Tag: winter
When planning our Belle Isle trip, Chris did some research into other photo-worthy spots in Detroit. One spot he found was the Windmill Point Lighthouse in Mariner Park, which is right on the border of Detroit and Grosse Point Park. This area is sometimes referred to as the “Venice of Detroit” and as we drove in, I could see why. The homes are situated on canals that run to the river. Every home seemed to have a boat on a lift. I never knew anything like this existed in the city! If I’ve piqued your curiosity, check out this photo feature on Daily Detroit from a few years ago.
So, I had no idea this “Canal District” or this lighthouse existed. And it seems like no one else knows it exists either. We visited on an unseasonably warm Saturday in January and it was just us and a border patrol agent on his lunch break. If you search online for Windmill Point Lighthouse, it doesn’t seem like a lot of photographers have discovered this spot either.
Like many Michigan lighthouses, this one has an interesting history. The original lighthouse with an light-keeper’s quarters was built on this spot in 1848. In the 1920’s the Public Health Service acquired the land for a new Marine Hospital. The main tower of the light was left standing and was converted to an electric light while the keeper’s quarters were demolished to make room for the hospital. The hospital was torn down long ago and the area is now known as Mariner Park. Looking at old photos, both the lighthouse keeper’s quarters and the hospital were beautiful buildings. I wonder what they would look like today if they were still standing. (LighthouseFriends.com)
About the Photo:
When we made this trip, I really wanted to get a shot of the ice in the river (I did get this one). When we got there, I really wanted to get both the ice and the lighthouse in one shot. Well, both the fence and my lens made that kind of difficult. This was one instance where I wish I had a wider lens! This was a single RAW exposure, with basic edits done in Ligthtroom.
Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 18.0-55.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 lens handheld
Date Taken:
January 2016
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Hello everyone, this is Chris, the less interested in online interaction, other half of Go See Do Photography. I have recently agreed to post some of my work once a week.
Although Ashleigh and I have a lot of photographic taste in common, our styles are a bit different. Lately my two main areas of focus have been on black and white, geometrically motivated photography, and in a little practiced, not well liked style called photo impressionism.
I grew up being shown the works of the old impressionist masters, and Claude Monet in particular. As different as photography is from painting, there is still a small group of photographers that carry this style of image forward into the age of digital photography. The image in this post is one such example.
About the Photo:
The image on this post is a composite of 8 images. I went out to my front yard in broad daylight and took 8 pictures of this tree that is by our driveway, with each exposure moving slightly to get different parts of the same tree. I shot at F11 in aperture priority mode, ISO 100. I was zoomed to 55 mm on the 18-55mm lens. I opened the images in Lightroom to do a basic edit which I applied to all of the images, then I opened them as layers in Photoshop. Once in Photoshop, I chose the layer that I wanted to be most prominent and placed it on the bottom of the stack. I then changed the opacity of the other layers to be between 25% and 50%. I blended all but the background layer using the “lighten” blend mode. I then applyed a few final adjustment layers to get the brightness, contrast, and saturation the way that I wanted them to be.
Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 lens handheld
Photoshop CC 2015 is also essential for this style of work
Date Taken:
February 13, 2016
Thank you for reading. You can see my best work on 500px and can also find pictures of the “trying my hardest to be good at this” type on Flickr or Pixoto.
Also, be sure to like the Go See Do Facebook Page, and follow Ashleigh on Instagram and Flickr! Check out our Gear page to see inside our camera bag!
This past weekend was Zehnder’s Snowfest in Frankenmuth. I really wanted to go and get some shots of the action! We chose to go on the coldest day but I’m glad we did because I didn’t want any sad, melting sculptures (this weekend we got temps in the 50s!). Frankenmuth holds a special place in my heart (and I’m sure I’ll share why in a future post) so I will take any excuse I can to visit. As expected, it was packed and all the restaurants had long waits, but that didn’t matter, I had my camera in my hand!
I wanted to focus on getting environmental portraits of the snow carvers because I feel it adds more story to the image. This was a lot trickier than I thought. Many of the sculptures were surrounded by ladders and other clutter. Tourists were taking selfies and there were piles of discarded snow everywhere!
About the Photo:
Since we were visiting at night and I knew I was going to try to capture the carvers at work, I grabbed my fastest lens and was prepared to crank my ISO, although some of the sculptures were well lit enough to bring it back down. This was shot wide open (f/1.8) with 1600 ISO to get my shutter speed fast enough for my 50mm lens. Luckily I was shooting towards the sky, so I was able to crush the blacks in Lightroom and get rid of any noise without worrying about losing my background. I planned on bringing my tripod but I forgot it at home and I was glad I wasn’t lugging it around. It would’ve been a pain to set it up and take it down at each sculpture. This is a time I feel I could’ve benefited from the added stability of a monopod.
Camera Gear:
Nikon D3100 with 50mm f/1.8 lens handheld
Date Taken:
January 29, 2016
Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr! Check out my new Gear page to see inside my camera bag! For more information on Snowfest and other Frankenmuth events, visit Frankenmuth.org
This past weekend, Southern Michigan had its first snow of the season. Where I live, we hit a November record of 16 inches! It snowed all day, up to 1 1/2 inches per hour! It’s not even Thanksgiving yet and it looks like the heart of winter around here!
The photographer in me had to get out and experience the snow! Of course, the roads were horrible, so I didn’t attempt to leave my yard. This shot goes to show that a little change of seasons can inspire you to capture something you walk right by every day!
Thanks for stopping by! If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page, follow me on Instagram, and Flickr!