The Old Windmill
by James Howe on Apr.27, 2011, under Mechanical
(Nikon D700, 70-300mm @250mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/250 sec @f/11)
On my way to visit my parents a few days ago I noticed this old windmill at a nearby farm. I don’t know what it is, but I really like old machinery, especially if it is rusty or crusty, so I had to stop and take a few pictures. None of the shots were particularly outstanding, but I liked this one the best of the lot. I initially thought about leaving this as a color image since I like the color combination of the rusty orange and the blue sky, but in the end I went with an antique sepia toned look courtesy of Silver Efex Pro.
As always, your comments and feedback are appreciated. Simply leave them below.
Copyright © 2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Saginaw ‘Castle’ Post Office
by James Howe on Apr.21, 2011, under Architecture
(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 18mm, ISO 200, 7 Exposures @ f/8.0)
The old post office in Saginaw, Michigan is known as the ‘Castle’ post office, with good reason. It was built at a time when the government was trying to build government buildings which reflected the history of the area in which it was built. Saginaw was founded by French Voyageurs so the post office was built in the style of a French chateau. The program didn’t last long. It was scrapped after the first building because it was too expensive. Saginaw did get a nice post office out of the deal, however.
The finished image was created in several steps. It started with combining 7 hand held exposures into one HDR image using Photomatix. I then used some of the HDR actions in PhotoTools to give the image a darker and warmer look. I used Silver Efex Pro to increase contrast and detail by increasing the structure in the image, but I used the luminosity blending mode to keep the color. Finally I cropped and added a bit of a vignette using Lightroom.
Let me know what you think, or leave any questions you might have below.
Copyright © 2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Razor Wire
by James Howe on Apr.18, 2011, under Detroit
(Olympus E-3 14-54mm at 46mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/500 sec @f/3.4)
One of the coolest and most depressing buildings in Detroit has to be the old Michigan Central Station (Depot). The station was used by Amtrak until 1988 when it was abandoned and left to basically rot. The station consists of the main railway facilities as well as an 18 story office tower. The interesting thing about the office tower is that the top floors were never finished. Anyway, the building has been decaying for years and has been threatened with demolition many times. A group called Save Michigan Central was formed in an effort to save at least part of the building. Latest news reports indicate that the building’s owner might be willing to put a little money into it to keep it from decaying further. Hopefully one day the building won’t need to be surrounded by the razor wire fence.
I did a couple of things when processing this image. The first was to create a square crop. I thought the curve of the razor wire worked better in a squarer frame. I then did a conversion to black & white using Silver Efex Pro 2. I bumped the structure and contrast to help bring out the razor wire. I then used a couple of HDR effects from Photo Tools to create the blueish cast which helped bring the razor wire forward somewhat. My only regret about this image is that it isn’t just a bit sharper. I blame my technique.
Please leave your comments and/or questions below. Thanks!
Copyright © 2010-2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Sharon District #1 School
by James Howe on Apr.15, 2011, under Michigan
(Nikon D700, 16-35 at 16mm, ISO 200, 8 Exposure HDR @f/11)
This image start life as an 8 shot HDR. The subject is one that I’ve visited many times, an old schoolhouse west of Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’ve worked on a couple variations of this shot. One was a straight color HDR, a second was a simpler black and white conversion of the color HDR and finally this version. In all cases the thing I liked the most was the clouds in the sky. My original black and white conversion created a reasonably dark sky which looked pretty nice but I decided to go for a more antique look with this version. To me it looks like the sort of image that appeared on old stereoscope cards. I used to love to use my grandparents viewer to look at their cards in wonderful 3D and perhaps that’s why I like the way this image came out.
Have comments or feedback? Leave it below!
Copyright © 2010-2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Eclipse Windmill – Saline, Michigan
by James Howe on Apr.11, 2011, under Mechanical
(Nikon D700, 70-300mm at 220mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125 sec @f/11)
With a turn to nicer weather yesterday, I decided to go out for a drive to look for interesting subjects to shoot. I was sort of in the mood for things old and rusty, but I didn’t really come across anything which struck my fancy. Heading home, I drove by an old train depot in Saline, Michigan which has been converted to a historical museum. I have driven past this location many times and had never paid it much attention. On this day, however, I noticed a couple of cool elements, one of which was this large wooden windmill. This is a 10ft diameter windmill which is similar to an 18ft windmill which was originally installed at the site. According to the museum’s web site, “The Eclipse was once the most popular of all wooden windmills. It was painted an unusual shade of red and green, colors described by windmill writer, T. Lindsay Baker, as “cow patty green with buzzard blood red tips.” All I know is that I liked the pattern created by the blades. Even though the color is unique, I decided to go with black & white to draw the eye to the patterns rather than the color.
Thoughts?
Copyright © 2011 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.