The Fleetwood Diner is an Ann Arbor institution. The diner opened in 1949 as the Dag-Wood and was built from a kit manufactured by the Dag-Wood Diner Company in Toledo, Ohio. The diner was renamed the Fleetwood Diner in 1971. The exterior was originally enamel, but was given a stainless steel exterior in 1998. For more history and interesting tidbits on the diner, visit The Fleetwood Diner page, hosted by a local Ann Arbor resident.

On Liberty Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan is a terrific little store with a variety of interesting merchandise. The store is Acme Mercantile. I took this shot of the storefront on a morning walk through town. For some reason I was in the mood to take storefronts that day. Most of the images I shot on my walk were taken with the potential to make an HDR image. I set my camera to shoot 5 bracketed exposures, 1 stop apart. I was doing this hand held and I set my camera to fast shooting and clicked off 5 quick shots at various exposures in an attempt to minimize movement. Of course, one problem was that it was windy that day, so any thing which could be affected by the wind (like leaves on a tree) created motion that I didn’t want.

This shot shows the main entrance to the Law Quad at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. This particular building is known as the Lawyers Club, and is a dormitory for students attending the law school. The building was constructed in 1924 and was funded entirely by a gift from William Cook, a graduate of the UM Law School.

As I was heading in to work one morning, I noticed that there were some interesting clouds in the sky and thought I might be able to capture some images with nicely lit clouds. I work near the University of Michigan, so I drove over to the campus area to see what possibilities might await me. I parked near the UM Law School and I liked the way the morning light was shining on the Law School Reading Room. Since I had my tripod with me, I decided to shoot several exposures to create an HDR image. I’ve always liked what HDR can do with brick and stone so this building was a natural.

This is a shot of Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan. The image was taken at 7 am, just as the morning rush hour was getting started. I didn’t have a tripod with me (and the transit police probably would have hassled me anyway) so I just set my camera on the staircase railing. I wanted to use a relatively slow shutter speed to capture some movement, but I didn’t want everything to be blurred. I really like the fact that there is a mix of people who are blurred, and others who aren’t. This images is a toned black & white converted from a color image, but in reality the color image doesn’t look that much different.

We finally had a nice spring day in Ann Arbor this past weekend and I decided to take the opportunity to wander around town with my camera. I took several shots, most of them using my 7-14mm wide angle lens. This particular shot shows the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum from what used to be the front of the building. The museum opened in 1982 in what was originally a fire station.

This image is of a local apartment building located near the University of Michigan medical campus. This part of town has many rental units, but most are either converted houses or more mundane apartment buildings. This building was built in 1929 and is a great example of the Mediterranean Revival architectural style. I took the shot mid-morning when the sun was shining on it at a nice angle and I really liked the strong shadows created by the unique architectural elements. I wasn’t able to get the shot of the building straight on, there were people working on a house across the street which prevented me from getting a good angle. I ended up taking the picture from a slight angle and then relied on Photoshop to help with some perspective correction. I made a few other changes to bring out the detail of the building which I discuss on my Image Notebook blog.

The Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan was built in the mid-70’s. At the time, the thought was that this new set of buildings would help provide for a ‘renaissance’ of the city of Detroit. Alas it wasn’t to be. The building was more of a fortress than anything else. It had large berms which faced the main street, and the other side was the river. This created a structure which was more of an island than anything else. A couple years ago, General Motors purchased the buildings and moved it’s world headquarters to it. There was a bit of irony in this, since the Renaissance Center (aka ‘RenCen’) had significant funding from the Ford family.

One day I was sitting at home when I noticed that some interesting clouds were forming in the sky. I took this opportunity to head in to town and do some architecture shooting. I had been wanting to get some more shots of the new Stephen Ross School of Business building on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The building offers some interesting opportunities for architectural photography. There are many different colors, textures and shapes to explore. …

This is a shot of the entrance to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). The building was originally built as Alumni Memorial Hall. A Beaux Arts style building completed in 1910, the building was built as a tribute to University of Michigan graduates who had died or were wounded in the Civil War, the Mexican-American War, and the Spanish-American War. The building became home to the museum in 1946. A new addition to the museum opens this weekend and architecturally is a dramatic contrast to the original structure (but in a good way.)