Washtenaw County, MI
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Who will you save today?
Made by AJ Clark Photography
I did a with this same title and purpose on my old stream back in April. Sadly, I have a reason to do another one. This time, it happened just a few miles away from me. I apologize for the length, but this is a critically important issue. Something must be done. Please read. Fourteen year old Samantha Kelly had just started her freshman year of high school. Out of curiosity, youthful excitement, peer pressure, she had sex with a popular senior boy. That night she confessed the deed to her mother. Initially it seemed only an irresponsible, but consensual indiscretion. However, in Michigan, a 14 year old cannot legally consent to sex. It wasn't long before rape charges were filed against the young man. Samantha's mother paraded her on the local tv news. There she told the reporter that the boy had forced himself on her. Was she pressured to change her story? Regardless, now the whole community knew the intimate details of this teen's private life. Samantha would now face the scrutiny of her family, her neighbors, classmates, and the police. The whole school was divided. Students wore t-shirts with the boy's picture on them proclaiming his innocence. There was name calling, harassing text messages and Facebook statuses, but it went beyond that to threats of violence and actual violence. Students threw mud at her, made sexual gestures, even hit her. All the while, the case against the young man was progressing. There was no stopping it now. Samantha would be subjected to more questioning, criticism, humiliation. She would be expected to explain the discrepancies in her story. Any adult would wither under such circumstances. To a 14 year old, it must have seemed like the end of the world. Tragically, it was. Last week, Samantha was scheduled to testify in court. The evening before the hearing, she excused herself from the dinner table and went upstairs to her room. An hour later, her 12 year old brother found her dead. She had hung herself. Written in marker on the wall was her goodbye note - do you love me now? I have always loved you. The next dat at the hearing, rape charges were dropped. I want to run through the streets screaming at the top of my lungs. Wake up people going on about your lives as if everything is fine. What kind of world do we live in? What are we doing to our young people! I find myself wondering where I was when Samantha crafting the noose. What meaningless self-centered thing was I doing while she was dying? What was going through her mind in those final minutes? Did she have second thoughts, but it was too late? Did she suffer long? I can't even imagine. It is too terrible to even contemplate, but I can't get it out of my head. Some thoughts you just can't turn off. I couldn't hold back my emotions at work the other day. A co-worker caught me crying at my station and asked what was wrong. I almost made up something, but decided to tell the truth. She looked at me like I was from another planet. Crying over a complete stranger? What is wrong with you? No! What is wrong with you that you can hear a story like that and just move on? How can it not affect you? How can you look at this world and not cry every day? Samantha was buried today. This whole experience makes me want to live my life differently, to be a better human being. We've all got to move past this indifference for our fellow humans. He's black, she's Muslim, he's a republican, she's an immigrant, he's gay, she's fat. Just stop! We're all people. Let's look out for each other. Where was Samantha's support network? One person could have made all the difference. I saw an ad for an art exhibit - Princess Diana, celebrating her life. I guess that's nice, but who will celebrate the life of Samantha Kelly, Phoebe Prince, Tyler Clementi, Asher Brown and countless other teens who committed suicide after enduring endless cruelty? We can all be part of the solution. Start today by remembering those lost. Then start looking out for those who need help. It is not too late for them. I will challenge myself to be a better person. Will you? So I ask you again, who will you save today? I have tagged some of the people who continually inspire me. You are all amazing. You are my heroes. Please make a commitment to make a difference in someone's life. Forgive me if I have missed anyone.
When You're Young You Think Life Is Never Going To Change ( Or How I Waited Too Long To See John Lee Hooker In Concert )
Made by DetroitDerek Photography ( ALL RIGHTS RESERVED )
When I was younger, I was into punk/ new wave music , The Who, and Frank Zappa and would consider myself a music snob. I was watching The Blue Brothers Movie on television with my Father, and I saw the coolest guy I had ever seen, playing guitar, loudly tapping his foot, and I had to know more about him. He just exuded this charisma. That man was John Lee Hooker. I later found out that although he was born in Mississippi in 1917, he moved to Detroit in 1948, did his first recordings here, and lived here most of his life. He came to Detroit to play shows on a yearly basis, and something always happened so that I could not go. I always thought, John Lee Hooker tours every year, I'll just see him next year. And the next year... and next year. In the year 2001, I finally ran out of excuses as he passed away, still without me seeing him in concert. This is a poster that I have from 1989 ( I have over 200 posters that I saved from the 80's ) for a show in Ann Arbor. It was originally yellow, but was modified by a very cool texture supplied by Nasos3 ( ).
Frieze Destruction - HDR
Made by jhoweaa
A shot of the Frieze Building as the demolition crew continues to nip away at it. This part of the building was originally Ann Arbor High School before it was acquired by The University of Michigan and turned into classrooms and theater facilities. The building is being demolished to make way for a new dormitory. If you look at the workers in the lower left, you will see that they are trying to remove some architectural element over the doorway. Who knows what they are going to do with it. For more images of this building before and during demolition, just do a search for Frieze Building This HDR was made from 3 handheld exposures using my camera's auto bracket capability. This resulted in a exposures ranging from -1 to +1. The images were processed using Photomatix for combination and tone mapping, and Photoshop for minor curves clean up and sharpening. Follow me on Twitter @JamesHowePhoto
Hidden art.
Made by alibubba
Big On Black There's this alley that runs behind the Michigan Theater in downtown Ann Arbor. It's a shortcut from one block to another that comes in super handy when it's raining or cold. And every time I walk through this alley, I promise myself I will return one day to photograph it. Today was that day. It was absolutely frigid in this alley. It was only 29 degrees to begin with, but this alley was like a giant wind tunnel. Andy was super cooperative to stand there with me while I did the shoot, all with no hat and frozen ears. I'll be uploading a few more from today's shoot a little later. I will most definitely be coming back to this spot again when it gets warmer. If anyone who lives in this area wants to come out and shoot here with me, let me know! **Explored** 365 Days (self portraits): Day 312
Happy 4th Of July
Made by Kathy~
The Annual 4th of July Fireworks show at North lake, michigan... fun times had by everyone!! We are not sure this firework was planned, must have gone off early to blow so close to the water... but sure glad the camera was ready My son and his friends... thanks neighbors for the fun night... its to bad the boys couldn't keep still for the 1 second shot.. :) there is also two kakayer's in the shot.. 2 more of my sons friends--- I had 15 minutes of internet this past weekend to quickly find out about the flickr blog.. so excited and then no internet for 36 hours... :( so it is great to come back and find all these wonderful comments and faves... thanks so much. BTW--- it is an owl on the corner of the dock.. to keep the birds from making a nest in our boat shore station.. and it worked... (1st time we tried it) and thanks flickr for the blog post... pretty cool
Clouds on Glass
Made by jhoweaa
This is a shot I took of the Arthur Miller Theater portion of the Walgreen Drama Center at The University of Michigan, The building is composed of blue/green glass panels which are joined to the building with chrome fasteners. I liked the way the sky was reflecting off of the building. An architectural rendering of the building can be found here The shot required minimal post-processing. I did some perspective correction since I was shooting at a slightly upward angle. I also cropped the shot to be square. Standard sharpening and some minor levels work and this is the end result. Follow me on Twitter @JamesHowePhoto
Voigtlander: Fall Colour
Made by Matt Callow
Voigtlander pinhole, two elephant exposure, handheld. Expired Fuji RFP 50, cross-processed. The current assignment for our local is what does fall mean to you? Initially I wanted to steer clear of all the usual cliches - leaves changing colour, pumpkins, halloween, cider and donuts - but when you're out and about shooting in Michigan at this time of year it's hard to avoid. So instead I decided to play with the cliche, subverting it a little by using twenty year old slide film and cross processing at home in developer that was too hot, and aiming for a more impressionistic approach to the colour by using long, hand-held exposures and controlled blur (a la Nicolai_G's incredible spacetime work).
Nickels Arcade - HDR
Made by jhoweaa
This is a shot of Nickels Arcade located near the campus of The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The shot was taken in mid afternoon so the ceiling would be illuminated. I think an early evening shot might be better since the lights would be on. This is a handheld HDR comprised of 3 exposures. I set the autobracketing feature of my E-500 to take exposures 1 EV apart. I then processed the images using Photomatix and a little Photoshop to do some minor curves and sharpening work. Overall I like it, although I think the image has too much noise. I think there is also a bit of lens distortion, some of which I corrected, but some distortion remains. Follow me on Twitter @JamesHowePhoto
Horny Bokeh
Made by MightyBoyBrian
My wife and I got tickets to the stunning Michigan vs Notre Dame game this past Saturday which gave me my 1st chance in 6 years to bring my DSLR into the staduim. I got some great stuff and I'm excited to share it with you all. This was taken during the Michigan Marching Band's step show. Pictured here is the lead pipe and mouthpiece (with adapter) of a mellophone (Key of F). I played this instrument for 8 years from High school through College. Oh, and for those that don't know: Bokeh describes the rendition of out-of-focus points of light. Differing amounts of spherical aberration alter how lenses render out-of-focus ... [source]
Time Is Passing
Made by DonkerDink
My first semi-successful star trails upload... This is actually a merging of 6 separate photos of about 5 minutes a piece... I put them together in Photoshop using this star trails action. I expect to do more, but it's hard to find a real nice dark sky near where I live. This is at Peach Mountain observatory where the University Lowbrow Astronomers hold open houses near Ann Arbor, Michigan. In the foreground you can see the radio telescope, which turned out to be a difficult foreground object because it was being used... so it was moving :)
Birds in Trees
Made by MightyBoyBrian
Happy birthday Heidi! Today's my wife's birthday and it's going to rock because I'm overseeing everything. (Dinner, gifts, massages!) One of the informal themes of our wedding was birds and branches. This image to me signifies (going deep for a sec) many more future moments with my wife in which our love for each other will grow. As if by each kind act performed for each other, we silently renew our vows that we made (on June 27th of this year) and therefore add another bird and another branch. I seek to be continually getting to know the real woman behind my wife's beautiful brown eyes. Happy birthday, Heidi! I love you.
Voigtlander Pinhole: Lefurge
Made by Matt Callow
Ann Arbor/Ypsi people might've heard of Homeless Dave, who invites local movers-and-shakers, dignitaries and interesting people to come ride on his teeter-totter (see-saw) and then interviews them for his Teeter Talk site. To buck the trend, he invited *me* to totter and chat on a cold, snowy day a couple of weeks ago. Then somehow he managed to transcribe my ramblings into something resembling a coherent conversation about nursery rhymes, fly-fishing apparel and, yeah, photography. Read it here.
The rain Approaches
Made by Kathy~
Kayaking the Huron River, last shot before the rain gets us--- saved the camera-- We didn't think it was going to rain, plus we thought it would only take 2 hours on the river and took 4--- mainly because there is no water in the river, drought--- and so the current is nothing This is not HDR, I metered for the sky, which was of course made the trees to dark, which I lightened up. which gave me noise in the water, which I don't know yet how to get rid of that, learning----- and yes I was in the Kayak, everytime I would stopped a shoot, my kayak went sideways :), never tipped though
Resolution #2: Appreciate Mother Nature, every day
Made by Kathy~
No Matter how cold or hot it is.... get outside and enjoy everything that mother Nature has given us, unless of course it is something like -10 degrees... Is it okay to break the resolution then? I do have to say I get out on most days, but I need to appreciate it more while I am out there. This is my lake house, North Lake, just N of Chelsea Michigan, we had our lake house neighborhood progressive party on Sat. the 3rd, and this was the stunning sunset given to us when we got there.... and the lake is very frozen... I walked across part of it, and didn't fall in
Snow on State Street
Made by gsgeorge
Saturday 11PM on State Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. This is near the Old Fourth Ward. The building across the street is the old Unitarian Church, built in 1886. It is now the corporate headquarters of architecture firm Hobbs & Black. The large building beyond that is the Frieze Building, a University of Michigan building, which is due for demolition this summer. In the distance to the extreme right, you can see the marquee of the State Theater. See larger size for details. 12/4/06 - top 10
Color, Light and Shadow
Made by jhoweaa
This is a shot of a parking lot sign located at the Domino's Farms office complex in Ann Arbor, MI. I'm a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright and I've always liked Domino's Farms because it was designed in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright. I was driving around the complex and noticed these parking lot signs and really liked the shape and colors and the way the sign contrasted with the blue sky. A picture of what the sign looks like can be found here In fact, this is a picture of the very same sign.
SpeedG - Rowes Corner Town Hall
Made by Andy_Tanguay
Testing out the large format process before the big shooting season gets going. Shot with Speed Graphic on loan from the man, Bill Bresler's collection. I think the tank that I'm using to develop these negatives causes the issues seen here. The streaks, the weirdness. It's kind of a cool look, but not what I want. Rowes Corner, Michigan...old town hall or something. Available for Ho-Downs and Hootenannies of all kinds. Or maybe the final scene of a John Woo movie. Check out the 'All Sizes' to get a look at the full scan. 7K!
Kayaking the River
Made by Kathy~
Just so you know, this is NOT hdr---not really a fan of hdr (well most) I had my camera meter for the sky (which is hard to do while moving in the kayak) Then of course the trees were to dark, which then I lightened in photoshop--- which then gave me to much noise, and I don't know how to get rid of that. This is 1/2 way through the kayak trip, which was suppose to take 2 hours (according to my husband) and took 4 hours instead--- we started off blue skies, 1st kayak picture, and by the end we were rowing through the rain.
Barton Dam (another HDR)
Made by jhoweaa
Another view of Barton Dam. I wanted to see if I could get a panoramic HDR shot, but I messed things up. However, this particular segment came out all right, I think. It has a bit of the 'spooky' HDR look (a little glow around the building), but I like it. I think the overall blue cast makes the image look cold, which it was when I took this shot! An black & white conversion of this shot is available Follow me on Twitter @JamesHowePhoto
Lock me away
Made by Kathy~
Just somedays--- when my 16 year old and 19 have the attitudes going--- and then throw away the key for a couple of hours Take last Night, my daughter moved home from college for the summer 3 weeks ago and has yet to unpack-- all the clothes and everything are all over her floor, I told her she could not go out last night unless her room was cleaned..... You can't treat me like that, I don't live here anymore LOL--- yeah right, you are only here eating our food, sleeping in our beds---
