Michael Huft's photostream  

I grew up in northwestern lower Michigan (Benzie County), where I developed a strong interest in natural history, eventually culminating in a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Michigan. After several years as a tropical botanist at the Missouri Botanical Garden in St. Louis and the Field Museum in Chicago (with a specialty in neotropical Euphorbiaceae), I changed directions radically (at least professionally) and went to law school. I have been practicing law in Chicago since 1995.

I first became interested in photography in graduate school, when I bought my first Nikon (a Nikkormat). During those years I amassed a large collection of slides, mostly of plants. My photographic activity waned over the intervening years (with occasional spurts of activity), but I picked it up again a couple of years ago when I purchased my first (and still only) digital camera, a Nikon D80.

Most of my photographic energy goes into photographing plants, though I try to keep my photographic options open much more widely. Beginning this Spring (2011), I have embarked on a project concentrating on photographing the plants of the Indiana Dunes area (including Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore).

Flickr is a great site in so many ways. I have learned so much by the opportunity to see the work of so many excellent photographers, and the comments, favorites and views from others are a superb way of finding out what people like (the results are sometimes what I expected, but more often quite surprising).

Follow our Wildflower Quest at our blog:

www.huftwildflowerquest.blogspot.com