It’s been a rough couple of years for the University of Michigan football program, but one of the things which is headed in the right direction is completion of modifications to Michigan Stadium. While I still preferred the stadium when it had a lower profile, I’m getting used to the new look. This shot shows the entrance to ‘Champions Plaza’, which is the main entrance to Michigan Stadium. Each corner of the stadium has a special plaza with customized bricks which have been purchased by fans and alumni as part of a fund raising effort. These plazas were actually built before the current stadium expansion plan.

I was walking through Nickels Arcade recently and noticed this storefront. I just thought this was an interesting collection of ‘stuff’. Image processing mostly consisted of added a bit more contrast to bring out the features of the toys.

This shot of downtown Detroit, Michigan was taken from Campus Martius park during Scott Kelby’s 2nd Annual Worldwide Photowalk. The tall building in the center is the Penobscot building and is one of the more recognizable buildings in Detroit.

This shot, taken on Scott Kelby’s Second Annual Worldwide Photowalk, shows the statue known as The Spirit of Detroit. The statue was created by Marshall Fredericks, who is responsible for many pieces of art in Southeastern Michigan (and other places as well).

This shot shows the Wintergarden portion of the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. The RenCen is also the world headquarters of General Motors. This is another picture that I took on this years Worldwide Photowalk organized by Scott Kelby and friends. The RenCen was the starting and ending point for our walk. We finished the walk and had some lunch at the food court. When I came in from outside, I took this shot. Shortly thereafter, a security guard approached some of our photowalk members and informed them that there could be no photography inside the building. There was even a vague threat to one of our photographers that they might confiscate his camera. It was later learned that it was ok to shoot with point and shoot cameras, but not ‘professional’ cameras. What a load of crap. Anyway I have this one shot which I think came out all right. The picture has a slightly greenish cast to it because the glass is tinted green. I debated about fixing the white balance, but I kind of like the color cast.

Today was the day for the 2009 edition of Scott Kelby’s Worldwide Photowalk. I participated in the Detroit photowalk led by Terry White. This shot was taken right at the start of the walk. Our walk started at the fountain on the riverfront side of the Renaissance Center (also known as the world headquarters for General Motors). I was actually lining up to take a shot of the fountain with the RenCen in the background when this kid decided he wanted to run through the fountain. Fine by me, I think it made for an interesting shot.

This is another shot taken of the ‘bone yard’ at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. This is a picture of a part of an old boiler (I think) which sits outside of one of the museum exhibits. This area is ‘littered’ with old boiler parts, coal and other items from an old machine shop. I was visiting the village for their annual Motor Muster event. The day was quite sunny and I liked the strong shadows created by the sun shining on the old boiler parts. Processing consisted mainly of increasing the contrast to make sure I captured the feeling of the scene.

My company recently moved to a new building and as part of the move we needed to come up with names for our conference rooms. We batted around several ideas, but finally settled on using names of some of our favorite local restaurants in Ann Arbor, Michigan. I was then tasked with the job of getting pictures of the various establishments so we could have pictures made and hung in each of the conference rooms. The image above shows Krazy Jim’s Blimpy Burger a great place to get a burger and fries (and other fried veggies as well) and highly recommended if you are ever in Ann Arbor. Krazy Jim’s was featured on an episode of the Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives with Guy Fieri

The shot you see above is from a 1963 Thunderbird convertible which was on display as part of the Motor Muster held at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Not much more to say really, I just liked the simple pattern created by the fake vents. Minimal processing to produce the final image.

As I’ve mentioned before in this blog, I recently attended the Motor Muster car show held at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. Besides all the cool cars, there were all the interesting historical exhibits. This shot was taken in front of an old mill shop in the same place as my previous post, Discarded #1. I guess I should call this image Discarded #2. This particular piece of rusty metal is part of an old boiler that they have sitting out in front. The sun was rather bright and I liked the hard shadows created by the strong light. I’m also rather fond of old, rusty things.