A trip and an update.

Taking my photography took a lot of time.  It is over and I'm getting back into the swing of things. 
I'm visiting family later this week so there probably won't be any updates until I get back.  After that it should be back to normal.  Well, normal for me.

The State Park Project is still a plan, though it may not be as extensive as I'd planned.  Time, as well as money, is an issue.  I hope to cover a large number of parks later this year in a trip through the U.P. and I also hope to hit some things before and after that.

Work demands a lot of time on the weekends and having a single day to visit the parks I want to cover won't allow me to cover them the way I want to.  I'm not sure what, if anything, will be cut, but I'm hoping to keep the project relatively intact.

I am also working on another project that I may cover at a later date.  But that is taking up a bit of time too.  It doesn't seem that any one thing takes too much time, but when added together, it becomes a bit much. 

But as I said, with class done now I should have more time.

Photography Class Projects

I noted earlier in the year that I was taking a photography class this winter semester. We had 12 projects. Here are the images I submitted for each one. Some you have seen before. Others you have not.

The first project was 'Chicken Eggs.' The idea was to get us to know our camera better and after some initial hesitation I enjoyed this. I tried several different things, but ended up going with this image. Here I blew an egg out and stuck a Christmas tree light in it to illuminate it from the inside.

The second assignment was "Stop Action."  We used a fast shutter speed to freeze movement.  After some of my initial ideas didn't pan out, I decided to use some dice I had lying about.  I used cutting board to clean up the background dropped the dice.  They are illuminated with the flash from the camera.  If I had this to do over again I would try some other things, but all in all I was pleased with the way this turned out.

After that was 'Panning.'  We used a longer shutter speed and tracked our subject. The weather was pretty crummy and my creativity was pretty low.  I also had to go to Pennsylvania for my Grandfather's funeral.  This was taken while I was there.

After that was "Shallow Depth of Field."  I knew what I wanted so I headed to the Detroit Zoo and spent some time in the Butterfly House.  These were a lot harder to take a picture of than you would think.  They would only stop moving for a moment before taking off again.

After that was "Great Depth of Field."  I knew what I wanted to do with this more or less.  I headed over to Kent county and took some pictures of the covered bridges there.  I couldn't get the shot I really wanted with the snow, but this was good enough. 

Then we were to shoot an unusual angle.  I had a few ideas for this, but none of them turned out as well as this one.  I was leaving work and saw this train was coming as I crossed the track.  I pulled into a parking lot and walked to a spot where I could get a good shot. 

"Urban" was our next assignment.  Again, I had a number of ideas.  I headed into Detroit one cold morning and wandered around.  I went through the RenCen and took this from the river side.  I really like the way this one turned out and is one of my favorite shots from the class.

While I was in Detroit I decided to tackle "Hard Light" which was our next assignment. We were to have a hard shadow line where both the part in the shadow and the part in the light were lit. The shadow couldn't be too dark and there had to be detail in it. I took this as we headed back to the car. This is the church across from Greektown Casino.

"Soft Light" followed. This was pretty easy as long as there wasn't hard light. Unfortunately, I didn't have a clear idea of what I wanted to do. I ended up going to the cemetery on the corner of River and Clark in Ypsilanti. I messed with this too much and I don't like the way it turned out.

For our tenth assignment, we were to do a portrait.  Again, I had a bunch of ideas.  I ended up taking pictures of my roommate.  Despite this being taken shortly before class I really like the way it turned out and I found that once again I really enjoy taking pictures of people.

"Night Photography" was perhaps the one assignment that I was looking forward to the most.  I had a ton of ideas.  Some turned out better than other.  This is definitely something I'll be working on again.  For this I headed to Windsor just as ahead of a storm.  I was hoping to get some lightning strikes over the city, but everything was hitting south of the city.  Our photo session was cut short by the arrival of the rain.

The final assignment was "Love."  Again I had a few ideas but since they were dependent on other people I had to go with my last resort.  I picked up a single red rose and took it onto my balcony.  It was overcast and rainy so I set the camera on a tripod and used a flash to light the flower.  After a number of shots I sprinkled some water on the rose. 


We also used Lightroom 4 in class.  I really like the program.  It is simple enough and you can do a fair amount of manipulation of an image.  It isn't as robust as Photoshop, but it doesn't cost as much either.  I liked it enough to buy a copy. 

So there it is.  The result of my photography class.  All in all I'm glad I took the class and I really learned some good stuff.   I'm thinking of taking a studio class this fall.  I definitely want to take more classes.

Detroit

Going to Windsor the other day inspired me for my next class project. Our topic is 'night photography' and I decided to head across the river to get Detroit at night. I called Ken we headed across to Canada one step ahead of the storm that was approaching.

The first shot I took. A bit over exposed.

I changed it up a bit and let a little less light in.

Looking at the RenCen.

Pulled back a bit.

These pics aren't the greatest, but I think for a first attempt they turned out pretty well.  We would have liked to try other vantage points and different things, but it was cold and rainy. 

Detroit and Windsor

Ken called on Sunday. He'd just gotten his passport and wanted to go to Windsor.  Since I don't have any pictures of Windsor or Detroit from Canada I agreed to go along even though I had a bunch of other stuff to do.

The Canadian end of the Ambassador Bridge.

Looking towards America.

The train station stands out. 

There were a couple of sculptures of dinosaurs in the park along the river.

Another view of the Ambassador Bridge.

The other dinosaur

A dancing bear.

A U.S. flag.  There was a Canadian flag just the the left of this one.

Detroit.

Just a tighter shot.

A war memorial.

I'm not usually a fan of sculptures, but for some reason, I really like this one.  Probably just because of the simplicity.

The RenCen.

Another shot of Detroit.  I probably shot more of this than necessary because I'm not used seeing it.

We stopped at Milliken State Park.  I saw that there was a ship upbound and debated about telling Ken about it.  He was ready to go back to the car and I knew if I told him about it I'd be stuck chasing ships.  Still, I knew he'd like it so I decided to bite the bullet and told him.  The ship coming was the Victoriaborg.  She's a salty. 

Ken then saw that Atlantic Huron was leaving the fueling dock and wanted a picture of it.  It was just going a short distance to unload.  It wasn't a great place to get a pic and this was the best that I could get.

Chelsea and Dexter

A little while back Ken decided to visit Chelsea for some pictures and I went along figuring I could get some pictures too.

This is the train station that serviced Chelsea.

The building across the tracks.  I believe this was an old stove company.  It has nice character and is a nice change from modern architecture.

Another view of the train station.  There were two waiting rooms, one on each end of the station.  One was for the men, the other for the women.  Imagine that today.

Flowers outside one of the downtown stores.

Finally some color after months of browns, grays and whites.

New life.

As I walked out of a gallery I was browsing, Ken asked me what the 'black thing' was.  Turns out it was a new Jeep Cherokee.  Chelsea is home to the Chrysler proving grounds so it isn't unusual to see pre-production cars out and about.

The Cherokee should hit the roads later this year.

One of the churches in Chelsea.

Next we headed to Dexter.  I've seen work on the river walk for awhile now but haven't stopped to scope it out.  We wandered down it a bit.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here is one of the river.  The bridge over the river is casting the shadow.

Huron Camera.  This is one of the last brick and mortar stores camera stores around.  If you need something camera or photography related, I cannot recommend them enough.  The small building on the right houses a BBQ joint.  It smelled wonderful and I would have eaten some if I hadn't eaten a big lunch earlier.

Heading back to the car I saw this on the side of a building. 

Detroit

My latest assignment was 'Urban.'  My goal was to head to Detroit so I talked to Ken who took the day off work and we headed downtown early.  I was hoping to get shots of people, but it was pretty cold and there weren't many people out and about.

We parked at Greektown Casino and hotel.  I think this is a pretty nice looking building.

We headed towards the RenCen. 

I was struck by contrast of the old water tower against the modern construction of the Renaissance Center.

I liked the pattern in the construction of this building.

We made it to the Renaissance Center and headed inside.  It was nice and warm after the cold.  I'd only been inside once before when I had dinner there about 14 years ago.  That was in the evening and I really don't remember much about it except the view.  This glass walkway circles the center tower and provides easy access to the four surrounding towers.

From inside the Winter Garden on the river side.

Another view from the Winter Garden.  The bottom floor holds a bunch of tables and there is a food court in the area.

The Detroit River Princess.  She does cruises of the Detroit River in the summer.  I'm not sure when she'll start sailing this year.

The RenCen from Hart Plaza.  I don't recall ever being there before.  It was nice and I'd like to see it some day when it isn't so cold out.

The inside of the Guardian Building.  This is amazing.

Another shot of the interior.   They certainly don't make them like this anymore.  I wonder how many treasures like this have been lost with decay of Detroit.

Just walking around.  I'm not sure what this building is.

I liked the angles here.

We headed back to the RenCen for the free tour.  The big draw to this was the trip to the top of the center tower.  Looking north to Belle Isle and Lake Saint Clair.

Looking south.  The Detroit River Princess is docked in the foreground and the Ambassador Bridge connects Detroit to Windsor on the left.

I like the high crosswalk, but it doesn't seem to mesh well with the Guardian Building.

This church is across the street from Greektown Casino.  It is a beautiful building, but it is hard to get a good shot of it because of the buildings around it.

The front of the church.

A shot of the side of the chuch, though it is a bit distorted.

This is the only building left from a shipbuilder.  I don't recall what the company was, but just off the image to the right is a slip where ships were constructed.  I think steam engines were built here before being transferred across the street and installed in the hull.

A view back to Detroit.

Shot a little differently.

And a view from the street.


Which brings us to my final three images.  I haven't just sipped the post processing Kool-Aid, I've drunk the entire pitcher.  These have been edited somewhat.  I haven't done a lot of work with them, but I think they are superior to the images as they came out of the camera.  I'm still learning, but I really like the results. 

The Detroit skyline.

The Renaissance Center.

Perhaps my favorite shot of the day.