Some neighbors put out a pumpkin. These neighbors put in 300+ hours. Shinks Haunted Yard lights up 1828 Shore Dr. in Racine with walking paths and over 50 interactive buttons! Open nightly at 7 p.m. Free to explore, with donations supporting breast cancer awareness. Who’s going with you? 📷: Aaron Johnson
Unsolved mysteries: I hike past this tree regularly, and in spring and fall, a mysterious hot spot shows up on my thermal scope. By midsummer, it disappears. Portal to another dimension? Something living beneath the bark? I’ve tapped on the tree, but nobody’s come out to answer.
Thanks to my hot wife for providing both scale and a heat comparison. If this keeps up, I may have to call Geraldo to crack the vault. What do you think is in there? Oak Creek, WI 📷: Aaron Johnson
Bubble butt. This spotted orbweaver was making a quick getaway when it released a stream of liquid waste, leaving one perfectly round droplet behind for the camera. Nature photography is glamorous. Oak Creek, WI 📷: Aaron Johnson
The Sheboygan County Fair is celebrating its 175th anniversary this Labor Day weekend in Plymouth. From livestock and exhibits to grandstand events and a midway glowing after dark, the five-day fair has been around since 1851. Plymouth, Wisconsin. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Forty-one years ago today, on September 6, 1985, Midwest Express Flight 105 crashed shortly after taking off from Milwaukee’s Mitchell Field for Atlanta. All 31 passengers and crew aboard the DC-9 were killed.
The upper photo shows the crash site as it appears today. The small grouping of trees and tall grass marks the area just south of College Avenue, beside Cudahy Nature Preserve. The lower photo shows the modest memorial now quietly standing at MKE’s Layton Avenue Observation Area.
Thousands of people pass both places without knowing their connection to one of Wisconsin’s deadliest commercial-aviation disasters. The plaque offers a simple remembrance: “They are not forgotten.”
📷 Aaron Johnson
Are we tired of lightning pics yet? This morning’s storm over Cedarburg, Wisconsin, with Milwaukee’s East Side in the foreground. Taken around 8 a.m. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Right place, right time. The setting sun lined up with the lantern room of the Wind Point Lighthouse, briefly making the historic tower appear to glow from within. Below it sits Shoop Park Golf Course, which is slated for a major privately funded redevelopment known as Lighthouse Dunes. The Racine Common Council approved the agreement this summer for a redesigned nine-hole public course, new clubhouse and parking, shoreline stabilization and habitat improvements. The project has also generated considerable debate among area residents over trees, wildlife habitat, traffic and changes to the character of the surrounding park and lighthouse grounds. Wind Point, Wisconsin. 📷 Aaron Johnson
UPDATE: Demolition is now underway at Milwaukee’s National Warehouse Corp. complex near S. Water and E. Bruce streets. Crews began actively taking down the heavily damaged western portion today, Sept. 3, following Monday’s partial collapse and the city’s emergency raze order. Water is being used during the work to help control dust and debris. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Storm meets sunrise. Lightning flashes over Milwaukee as the morning sun reflects off the Northwestern Mutual Tower. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Right place, right time, and maybe the right fishing spot. The setting sun lines up almost perfectly with the Yahara River entrance to Lake Waubesa, throwing a ribbon of reflected light across the water. McFarland, WI. 📷 Aaron Johnson
UPDATE: More of Milwaukee’s National Warehouse Corp. building collapsed overnight following yesterday’s initial wall failure. The difference in less than 24 hours is dramatic. The city has issued an emergency raze order for the unsafe structure near S. Water and E. Bruce streets. 📷 Aaron Johnson
The last sunset of August. I interrupted mowing the lawn to run and grab this shot. For some, the end of August marks the unofficial end of summer. Either way, the grass will have to wait until tomorrow. Sunset over Lake Vista Park in Oak Creek, WI. 📷 Aaron Johnson
A piece of Milwaukee’s industrial past came crashing down today. A large section of the old National Warehouse Corp. building near S. Water and E. Bruce streets partially collapsed around midday. The Milwaukee Fire Department responded, and officials said no injuries were reported. The affected warehouse section was vacant, while people in an adjoining portion of the building were evacuated as a precaution. Built around 1910 for the American Malting Co., the massive Cream City brick structure has stood along the Milwaukee River for more than a century. These aerial views show the extent of today’s collapse—and a building whose future now appears very uncertain. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Yes, that giant bee is a corn maze. 🐝🌽 Treinen Farm’s 2026 “Birds and the Bees” design fills 15 acres near Lodi with flowers, birds, pollinators and more than six miles of paths. Even more impressive: the design is cut into the young corn by hand, without GPS. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Almost, but not quite, a total eclipse, 93%. Tonight’s partial lunar eclipse reached maximum at 11:12 p.m., when Earth’s dark umbral shadow covered nearly the entire face of the Moon.
What you’re seeing here is that shadow sweeping across the lunar surface, leaving only a thin, brightly illuminated cap at the top. The deep copper-red color comes from sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere before reaching the shadowed Moon, essentially the combined glow of sunrises and sunsets around the edge of our planet. Photographed at peak eclipse in Oak Creek, WI. 📷 Aaron Johnson
It looks like something you’d want to run from, but the Great Golden Digger Wasp is actually a solitary wasp and generally uninterested in people. Females hunt and paralyze katydids and crickets, then bury them underground as food for their young. This one was taking a much more peaceful meal from mountain mint. Racine, WI. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Cooler temperatures and shorter days are setting the stage for corn maze season. This year, Schuster’s Farm’s 8-acre corn maze pays tribute to “100 Years of Friendship,” marking 100 years since A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh was first published in October 1926. Deerfield, WI. 📷 Aaron Johnson
Playing hide-and-seek with a grasshopper. With large compound eyes built to detect movement, they’re surprisingly good at seeing you coming, and even better at quietly slipping behind a blade of grass just before you press the shutter. Oak Creek, WI 📷 Aaron Johnson
A dramatic shelf cloud (arcus cloud) rolls toward Oak Creek this evening as severe storms move across southeast Wisconsin. The National Weather Service had issued a Tornado Warning for central Milwaukee County, just canceled. 📷 Aaron Johnson
This morning’s sunrise above the border of Oak Creek and South Milwaukee. Sunrise is now after 6 a.m., and we’re losing about 2 minutes and 37 seconds of daylight each day as we head toward fall. 📷 Aaron Johnson