exploring nature’s infinite connections
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...
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...
For those unfamiliar with Europa, it is one of Jupiter's 79 known moons with a water-ice crust. There is a hypothesis that life could exist in the oceans beneath this crust. I read a book by Jeremy Robinson, Beneath, about an expedition to Europa some time ago, a...
We've had a bit of a roller-coaster ride here in the Great Lakes region as far as ice cover this year. For the vast majority of the 2020/21 winter season, the lakes remained largely open. Then a big cold burst hit us in Feb 2021, and ice started forming very fast....
It is probably safe to say my season of winter photography has come to a conclusion. While March brings some highly unpredictable weather, and freezing temperatures are still in the forecast in the coming week, it is unlikely to create any big shifts now that the...
Temperatures are rising this last week of February, giving a possible hint the coldest spell of winter in Michigan may be coming to an end. Of course, now that I have typed that statement, it surely means we will be hit with another big storm. I took a couple of trips...
Blue ice is in the headlines of various news stories about Great Lakes winters over the past 5 years or so. While it is often referred to as "rare," I haven't found any substantiating studies explaining why that is other than articles trying to gain attention in...
I find that when I am out photographing, there are certain things that tend to catch my eye. Ice globules or ice globs are one of them. I haven't had much success in photographing them though. They may catch my eye, but they always seem just out of reach. Ice Globules...
My first outing for 2009 to photograph was a quick jump into my local woods to look for ice patterns. These woods are quite good for ice because nearly all of it floods quite regularly from the Clinton River. Given crazy Michigan weather, it dumped a good 12 inches of...