Take a photo tour through Detroit and visit the many sites the city has to offer.
I made both these images, one after the other, on a sunny afternoon at the entrance to Comerica Park, several days after the baseball game (and the huge attending crowds) were history.
One photo is an establishing shot, showing the details of the entrance to the stadium, while the other is a closer view, enhancing the size of the “cats”, and using the children as a scale reference. One aspect of photography which these two shots illustrate is the need to “work a subject”, and not merely to take one shot and leave. The other is to be prepared to return to work a subject at some later time, to make different images not presently possible due to poor light, crowds, and so forth.
The action at Dave & Buster’s is guaranteed to raise your blood pressure. Few can resist the challenge of driving a “pro track”, at elevated speeds, and trying not to “wipe out”.
This image uses a combination of fill flash, and the lighting from the monitor screens, much brighter than the ambient light. The basic exposure was adjusted for the light of the screens, and the flash output then made equal to that, or perhaps a tad more. For indoor situations such as this, using a monopod produces much sharper photos than hand-holding the camera. It helps if your subject is trained to wear bright colors!
One of the big Detroit attractions, Greenfield Village, is located just adjacent to the Henry Ford Museum. Here, an entire village of historic buildings has been created, with lots of interesting opportunities to entertain and educate the kids.
I couldn’t resist the opportunity to employ the ‘birds’ eye view’ from a bus window, to photograph these kids, all wearing matching blue tees that picked up the color of the building trim just behind them. This was another of those successful “grab shots” that come along, and there’s no time to open the “never ready” case, or contemplate your exposure settings.
Detroit’s Science Center is a great place to chase “kid shots”, as well as to learn a few interesting things about our world.
Nothing attracts viewers more than photos of children, heavily involved in some activity, surrounded by the bright colors that enhance their enjoyment.
This shot was made using a short telephoto lens, and a monopod for camera support. The lighting is only that of the bright spotlights. Note the “vee”, starting at the bottom of the frame, a favourite compositional ploy to create leading lines.
By Michael Goldstein
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