How to see the Northern Lights in Michigan

Posted on by farlane
October Auroras by Shawn Malone

October Auroras by Shawn Malone/Lake Superior Photo

Just in! Shawn told me she just got in from shooting the northern lights last night – check her photo out right here and stay tuned to her Facebook for updates!

NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center reported this morning:

Earth is currently under the influence of a coronal mass ejection (CME) and G2 (Moderate) geomagnetic storming has been observed. This is likely the result of what was expected to be a near miss from an event originally observed on the 14th. This CME has a fairly well-organized magnetic field structure so continued G1 (Minor) to G2 (Moderate) storming is certainly possible. Stay tuned for updates as this event unfolds.

The Aurora Borealis was out last night, and I thought it a good time to share Shawn Malone’s Insider Secrets for Northern Lights that she wrote for the Pure Michigan Blog a couple of months ago:

Michigan has a lot of things going for it when it comes to northern lights viewing, the most important being 1). latitude  and 2). relatively low light pollution in many areas.  Northern Michigan sits in a great location latitude-wise, as the auroral oval dips further south on nights of stronger auroral activity.  The Upper Peninsula  is blessed with hundreds of miles of shoreline along the south shore of Lake Superior, which provides some of the best northern lights viewing in the lower 48 due to the very dark night skies.  When looking north over Lake Superior, one can see right down to the horizon and take in a 180 degree unobstructed view of the night sky.  Getting to a location without the obstruction of a treeline or hills is important at our latitude, as many times an auroral display will sit very low on the horizon. Having a dark night sky with little light pollution is necessary when looking for the northern lights, as the light of the aurora is equal to the brightness of starlight.

People often ask me how I’ve been able to see so many northern lights displays over the years and a lot of it has to do with what I mentioned above. I live in Marquette, Michigan which sits centered on the south shore of Lake Superior, and when looking north there’s nothing but lake for hundreds of miles. Marquette and locations nearby have many areas along the lakeshore still publicly accessible, allowing for the opportunity to view the aurora right from the shoreline.

If you’ve never seen the northern lights and want to maximize your opportunity to do so, learn and pay attention to sunspot activity, as that’s what drives the northern lights.

Read on for tips on where to catch these lights, some more photos from Shawn and her incredible, Smithsonian award-winning video Radiance.

View Shawn’s photo bigger on Facebook, follow her Lake Superior Photo page and if you get up to Marquette, check out the Lake Superior Photo Gallery on Front St in downtown Marquette!

Michigan in Pictures has a TON of Northern Lights information & photos that includes the science and stories of this incredible phenomenon.

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Grace Dickinson & Leelanau County’s Female Photographers

Posted on by farlane

WomenPhotographers-GraceDickinson-SteamerMissouri

Steamer “Missouri” docked in Leland in 1919, photo by unknown, hand colored by Dickinson Photography

This week’s Glen Arbor Sun has a terrific feature by my friend Kathleen Stocking on Six Leelanau County Women Photographers. She profiles Barbara Nowinski, Kathleen (Dodge) Buhler, Meggen Watt Peterson, Ashmir McCarthy, Marty Schilling and Grace Dickinson. Here’s Grace:

Grace Dickinson has a photo studio across the road from the place her grandparents first came to on the south shore of Little Glen Lake in the summer of 1912. Her grandparents traveled to the Leelanau Peninsula by steamer, from the Navy Pier in Chicago up Lake Michigan to Glen Haven. In 1942 her parents met and fell in love while her mother was a writer/editor at the Leelanau Enterprise and soon after became year-round residents. Grace’s father, Fred, a broker who worked from home, spent his free time photographing the dunes and the islands. One unusual photo shows a cloud the exact size of one of the Manitou Islands, above the island, a rare phenomenon caused by condensation when the temperature of the island is colder than that of the surrounding waters of Lake Michigan.

From an early age, Grace followed in her father’s footsteps, quite literally, accompanying him and sometimes photographing the same scenes. Grace left her studies at Northwestern Michigan College to go on a year-long sailing adventure in the Bahamas, and followed this with a two-decade-sojourn out in Montana where she married a rancher and finished college. Grace returned to the Leelanau Peninsula in the late 1980s and became a mapmaker for the Leelanau County Planning Commission. She began taking photos of the Leelanau Peninsula and opened her own studio out of which she sold her own and her father’s photos and maps. In the mid-1990s she revived the 1930s art of photographic hand-coloring, laboriously hand-tinting her father’s black and white photos of earlier years, photos which evoke the shadows and starkness of some of the photos of Diane Arbus, but as applied to nature, not people. In the medium of hand-coloring Grace discovered a way to keep her father’s legacy alive and express her own love of Leelanau. Her photo studio is on Glenmere (M-22) west of the bridge over the Glen Lake Narrows.

Head over to the Glen Arbor Sun for more! The photo above is labeled as having been taken in Glen Arbor in 1909, but former Leelanau Historical Museum Director Laura Quackenbush identified it as Leland’s dock. The photo was hand-colored by Grace from an old negative on glass found in the Leelanau Enterprise office during the time her parents (briefly) owned it.

If you’re interested in more work bu Grace and her father, head over to Dickinson Photography. I’ve also featured several photos from Fred Dickinson on Michigan in Pictures, and you can click that link to read a little about the coloring process.

George’s Eagle Harbor Web

Posted on by farlane

November 11 2008 Walkabout, photo by George Hite

“To Serve”, that’s the whole idea. Other Web sites set forth the natural, cultural and historic wonders of this special place for all to see. This site is designed to respond to more basic needs of those who live here — like what’s going on and, more importantly, the desire we all have for the delight and support of “neighborhood”.
~George Hite, November 1996

Last November 1, George Hite of Eagle Harbor passed away at his home at the age of 80. His memorial service is planned forJuly 28, 2012 and I thought it would be good to post one of his photos to remember one of the early pioneers of blogging in Michigan.

I first became aware of George’s Eagle Harbor Web in 1997 when looking for information about Eagle Harbor and the Keweenaw Peninsula. Over the years and along with many others, I followed life in the small town of Eagle Harbor through his photos and updates about longtime residents, new arrivals and the changing seasons. I hope you get a chance to take a moment to shuffle through his photos and writing and reflect upon a man who spent a lot of his life in service to his neighbors.

Farewell George.

Detroit Studio Collective Grand Opening

Posted on by farlane

The Fog

The Fog, photo by E.Peoples

The Detroit Studio Collective is holding their Grand Opening this Saturday (May 7) from noon to 10 PM (location). The photographers (some of whom have been featured on Michigan in Pictures) are Bobby Alcott, Rebecca Gutierrez, Kellie Saunders, Rob Terwilliger, Josh Willerton and Eric Peoples.

Check Eric’s photo out bigger and in his Greatest Hits slideshow.

Kent Lake in Kensington Metropark … and a photowalk

Posted on by farlane

Panorama Kent Lake

Panorama Kent Lake, photo by ansonredford

In the Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr, Charles posted an announcement of a spring photo walk taking place this Saturday (April 16) at Kensington Metro Park in Milford:

The walk is hosted by Southeast Michigan Digital Photography group and will take place on the Kensington nature trails with a raffle and optional lunch afterwards. Spring is a beautiful time of year for local photographers to enjoy photography together. The event is free though a permit is required to enter the park, permit prices can be found in the event details at Southeast Michigan Digital Photography or at our Facebook group site.

I have hazy but fond memories of my grandmother taking me here to feed the carp Ritz crackers when I was little. The Huron-Clinton Metroparks page on Kensington Metropark says:

Kensington’s 4,481 sprawling acres of wooded, hilly terrain surrounds beautiful Kent Lake, and is home to an abundance of wildlife and waterfowl. Kensington Metropark offers a multitude of recreational activities throughout the year, from biking and boating to cross-country skiing and tobogganing. In addition to striking sunrises and sunsets, 1,200-acre Kent Lake offers plenty of fun activities: swim at Martindale or Maple beaches, get soaked at the Splash ‘n’ Blast, or just spend the day fishing, boating or picnicking along the water. Take a tour of the lake aboard the Island Queen II in the summer and fall. Or, enjoy a winter day ice-fishing or skating on frozen lake waters.

This first-class recreational area also features an 18-hole regulation golf course, 27-hole disc course, nature center, farm center, beautiful picnic areas and scenic hiking and biking trails for hours of enjoyment. With two and a half million visitors every year Kensington Metropark is a favorite place to enjoy Michigan’s natural treasures.

Donald took this photo a couple of weeks ago. Check it out background big and see a lot more photos in his Kensington Metro Park slideshow!

There’s even more photos that show the diversity of wildlife and scenery in this slideshow from the Absolute Michigan group!

Remembering Jeff Lamb

Posted on by farlane

Music is what life sounds like.
~Eric Olson

Leelanau Shore, photo by Jeff Lamb

A photographer I have long admired and was fortunate enough to spend a little time with passed away yesterday.

Jeff Lamb took photos of urban landscapes and landscapes that were not urban, blending a love of his fellow humans with his love of the structures they created in his work.

New Orleans to Northern Michigan, Ann Arbor to Amsterdam, he took so many photos that he needed two Flickr accounts, jeff lamb and leylabunny and a photo blog.

See this bigger in Jeff’s Leelanau slideshow and explore his work through the links above.

Absolute Michigan Photo Fridays: Churning

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Churning

Churning, photo by Jeff Gaydash.

For those of you who are looking for another photo every week, I encourage you to check out Photo Fridays on Absolute Michigan. Almost every week, we feature the work of one of the great photographers in our Absolute Michigan pool on Flickr, along with some of their thoughts about photography and the state of Michigan.

We started in 2006 and have posted almost 200 Photo Fridays. With 2805 photographers as of today in the group, we’ll be done in 53 years!

Definitely view Jeff’s photo from Port Sanilac bigger and check out his sets including Piezography Prints, The Great Lakes, Architektura and Explored! (slideshow).

Morning Light at Reeds Lake

Posted on by farlane

Morning Light
Morning Light, photo by rdmegr

This photo was taken this weekend at Reeds Lake in East Grand Rapids.

Check it out bigger in rdmegr’s Reeds Lake slideshow.

More Michigan lakes from Michigan in Pictures.

Studying the Rouge Complex

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Rouge Remnants: Study II

Rouge Remnants: Study II, photo by Jeff Gaydash.

Jeff writes:

Freighters travel this portion of The Rouge to access Henry Ford’s Rouge Complex, where upon completion in 1928 was the largest industrial complex in the world. The massive facility had the ability to turn raw materials such as iron ore into complete vehicles ready for the showroom. Many buildings within the complex were designed by Albert Kahn and have been subjects for Diego Rivera, Charles Sheeler and Michael Kenna, whose work here has been some of the biggest inspirations in my own work.

Can we see Michael Kenna’s work at the Rouge Plant?, you ask. Just click that link, I answer!

Check this out bigger in Jeff’s slideshow.

More black & white photography on Michigan in Pictures!

Enter the Great Lakes Forever Photo Contest!

Posted on by Michigan in Pictures

Crashing Wave

Crashing Wave, photo by James Marvin Phelps (mandj98).

When I was posting information about the Absolute Michigan Summer Photo Celebration to some Flickr photo groups, I came across another cool contest. Rebecca Dill from Great Lakes Forever writes:

With summer vacations to the Lakes just around the corner, the sixth annual Great Lakes Forever Photo Contest is accepting submissions from May 20 – July 18, 2010. Through the 2010 Great Lakes Forever Photo Contest, photographers can help defend the Great Lakes with their cameras – and get noticed throughout the Great Lakes region.

Biodiversity Project’s Great Lakes Forever program has again partnered with Budweiser to sponsor a photography contest that celebrates the beauty of the Great Lakes through the incredible talent of local photographers. Great Lakes Forever is a non-profit education and activism campaign designed to raise awareness about our vulnerable and valuable Lakes.

The grand prize winner in both the professional and amateur categories will be featured on the 2010 Great Lakes Forever/Budweiser beer coasters. These coasters will be distributed to bars and restaurants throughout the Great Lakes region…

Interested photographers can visit the Great Lakes Forever website for contest rules and submission details. The submission deadline is July 18, 2010.

The Grand Prize is a kayak and portable navigation system and you can get all the details on their 6th Annual Photo Contest page!

Check this out bigger and in James’ Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore set (slideshow). You can also purchase it if you like!