Category: 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.


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.


This shot was taken in the new wing of the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA). I was drawn to this shot by all the lines. I just liked the way the railings around the staircase looked against the lines for the window frames in the background. It has a very mide-century modern feeling, even though the building was completed last year. In looking at the shot now, I think it would look better with a person sitting on the bench, maybe about 1/3 of the way in from the right side of the image. I think a person would add a nice ‘organic’ element to the strong geometric nature of the shot. I’m curious as to what other people might thing.


A few weeks ago my wife and I went to an exhibit at the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) called The Lens of Impressionism – Photography and Painting Along the Normandy Coast, 1850–1874. It was a great exhibition. Before the exhibit, I wandered around the museum. The museum consists of two wings, an old wing housed in a Beaux Arts style structure, and a new wing which was recently completed in a very modern style (seen here). My main focus was on the architecture and I took several interior shots. In general I’m not much of a ‘people’ photographer. I’ll wait until people are out of frame before taking pictures, particularly architecture. However, there are times when having the person in the right place makes the shot and I think this is one of those times.


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.


This image shows ‘Untitled Vessel’ a fine art piece by Ray Allen, on display at the University of Michigan Museum of Art. I took this shot with my ultra-wide angle lens and I just liked the way the piece looked in the museum light. The raw image was rather dark, but I was able to brighten it considerably in Adobe Lightroom. I was able to use a combination of fill light and blacks to brighten the front of the piece which was rather dark in the raw image. I used Topaz Simplify on the background to give it less detail and to keep the focus on the artwork.


This image comes from the old wing of the University of Michigan Museum of Art. I was visiting the museum to see the Lens of Impressionism exhibit and managed to take several interior shots of the museum while I was waiting for other people in my party to arrive. This image shows the main staircase in the old wing of the museum. I shot this from the bottom floor looking up toward the top of the building.