Long Exposure-Live Composite Mode Fireworks by Charles Bonham
Please practice safe explosions for the Fourth of July weekend! Every year one or two Michiganders lose their lives & many more lose fingers or suffer injury.
Charles took this photo last year at the Bay City Fireworks using the Olympus Live Composite Mode that lets you shoot a series of images using the same exposure time, with each shot only recording new sources of light. Very cool!! See more in his Fireworks gallery on Flickr.
Grand Haven Traffic by Scott Ward Photography
mLive shares that a record 2.6 million people are expected to travel for the Fourth of July in Michigan, up 3% from 2024.
AAA projects nearly 2.4 million Michigan residents will take a road trip, up 2.5% from the same holiday period last year. Another 96,000 residents are expected to fly domestically, and more than 160,000 to travel by bus, train or cruise.
No word on how many will be traveling by personal watercraft, but probably a lot more than usual!! They say that the busiest days on the road will likely be Wednesday, July 2, and Sunday, July 6. with afternoon hours as the most congested.
See more in Scott’s Planes, Trains & Automobiles…Boats too gallery on Flickr. For sure view & purchase his work on his website and follow Scott Ward Photography on Facebook for his latest!
Opening Day Anthem by Downtown Detroit Partnership
For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
Friday, April 4th 2025 is the 124th Opening Day for the Detroit Tigers. As a resident of Midtown in Detroit, I can tell you that this is unquestionably one of the biggest holidays of the year for us. Already the streets are filling with cars as baseball fans from all over Michigan and the world get ready for Tiger Baseball to return to the Motor City!
I’ve rounded up some of the highlights with a laser focus on FREE including and Opening Day party at Grand Circus Park by the City of Detroit and a Wisconsin manufacturer of watery beer that features a LOT of great food trucks, DJ Invisible, and lots of video walls and screens. There’s another free party from noon – 6pm just across Woodward at one of my favorite venues, The Fillmore with giveaways, WRIF and the game on their MASSIVE screen (tell the security guys Andy sent you and they will laugh). Also on the free front are a party at Gilly’s with giveaways, raffle, face painting & DJ Ray Ya Dig (official DJ of the Lions) from 9 AM–4 PM. I think that the Opening Day Party with my friends The Honest to God Jug Band is free, but they’re so fun and Cliff’s Bells is SO cool that I think you won’t mind if there is a cover.
And everywhere there are giveaways, giveaways, giveaways including the House of Faygo Pop-up at Campus Martius this Friday – Sunday.
Here’s more information on the photos & happenings. Please add yours in the comments here or on our Facebook!
Wearin’ o the Green (lights) at Michigan Central by Andrew McFarlane
Longtime followers of Michigan in Pictures who know how near & dear to my heart and the very existence of this photoblog Detroit’s Michigan Central Station is probably won’t be surprised that a string of requests from readers & friends to share pics of MCS lit up for St Patrick’s Day moved me to ride over there at 5am today!
I don’t have a photo site (yet at least) but you can always throw me a buck or two on Patreon! And for sure check out lots more Michigan Central Station on Michigan in Pictures!
PS: WOW do I wish I’d brought my dSLR over – the moon was incredible!!!
irish pub in irish hills by sj carey
May your troubles be less and your blessings be more, and nothing but happiness come through your door.
Happy St. Patrick’s day everyone! I’ve shared this photo by Scott before, and the good Lord willing, I will share it again!
See more from Scott on Flickr & get more St. Patrick’s Day fun on Michigan in Pictures.
Spirit of Detroit by Glen Suszko
Today is 313 Day, a celebration of all things Detroit. While I’m not usually a fan of making up holidays, I have to say that as a Detroit resident, it’s a pretty cool day with all kinds of free fun from the 313 Celebration at Robert C. Valade Park to free admission at museums for things like 313 Day at the Detroit Historical Museum that includes a popup Detroit vs. Everybody creator Tommey Walker.
Glen is one of the prime movers & shakers of the Eastside Camera Club, and he took this pic of the Spirit of Detroit at their July 2024 outing. They are providing the opportunity to photograph fast-moving racing bikes in the low-light setting of the Lexus Velodrome in Detroit this Saturday, March 15 at 7:30pm! Get details on their Facebook & follow Glen on Flickr for his latest.
Beignet Pistachio at Canelle by Andrew McFarlane
Fat Tuesday is the traditional feast before Lent begins. Polish-Americans brought their tradition of Tłusty Czwartek (Fat Thursday) to Polish enclaves like Hantramck in Detroit as Pączki Day. The Freep shares some facts about these Polish pastries:
I took the picture above yesterday at Canelle in downtown Detroit on the corner of Grand River & Griswold. For my money – which is backed by a French teacher mom – Canelle has the best beignet in town! Here are some pics from Paczki Day 2024 at New Palace Bakery in Hamtramck along with a shot of their 2025 Paczki: Cookie butter flavored buttercream with cookie crunch on the side/top, covered with powdered sugar!
Valentine on Ice by GR2 Photography
Happy Valentine’s Day everyone & I hope you have a lovely & love-filled Valentine’s Day & weekend!
I’ve featured this awesome shot from Lake Michigan in Empire before & I will feature it again! See more on GR2 Photography’s Facebook.
Woody the Woodchuck by Howell Nature Center
The Howell Nature Center shares: Groundhog Day 2025 is a wrap! Woody has predicted EARLY SPRING! 🌷🪻☀️ Thank you to everyone who came out to help us celebrate with Michigan’s official woodchuck. This was Woody’s 27th prediction, and her accuracy rate is about 65%!
So keep your Punxsutawney Phil forecast of 6 more weeks of winter, I’m going with Michigan’s official groundhog! Last year the Howell Nature Center shared why the event is so meaningful to them, education:
Groundhogs are often villified because of their digging habits, and it is easy to forget about their neat adaptations and their role in the ecosystem. We love sharing information about them to increase understanding, and this event gives Woody the opportunity to serve as an ambassador for her species to help people live in harmony with woodchucks.
DID YOU KNOW…
🐾 Woodchucks dig burrows that can be 50 ft long and include several different chambers for different purposes like raising young, hibernating, and toileting? Other species will even move into abandoned chambers!
🐾 With all that digging, woodchucks help aerate soil and recycle nutrients to increase soil health.
🐾 Woodchucks help disperse seeds, which promotes plant growth and diversity.
🐾 Woodchucks sometimes eat insects, which helps eliminate garden pests like grubs.
🐾 Woodchucks are an important part of the ecosytem and provide food for predators.
🐾 Woodchucks, also known as “whistle pigs”. are one of our only true hibernators in MI.
🐾 Their body temperatures can drop to 40 F and their heart rates to 4 beats per minute during hibernation.
Our wildlife helpline is available to help solve conflict with groundhogs that are living in undesirable places. We have lots of tips and tricks to humanely evict them and encourage them to move to a different location. Trapping and relocating is never a good idea, since it often results in death of groundhogs that are not able to find resources in a new location or of babies that have been orphaned by the removal of their mother.
I hope that you are able to make a donation on their website. Here are some of the injured and orphaned chucks they have cared for in their rehabilitation clinic.
Saginaw Water Works 2020 by Cathy B
Cathy shared this awesome shot of the Saginaw Water Works in the Absolute Michigan group on Flickr way back in December of 2020 which will give you an idea of how far behind I am! Have a very happy holiday – I will probably be posting regularly but maybe not! For sure I will have the annual roundup of the most popular pics of 2024 next week.
See lots more from Cathy on her Flickr including some stunning shots of frozen bubbles on geraniums!
Frozen bubble on geraniums by Cathy B
Michigan in Pictures 