Michigan in Pictures Top 6 Photos of 2016

Welcome to the 2017 Michigan in Pictures year in review! I’d normally wish you a Happy New Year and fun New Year’s Eve in this space, but my timing was thrown off. Please do still have a safe & fun New Year!

The major 2016 update was that I added an account on Patreon that allows folks to toss a few bucks my way once or every month if they choose. I’m up to a burger with a couple of beers every month, so thank you supporters – it’s very much appreciated! Also appreciated is all of you sharing my posts here and on the Michigan in Pictures Facebook.

Once again the most visited post was Know Your Michigan Turtles, and I added the Red-eared Slider on May 23rd in celebration of World Turtle Day. If I were a betting man, I would lay long odds on the Common Musk Turtle being added to the list May 23, 2017 as it’s the only one not yet featured.

Instead of a top 5, I added an extra one because a razor-thin margin separated numbers 5 & 6 and #5 was really more of a graphic I made than a photo. I’d also like to point out that other than the graphic, ALL of the photos have a lake in them.

#6

August 12 – Sometimes the Stars Align by Snap Happy Gal Photography

Flat-out stunning photo of the Frankfort Lighthouse by Heather Higham, a Michigan in Pictures regular. 

#5

April 1 – “MU” merges University of Michigan & Michigan State University via Absolute Michigan

Historic merger to create the largest university on the planet, known simply as “MU” was announced.

#4

October 21 – Lake Charlevoix Fall Colors by frank wulfers

Fall color was a little later than normal this year, and Frank got a gorgeous shot of late October color from the Avalanche Mountain Scenic Overlook in Boyne City.

#3

October 21 – Black Rocks, #1, Summer of ’16 by Lake Superior Photo

Shawn of Lake Superior Photo has been a longtime supporter of Michigan in Pictures and it’s always good when one of her photos makes the list!

#2

January 23 – Enchanted Point Betsie by Kristina Lishawa

The winds howl, the snow falls, and the waves crash, yet Betsie stands more beautiful and enchanting than ever. ~Kristina Lishawa

#1

February 20 – Live Anywhere by Jay

FUN FACT: My absolute favorite place in Michigan is right here – Chapel Rock and Chapel Beach in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. While I have visited the Lakeshore in the winter, I haven’t made it to Chapel Rock yet.

As with so many photos I share, I do get the vicarious experience though.

Thank you everyone for your support of Michigan in Pictures in 2016!

 

Michigan in Pictures Top 5 for 2015

It’s that time of year when I look back and try to remember what happened, a task that is made a lot easier by the nifty analytics provided by the good folks at WordPress.com (and the questionable folks at Facebook).

One thing that happened was the re-design of Michigan in Pictures to feature bigger photos, something that pretty much everyone seems to appreciate.

Honorable Mention is the consistently popular post Know Your Michigan Turtles. It was originally published in 2013 and continued to be the most consistently visited post on Michigan in Pictures in 2015. This year I featured the Spiny Soft-shell Turtle on World Tortoise Day and was even re-tweeted by American Tortoise Rescue, the amazing organization behind the day and worldwide turtle preservation. As a turtle fan, I find this awesome.

#5

December 7th ~ How Pere Marquette 1225 inspired the Polar Express by Bob Gudas

Subtitle the story of how this iconic engine provided inspiration for the iconic children’s book by Michigan Author Chris Van Allsburg “Why it’s important to preserve our history.”

#4

November 10th ~  The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald via Wikimedia Commons

If there’s a Michigan folk song that everyone knows, it’s Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Read about how he wrote it, watch the best darn video on the internet featuring this song, and marvel at the fact I can’t tell the difference between Walter Cronkite and Harry Reasoner.

#3

January 13th ~  Ice Caves Return to Lake Michigan by Heather Higham

Two years ago, Lake Michigan’s ice caves blew up, drawing tens of thousands of people to the shores of Lake Michigan, and when they formed this year, Heather was there!

#2

August 3rd ~  Jellyfish Stormfront by Tom Parrent

The crazy storm of early August 2015 devastated areas of Northern Lower Michigan including leveling acres and acres of trees in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and rendering the village of Glen Arbor inaccessible for days.

#1

April 20th ~  Coast Guard shares Manitou Passage shipwrecks from above by the U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City

The top post of the year is this aerial photo of the 1917 wreck of the Rising Sun by a Traverse City based Coast Guard aircrew. Several more photos available at the link.

Thanks everyone for being a part of Michigan in Pictures in 2015!

Leaving … for a little while

Leaving, photo by Christian Spencer

(but just to be clear, I’ll be back)

I wanted to let you all know that I’m about to embark on a little adventure to Central America for the next couple of weeks. To keep you company while I’m gone, I’ve selected a bunch of photos so you probably won’t notice much in the way of difference. I do apologize if something happens that makes a photo I scheduled seem tone deaf.

Anyway, enjoy my vacation!

View Christian’s photo background big and see more in his Strobist & Concert slideshow.

Frozen in Time, 2014 edition

Frozen in Time, photo by photofrenzy2000

2014 will never come this way again, so for better or worse, here are some 2014 highlights from Michigan in Pictures…

The most popular post was Cougar Cam Confirmation, which was published on November 7th. Since I’ve been sounding the “cougars live in Michigan” horn for several years now, it’s gratifying that the DNR is now on board.

With 77,000 views on Facebook, the cougar cam was the most popular post there too, followed very closely by Space Weather and Starbreeze that benefited from the Lake Superior Photo bump!

Shawn of Lake Superior Photo checked in with the second most popular pic, Paradise is the nickname of this place, a photo that features one of the amazing & out-of-the-way Michigan gems that I learned about in 2014.

The third most popular picture & story was one from close to my home, the astonishing The Ice Caves of Leelanau that drew tens of thousands of people to the Leelanau Peninsula last winter to see them. You can click that link to see Ken’s photos or save yourself the time and head over to his site to purchase his book, The Ice Caves of Leelanau.

Weighing in at number four was Winter at Tahquamenon Falls by John McCormick aka MichiganNut. While this photo didn’t make his 2015 wall calendar, a dozen other great ones did!

Closing out the top five was the Blood Moon and the Lunar Eclipse Tetrad by Michael Seabrook. The first two of these four total lunar eclipses are in the books, but April 4 & September 28, 2015 are still to be seen.

The top commented post was Michigan in Pictures is a blog, folks, which I posted after getting a bunch of negative comments after sharing a photo from a group working against the Keystone XL Pipeline coming through Michigan. It made me very happy to get support for protecting the beautiful natural heritage features on Michigan in Pictures from so many readers … and also to share the awesome photo of our cats!

View this photo from December of 2010 at the St. Joseph Lighthouse bigger and jump into photofrenzy2000’s slideshow for more awesome shots!

Rolling past 5,000!

Yesterday the Michigan in Pictures Facebook page blasted past 5000 fans, an occasion that just one photo didn’t seem enough to mark. I am so grateful to everyone who’s become a fan of Michigan in Pictures on Facebook or here at the blog. It means a lot to me that people share my love of the great state of Michigan. Thank you!

The photos left to right are…

5 Spot by Matt Burrows – Matt has been featured several times on Michigan in Pictures and is the first person that I know who really embraced iPhone photography. He says that it’s part of an “Enter” sign at 5/3 Bank in Grand Rapids and taken with an iPhone 3GS (CrossProcess app).

The Heart of Detroit by Maia C – Maia was one of the first 100 people to join the Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr. With 3400 members and nearly 200,000 photos, it’s still going strong! And yes, she has a couple of photos on Michigan in Pictures too! About this photo of the Point of Origin she writes: This compass in Campus Martius Park marks the base point for the survey that began the rebuilding of Detroit after a devastating fire in 1805. The glass center covers a granite pillar that was buried at this spot around 1820 to mark the “point of origin” for the new street grid. The Point of Origin is a few minutes’ walk north of Detroit’s riverfront.

Howl at the Full Moon by Kevin’s Stuff – Kevin is our Man of the Moon (and a little Northern Lights). Fittingly, the photo above is of the January full moon. He writes: The Full Moon of January is called the Full Wolf Moon. Amid the zero cold and deep snows of midwinter, the wolf packs howled hungrily outside Indian villages. It was also known as the Old Moon or the moon after Yule. In some tribes this was the Full Snow Moon; most applied that name to the next moon.

Circles in the snow by vostok71 – In January of 2008 Sergei wrote: Leaf got trapped during the last night ice storm. He has a few photos on Michigan in Pictures including the biggest apple grown in Michigan!

Click them all to see them bigger!!

Today is Michigan in Pictures 8th Birthday!

eight, photo by caterpillars

I started Michigan in Pictures on December 30, 2005. In the 8 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve posted 2,494 photos of and from the Great Lakes State.

This is far and away my favorite web project of all time, because every week I learn new things about the people, places, history and natural world of the state that is my home. I’m so grateful to the photographers who have shared and continue to share their photos with me and an audience who keeps showing up for more of Michigan.

Thank you!

View Laura’s photo on Flickr and in her slideshow. You can also click for more photos from her along with some actual caterpillars!