May 2026: Red Frilled Tulip

 In this part of Michigan, nothing says Spring like tulips. Looking at this one it is not hard to understand why. After a long winter of monochrome, to see the first flowers come up and have them be so striking is quite enjoyable!

This is another archive image, as I am still out of commission for another month or so. Hoping to be back at it by July though!

Enjoy the warmer weather!!

J

April 2026: The Prosperous Cheetah

 

When they are not running at 70mph, cheetahs don't move around much. Especially when their bellies are already full. :)

I am not going to be moving around much for the next couple months either, as yet another surgery is going to have my arm in a sling starting tomorrow morning. Apparently I pulled the top of my bicep off somehow. So you are going to be seeing archival images for awhile I am afraid. This one is quite old, but still enjoyable I hope. 

March 2026: Sandhill Cranes

 

These are sandhill cranes, notoriously hard to approach as they do not like people, they have excellent vision, and are very rarely alone.  They are quite common around here in the summer months, and their return is an assurance that spring is not far behind. I heard the first ones of the season last week, so decided this would be a good image to post even though I took it in the autumn. 

I anticipate hearing red-winged blackbirds in the next week or so as well...that is always a heart-warming sound to me even though there is usually another snowstorm right behind them. You take the bad with the good though, as one never shows up without the other. 

February 2026: Mid-Month Photography Tip

 

For those of you who do Urbex and abandoned places photography, it is always wise to make sure you don't walk in to a particular building "blind". You never know what is actually holding some structures up. This abandoned house looked very inviting for exploration from the outside at ground level, but a quick peek into the basement through a window revealed this nightmarish accident waiting to happen. Yes, that jinky Jenga is all that was holding up the entire house! 

I say "was" because it is not there anymore, fortunately. And fortunately I had the good sense to look in there before considering going inside. 

Stay safe! Be smart!

February 2026: Names On The Wall

 One of the aspects of taking photos in an abandoned asylum is that you never want to lose sight of the fact that real people lived, struggled desperately, and died there. This wall is located in one of the residential buildings where the patients lived. The nurses who cared diligently for these people also lived on site, on the top floor. Several of them would record the names of their patients on the wall in pencil near their beds, sometimes with the date they arrived or where they were from. Some of these names have been there on these bricks for 100 years. It isn't known why they did this, perhaps to remember to pray for them every night, perhaps because they knew that it was likely that no other record of that person being there would be available in the future, no one knows. But the fact is that in some cases these pencil entries ARE the only record of that person being there, and the only evidence that anyone ever cared enough about them to even record their name. It is a very poignant part of these buildings, and every time I have been there I have taken the time to stop and take note of the names for ten minutes or so.

These buildings are currently slated for renovation where possible, and demolition where not, so I do not know what is to become of these bricks and the names upon them. Perhaps the photos people have taken of them will be all that the future will be able to see. But they were real people with real struggles, some of the struggles very serious, and they were cared for by people who thought them worthy of remembering.

January 2026: Blue Morpho

 

Here is a magnificent Blue Morpho butterfly to bring in the new year with a blast of color! These beauties live in Central and South America, and can be 5 inches across! Their backs are an irridescent blue, from which they get their name, but the underwings, seen here, are what I think of as their "good side". 

Wishing you a colorful and prosperous new year full of amazing sights and experiences!  

December 2025: Ghost Squirrel

 

No, not a ghost. And not an albino! This is actually an Eastern Gray Squirrel. Normally they are either gray or black, but they have a very recessive gene which now and then pops up in a few locations across the country which produces these all white variants. In these isolated places the variant can be suddenly common for a generation or two, with sometimes as many as 12 or more squirrels being white. 

This particular population holds only 3 white individuals, so they are very rare indeed.

An auspicious choice for photos this month, as everything here is now covered in snow, and these 3 white squirrels which were so visible to predators in the summer are now perfectly camouflaged, unlike their gray and black siblings.