Glen Arbor Facebook page, an online portrait of beauty

Photos by Paul May/Glen Arbor Artisans

By Jacob Wheeler
Sun editor

How do lovers of Glen Arbor who don’t have immediate access to our beautiful dunes and lakeshore stay in touch with their favorite destination? Chances are they follow the Glen Arbor Facebook page, which is facilitated by Paul May and his son Keenan (with help from Glen Arbor Sun co-editor Mike Buhler, and occasionally Simon Winograd, too). Paul May and wife Kristin Hurlin produce and sell their furniture, photography, ink and watercolor illustrations under the brand Glen Arbor Artisans.

The Glen Arbor Facebook page is a one-click destination for jaw-dropping images of sunsets and cloudbanks over Sleeping Bear Bay, a morning haze at Port Oneida, inland pine forests, the swirling blue of the Glen Lakes, and occasional videos. Most of the images get “liked” by hundreds, shared by dozens and draw many complimentary comments.

The Facebook page is quickly closing in on 10,000 “likes”—relatively small by Facebook terms but a significant tally for sleepy Northern Michigan. An average daily post is typically seen by 8,700 people, mostly Michiganders but also Brits, Germans, French, Poles, Thais and Japanese.

Keenan May, who grew up in Glen Arbor, started the page in 2009. He was living between Seattle and Costa Rica and missed seeing home. At the time, he said, there were few Facebook pages for towns or cities (today there are many). “I wanted to use Facebook as a sort of web cam to the area. I started posting my own photos to get things going and encouraged my dad to (follow suit).”

Keenan soon passed the daily duties onto Paul, who was becoming more engaged in photography. “I tend to focus primarily on the area’s landscape or some small unusual thing I might see while out walking,” said Paul. “I’m always amazed how hourly light can change the color of land and water from day to day. I love trying to capture what I see and freeze that moment.”

While impossible to quantify, the Glen Arbor Facebook page and its beautiful images have undoubtedly had a profound impact on promoting the area, and not just during the tourism-heavy summer months.

“I’m assuming that when people share the pictures through their newsfeed they are picked up and appreciated by people who love the outdoors,” said Paul. “I’m sure this spurs visits to the area. Most of the people who visit our area come during summer, and those who have “liked” the page like it because our pictures provide a window into what the area looks like throughout the seasons.”

Some of the photos posted by Paul have gone viral and reached hundreds of thousands of people. But the father’s proudest moment, he says, was when Keenan asked him to contribute to the page the son had created.

Typical responses to the photos are superlatives such as “beautiful” and “amazing”, but most memorable to the Mays are when Facebook users write to Paul and Keenan and share stories about the last time they visited that particular place, or when elderly folks living far away share stories about growing up in Leelanau. “I love the comments by locals who have lived here a long time, especially when they can give insight into life on the farms that I sometimes shoot,” said Paul.

These photos often resonate more than news stories or tourism brochures—and they are easily viewed and shared on the Internet, the 21st century’s vessel for communication.

“If a photo is worth a thousand words then a good photo, of something you know and love, must be worth 10 fold,” said Keenan. “There’s a reason Facebook bought Instagram for $1 billion. People want to see photos of things they know and love. It’s quick and easy, it starts conversations, and maybe more importantly—it can be easily shared.”

“Photography can render an emotion in us almost immediately,” added Paul. “You can feel the cold, hear the wind, feel the peace and desire experiencing the moment, too. We’ve made a concerted effort to keep the page non-commercial and solely about sharing the beauty (of the area).”

The post that undoubtedly reached the most people was Paul’s video last winter of ice balls forming at Shalda Creek, in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore south of Empire. The video was picked up by national news outlets and viewed by more than 2 million people. “While I knew it was pretty unique to see I had know idea so many people would take an interest in it,” he said.

“As for which pictures I’m most proud, of course it’s the ones I haven’t taken yet,” said Paul. “But of the photos (currently) on the page it’s the ones I take in the middle of a winter blizzard. I love the winter and especially when the weather is at it’s harshest … I suppose it’s the pictures that give me and other people that ‘wow’ feeling.”

Will the Glen Arbor Facebook page remain a lucrative tool for promoting the area through photography? Since Mark Zuckerberg founded the social media dynamo in 2004, Facebook has revamped itself, over and over again, and flooded itself with advertisements and tools that track the user’s social and consumer habits. Keenan doesn’t think this necessarily bodes well for the Glen Arbor page.

“Personally, I believe Facebook will unravel and become too ubiquitous to attract new users solely because of their monetization strategy,” he said. “We began the site with nearly 100 percent transparency between our followers and our content. Today, our content reaches 6 percent. We would have to pay to reach the other 94 percent. That means our current reach through 10,000 followers of 8,700 would actually be 144,000 if unrestricted.”

To help diversify their social media reach, the Mays recently launched a Glen Arbor Instagram and Twitter account. Check them out online, “like” them, and while there, be sure to follow the Glen Arbor Sun Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts, too.