Twenty years ago this morning on December 30, 2005, I started Michigan in Pictures to share some of the great photos I was seeing on Flickr along with some of the Michigan stories & events we were putting out on Absolute Michigan*. By way of celebration, here are some highlights from the first decade with the second to follow tomorrow!
2006: Michigan Photographer Profiles
The top two posts of 2006 were also my favorite: the Michigan Photographer Profiles of Ann Arbor Huron High senior Marjorie O’Brien and Matt Callow, a British born and bred photographer with a penchant for pinhole photography & unique cameras. I had so much fun exploring the motivations and techniques of some of my favorite photographers that I am honestly wondering why I stopped 🤔
2007: Slumpy
Ryan’s photo of the William Livingston Mansion in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood in Detroit has remained one of the most popular of all time. Slumpy has also served along with with Michigan Central Station as a centerpiece for the discussion of “ruin porn” photography.
2008: Northern Lights & an Electric Forest
The top two pics of the year took us to the Rothbury Music Festival (now Electric Forest) and high above the earth with the first of very many posts about predicting the aurora borealis.
2009: Lake Michigan Stonehenge
Lake Michigan Stones via bldgblog
The post about a stone circle underneath Lake Michigan in Grand Traverse Bay near Traverse City is the second most popular of all time.
2010: Photo evidence of Michigan cougars
Menominee County Cougar, June 2010 by Michigan DNR
While cougars in Michigan are a given in 2025, they were very much a question 15 years ago when we shared this trail cam pic.
The comments are kind of hilarious ;)
2011: Marquette Northern Lights
Marquette Northern Lights, October 24, 2011 by Shawn Malone
This isn’t the first of the many photos I’ve shared by Lake Superior Photo’s Shawn Malone, but it is one of my faves!
2012: Mount Arvon is Michigan’s Tallest
Mt Arvon – Michigan’s Highest Point by Gowtham
Gowtham took us all the way up Mount Arvon as part of my Michigan’s Tallest series.
2013: Know Your Michigan Turtles
I’m Posing for the Camera by capcbd
The most popular post of 2013 is also the most popular of all time: Know Your Michigan Turtles. It’s also the hub for information about Michigan’s 10 native turtle species so check it out!
2014 & 2015: Ice Cave Obsession
In the same way that I thought it was fascinatingly cool to have bridge photos as 4 of the 6 top photos in my 2025 Michigan in Pictures Year in Review, I think it’s pretty darn nifty that the top photos of 2014 & 2015 both reflected the hold that ice caves had on Michigan winter discourse. Check out Ken’s Ice Caves of Leelanau and Heather’s Ice Caves Return to Lake Michigan, and I will see you tomorrow!!
* Absolute Michigan was my Michigan supersite that was put out of business by the $10-30+ million per year behemoth that was Pure Michigan. Here’s a look courtesy the Wayback Machine of absolutemichigan.com in its prime.
Michigan in Pictures 
Awesome. Love them all.
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Me too! As I’m going through 20 years of photos I am realizing how many I have fond memories of
!!
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Twenty years! And still going strong. Congratulations, and keep up the great work!
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Thank you for being here!
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Thanks for all tou have done 9ver the past 20 years. It’s been a beautiful trip so far. Hoping for many more years.
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Thanks for the wishes and for being along for the ride Michael
!
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Good idea, Andy. Love this.
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Thanks Joel – I’m glad the idea came to me. (also that I decided to break it into two posts cause whew!
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These are great shots and the stories about them as well. I didn’t recall we were looking at the Aurora here in Michigan way back in 2011. I thought it was a newer phenomenon over here – where have I been? Wow. Too bad the Pure Michigan campaign didn’t incorporate your site into their behemoth marketing campaign for tourism in our state. I’m looking forward to Part 2.
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It would have been pretty cool. Absolute Michigan was definitely quite a thing back in the day. You can still (sort of) read it through the Wayback Machine.
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That is too bad Pure Michigan came along. I did check it out last night, but wanted to ensure it was the same site you gave me in this comment but got this message tonight (503 Service Unavailable – No server is available to handle this request).
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It should show up. It’s just the pages they were able to scan so some links work and some don’t.
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