As much as I like shooting at my local parks, I thought it was time to do a road trip north from my home in southeast Michigan to Grayling, Michigan. I have been there a couple of times in past years, and have always found some good subjects to shoot.  The environment is mainly a mix of hardwoods and pine forests.  There was a couple open fields I found flowers in as well.  

I booked three nights at the Hartwick Pines State Park, and instead of a tent, I just set up my Ford Transit Connect van for sleeping in.

I set up a cot with an air mattress, and stored all my gear below the cot, and in the overhead storage unit.  One problem with sleeping in the van, is that it gets pretty hot sleeping in it during summer time temps.  I had a fan installed in the roof, to pull out the hot air, and then reverse the van when the temps fall at night time.  The day time temps were mid 80s to 90 degrees, and night time temps in the 50s to low 60s, so with the fan pulling in the cool temps at night, it felt a little like I had an air conditioner. 

Because it was really windy during the mid day time hours, I did all my shooting at daybreak and the last hour in the evening when the winds die down.

In the open fields there were lots of Goatsbeard seed heads, so I got a couple nice images, including one with a grasshopper resting inside the seed head.