFL Draft in Detroit along with some events I’m looking forward to right here.

You know who needs a Happy Earth Day?

Happy Earth Day by James Eye View Photography

via Leelanau.com…

Who needs a happy Earth Day? All of us really. 2023 was the warmest year since global records began nearly 200 years ago. The global temperature beat the previous high from 2016 & the 10 warmest years have ALL been from the last 10 years. If you know anything at all about math, 10 out of 10 is 100% and we are 100% in trouble because we seem unable as a species to process what actual danger is when it is this big. There’s probably nothing I can say if you don’t believe in science, so here is a link to a story about Earth Day’s Michigan roots & here is EarthDay.org where they are trying to raise awareness about microplastics, which many scientists believe are behind the explosion of Alzheimers.

James is an Empire-based photographer who shared this barred owl – based in parts unknown – along with some other great pics to wish everyone a happy Earth Day! See more by clicking the picture & on his website.

“Your pictures are so pretty” (Torch Lake Edition)

Crazy Fast Times on Torch Lake by Drew Shaffer

This morning I saw this fantastic pic shared without attribution for probably the 100th time. I knew the attribution because I had shared it from Instagram back in 2017.

I know that a million bots building social media using AI will only make things worse, so I really (really) want to make a plea to all of you to FOLLOW THE PHOTOGRAPHER. Every time you do, even if you don’t purchase their work, you build their following which makes it more likely that their work is credited and profitable because making pretty pictures is hard and takes lots of glass & gas!!

Drew Shaffer is a photographer/filmmaker from Ohio with a whole lot of fun stuff going on including some awesome eclipse shots & a very cool looking documentary called The Long Way Forward. You can follow him on Instagram or YouTube!

PS: Yes, dear skeptic. This photo is real and Torch Lake is really that clear some days. Michigan is lovely 😻

All clear beneath Copper Harbor

Lake Superior, Copper Harbor, MI by Michigan Nut Photography

Let’s stay up on the Keweenaw Peninsula today with a look at the crystal clear waters of Lake Superior as seen from under the surface of Copper Harbor! For almost all my life, Lake Superior has been the cleanest & clearest of the five Great Lakes. Imagine my surprise to learn that in 2017, Lake Michigan & Lake Huron were found to be more clear than Lake Superior:

While Lake Superior has not gotten any dirtier, lakes Huron and Michigan have gotten significantly clearer in the past 20 years or so, a study published earlier this year in the Journal of Great Lakes Research found.

Anecdotally, scientists knew water clarity was improving in those lakes. But it hadn’t been quantified.

“What surprised us was the magnitude of the change,” said Robert Shuchman, a study co-author and co-director of the Michigan Tech Research Institute. “We had no idea the data was going to tell us that Huron and Michigan have surpassed the water clarity in Lake Superior. That was the startling piece.”

Scientists analyzed satellite images of the lakes captured between 1998 and 2012. Over that period, they found, the depth that light could penetrate down into the water — known as the photic zone — increased by about 20 percent in lakes Michigan and Huron.

They attribute part of that change to less phosphorous runoff. Climate change also likely plays a role. But the dominant factor is the explosion of invasive zebra and quagga mussels in the lakes since the late 1990s, researchers concluded.

Some of the highest abundances of quagga mussels in the world are found in Lake Michigan, said Gary Fahnenstiel, a senior research scientist at Michigan Tech and study co-author.

So in the end, not great that Michigan & Huron passed Superior in this. I looked to see if anything had changed in that regard, but it appears not.

You can view & purchase a bunch more photos of this wild place including some more underwater shots in the Porcupine Mountains & Keweenaw Peninsula gallery on MichiganNutPhotography.com!

Lots more Lake Superior on Michigan in Pictures!

Comet P12 Pons-Brooks Visits Eagle Harbor!

Comet P12 Pons-Brooks Visits Eagle Harbor by Shelby Diamondstar Photography

Let’s head WAY north for another exciting celestial phenomenon, Comet P12 Pons-Brooks aka the Devil’s Comet. Space.com explains that the comet is named after French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons (1761-1831) who went on to become the greatest visual comet discoverer of all time:

In today’s world, comets are routinely found when they are far out in space, beyond the ability of being picked up by human eyes, but are caught using robotic cameras attached to large telescopes either here on Earth or from satellites out in space.

In contrast, Pons made most of his discoveries using telescopes and lenses of his own design; his “Grand Chercheur” (“Great Seeker”) was an instrument with a large aperture and short focal length, similar to telescopes that our modern-day amateurs would refer to as a “comet seeker.” Pons is noted today for visually discovering 37 comets (still a record) from 1801 to 1827.

…On Sept. 2, 1883, British-born American comet observer William R. Brooks (1844-1921) accidently found it. Like Pons, Brooks was a prolific discoverer of comets. In fact, his total of 27 visual discoveries is second only to Pons. Not until the first orbital calculations of Brooks’ discovery was made, was it realized that this comet and the comet found by Pons of 1812 were one of the same. So, this comet now bears the surnames of both observers.

With an orbital period of roughly 71 years, comet Pons-Brooks is considered to be a “Halley-type” comet, that is, a comet with an orbital period between 20 and 200 years, often appearing only once or twice within one’s lifetime. Other comets with a similar orbital period include 13P/Olbers, 23P/Brosen-Metcalf and the most famous of all, 1P/Halley. Because it was the twelfth comet to have a definitive orbital period calculated, it is cataloged today as 12P/Pons-Brooks.

You can look for the comet just after sunset, but you will probably need binoculars given the afterglow of the sunset.

MaryBeth took this way up on the Keweenaw Peninsula at Eagle Harbor Lighthouse. Click the photo above to share a comment with her on Facebook and for sure view & purchase her work at shelbydiamondstar.com!

PS: In my best Arnold voice, “I’ll be back” (because she has an amazeballs photo for us!)

When You Look into the Sun

Solar Eclipse 2012 by Diane

So when you look into the sun and see the words you could have sung
It’s not too late, only begun
We can still make summer
Yes, summer always comes anyway

-Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull)

There’s a lot of wild stories flying around about today’s eclipse. One that isn’t is the fact that there are a LOT of counterfeit glasses out there. If you are not CERTAIN the ones you have are legit, DO NOT WEAR THEM. You could go permanently blind.

Diane took this back in May 2012. See more in her Sunrise~Sunset album on Flickr.

Have a great eclipse & for sure share any pictures here or to this post on Facebook!

Get ready for the Detroit Tigers Home Opener!

The Detroit Tigers first Opening Day courtesy Detroit Historical Society

The Detroit Historical Society shared: The Detroit Tiger’s Opening Day has always been cause for celebration!  While baseball’s return and renewed championship hopes are enough to excite sports fans, the promise of the long summer days baseball brings with it never fails to put the rest of the city in a celebratory mood.

The caption of the photo is: Photo: c. 1886, from the Detroit Historical Society collection. Black and white photographic print depicting the Detroit Wolverines playing at Recreation Park, as seen from behind home plate. Mounted on board.

Definitely our red hot Tigers being THE ONLY undefeated team in baseball & in first place in the AL Central has the city extra fired up for the home opener against the Gonna Be in Vegas Next Year A’s.

Read more & see pics including the shot of them building the bleachers at Bennet Park/Navin Field back in 1910 at the Detroit Historical Society & let’s go Tigers!!