At this past weekend’s ‘Motor Muster’ held at Greenfield Village, the show displayed more than just automobiles. They had a nice collection of older scooters and motorcycles, and they had a great collection of bicycles from various decades. The image above is of a Schwinn, most likely from the 50’s (I neglected to take a picture of the info card, so I don’t have the particulars on this bike.) I did punch up the color a bit in the post.

This last weekend I went to the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) car show held at the Gilmore Car Museum near Kalamazoo, Michigan. There were some terrific old cars at the show (and I’ll likely post some shots of those as well), but the museum itself is worth the trip. It’s set on 90+ acres and houses hundreds of cars in various barns. They also have a recreation of a 1930’s era Shell service station, which is where this shot was taken. I was walking through the station and I really liked the look of all the old tools, manuals, and other service station materials. My grandfather owned a station years ago and it brought back pleasant memories.

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.

There is a golf course just west of Ann Arbor which has this nice old Farmall tractor on the edge of the course. I’ve photographed it several times, most recently this past fall. For this trip, I used my 70-300 lens to get more detail and shallower depth of field. For an alternative look at this same tractor, check out an earlier image that I posted to this blog.

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.

I was out running errands recently and managed to find a street parking space almost in front of the Arbor Brewing Company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. As I was parking, the signs on the front of the building caught my eye. I’ve always liked the typography used on the signs and think that the tree in the logo is quite cool as well, very ‘arts & crafts’ looking. Anyway, I thought there was a good picture to be had so I took out my camera and took a few shots. This shot was my favorite of the set.

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.

Palio is an Italian restaurant in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The side of the building is painted to look old, a combination of trompe l’oeil and real features. My goal in this shot was to highlight the color and texture of the painting.

This shot was taken in an area of Ann Arbor known locally as ‘Graffiti Alley’. During the day time its a very pleasant place to wander around, it’s very bright and very colorful. The graffiti on the walls ranges from simple tags to more complex creations.