A couple of years ago I attended my first vintage car show. It was the Orphan Car Show held annually in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Each year the show features a handful of ‘orphan’ cars, cars whose maker or nameplate has been out of business for 7 years or more. In 2007, the Checker car company was one of the companies featured.

This is a shot of an old New York Central Railway Pullman car which is part of Art Train USA. I really like the typography used on these trains, as well as their streamlined design.

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 …

You are looking at the front end of a 1935 Duesenberg Model JN Roadster by Bohman and Schwartz. This car was one of many on display at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan. This particular automobile has some interesting history. The car was a gift to Clark Gable from his wife, Carole Lombard. When she died, he abandoned the car and requested that it never return to California while he was alive. The car is a masterpiece of craftsmanship. It was restored several years ago and there are some videos on YouTube showing a master painter applying the pinstriping by hand. It’s a wonderful automobile.

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.

The image above shows the interior of a 1920 Pierce Arrow automobile. The car was one of many on display at an event held at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan (near Kalamazoo). What I find most interesting about this shot is the speedometer. If you look closely, the speedometer is more like an odometer and appears to max out at 75 MPH before returning to 0 again.

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. …

This is a shot of the engine ports of a 1934 LaSalle Convertible Coupe owned by automotive executive Robert Lutz. The LaSalle was designed by legendary car designer Harley Earl. The details on this car are exceptional and done in the art moderne style. I’ve had the pleasure to shoot a couple different vintages of the LaSalle and the mid 30’s are my favorites. I also really like the yellow color of the car. I’ve seen others in darker tones and the yellow ones are really exceptional. This particular car was on exhibit at the 2008 Concours d’Elegance held at Meadowbrook Hall in Rochester Hills, Michigan, on the campus of

This is a shot of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. In the background you can also see 30 Rockefeller Center. I was in town on business and walked down to Rockefeller Center to take some shots. I didn’t have a tripod so I had to do everything hand held. I remember standing across the street from Radio City to take this shot. I tried to support myself has best I could in order to get a clean shot. My Olympus E-3 has in camera stabilization and I think that helped keep the shot clear as well.