So he asked me to take his photos and now they’re asking me to shoot their wedding. I decided to take them on a tour of Detroit while taking the Detroit people mover. You’ll notice all the stops where we shot were on the people mover stop. I remember on this day that the Red Wings were playing that day as well and there were a bunch of Penguin fans everywhere. It was ugly they were all drunk and belligerent and talking trash.

I took jen & nelson on a tour of Detroit for their engagement session last month. It was just starting to get warm.  Too bad it’s still not warm enough. Summer seems like it just started here in Detroit. We walked around the new riverwalk. There’s a great area resting. Theres some well done landscaping around the new riverwalk. It’s definately beautiful and i’m very proud of the Detroit Renovation.

I usually only do family portraits upon special requests. I prefer to only stay focused on weddings and professional/corporate/executive portraits.

After discussing the venue we decided to do the portraits earlier rather than later in the spring. Mrs. Cavanaugh also requested that the portraits weren’t so rigid and posed. She was looking for more of a documentary/reportage type style of portrait.

I mentioned to her that I’d do that a long with a good mix of posed/staged portraits.

It wasn’t the warmest Michigan Spring Day’s but it was still a beautiful Michigan Spring Day to execute some portraits in Kensington Park.

Mr. Cavanaugh is a well established pet veterinarian and owns several vet pet hospitals in the area. As you can see they’re dog enthusiasts.

The dogs were really excited to get out that day and it made it a little difficult to keep them still.

Trying to get a good view of the stage was difficult. There were throngs of people lined up everywhere!

The alumni association passed out several banners for spartans to hold.

The event had recieved much media coverage as it was broadcasted live on several local news stations.

I’ve feverishly tried to sneak my way up to grab a better picture. It proved difficult since we’ve arrived only a few minutes early. Many had waited several hours beforehand.

This summer we have about 7-10 weddings to come. Stay tuned and you’ll see some gorgeous and beautiful wedding photography from the Detroit Area.

Save the Kronk Gym

The Kronk fundraiser was an effort to raise money to renovate and save the Kronk gym. The Kronk gym has been in dire need of renovation over the years. Kronk gym was previously the home of some very famous boxing champions:   Hilmer Kenty, Thomas Hearns and Mickey Goodwin.

The gym was managed by the famous Boxing Trainer Emmanuel Steward. The event hosted a various gala of auctionable items. One in particular was Mary Pott’s Portrait of Emmanuel Steward.

Some of the prizes were very reasonable like this weekend getaway package from the Townsend Inn that I’ve wished I was able to

The fundraiser had recieved a lot of press because of its high profile celebrities from around Detroit that made appearances. The Detroit News was there as well as the Wayne Dispatch, and many other various television channels.

Signed gloves being auctioned off.

Emmanuel Steward himself speaking.

Emmanuel’s Son, A Cop, Talking about the importance of saving Kronk.

The whole gang of photographers that were there to photograph Emmanuel Steward.

Time magazine in the March 26th, 2009 issue has a excellent series of photographs of Detroit Abandoned Building Photographs Shot by a photographer, Sean Hemmerle.

The photos are an excellent depiction of some current abandoned buildings and areas in Detroit. I think Hemmerle does a great job carefully framing and picking photos.

My Criticism & Insight

Trying to shed light on Detroit is what we really need. As an optimist, I feel it is important to spread and speak of good news and development of Detroit.  Unfortunately, at this point and in this case I feel Detroit has a plethora of gaping holes and abandoned buildings to pick up and restore. For a piece like this one, shedding light will provide a necessary cry for help from the national spotlight. The article by Time magazine also does a great job of showing that there is a semblance of hope for our City of Detroit.

See the Series by Sean Hemmerle

She told me the headshots were to be used for her business cards and marketing materials.

Pat is a bit shy and timid but a little encouragement and conversation goes a long way of creating warm and comforting headshots.

This is shot along a brightly colored wall of hers. The light was peeking in from the window there.

This one was shot on her patio. I suggested to her that she’d wear browns and neutral tones. It worked out very well with the browns from the trees that were still barren from winter.

This is one of my favorites from the Chicago trip. I was looking to shoot something with more dark of a density. I’ve been working a lot more with lots of artificial controlled light. I thought i’d push myself to work with only available light.

Doing so requires moving more and seeing different. Opposed to moving lights and changing camera settings in which and when i’m used to.

Spot this interesting composition while walking back to my car. I was quite worrid I wasn’t going to be able to find the lot where i’ve parked.

Another grab from millenial park. It was quite cold! The wind chill from the water brought it down to a pretty cold temperatures.

Another Abstract of Millenial Park.

The rest of the collections of the photos are actually photos shot on the way to Chicago and on the way home.

This is a photo of the Kellogg House. I was shooting this at midnight and it smelled delicious downtown Battle Creek. It smelled like cornflakes.  I miss night photography dearly. I used to photograph night photography as a means of meditation, renewal and just a way to get away from all things: Computers, people etc.

This is a building downtown. I spotted a janitor while i was shooting. I was afraid they’d call the cops and I’d have to run like a little criminal. It really isn’t a crime. I was in a public area. You can get easily paranoid when you’re shooting by yourself at night.

This is another shot of the Kellogg House from another side. This is the River Facing side.

Another view different composition.

This one took me by surprise because of the interesting signage.

The obligatory mirror ball in chicago. I decided to take my view of it. Abstracting it a bit more.

This is a view of Michigan Ave.

This is a grab of something I’ve been inspired by Detroit Photographer, Henry Callahan. He would photograph everyday scenes of the roaring streets of Detroit.

Saw this as a good grab. A very Dada pop art photo. Meaningless but aesthically interesting in a post-modern way.

In a lot of these photos the day was not the best nor the skies were super blue. Thus, I’ve wanted to experiment and think only in black in white. The cloudy sky did provide great tonality to photos.

This is in front of an Old Navy store. Just trying to grab a couple photographs while the normal folk attend to their routines.