Pajareo sin fronteras

Just a short post this time. There was a nice big band of intense thunderstorms rolling through Michigan last night, which usually just serves to make me feel better about staying inside. However, I was bored, so I did what any sane person would do, and got out my camera. Now, driving out to a field and standing in the rain with a metal tripod and camera during a lightning storm is extremely dangerous, and should not be attempted by mere laymen. Fortunately, I'm no layman, I'm an amateur photographer, so out I went. This was my very first time photographing lightning, so it was a pretty steep learning curve (first lesson: policemen find it kind of strange when you're standing by the side of the road with lightning crashing all around you). I only caught the tail end of the storm, and only came out with a few keepers, but it was still a lot of fun. Now when's the next lightning storm?

Glen Haven is one of my favorite photography locations in the area, but for most of the time when I was out there a couple days ago, I was sure I was in for a disappointment. Many people decide to go with their gut feeling and their gut feeling is usually surprisingly accurate. I'm not one of those people; my gut feeling is almost always dead wrong. I'd be terrible at casinos. So I probably shouldn't have been surprised that my hike went way better than I expected it to. For the most part, is was one of those perfectly cloudless days that are great for the beach, but not as much fun for taking pictures. However, the weather report did give me some hope that there would be some clouds later on in the day. The ideal conditions for sunset photography (according to conventional wisdom) are scattered clouds, but not directly on the horizon, so that the sun is still visible. When I got there, I realized that I was in luck for the first part, but less so for the second; the

The United States recently finished its hottest summer ever, and the whole country was hit with a record-breaking heat wave a couple weeks ago. Northern Michigan was no exception, and we had highs in the 100s a couple days. Not nearly as bad as what they experienced further south, but about 30 degrees hotter than what I'm comfortable with. The hottest day of the summer so far also happened to be my day off, so I decided to take a day trip to the Pierce Stocking Scenic Drive, a tourist hotspot right in the middle of the Sleeping Bear Dunes.  The view from the walkway   Really the only spot on the drive worth visiting (in my opinion) the final stop, where one can walk onto the dunes themselves, and there's a nice walkway built on the bluff, hanging over the water. I didn't bother too much with the walkway, but I did take the opportunity to get off the beaten path and explore the undeveloped part of the dunes. Most people are fine staying on the path, and there's

Add "sand" to the title, and you basically have what makes Leelanau County so beautiful (although some would argue "cherries" should added somewhere in the mix). But these three are what I've been focusing on lately with my photography, hence the title. "Sand" may play a bigger part in my next update, but that's neither here nor there. What I've put up here are just a few photos from various picture outings and my attempts to escape the midday heat. Having such a late sunset is nice when you work until 8 everyday, although it's not late enough many days, unless I feel like skipping dinner. And I never, ever feel like skipping dinner. I've still done some late-evening rushes through county roads, realizing I'm almost too late to catch the sunset, and hoping nobody is monitoring my road speed.  Many of these photos are somewhat similar in their composition (vertical), color scheme, and  subject matter (see above title). This is par