I was in New York on business recently, and early one morning I took a look out of my hotel window to check on the weather. Snow had been predicted and I wanted to see if it was snowing yet. When I looked out, I was captivated by the color and geometry of the skyscrapers, particularly the way the windows were lit. Since it was early, only a handful of lights were on and it created an interesting pattern. As I looked further, I could see the Empire State Building in the haze, a haze created by a light snowfall. I really liked the combination of the strong, modern geometric shapes in the foreground combined with the older architecture of the Empire State Building fading into the background.

This is a fairly standard shot of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. This is a shot of one of the towers that I took as I was walking from Manhattan to Brooklyn. This was the first time I had walked on the bridge and it was an interesting experience. I think the thing that struck me the most was the geometric patterns created by all the suspension wires. I tried to capture that in this shot. In processing, I converted from color to black and white and then added a sepia tone. I also added a bit of simulated film grain to give a more vintage feeling to the image.

This is a shot of the Clocktower area in Chelsea, Michigan. I’ve been to Chelsea many times to take pictures of the Clocktower. I’ve tried HDR, night shots, etc. For this shot, I went wide, trying to capture more context, in this case the railroad cars and railroad tracks. The original image was in color, but I particularly liked the look of the sky when I converted the image to black and white.

This is a shot of the Detroit, Toledo and Milwaukee roundhouse currently located at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. The roundhouse was built in 1884 in Marshall, Michigan. The roundhouse is still used to maintain the historic engines that are owned by The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.

As part of a self imposed creativity session, I went out one Saturday with just one lens on my camera. I selected my 70-300mm because I wanted to focus on details, or get a compressed perspective. I use an Olympus E-3 which has a crop factor of 2x, making my 70-300 lens the 35mm equivalent of 140-600mm. The shot above is of a Catholic school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I had seen this building many times, but I never really looked at the details of its construction. The longer focal length really made me notice the details. The thing that really caught my eye about this building was the intricate brickwork …

This sculpture is named ‘Transcending’ and it was a gift by Detroit labor unions to the city to honor Detroit’s 300th birthday. I took this shot during the Detroit edition of Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk. The sculpture is located at the edge of Hart Plaza which is located along the Detroit riverfront. Our photowalk took us along the new Riverwalk which runs along the Detroit River. In the summer, it makes for a pleasant trip.

This is an older image (about 2 years old) that I took of Barton Dam near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Even though I had lived in Ann Arbor for years, I had never been out to see the dam. It’s right outside of town so it’s not like it would take a major effort to go see it, I just never bother. One day I decided to take my new camera and go check out the dam. I was hooked. I’ve made several trips back to take pictures at different times of the year. This particular image is one of the first ones that I took. …