Train Depot Bar
by James Howe on Dec.01, 2010, under Michigan
(Nikon D700, 70-300 at 70mm, ISO 200, Exposure 1/125 sec @ f/8.0)
Welcome back to day 3 of my Saginaw series. The previous two days have been photos taken on Potter Street in Saginaw, Michigan. This shot was also taken on Potter Street, across the street from the train depot and just down the street from yesterday’s image. I don’t believe this bar is actually in operation. It also had a sign on the front stating that it was under ‘arson watch’. There was a building a couple doors down which did have some activity, however. For the most part Potter Street mostly consists of empty and derelict buildings. My original thought when I took this shot was to process it as an HDR image. Unfortunately I didn’t take the time to set up my tripod and my hand holding wasn’t steady enough to yield good results. Even with the auto-align feature of Photomatix, there were some elements that were ghosted. I probably could have fixed them, but I was able to create a final image which came close to what I was thinking with just one frame. What I really wanted to capture was the subtle color details in the faded sign and to convey as sense of age.
Processing was similar to the last two images, with the exception of the HDR processing. I selected the best image from my HDR sequence and used a combination of Silver Efex Pro and Photo Tools to create the final image. Remember to click on either image to see it larger.
Comments?
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Potter Street – Saginaw Michigan
by James Howe on Nov.30, 2010, under HDR
(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 35mm, ISO 200, 9 exposure HDR @ f/11)
Yesterday’s image showed the old Pere Marquette train station on Potter Street in Saginaw, Michigan. This shot was also taken on Potter Street, but shows an interesting building across the street from the station. The train station was built in 1881 and if you look at this picture, you will see that this building was built shortly thereafter in 1892. Looks like it would have been an interesting building in it’s day. I find the arched window area to be quite interesting. What I don’t understand is the ‘Car Wash’ references. Perhaps there is (was) something around back (I didn’t wander back to look). Another interesting aspect of the building is the yellow sign on the front of the building. It might be hard to read on the web page, but it says “Saginaw Arson Watch 2007 – This house is being watched, and so are you!!” This isn’t too surprising, in 1991 the train station was significantly damaged by a fire set by an arsonist.
Processing was similar to what I did for the train station shot. I used Photomatix to combine the 9 exposures into a single HDR. I then used Silver Efex Pro in Photoshop to bring out some detail by using the structure slider and setting the black & white layer blend mode to Luminosity. From there I used Photo Tools to add an ‘antique’ texture which provided some additional grit and a lovely yellow cast to the image.
Click either image to see it larger.
Comments?
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Potter Street Station – Saginaw, Michigan
by James Howe on Nov.29, 2010, under HDR
(Nikon D700, 16-35mm at 20mm, ISO 200, 9 Exposures @ f/8.0)
This weekend I decided to take a day trip to Saginaw, Michigan. I grew up in nearby Saginaw Township and I hadn’t been back to actually see the town in many years. I’ve driven by it many times on my way to northern Michigan, but never visited the city. Not surprising, there really isn’t much to visit. Many years ago Saginaw was the lumber capital of the world. As a result, the town had some great houses and interesting buildings built and financed by lumber. The city still has a fair number of nice old buildings, but many have been torn down and much of the city is dead. The city is split into an east side and a west side, with the Saginaw River running between them. I didn’t visit the west side, but I believe it is in a little better shape than the east side. The east side of Saginaw has been dying for decades. I remember going there in the 60’s when there were still department stores, theaters and other things, but by the 70’s, stores were closing and moving to the suburbs and the east side just kept getting worse and worse. Changes to the auto industry really hurt a town that was quite dependent on GM.
My purpose in visiting Saginaw was to capture some of the interesting architecture and, unfortunately some of the decay, that exists in this town. This week I’ll be posting other shots from my short day trip. The image above is the old Pere Marquette train station located on Potter Street. Like many train stations in the midwest, this one is just rotting away. In 1991 the station had a serious fire started by an arsonist. A few years ago there were people who were trying to find ways to restore the station and I just noticed they have a Facebook page which seems to indicate they are still somewhat active. After the fire, I believe they were responsible for getting a temporary roof installed over much of the station. The sad truth is the station sits in one of the worst parts of Saginaw. It’s not a place that would tend to attract a lot of people and I just can’t see anyone investing money in this place unless the surrounding neighborhood was also improved. It’s a shame because the building has some really nice features.
The image was created from 9 different exposures, initially processed in Photomatix Pro and finished in Photoshop. I used a couple of different tools to create the final image. First, I processed the image in Silver Efex Pro. I bumped the ‘structure’ of the image to bring out the detail in the brickwork. Back in Photoshop, I changed the layer type to Luminosity so that I would still have a color image, but one with more grit. I then used my new copy of Photo Tools to add some additional character. The main item was using an ‘antique paper’ overlay which gave the image a warmer color and some additional overall texture. Compare with one of the HDR exposures below.
Comments?
Copyright © 2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Car Shopping – Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg Museum
by James Howe on Nov.26, 2010, under Automobiles
(Olympus E-3, 7-14mm at 14mm (2x crop factor), ISO 250, Exposure 1/8 sec @ f/7.1)
One of my favorite automobiles is the Auburn Boattail Speedster manufactured by the Auburn Automobile Company of Auburn, Indiana. The Auburn company was sold to E.L. Cord who merged it with Duesenberg to create a company which manufactured Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs. Their main facility was housed in an Art Deco building in Auburn, Indiana which now houses the Auburn-Cord-Dusesenberg museum. This shot shows the showroom of the Museum, displaying an array of vintage Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg automobiles (big surprise). The showroom has some great Art Deco touches such as the chandeliers, and detail work in the ceiling, flooring and main staircase. The museum is a great place to visit if you love vintage automobiles or enjoy Deco design.
This image comes from a series of three that I had originally taken with the thought that I might use for an HDR shot. I didn’t have a tripod with me so this was shot using the railing of the staircase for support. I did run the images through Photomatix, but I didn’t like the look. Instead, I use a couple of Photoshop plug-ins to get a look I liked. The first thing I did was crop the image down to eliminate some useless elements from the bottom. I then ran the image through a noise-reduction process because I the 250 ISO on my Olympus E-3 introduced a little bit of noise, and I knew that subsequent processing would probably increase that noise so I wanted to have as clean of an image as I could to start with. I then used Topaz Adjust to bring out some of the details in the floor and decorative elements. In Silver Efex Pro I increased the structure of the entire image and selected the Panatomic X ISO 32 film preset to get a conversion that I liked. I added a bit of tinting as well. Finally, in Lightroom, I applied a different tint as well as added a slight vignette. Compare the finished image to the image I started with below.
Comments or thoughts?
Copyright © 2008-2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.
Metropolis – Renaissance Center
by James Howe on Nov.24, 2010, under Detroit
(Olympus E-3, 7-14mm at 11mm (2x crop factor), ISO 100, Exposure 1/80 sec @ f/11)
As I was going through my Lightroom catalog recently, I ran across a series of shots that I took on the Detroit edition of Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk from 2009. Yesterday’s image of Detroit’s Renaissance Center was taken on the 2008 edition. This shot was taken at the end of the walk as I was walking around the Ren-Cen to see what other angles might be interesting. I had seen an image of the Renaissance Center on Flickr which was similar to this so I thought I would try. What attracted me to the shot on Flickr was that it reminded me of a shot by Michael Kenna of the Rouge Plant in Detroit. I really liked the criss-crossing elements and when I found this angle I knew I had what I wanted. The combination of the towers of the building, coupled with the people mover track and the pedestrian walkway also made me think of the visions of the future that people had in the early 20th century. I wish there had been some low hanging clouds or something to add a bit more atmosphere to the shot, but I still like it.
Processing consisted of several steps. I did a slightly different version of this shot and posted it on Flickr but I wasn’t completely satisfied with it. I went back to the original PSD and made some further refinements. One change was to do some perspective correction. It would have been nice to have a tilt/shift lens for this shot, but all I had was my 7-14mm (2x crop factor). For the black and white conversion, I started from the color image and used Silver Efex Pro. I bumped up the structure setting for the entire image and selected the Panatomic X ISO 32 film setting. I wanted a slightly darker image, particularly where the people move track comes out of the image. In my original conversion I used some curves layers to brighten it up. The raw shot is below.
I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts on the conversion and what you think about the two different treatments (the Flickr one and this one.
Copyright © 2009-2010 James W. Howe – All rights reserved.