Midwest Guest

Where I live: 2010 Wildlife Photographer of the Year runs through May 1 at Detroit Zoo

Spring made an early appearance last week, and the sunny day inspired a trek to the Detroit Zoo to see this year's Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition.

I've written about this exhibition several times in the past, but it's always inspiring to visit if you're at all interested in photography, wildlife, or the issues surrounding our relationship with nature and the wildlife inhabiting it.

We're fortunate here in Detroit as our zoo began hosting this show six years ago. Detroit is, again, the North American premiere of the show and, according to the exhibition's site, the sole U.S. stop for the tour this year. The Natural History Museum in London and the BBC Wildlife Magazine own this competition, the world's largest and most prestigious wildlife photography competition.

Showing the images as illuminated, large-format transparencies gives the colors a particular depth and beauty that gives each image an intimate quality and draws viewers into the stories of the subjects portrayed.

As always, many of the images are simply beautiful scenes of nature and wildlife, although there are always at least a few photos that highlight more disturbing or provocative images.

This year is no different.

A small section of images are behind curtains with the warning that the subjects portrayed may upset particularly sensitive or young viewers. The images largely came from the photojournalism and One Earth category, which focuses on conservation issues or the interactions between humans and the natural world that sometimes have cruel consequences for the animals involved.

I've seen photos in prior years' shows that seemed every bit as shocking as this year's images, yet no one cordoned them off behind curtains. The images this year are thought-provoking for sure, yet the act of hiding them behind the curtains takes a bit of the impact away from them because viewers closeted in with the photos can't stand back to take them in and you lose a lot of the gallery's excellent lighting.

The show, established 46 years ago, drew more than 31,000 entries from 84 different countries for the 2010 competition. This exhibition showcases 118 winning images from those among those photographers.

Some of my favorite images from this year's show include, in no particular order: Pickings from puffins by Marcello Calandrini; A carcass-eye view by Jürgen Ross; Paris Life by Laurent Geslin; Back in, front out by Esa Mälkönen; Predatory steps by Erick Grønningsæter; The house in the woods portfolio by Kai Fagerström; and The frozen moment by Fergus Gill, the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year overall winner.

The exhibit runs at the Detroit Zoo's Ford Educational Center now until May 1, 2011 and is free with regular admission to the zoo.

We love the photo portfolio book published each year for this show, and find ourselves often browsing through books from past years. The books include each image in color with the photographers' notes about it and the photographic equipment used to make the imagers.

The gift store at the zoo sold out its stock of books and should get some more in later, but you can also order it online.

So, go see this show. I'm sure it will give you plenty to think about, and it will inspire you to take a walk about the zoo with your own camera!

© Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

Where I live: "Out to Dry: Flow and Ebb of the Salton Sea"

 

Photography exhibition in Ferndale, Michigan and Q & A with the artist behind the camera, Sandi Wheaton

Photographer Sandi Wheaton saw an upside to being downsized, seizing the opportunity to take off from her Windsor, Ontario, home on a cross-country trip from Chicago to California along Route 66 to make some striking images and begin to remake her life along the way.

I first met Sandi face-to-face when I bought one of her Route 66 photos as a Christmas present for my father in 2009. Now you have a chance to meet Sandi as she shows some of her stunning images of California's Salton Sea January 28 through February 12 at the State of the Art Gallery in Ferndale, Michigan.

Sandi agreed to answer a few of my questions and share a couple of her images here as she prepares to launch her Ferndale show and an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Windsor later this spring.

1. I became aware of your photography in fall of 2009 as you prepared to leave for a Chicago to Los Angeles trip via Route 66. I followed along online as you drove a Jeep cross-country while towing an Aliner trailer, making images and telling stories of your discoveries in your pictureRoute66 blog. Tell me a little bit about how that trip came about and how it helped shape your photography career.

• I had wanted to drive and photograph Route 66 for years, but working full-time for someone else made it impossible.  I was downsized during the automotive industry downturn, and one of my first positive thoughts was, “well, at least now I’ll have the time to do that trip!”  The journey and the projects I worked on while traveling Route 66 drew more interest and support than I ever dreamed.  That helped to convince me that I should follow my passions and work for myself.  Now I am doing just that, so the trip was quite significant not just to my career, but to my whole life.  It also has me thinking a lot about a location-independent lifestyle.

  

2. You have a special interest in black-and-white photography using infrared film. Can you tell me why you enjoy infrared photography? And as you run out of the now obsolete film, have you had any success in creating similar images using your DSLR?

• My first time shooting Kodak high-speed infrared film coincided with my first trip to California’s Joshua Tree National Park, and Route 66 in fact.  JTNP had some of the most incredible, surreal landscapes I had ever seen, and I simply fell in love with the place.  When I got the contact sheets printed, not only was I thrilled with the dramatic look of the IR film, but I felt that it somehow helped me capture just how surreal those sculpted desert landscapes were to me.  I’m extremely disappointed that Kodak stopped making that film.  Lately I’ve been working primarily on color projects, so I have yet to really experiment with digital IR – but it will happen in the near future.

3. The creation of the Salton Sea in California in the very early 1900s, its mid-20th-century development and heyday as a freshwater tourist attraction, and its subsequent deterioration is a fascinating story. What drew you to document the Salton Sea's present chapter as a bleakly beautiful saline wasteland?

• After shooting these formal black and white Joshua Tree landscapes for a few years, one day I decided to take a side trip to the nearby Salton Sea, a place I had heard was abandoned and quite weird. I was simply curious. In another interesting twist of timing, that visit coincided with my first D-SLR. Suddenly I found myself shooting color work that was a bit more documentary in style than the quiet, abstract Joshua Tree work I had been up to. The Salton Sea just mesmerized me. It was a sad, decaying place scattered with the remnants of its previous heyday, yet I felt an incredible peace there. The setting is gorgeous – a huge lake in the middle of desert mountains – but more than that, I found the transformation taking place there as nature “took back its own” to be moving and quite beautiful.

  

4. What do you see, or what do you hope to see, for the Salton Sea in coming years?

• I really hope that a solution to the water issues is found soon.  The sea is already shrinking and with the ongoing battle over the Colorado River water rights, it’s going to get worse.  Eventually what fish are left will die, and the 400 species of birds that visit the sea won’t be able to feed.  As the water recedes further, air quality will be a big problem for the people and industry in the area, once the fine dust of lakebed sediment from agricultural runoff water goes airborne when the winds belt through there.  Solutions have been proposed, but so far the price tag is just too high.

5. What's next for you? Tell me about the upcoming show at the Art Gallery of Windsor-will you be showing the same images there as we'll be seeing in Ferndale?

• I’ll be speaking about the Salton Sea at State of the Art in Ferndale on February 12 at 6 p.m. and at the Sarnia Photo Club on April 5.  At both events, I will also be selling and signing my Salton Sea books.

  Yes, the same images will be in the Art Gallery of Windsor show (March-June), but there will be twice as many.  I’ll also be exhibiting some of the Joshua Tree infrared work alongside the Salton Sea work, which should make for an interesting contrast.  After that, I’ll be building my business as a photography teacher/workshop leader.  I’m now a Certified International Tour Manager, and I want to combine that with my photographic expertise and knowledge to lead photo tours to places I know intimately (Route 66, Salton Sea, etc.).  I want to help other photographers experience the wonder of those places and get great shots for their portfolios, without having to do all the research and planning.   I love to help others travel, I love to teach and I love photography – so I’m very excited about this new venture.

Thanks, Sandi!

Stop by the State of the Art Gallery (918 W. Nine Mile Road, Ferndale, Michigan) to meet Sandi at 7 p.m. on Friday, January 28 during an opening reception for her exhibition. Sandi returns to the Ferndale gallery at 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 12 for "Plagues and Pleasures on the Salton Sea" an artist talk, film screening, and book signing.

Can't make it to either event? You can check out the State of the Art Gallery site for gallery hours or contact Sandi online.

Website: www.sandiwheaton.com

Route 66 blog: www.pictureRoute66.com

FB page: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Sandi-Wheaton-Photography/134885191747

Twitter: sandiwheaton

Images courtesy of and © Sandi Wheaton

Article © Dominique King 2011 All rights reserved

 

Midwest travel links for October 2010

Check out some of these great Midwest-related stories I read online in this past month:

• World's Largest Toilet, Columbus, IN-The term "go big or go home" takes on a whole new meaning with Julie's post about this, um, pit stop at the Kids' Commons Columbus' Community Children's Museum in Columbus, Indiana on the aptly named Go Big or Go Home blog.
• 20 Things to Do in Grand Rapids Before You're Dead-Great Lakes Guru Tim shares some great ideas for visiting this west Michigan city, including some of my favorites like ArtPrize, the Grand Rapids Art Museum (a.k.a. the GRAM), and the public art-filled campus at Grand Valley State University.
• Art at the Indianapolis International Airport-Stuck at the Indianapolis airport while waiting for a flight? Nicole suggests checking out the airport's great collection of public art and sleek modern architecture in her recent Indiana Insider blog post.
• Rock and Roll of Fame and Museum-Check out this story about the Cleveland, Ohio, museum at What Locals Like About Cleveland Plus. The short video tour gives you a sneak peek inside of the museum, including a quick look at my favorite part of the museum--its collection of performers' stage costumes (something I haven't been able to do on Midwest Guest because of the museum's photography restrictions for visitors).
  
  
• A little trip up north...and Thomas Story Kirkbride-We've enjoyed several photowalks with Photowalks Detroit. I enjoyed seeing Carolyn's story on Michigan in Pictures about a photowalk at the Village at Grand Traverse Commons in Traverse City, a former mental hospital in and ongoing residential/commercial development. Be sure to check out the links in this story to see some great pictures in the Flickr streams from individual photographers involved in this photowalk.
• Drinking and Drawing in Chicago-These informal, after-hours art sessions in several Chicago studios and galleries sound like great fun. Join Rosalind at Uptake as she checks out several events that involve creativity and cocktails!
• Schlitz Fest-Read Designslinger to find out how German-born Milwaukee brewer Joseph Schiltz sent thousands of barrels of beer to thirsty folks in Chicago in the wake of the big 1871 fire. German expats there, grateful for the free beer, probably helped the company's expansion into Chicago and the establishment of these architecturally beautiful Schlitz taverns during the late 1800s/early 1900s.
• A Road Trip to...Brandywine Falls-Anthony of Ohio's Stark County News & Views takes us to Brandywine Falls at the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. This story brought back fond memories of our visit to this beautiful spot.
  
  
• Road Trip: Finding Oz in South Dakota-Kristen shares the story of author L. Frank Baum's beloved book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and its surprising connection to Aberdeen, South Dakota. This is one in a series of Midwest Road Trip posts at Vera's A Traveler's Library blog involving books and movies with Midwestern connections (including A Road Trip to an Ordinary State: Kansas, where Vera shares the story of Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood, the movie based on the book, and the lurid crime that inspired both of them). Be sure to check out companion posts to this series at Music Road where Kerry suggests musical selections to accompany the Road Trip posts. Here's a link to Kerry's suggestions for tunes to accompany the Nebraska and Kansas leg of the trip.
• It's Buster's Birthday-Classic comedy fans will want to visit Muskegon, Michigan, where the incomparable Buster Keaton and his family called home during summers while preparing to travel the vaudeville circuit the rest of the year. Check out the Great Lakes Gazette where Kath shares the story of the Keaton family, the area's early 1900s Actors' Colony, and an annual festival dedicated to the great silent movie actor and filmmaker.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Cider mill ducks at Michigan's Franklin Cider Mill

One of our favorite little mini getaways is a trip out to nearby Franklin Cider Mill.

There's a great little creek by the mill where scores of ducks gather to see if they can score a piece of fresh-baked donut from visitors. These ducks aren't afraid of people and waddle right up to you in search of a bite to eat.

I particularly enjoy it when we avoid the crowds by sneaking out there during a weekday, when it is much easier to score a seat on a bench or tree stump to sit by the creek for a little while to enjoy a cider slush or hot apple cider.

The ducks still gather in the creek or waddle around the grounds on quiet weekday mornings, and I've managed to get a few decent shots of them with my little Canon Powershot point-and-shoot camera.

I've always made the argument that making sure you slip a small camera into your pocket means you'll often get usable photos for your blog or other photo collections, even as you're out doing something where you don't want to lug a larger camera with you. Even though I've visited this scenic little mill many times, and I'm usually loaded down with goodies to take home after shopping there, I still like to take my little camera with me.

Check out my story, The town that time forgot, to learn a little more about the village of Franklin, Michigan, and this cider mill.

I wrote about making decent images with any type of camera in Shooting photographs for your blog and recommended the book, Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with Your Compact Camera by Rick Sammon, for readers wishing to get the best possible photos out of smaller cameras.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Reflections of Detroit

I like to reflect on the good things in Detroit, and a recent outing covering a route between Greektown and the Detroit Riverfront with my local Photowalks Detroit group gave me the opportunity to do that in a real literal way by taking photos of reflected Detroit street scenes.

I've long been fascinated with taking indirect photographs of subjects as reflected in a shiny surface.

The segmented and distorted images sometimes remind me of abstract paintings.

And being the Motor City, it somehow seems appropriate that I caught most of these reflected images while checking some cars parked along the way.

Be sure to check out my posts from previous Detroit Photowalks:

Photowalk in Royal Oak, Michigan

Photowalk at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan

Cranbrook Gardens Photowalk

Curious about Detroit Photowalks and want to join the fun? Check out our group Flickr or Facebook pages.

I also did a pair of posts earlier this summer about my visit to Chicago's Cloud Gate (a.k.a. "The Bean"), a sculpture where the reflective surfaces invite visitors to see the site in different ways and interact with the work. See those photos at Chicago's Cloud Gate invites interaction and The Bean and Me in Chicago.

Here are a couple of books about Detroit and Detroit-based photographers that we have in our collection and like to check out every once in a while for inspiration:

Time Frames by Nancy Andrews, Peter Gavrilovich and Mauricio Gutierrez is a collection of images by Detroit Free Press staff photographers during Detroit's tricentennial in 2001.

And speaking of Detroit Free Press photographers, check out On Assignment: Projects in Photojournalism-From Initial Planning to Final Selection of Photographs by Tony Spina, one of our all-time favorite photo books. Even though the technical info is terribly dated (Tri-X film, 35mm camera, anyone?), Spina produced some of the most classic and memorable of Detroit. If you can score this out-of-print book for a few bucks, it's worth it just to check out the photos and the stories behind them.

 

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: The Bean and Me in Chicago

Chicago's massive "Bean" sculpture, the affectionate nickname for Anish Kapoor's Cloud Gate sculpture in the city's waterfront Millennium Park, offers endlessly fascinating photo possibilities.

I included a handful of my favorite "Bean" images in yesterday's post, Chicago's Cloud Gate invites interaction, where I wrote about the sculpture, its meaning, and how it draws visitors into interacting with it.

Today, I want to share a few more Cloud Gate images and thoughts about photographing it.

 

There always seems to be a crowd around the sculpture on days best suited for taking photos, so people will invariably be part of any pictures you take. Having the crowd as part of the scene will give your photos a real sense of scale and a good idea of just how big "The Bean" is in relation to its surroundings.

 

 

One of the photos I posted yesterday looked almost like a black and white photo, although I shot it in color. I'm posting an alternate copy of it here that I created as a grey scale image in Lightroom.

 

 

I shot this image from a window in a room on the upper floor of a building across the street from the park. Look closely and you can see the birds perched on top of the sculpture!

 

 

Here I am shooting a quick self-portrait of myself as reflected in the sculpture.

 

 

Some of the coolest shots I got came when I took pictures from underneath the sculpture, where the concave surface created some great abstract-like images.

 

 

One thing that surprised me about my Cloud Gate images when I started going through them was the fact that all but one of the images I posted with today's post and yesterday's post were taken with a trusty little Canon PowerShot point-and-shoot. While I enjoy using my larger Canon EOS DSLR camera, I find that the smaller camera often gives me nice images more than suitable for using with my blog posts.

Check out my story, Shooting photographs for your blog, for a few tips and thoughts about the subject and a quick review of the book Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with your Compact Camera by Rick Sammon.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Things To Do
Chicago

Photo Friday: More photos from Detroit's 2010 Concert of Colors

Kenge Kenge

We took a slew of photos at Detroit's 2010 Concert of Colors last weekend, and you can check out the photos I posted earlier this week with a recap of the festival at Where I live: Detroit's 2010 Concert of Colors is a celebration of diversity and city pride.

Tien-Huicani


Simon Shaheen with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra

I've usually been disappointed with concert photos I've taken at indoor venues in the past, but I had a difficult time narrowing down this year's Concert of Colors photos to the 18 images I posted here and in my recap article.

Southwest Detroit Latin Super Session


The Codgers

The reason for that? I finally broke down and bought the Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens Tim has been bugging me for quite some time to buy. He thought I'd be far happier with my concert photos and some of the architectural interiors I'm so fond of shooting with this lens, and he finally convinced me to make the investment in it.

Tien-Huicani


Mavis Staples


Dennis Coffey

The lens gave me a decent combination of speed at a relatively light weight that allowed me to capture more of the action onstage during the various acts. Spending the extra money to buy the IS (Image Stabilizer) version of this lens was also well worth it, allowing me to shoot many of these images at as low as 1/60th of a second at 1600 ISO. I shot nearly all of the photos on these two posts recapping the 2010 Concert of Colors with this lens.

Kim Weston

It certainly performed well under fire as this weekend was the first time I'd used it, and I hope you enjoy the resulting photos.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Shooting photographs for your blog

I'm flattered when readers tell me that they enjoy my photos here at Midwest Guest, but I'm not a professional photographer by any stretch of the imagination.

I've had to take my own photos for stories many times over the years, and I'd like to pass a few things along to folks who worry that they don't have the time or talent to produce acceptable images for their own blogs.

Taking photos and working with them in a photo editing program can take a little time, but learning how to do so gives you more creative control over your content and how you chose to showcase your own words.

I spent several years writing columns for a chain of local weekly newspapers where the editor generally assigned the one photographer at the newspaper to news stories, sporting events, and big feature subjects.

Columnists usually relied on photos provided by those seeking publicity for events or ran their columns without photos. Neither option appealed to me.

I began taking many of the photos for my columns to provide the needed graphic elements to break up the print blocks and make it more appealing for readers.

I often took photos like this one of April McCrumb, who owns Catching Fireflies in Berkley, Michigan, to illustrate my newspaper columns

I owned a Sony digital camera-one of those little Mavicas that recorded your photos onto a 3.5" floppy disc. Those little cameras were still pretty revolutionary in the late 1990s, but they were slow and resultant images turned out grainy and unacceptably pixilated if you tried to increase the image's size very much. They worked all right for newspaper photos, where newsprint's rough often resulted in muddy images anyway, but only if the photographer was aware of the camera's limitations and compensated for them.

The newspaper eventually bought a digital camera for reporters to use, although one of them was shocked to learn it was a newer version of the same camera I had when she told me that my camera took much better photos than the newspaper's camera!

My photos are often acceptable to use as the small versions I use here at the blog, even if they may not be sharp enough or interesting enough to look good blown up or reproduced on glossy paper--and they allow me to advance my story lines with corresponding images.

 

How do you get started learning about photography?

 

• Take a photowalk. Check out my recent post about an informal Detroit-area photowalk I recently attended, or see the Worldwide Photowalk site to find a photowalk in your local area.

  
  
  Image taken at a recent Detroit Photowalk at Cranbrook Gardens in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

   

• Check Flickr to find photography groups that may hold shows, classes or other events in your local area. Here in the Detroit area, we have Flickr groups like Photowalks Detroit, which hosts local photowalks, and Exposure.Detroit, which hosts free photo exhibitions and other events around town.

   

• Read a few books geared to beginning photographers if you're new to taking photos. Tim has a short list of suggested reading for beginning photographers at The Wandering Photographer.

 

I'd add Confessions of a Compact Camera Shooter: Get Professional Quality Photos with Your Compact Camera by Rick Sammon to Tim's list of suggested reading.

Although Sammon's book talks specifically about using compact cameras and Photoshop Elements (while I often shoot with an older version of a point-and-shoot Canon PowerShot when I'm not using my big digital SLR, and I use Lightroom for photo editing), I still found plenty of useful information in this book.

Sammon encourages readers to experiment and to always carry a camera, sharing my feeling that a pocketable camera can be a viable alternative when going somewhere where lugging a big SLR would be cumbersome or get in the way of enjoying whatever you're out to do.

Sammon's side-by-side comparison shots of scenes taken with SLRs and compact cameras nicely illustrate what works best with the little cameras, what doesn't work well, and how to work with the small cameras' limitations.

 

And here are a few other tips I've picked up over the years:

 

• Always look for signs to photograph when you're out shooting. I learned to do so long ago after reading that such photos could serve as nice title slides for a show of your images. I also use sign photos to help me identify photos as I organize them after returning home or to advance a story as I'm putting it online. I also often use photos of historical markers or other informational signs in lieu of written notes when I'm out shooting.

 





• Working with a hand-held camera in low-light? Taking a deep breath just before you shoot the photo, and holding it during the shot, can help steady the camera by eliminating a bit of the shake caused by the movement of your own breathing.

   

  
  
  

• Don't have a photo? Sometimes you just have to get creative, like I did when I took this shot of toy ice resurfacing machines on my front porch to illustrate my story about a college hockey tournament.

 

• Always remember that one of the beauties of digital photography is that you can take as many shots as you want and simply erase the ones you don't like.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Photo Friday: Photowalk at Cranbrook Gardens

I recently went on another Photowalk to the Cranbrook Gardens in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, with the Photowalks Detroit Flickr group.

The Cranbrook Gardens are part of a 319-acre educational and cultural campus that is home to several private college prep and boarding schools, as well as an art museum and the Institute of Science. It's hard to believe I haven't gotten around to writing about Cranbrook before now, especially as I've been a member of the Institute of Science for years-so I'm sure you'll see more about Cranbrook here at Midwest Guest in the months to come.

Today, though, I'll just give you a glimpse of the gardens by sharing a few of my favorites from the group of photos I took the day of the Photowalk.

The late afternoon timing of the excursion and slightly overcast day resulted in some beautiful natural lighting for our photo-taking session.

Our local Photowalks are fairly informal events that welcome photographers of all skill levels-from those with high-end professional cameras to people beginning to take photos with their first point-and-shoot cameras.

Read about my first two Photowalk adventures in Royal Oak, Michigan, and at The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.

Interested in finding out more about Photowalks or joining next month's Worldwide Photowalk? Check it out at the Worldwide Photowalk site.

Photowalks are great ways to practice your camera skills, learn new skills, see a local area in a different way than you might normally see it, be with friends, and meet some new friends.

Photographer Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk takes place July 24 this year, when tens of thousands of photographers can sign up for local walks in their home area.

Thanks to Debbie Dubrow of Delicious Baby for creating and coordinating Photo Friday to link travel photos and blog posts across the Web.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved

Where I live: Focus on the work of local photographers at new Exposure.Detroit show

The work of talented local photographers is again the focus of a quarterly showing of images from the Flickr-based Exposure.Detroit group at the Bean & Leaf Cafe in downtown Royal Oak, Michigan.

Poster designed by Jon DeBoer

The show, which opened at the local coffeehouse on May 15, is the latest in a series of shows by Exposure.Detroit and spotlights the work of five photographers.

This quarterly show includes the work of Jon DeBoer, Anne Savage, Michelle and Chris Gerard, Anna Lysa, and Derek Farr (check out the links in this paragraph for a sneak peek at some of their work).

I'm not much for generic art that adorns the walls at many businesses, so the images showcased at the Bean & Leaf immediately caught my eye when I first noticed one of the shows as my local writers' group met at the coffeehouse. I've seen many subsequent quarterly photo shows at the cafe over the last couple of years, and there are always at least a few images that I am sorry to see taken down at the end of a exhibit--even as I know there will be even more great images replacing them with the next quarter's installation.

Although, if you really fall in love with a particular image at one of the Exposure.Detroit shows, the photographers will often sell you a print so you can support the work of a local artist at a pretty reasonable price.

I sometimes find the shows a bit heavy on images of "urban decay", although the regular Exposure.Detroit showings at the Garden City Hospital and a themed show staged last summer at the Bean & Leaf asked members to submit some of the more positive images in their collections (Tim showed a couple of his photos at Garden City and at that Bean & Leaf show last year).

The group, which includes well over 1,600 members, from beginning to long-time professional photographers, is open to any interested photographer. Check out the group on Flickr to learn more about Exposure.Detroit, read the active discussion boards, and sign up to join the group.

Exposure.Detroit promotes camaraderie, networking, sharing knowledge, and promoting the work of their members through shows, social events, group photo shoots, seminars, and other events.

I appreciate the idea of a local business supporting the work of local artists, and hope to see the partnership between the Bean & Leaf and Exposure.Detroit continue for a long time!

 

Note: "Where I live" posts are part of a series of periodic stories about special events and people in, and around, metro Detroit. "Where I live" posts are stories I'll post in addition to my regular schedule of stories about attractions around the larger Midwestern region. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.

© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved