Tag: University of Michigan

It’s been a few weeks since I really did any shooting, the weather here has been obnoxious and I’ve been working on some other projects as well. However, with a bit of good weather, I decided to go out one evening for a short photowalk around the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I rented a tilt/shift lens to play with so one of my goals was to play with that, the other thing I wanted to experiment with was shooting some long exposures. There weren’t a lot of clouds in the sky when I went out, but as the evening came in there were a handful of clouds in the sky. As I was packing up to head home, I decided to take one more long exposure shot. I set my tripod up low and used my 16-35mm to get a wide angle shot of the Alumni Memorial Hall building. The building is currently used as part of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, but when it was originally conceived in the late 1800’s, it was going to be a memorial to University men who had died in the Civil War. The building didn’t start construction until the early 1900’s and by that time the exact role of the building was in a bit of flux.


The image above shows the new C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital on the medical campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I was in the area to visit the “Grand Reopening” of my old dorm so I was prepared to take some architectural shots with my wide angle lens. As I walked by the hospital I looked up and thought this would make for an interesting shot. I lucked out with the clouds. I’ve shot this building several times but it always seems I want to shoot it when the sky is clear. A clear sky can be dramatic, especially when converted to black and white, but sometimes it’s nice to have some texture in the sky.

This shot was taken in the old wing of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). I’ve always liked this gallery and I’ve been here a few times to take pictures of it. Each time is a little different, different people, different light, etc. I had a blog post back in 2010 with an image similar to the one you see here, but with a completely different method and style of processing. For that image I went with a grittier, almost HDR look. I liked the way the processing brought out the detail in the floor, but I’ve always felt that this shot was meant for black & white. I also wasn’t too thrilled with the number of people in the shot, so I went back at a later date and took the shot you see above. In this shot, there is only the one woman on the bench, which I like better. I also chose to convert the image to black & white. Initially I created an image to which I added a bit of film grain, however I ultimately decided that I wanted a smoother look. I edited the shot to hide the grain layer and used Lightroom noise reduction to help smooth the shot out even more.


We had some nice weather last week and all around I saw trees flowering and leafing out. I decided to take a quick drive around the campus of the University of Michigan to see where there might be a good combination of architecture and flowering landscape. The shot above shows the Intramural Building with a nice line of flowering trees. Not sure what kind of trees they are, but they looked nice.


I haven’t had a lot of spare time recently to go out and do a lot of shooting, so I’ve been spending some time going over my Lightroom catalog and looking at images that I may have overlooked before, or for ones that I might want to try some different processing on. This image is one of the former. The shot shows the Rackham Building and the newly constructed North Quad dormitory on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. I took this picture last May on a bright, sunny Sunday morning. I had wanted to get some shots of the new dorm as well as see what other interesting things I could find. This picture was taken right after I got out of my car. The sun was behind me and creating some nice hard light on the Rackham Building. I also liked the bit of North Quad which was in the frame. Since North Quad was still under construction, there was a fence around the building and the angle on this shot pretty much hides all of the construction related things surrounding the building at that time.


Snow on the Law Quad

Posted under University of Michigan

'Snow on the Law Quad' - Ann Arbor, Michigan

his image is another one from my personal snowstorm photowalk that I took a couple of weeks ago. The picture was taken in the University of Michigan Law Quadrangle during a brief, but intense snowstorm which lasted a few hours. The building in the background is one of the buildings which comprise the buildings known as the Lawyers Club. The Law Quad has an interesting history. The buildings were all funded from a law school alumuns, William Cook, who requested that the school be built in a design reminiscent of Cambridge University. Construction of the Law Quad took place between 1924 and 1933. Mr Cook never saw the completed school.


This shot is a companion to yesterday’s image showing just the steps of Angell Hall on the campus of the University of Michigan. Not much more to say, really. I really enjoy raking light when it shines across surfaces which create deep shadows. After taking the picture of the steps I switched lenses to my 16-35 so I could get a wider shot. The tree had red/brown leaves which I thought looked good in the sunlight against the stone of the building. I debated about keeping the image in color, but after I played with a black and white version I decided I liked it better.


Hard Light

Posted under University of Michigan

Hard Light

For mid November in Michigan, this past Sunday was very pleasant. It was a bright sunny day and I took the opportunity to walk around Ann Arbor looking for interesting things to shoot. I went out mid-afternoon, which meant the sun was already at a low angle since the sun sets here around 5:20pm right now. I was hoping to get some architectural shots which took advantage of the raking light. The shot above shows the steps of Angell Hall on the campus of the University of Michigan. I liked the patterns the sun had created on the pillars and steps so I took this shot.


Sunday on the Diag

Posted under Ann Arbor

Sunday on the Diag

We had another nice late fall day here in Michigan, so I spent some of it wandering around Ann Arbor and on the campus of the University of Michigan. I was primarily using a 70-200 f2.8 lens that I had rented to play around with. The area I took this picture in is known as ‘The Diag’ since it is a large square area where several diagonal paths intersect. The shot was taken mid-afternoon, and with the recent switch to Standard time, the sun was coming in at low angle. With all the trees in the area, the sun made interested areas of light and shade. I had been primarily shooting campus architecture, but I saw these two people sitting next to the tree in the sunlight and I knew I had to take a shot.


I’ve been feeling someone uninspired in my photography of late, getting bored with shooting similar subjects. I really enjoy shooting with a wide angle lens, but I typically use the wide angle for architecture shots to give me enough material to create reasonably straight lines. However, I’ve always enjoyed seeing images of architecture and other subjects which have been shot with a fisheye lens. So, just for fun and to mix things up a bit, I decided to rent the Nikkor 16mm fisheye for use on my D700. I went out for a walk around town late yesterday just to see what sort of interesting images I might be able to create with this lens. I managed to get a few that I liked and I enjoyed shooting with this lens.