Her name is Candy

Portland at Night

Portland at Night

Detroit Sunset

Loner in Detroit

Friendly Detroit

Fenton Sunset

About 100 yards from our house

Beat up (Detroit)

Faith

God left his ball in Detroit

Falling Apart (Flint)

Sunday at Old Flint Church

Detroit Sunset

Washington Monument

Red

Crashing Pacific Ocean Waves

Neskowin Ghost Forest

Neskowin Ghost Forest, Oregon

The Michigan Theatre

The Michigan Theatre, closed 1978. Now the Michigan Theatre serves as a parking garage for a bland office complex attached to it.

Detroit Grafitti

The sun hit the concrete pretty hard so I framed up a simple shot that I hoped would show the layers of paint and the bold colors used by several grafitti artists.

"Do not show my company's name if you publish."

In a city and state plagued by high unemployment (25% in Detroit), this picture shows one business that has plenty of work on their hands in Detroit. The man spraying down the outside of this small church works for a company that cleans graffiti. He asked that any pictures I publish do not include the name of the company he works for because as he put it, "some of the artists take their work pretty seriously" and would not appreciate him removing it. He said that historical socieities and other organizations hire them to clean buildings around the city. That was right before he asked me not to take pictures that showed the company name on his jacket.

Waiting for Recovery?

... been waiting for more than 40 years

Tear drops

This is the photo that I did not think much of when I framed it and shot it. I only took this one shot and at the time did not even realize the "tears of litter" that I now appreciate so much. I printed and framed this picture. It was the hidden treasure of my seven hours in Detroit. This is one of the shots that I am grateful I had the eye to see it even if at that very moment I did not appreciate the shot.

For me, this is one of the shots that inspires me. I feel like I worked for it since I got out of my car and walked on to the property and talked to the men cleaning graffiti. This was not visible from the street and in the open area, the "eye" did not look as unuque as when I got the chance to frame it with my camera.

Finding this picture was like putting on your winter coat for the first time of the season and finding a $20 bill in the pocket. A nice surprise.

Detroit

While I love the adventure of shooting new scenes, there is nothing good about seeing abandoned homes, hotels and former office buildings. Most of the shots begin to look the same and I often wait for a subject to enter my pictures. The old beat up car was a nice touch, but I needed the man getting in to help this picture stand out from the dozens of other abandoned buildings. I did not feel safe in the area so I stayed in my car to take the picture. My impression of the people in Detroit left me feeling like the outsider I was. I was respectful of people and mostly avoided taking pictures with people in them. One church I stopped by had a group of young men standing outside of it and it would have been a great picture, but I was smart enough to hold off. Sometimes I just ask permission, but in that particular case I do not think that would have been a good idea.

How can they re-build this once glorious city?

No Sleeping

Jesus loves you, but he prefers that you not sleep on the steps.

Theatre turned Parking Garage

The Michigan Theatre has its own story but the gist of it is that it closed in 1978 after serving as a grand movie house. Now it is a parking garage with room for 20-30 cars, but there were only 4 or 5 parked there. The old Michigan Theatre was on my list of 10 places to visit in Detroit( I only got to 5 or 6 as it turns out), but I had no idea how to get inside. A nice man on a smoking break showed me the way in past security and I spent about an hour shooting in there and imagining what it must have been like in its prime.

The woman photgraphed here was also on a smoke break. The adjoining office building was mostly empty and depressing. I wandered around in there for 20-30 minutes just being curious. I noticed that I did not see many wokring people on my visit and when I did, they were on smoke breaks or driving.

Detroit

A recent day trip to Detroit resulted in some interesting content. The morning haze lifted shortly after I shot this picture with Ford Field in the background. Doing Detroit in seven hours opened my eyes to a city rich in history. I plan to get back there soon.

Mount Hood on Christmas Day

Downtown Portland View of Mount Hood

Pier 14 San Francisco

Crouching Spider on Pier 14 caught my eye on Spring Break 2007. I did not have a tri-pod so a steady hand was challenging to say the least.

I loved San Francisco and all the diversity. I need to go through those pictures again because I am sure there are some treasures that I have forgotten. I found this picture by accident while looking for something else tonight.

Computers and Beagles

This unique advertisement caught my eye while driving a two-lane highway with my wife. I have been back since and the Beagles sign has been replaced with some other "good" for sale.

I have not taken the time to upload many of the unique pictures of signs that I stop to appreciate, but Computers-Beagles is one of my favorites along with, "Rabbits for sale: cuddly and nutritious"

Most people who see this picture do not get a kick out of it the way I do.

Hana

Honeymoon in Maui.

The Search for Jimmy Chitwood

The 2009 edition of my secret hoop out in the woods. reminds me of Hoosiers even though Jimmy had a clear patch of dirt to shoot from.

Sun Flower

Portland, Oregon along the Skyline Blvd. on a sunny July day.

Kite

A little Photoshop fun with this Seattle beach picture.

Family ties

August. M-57 near Fulton, Michigan. A great drive with my son on our way to a small town baseball game.

This picture was one of those ones where I drove by and kept going for about a mile and then decided I had better turn around for another look. I had a feeling that the tractor might look better in a framed photograph than it did in the vast wide open space.

My instinct was right. In some weird way this picture represents a small part of who I am. It ties me to the Gregory side of my family even though I have never driven a tractor, bailed hay, milked a cow or done any farm work. My life does not resemble life on the farm and most assuredly never will, but somehow I continue to think that is part of who I am.

Funny how a simple photo can say so much.

Detroit for a Day

In the summer of 2008, I drove down to Detroit on a Tuesday morning and spent the day taking pictures. I found plenty of subjects and really tried to "see" the city that I had only visited for Detroit Tigers baseball games.

I was in Detroit for about seven hours and I look forward to my next visit on my own with my camera. Unfortunately, this tough city is even tougher now since the unemployment rate is inching toward 25%, which is the same figure (25%) that represents the high school graduation rate in the city. I know Detroit is not all bad and with the addition of some more pictures to this blog, I hope to show that.

If you look closely, you can see bullet holes in the Sam's sign.

Pike's Market Busker

One of the best parts of taking pictures are the stories that go with each moment captured. In this picture, Emery Carl shares his unique talent with Seattle. After shooting him for 15-20 minutes, we talked and it turns out his father grew up in Flint, Michigan which is only 15 minutes from where I live.

Emery can hula-hoop, play guitar and play the harmonica all at the same time. Pretty cool. He was so passionate about his talent and was very down to earth. You can learn more about him at www.TheTroubadourShow.com

City Life

This graffiti caught my eye. Seattle is probably not considered a tough city the same way Detroit or maybe Philadelphia are, but I figured this advice scrolled across an old beat up building downtown was worth a picture.

Seattle Street Art

I like this find because I got off the beaten path and then played around with some angles to get what I wanted. I think the the weeds in the lower left corner make this picture.

I enjoyed the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle and probably could have spent the entire day there exploring.

Seattle Summer

I like this particular picture because it was taken with the manual mode and I had to do it without the mount for my tri-pod. I am not a big fan of skyline pictures in general, but since I had two unknowing subjects about 20 yards in front of me I felt like I had to give this a shot. In fact it was more like 30 shots by the time I was done changing settings, positions and waiting 20-30 seconds for the shutter to release each time.

I have other variations of this photo that I also like. This is a low resolution copy for the blog too. (All of the pictures posted here are low resolution)