This is a close-up of the hood ornament of a 1952 Pontiac Chieftain automobile. This car was at the Gilmore Car Museum for a car show. I used my 70-300mm (2x crop factor) lens and a small aperture to make sure the background was blurred out. Processing was minimal, although I tried to bring out the head and downplay the color of the car itself.

‘The Fist’ is a sculpture made in tribute to Joe Louis aka ‘The Brown Bomber’ and sits in the middle of a busy intersection in Detroit, Michigan. The 24 x 24 x 11.5 feet Monument to Joe Louis was commissioned by Time Inc. for the City of Detroit to honor Joe Louis. It was created by sculptor Robert Graham and installed at Jefferson Avenue at Woodward, Detroit on October 16, 1986. Over the years the artwork has been the subject of controversy.

This image is a close up shot of the State Theatre marquee in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The theatre is located in the heart of the campus area of the University of Michigan. The theater itself was designed by famed theater architect C. Howard Crane, who also designed the Fox Theater in Detroit. Built in 1942, the State Theater was the last commercial building to be completed in Ann Arbor after the start of World War II.

I took this shot of a classic diner at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan. The museum is a great place to view classic automobiles and if you like cars from almost any era, I highly recommend making a visit. The image itself was created from a digital photograph that I took while I was there. I modified the image to black out the sky and then I applied a Cutout filter in Photoshop to give the image a posterized look. I really liked how these changes brought out the color and design character of the building.

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 processed digital photograph of a 1934 Vauxhall BX Roadster. The car was part of “The GM Century” auto show held at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan. In the past I had passed this image by because of the background, the reflections on the bumper and other elements that I thought distracted from the car itself. Still, I liked the composition and so today I played around with it a little bit to see if I could get a finished image that I liked. I initially thought of trying to black out the grass and background, but that seemed like too much work. I decided to try my ‘cutout’ technique, combined with a conversion to sepia and I like how it came out.

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.

This is a somewhat stylized shot of the Greyhound bus depot in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The depot is still functioning, but the sign has seen better days. When I took this shot, I wanted to focus on the details of the sign and it’s current condition. The sign used to have a nice blue background for the lettering. Now, almost all of the blue is gone. When I started working with this image I decided to give it a bit more of a pop art look to it. The filter didn’t really have much effect on the sign itself, but it made the building next to the depot a bit more

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.