Dock on Belleville Lake....

Today's weather was interesting..... unseasonably warm (40's) and there was actually blue sky and sunshine!  I was out running errands in Belleville this morning before work, when I noticed the incredible blue sky and dramatic clouds that were hovering over the lake.  I pulled into the parking lot of a small park alongside of the lake, grabbed my tripod and headed down to the dock to try and snap a shot.......

The Old Caboose

NYC Caboose, Depot Town - Ypsilanti, MI

So you would figure, that in a college town, on a bar night, in one of the more popular bar sections of town......that you could hold an 8 minute shutter on a public street (next to the largest parking area) without people walking in front of your camera.  Apparently not!  People just don't respect the artists anymore! 

Depot Town (named after the old train depot that resides there) is the historical section of Ypsilanti.  Just a short walk from Eastern's Campus, the area is filled with historic buildings and vintage coolness........and also a few very popular bars!  The highlight of the night was when a few drunk girls wandered in front of the camera.....stopped.....then asked if they were in my way.  I asked them if they could move quickly because the shutter is open, and they thought I meant the shutters on the caboose and proceeded to ask if it was haunted!  I told them it was, and I was going to wait all night to get my ghost picture :)  If you stare at it long enough, you can see him (or her) peering through the window, I swear!

As I stated in a previous post, I've long had a fascination with trains, so this subject was kind of a no brainer!  I would have shot the depot, but it is now a parking spot for bar goers, so there wasn't an angle that didn't have some crappy import taking away from the nostalgia of the decaying train stop!  I'll have to return, maybe on a Tuesday or Wednesday night, real late, and get a shot when the place is deserted.  Until then, here's my rendition of the old caboose.....enjoy!

-MT

The Famous Ypsilanti Water Tower

Ypsilanti Water Tower

Ypsilanti Michigan, just a few minutes East of Ann Arbor, is home to Eastern Michigan University, is the birthplace of Dominoe's Pizza, and a giant Water Tower shaped like a.....

Ypsilanti is home to a number of local landmarks, but by far, the most well known is the old Water Tower that sits across from EMU's Campus.  Finished in 1890, the tower was the only water tower in the Ypsilanti area, and was designated as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the State of Michigan in 1974.  The tower has many local nicknames....most with varying degrees of derogatory connotation due to it's most decidedly phallic shape.  Local legend has it that if a virgin were ever to graduate from EMU.....the tower would crumble to the ground!

Today's photo was a challenge.....the rest of the story after the jump.........

2012......a Photographic Odyssey!

A New Year always brings with it the promise of a new beginning....a fresh start.....time to change for the better!  For some, that means it's time to hit the gym again, or start that new diet, or quit smoking, or get a new hobby.  For me....it means it's time to take another stab at this whole blog thing!

The whole story, after the jump......

Behind The Lens.....

It's Monday, January 31st, and I sit in my chair, hacking away at the keys of my Macbook Pro, and contemplating the impending catastrophe that is to come. Tomorrow is expected to be the worst snowfall of the year thus far, but that's not what I meant......I'm contemplating writing a blog!

It's 2011, and everyone has a blog! Actors, writers, musicians, artists and the like, and especially photographers! Joe McNally has one.....David Hobby has one....Moose Peterson has one.....hell, if Ansel Adams was still alive today, I'm sure he'd have one too! So here I am, writing my first ever photography blog!

In the next week, I will be launching a whole new website, new domain name, and a whole new direction for my photography. Throughout the coming months, I'll be updating this blog with details about upcoming shoots and events, photographs, as well as my thoughts on all of it. I will post my personal shoots, as well as work done for clients, with links to the galleries on my new site! Please bookmark this spot, or subscribe to the RSS Feed to stay up to date with everything going on in my little world of photography!

More importantly, if you would like to book a shoot, please feel free to contact me at matt@thompsonphotographymi.com or 734.363.8687.

~Matt