A Late November Morning, photo by jiafanxu
Safe travels to you and your guests this Thanksgiving holiday!
View jiafanxu’s photo bigger and see more in their A Late November Morning slideshow.
Over the River…
Wintry Seven Bridges, photo by Heather Higham
AAA Michigan reports that about 1.5 million Michiganders are heading over the river and through the woods for the Thanksgiving holiday. The good news is that gas prices are the lowest since 2009 – down 40 cents from last year. The bad news is another weather system that’s dropping freezing rain & snow, closing schools and
View Heather’s photo bigger and see more in her Rivers slideshow. She took the photo at the Seven Bridges Natural Area near Kalkaska.
There’s more rivers and more bridges on Michigan in Pictures.
Fall color on Grand Sable Lake
Fall Colors On Grand Sable Lake, photo by Gary McCormick
Gary took this back in September at Grand Sable Lake in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore.
Get it background bigtacular and see more in his Grand Marais, MI slideshow.
More Fall wallpaper & more Pictured Rocks on Michigan in Pictures.
Cooler Tour … Fishtown
Cooler Tour … fishtown, dam view by Ken Scott Photography
Ah, November in Michigan. The Fishtown Preservation Society explains:
Fishtown is a unique historical attraction composed of weather-beaten fishing shanties and small shops lining the mouth of the Leland River. The site has endured and adapted over the last 150 years as an ever-evolving working waterfront that still operates as one of the only unmodernized commercial fishing villages in the state of Michigan.
One of the most important characteristics of Fishtown is its core of historic shanties. Though only a few are still used for commercial fishing operations, most of the structures in Fishtown had their origins as commercial fishing buildings. These buildings served many purposes, including net-mending sheds, ice houses, smoke houses, and storage. Though processes like ice-making are now mechanized in a commercial fishery, running a fishery still requires extensive space for equipment storage and net repairs.
Many buildings have come and gone from the Fishtown landscape with the changing fortunes of the industry, yet Fishtown survives as a rare working waterfront and an authentic and active commercial fishing village.
Head over to fishtownmi.org for more.
Click to see Ken’s photo bigger, check out his Cooler Tour photos and be sure to follow him at Ken Scott Photography on Facebook.
Portraits Of The Artist As An Awestruck, Foul-Mouthed, Middle-Aged Child
Portraits Of The Artist As An Awestruck, Foul-Mouthed, Middle-Aged Child, photo by Liz Glass
Fall is buried under about 70 feet of snow in northern Michigan right now, but at least the pictures remain. Liz explains the title of her photo:
Because you should have heard me when I got down there and confirmed that yes, not only was that aspen leaf covered in droplets of every size, but apparently each one had a mind of its own when it came to choosing what color to be. If anyone can explain this, please speak up. I’ll be the one sprawled out in my driveway saying things like “No f**king way” and “oh my god, get the f**k out of here.”
View her photo bigger and see more in her Autumn slideshow.
PS: If you’re in Boyne City, be sure to stop into her store, the Lake Street Market!
High Winds & Waves on the Petoskey Pier
High Winds & Waves, photo by Julie A Christiansen
Julie got a great shot of the waves rolling over the pier at Petoskey. View it bigger and see more in her giant-sized Michigan slideshow.
PS: Julie shared this in the Michigan Cover Photos group on Flickr, and it’s the latest cover photo on the Michigan in Pictures Facebook. Please feel free to share yours there too. If you’re a Facebooking person, you might want to become a fan of the page for bonus weekend photos and discussion about the photos featured here!
Life in the Freezer
Sunlit Snow Fall IR, photo by Jess Clifton
As anyone with a news feed knows, it was below freezing in all 50 states yesterday. Michigan got whacked with up to 1 1/2 feet of snow and Detroit even tied the 1880 record low for a November 18th. In honor of that momentous event, here’s a picture of that sums up the cold & snow perfectly.
View Jess’s photo background bigtacular and see more in her Winter in Northern Michigan slideshow.
More winter wallpaper and more weather on Michigan in Pictures.
Tis the season … to Surf Michigan
Marquette MI Surf 04-12-2013, photo by Shawn Malone/Lake Superior Photo
The Great Lakes Echo has a great WKAR Current State feature produced by April Van Buren that I encourage you to check out to get a real feel for Michigan surfing. It’s titled Can’t get to California? Surf the Great Lakes and features Bob Beaton, president of the Great Lakes Surfing Association and Joe Matulis, owner of East Lansing-based paddleboard and surfboard company Matuli.
The story of surfing the 25 foot waves at Grand Haven the night the Fitz went down is reason alone to check it out, and this 15 minute feature takes you from the birth of Michigan surfing in the 70s when they tore the masts off of sailboats and made their own boards, to the recent past when they … well … still made their own boards while learning to surf to be more employable as ocean lifeguards, and all the way up to the present day with heated wetsuits that let you surf two hours in the dead of winter without a break. Except for the winter waves because this is Michigan, so of course the best waves are found in winter!
If you’re talking about cold weather surfing, it doesn’t get much colder than Lake Superior in April! Check out Shawn’s photo bigger and get many more from this April surfing session on Lake Superior in Marquette in her Marquette MI Surf 04-12-2013 album on Facebook. Shawn also has a gallery of some long period Superior winter waves at lakesuperiorphoto.com that was featured in Surfer’s Journal.
Lots more surfing on Michigan in Pictures.
Hiking to happiness
expedition, photo by brian
A couple months ago, Trish P shared an article from Outside Magazine about findings from British & Michigan researchers that Hiking Makes You Happier:
Researchers from the University of Michigan and Edge Hill University in England evaluated 1,991 participants in England’s Walking for Health program, which hosts nearly 3,000 walks per week for more than 70,000 regular participants. They found that the nature walks were associated with significantly less depression in addition to mitigating the negative effects of stressful life events and perceived stress. The findings were published in the September issue of Ecopsychology.
Sara Warber, associate professor of family medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School and senior author of the study, said that the large sample was a defining factor.
“We observed behaviors of a large group, in which some chose to walk and some chose not to, instead of us telling them what to do,” she said. “After 13 weeks, those who walked at least once a week experienced positive emotions and less stress.”
Easy enough! Read on for more, and explore Michigan’s vast trail network at Pure Michigan.
Brian took this shot at Silver Lake Dunes State Park. View it bigger and see more in his Fractions slideshow.
More black & white photography and more dunes on Michigan in Pictures.
Chasing Fall
Aubrieta Hope at Cloud Peak, photo by Michigan Nut Photography
Aubrieta Hope shared this feature from the Pure Michigan blog about six photographers chasing UP fall color that includes three Michigan in Pictures regulars – Neil Weaver, Craig Sterkin & John McCormick. It begins:
Once upon a time, six shooters ventured north to the Tripod Forest, a fabled land of brilliant fall color in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. All were packing: most brought Nikon’s, but two carried Canons. They loaded up minivans, SUV’s and 4×4′s, bringing filters and flashlights, bug spray, raingear, ice scrapers, and backpacks. About half of them planned to find a campsite someplace and the others made hotel reservations. Some had never met, but were destined to. A few of them hoped to cross paths up there somewhere.
It was late September and their only plan was to find and follow the color. Frost was in the forecast. The time was now. The 2014 Michigan Fall Foliage Convention had begun!
Click for more including photos of these folks in action!
View Aubrieta’s photo bigger at the Pure Michigan Blog and see her photography at michiganscenery.com. You can also check out the other photographers at Neil Weaver Photography, John McCormick’s Michigan Nut Photography, Craig Sterken Photography, Phil Stagg’s MI Falls and Kenneth Keifer Photography.
Michigan in Pictures 