Sunflowers Galore, photo by Shawn Jenks
If you’re a fan of sunflowers, it’s your season! I love seeing fields bursting with sunflowers as I’m out and about this time of year.
View the photo background bigilicious and see more in Shawn’s slideshow.
More summer wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.
Gravelly Shoals offshore Light in Saginaw Bay, photo by George Thomas
The entry on Gravelly Shoal Light at Terry Pepper’s Seeing the Light begins:
Point Lookout juts from the shore on the western shore of Lake Huron, approximately half-way between the mouth of the Saginaw River and Tawas Point. With only five to eighteen feet above it, Gravelly Shoal extends some 3 miles southeasterly from Point Lookout towards Big Charity Island. To help guide down-bound vessels headed for Saginaw Bay through the deeper water lying between the southeast end of Gravelly Shoal and Big Charity Island, Congress appropriated $5,000 to construct a lighthouse on the northwestern shore of Big Charity on August 18, 1856. Work began at the site that year, but as a result of being started so late in the season, the station was not completed and lighted until the following year.
Perhaps as a result of its exposed location, or as a result of its keeper’s dwelling being one of the few of wooden frame construction on any of the Great Lakes, the station was a constant source of maintenance problems, and was not surprisingly one of the first to be automated through the installation of an acetylene illumination system in 1900. At this time an occulting white Pintsch gas buoy was also placed at the southeastern end of Gravelly Shoal to better mark the western edge of the passage between the shoal and Big Charity Island.
As a result of the combination of increasing vessel size, improvements in offshore light construction and the growing adoption of radio direction finding equipment, it became plain in the late 1930’s that the old Charity light and the gas buoy on Gravelly Shoal had outlived their usefulness, and consideration turned to the construction of a state-of-the-art offshore aid to navigation at the eastern end of Gravelly Shoal to better mark the deeper water of the passage.
View the photo background big and see more in George’s Lighthouses slideshow.
More Michigan lighthouses on Michigan in Pictures.
Grand Rapids Lip Dub – Rosa Parks Circle, photo by Gary Syrba
Tina Jones couldn’t believe I didn’t share the groundbreaking Grand Rapids Lip Dub of American Pie yesterday and neither could I! It was filmed in May of 2011 for Experience Grand Rapids by Scott Erickson Films and produced & directed by Rob Bliss. The YouTube page thanks a bunch of people involved and dedicates it to the late Roger Ebert, who loved movies and even named the GR LipDub “The Greatest Music Video Ever Made.” Rob (who is the musician on stage in the photo above) writes:
The Grand Rapids LipDub Video was filmed May 22nd, 2011 with 5,000 people, and involved a major shutdown of downtown Grand Rapids, which was filled with marching bands, parades, weddings, motorcades, bridges on fire, and helicopter take offs. It is the largest and longest LipDub video, to date.
This video was created as an official response to the Newsweek article calling Grand Rapids a “dying city.” We disagreed strongly, and wanted to create a video that encompasses the passion and energy we all feel is growing exponentially, in this great city. We felt Don McLean’s “American Pie,” a song about death, was in the end, triumphant and filled to the brim with life and hope.
If you know Grand Rapids and the people who were making it vibrant in 2011 – many who continue today – you’ll definitely see some friends. In any case – what fun!!
View the photo bigger and see more in Gary’s In the City (Grand Rapids) slideshow.
EDITOR’S NOTE: If you’re a person who doesn’t like my personal comments and viewpoints, particularly when they veer into the political realm, please consider browsing the beach, lighthouse, or animals categories today because you better believe I am veering that direction today.
I’d like to add that I recognize that for many of you, Michigan in Pictures is a place to go to retreat from the cares of the world, and I appreciate that what I share has that effect much of the time. Michigan in Pictures is also a creative outlet for me, and since I’m a person who is fiercely committed to preserving our land & water and the future of my children and the futures of others, you’re going to have to accept that sometimes those concerns will be reflected here.
The last Fallout shelter, photo by Richard Deming Photography
“North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. He has been very threatening beyond a normal state. And as I said, they will be met with fire, fury, and, frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.”
-President Donald J. Trump
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
-Don McClean, American Pie
Yesterday’s Detroit Free Press had a breezy bit on the Nukemap, a web app that lets you play around with nuclear explosions. If you’d like to see what North Korea can do to us, their warheads are somewhere in the 15-25 kiloton range these days. While you’re there you could check out what our own “fire & fury” would do to the Korean Peninsula, Japan & China were we to nuke Pyongyang. Our weapons are in the multiple megaton range and do a heck of a lot more damage.
President Trump’s remarks above were apparently unscripted, delivered from a press conference on opioids from his private golf club, and directed at one of the world’s biggest madmen, Kim Jong-un, who was making threats following the implementation of new and tougher international sanctions that the UN Security Council voted 15-0 to impose just last week. They are expected to remove 1/3 of North Korea’s trade revenue.
In the event your geopolitics are hazy, North & South Korea are each about the size of the UP, yet the population of the Korean Peninsula is almost 75 million people. The threat to unleash “fire & fury” on North Korea is like threatening to nuke North Dakota. It’s going to make South Dakota (South Korea), Minnesota (Japan), and Canada (China) and many others extremely concerned. Unlike that scenario, everything is much closer together and simply overflowing with all kinds of conventional and nuclear weaponry.
I urge anyone who is uncomfortable with this to contact your Representative & Senators and urge them to take this whole business of governing our nation a hell of a lot more seriously. In my opinion, Congress needs to take back war powers granted in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and provide a check on the President’s reckless impulses.
Apologies to Richard who has had a bunch of great photos on Michigan in Pictures over the years for using his dramatic picture in dramatic fashion. View the photo bigger and see more in Richard’s Things I’ve Seen in Grand Rapids slideshow.
OK, here’s American Pie by Don McClean because it’s the perfect song for this sort of time:
Doing it again this summer, photo by Kevin Povenz
If Asian carp ever get into the Great Lakes, fun in boats as shown above could well be a thing of the past. These invasive fish jump out of the water when disturbed by noise and vibrations. With an average weight of 30-40 pounds and some weighing in over 100 pounds, they can cause injury or death to boaters.
The Freep reports that a plan tentatively recommended by the Army Corps of Engineers to keep Asian carp from the Great Lakes would cost $275 million plus annual costs for maintaining and operating it of nearly $20 million a year:
Of all the options considered by the Army Corps for blocking the advance of Asian carp at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam in Joliet, Ill., the tentatively selected plan was the most expensive. It would use noise to block the fish, along with an electric dispersal barrier, water jets, a flushing navigation lock and more.
…The plan, however, doesn’t guarantee success: The Army Corps estimated the species known as Asian carp would still have a 10%-17% probability of becoming established in the Great Lakes, down from 22%-36% if no action was taken.
The Corps estimated that closing the navigation lock altogether would have the greatest likelihood of stopping bighead carp and silver carp — the two invasive species that are known as Asian carp — from reaching Lake Michigan, bringing the probability down to 1%-3%. But the cost to inland shippers and the companies they serve would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars with some shippers going out of business.
I hate to be a jerk, but PUT THOSE SHIPPERS OUT OF BUSINESS. Asian carp in the Great Lakes would be a disaster* and seriously impact BILLIONS OF DOLLARS in wages tied to the health and recreational value of the Great Lakes.
View the photo bigger and see more in Kevin’s slideshow.
*Don’t take my word for it. Jet skiing or pleasure boating anyone? Note that this video is 3 years old and also is PG-13 for language.
figure eights, photo by Terry Johnston
In the event that there aren’t enough 8s for you on this August 8th, here’s a whole bunch more from the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts in Grand Rapids.
View the photo bigger and see more in Terry’s UICA slideshow.
Around the Bend, photo by Daniel E. Johnson
The Traverse City Record-Eagle reports that the number of Michigan honey bee colonies is on the rise:
The number of honey bee colonies in Michigan rose about 16 percent over the last year. About 25,000 colonies existed at the beginning of 2016 in a census of operations with five or more colonies, according to the National Statistics Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. The comparable number on Jan. 1, 2017, was 29,000 colonies.
Varroa mites were the primary stressor of Michigan colonies over the last five quarters. They affected only 5.9 percent of the state’s bee colonies in the first quarter of 2016, but 64.1 percent of colonies in the third quarter of 2016. The Varroa mite is an external parasite that attaches to bees and weakens them.
The total number of bee colonies in the U.S. sank slightly during 2016, but held relatively steady at about 2.62 million colonies.
Colony Collapse Disorder symptoms were observed in more than 84,000 bee colonies in the U.S. from January through March 2017, a 27% increase from the same quarter of 2016.
View Daniel’s photo bigger and see more in his slideshow.
Into the Sunrise, photo by Tom Hughes
The sun rose on Lake St. Clair at about 6:30 AMthis morning. If you were there, maybe you were lucky enough to see something like Tom’s photo of the Cuyahoga headed into the sunrise. If not, at least we can be happy that there’s folks like him willing to get up and out for incredible shots like this.
Have a great weekend everyone!
View the photo bigger and see more in Tom’s slideshow.
While the lights of distant Bay City across Saginaw Bay from Point Lookout make for a beautiful photo, I feel for the photographer who wishes they’d shut them off at night.
If you’re interested in making your community more “night friendly” check out How to Start a Local Dark Skies Group from the International Dark Sky Association. In addition to miles and miles in the UP, Michigan has six designated Dark Sky Preserves and the Headlands International Dark Sky Park.
View the photo background big and see more in kare hav’s Pt. Lookout/AuGres slideshow.
Sonya Reese, photo by Noah Stephens
“We lost a lot of businesses and homes. [The riots] had a negative impact on the black race.”
– Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employee Sonya Reese
I just finished an incredibly rewarding week volunteering for the Traverse City Film Festival. One of the many films that I did not see is Detroit by Mark Boal & Katherine Bigelow that opens tomorrow (Aug 4). The trailer (below) looks amazing, and Bigelow is still the only woman to win an Oscar for Best Director.
Photographer Noah Stephens has been featured before for his work in the People of Detroit series. He was hired by the film to document the people and landscape as they are 50 years after the Detroit riots of 1967.
The photo shows Fiat Chrysler Automobiles employee Sonya Reese. Sonya and her daughter Ivy were interviewed and photographed in Gordon Playground. The playground was built on the site of the blind pig where the 1967 riot began. The park was remodeled in June 2017. The park is located on the precipice of prosperity. To the east are the mansions of the beautiful Boston-Edison historic district. To the west is the Dexter Bar.
More photos at The People of Detroit: 50 Years Later and see more of Noah’s work (and hire him)at noahstephens.com.
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