Notes from the Woods

seeing · environment · exploration · photography
Jimmy Carter 1924-2024

Jimmy Carter 1924-2024

Thank you, Jimmy Carter, RIP 1924-2024 While I do not have a photo of me with the former President, I do have photos that are direct results of one of his acts, the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which created the Katmai National Park...

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A Leaf’s Journey

A Leaf’s Journey

It feels like 27°F (- 2 °C). That's what I woke up to this morning, looking at the weather on my phone. As meteorological autumn wraps up its final days, the record warmth we've been experiencing in Michigan is over as we prepare for another seasonal transition. While...

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Plum Brook Preserve

Plum Brook Preserve

One year ago, I wrote about a bit of a rabbit hole I stepped into regarding the name of a local city-owned nature preserve and confusion over some naming on the maps of a couple of streams that run through or around the Plum Brook Nature Preserve (aka. Sterling...

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Michigan Aurora Redux

Michigan Aurora Redux

The evening of October 10, 2024 ( a KP index of 9!) brought another spectacular solar storm our way, triggering displays of the Aurora Borealis across Michigan and elsewhere. The Aurora Borealis appears more frequently at lower latitudes because we are likely...

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Between Worlds

Between Worlds

In May, I spent some time in an expansive dunescape on Michigan's western shore. Silver Lake Dunes is an exciting place near the small town of Mears, Michigan. "Expansive" is quite a relative term, though. If you look for it on a map of Michigan, it is just this tiny...

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Summer of Silence

Summer of Silence

As the 2024 Autumn Equinox approaches next week, I am trying to reflect on why I haven't made a post for what has essentially been all summer this year. It isn't unusual that summertime is generally my least "productive" time for photography. I found a post I had in...

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Aurora Borealis in Michigan

Aurora Borealis in Michigan

Unless you've been living under a rock for the weekend, it is no surprise to see thousands of images from the extreme G5 geomagnetic storm, which triggered auroras down to Florida—reportedly the largest in 20 years. Many people seeing the aurora for the first time,...

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On Delusion of the Senses

On Delusion of the Senses

This is another aerial photograph, a nadir view, of the Silver Lake dunes in Michigan, taken at about 200 ft (61m) AGL. I admit I didn't see the shape of a human head when I first saw it from the air, but there was certainly enough intrigue about these patterns in the...

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Earth Day 2024

Earth Day 2024

This is a photo I took at Belle Isle State Park in Detroit, Michigan, in 2020, and it brings to mind many aspects of connectivity. If you stop and think about it for a bit, a lot is going on here. But the first step is just that - stop and think. Aside from the visual...

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