Posted on Mar.14, 2009, under Ann Arbor, Michigan

(Olympus E-3,70-300mm at 300mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, exposure 1/500 sec @ f/10)

This image is a close up shot of the State Theatre marquee in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The theatre is located in the heart of the campus area of the University of Michigan. The theater itself was designed by famed theater architect C. Howard Crane, who also designed the Fox Theater in Detroit. Built in 1942, the State Theater was the last commercial building to be completed in Ann Arbor after the start of World War II.

This image comes from a collection of signage photography that I have been working on. One day I just decided to wander around Ann Arbor with my telephoto lens trying to capture details of things that I might not normally look at so closely. While this sign is in pretty good shape, you can still see that it has some age to it. When I was working with this image, I wanted to give it a more graphic look so I tweaked the image somewhat. The color is slightly more saturated than the original image, and I used the cutout filter in Photoshop to abstract some of the features away. I didn’t want to go too far, because I still wanted to convey the age and slightly faded nature of the sign.

Comments and feedback welcome.

Image and text Copyright © 2008 James W. Howe – All rights reserved

This image can be purchased.

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