Category Archives: Ann Arbor

A Whole Bunch of Photos from 2014

In 2014 I took a few photos of some stuff. Let’s take a look at some of the photographic highlights!

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Winter on Main Street (2 January)

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Snow accumulation on a Park Street bench (2 January)

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Snow-covered bushes on Jackson Street (2 January)

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Chelsea girls basketball (10 January)

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Chelsea boys basketball (10 January)

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Chelsea boys basketball (10 January)

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Chelsea hockey (14 January)

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Chelsea hockey (14 January)

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Chelsea hockey (14 January)

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Chelsea girls basketball (17 January)

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Chelsea basketball student section (17 January)

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Chelsea Chiefs youth hockey exhibition between periods of a Chelsea varsity hockey game (22 January)

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Peter Furler at Knox: 21 June 2013

Peter Furler — who you might remember as a part of this band — came to Knox Presbyterian Church in Ann Arbor for a concert.

The evening started with a Q&A session with Furler for those who bought VIP tickets.

It was a good Q&A session. Also, Peter Furler is Australian, which means he has an Australian accent, which means he always sounds more interesting than all of us Americans. (He was giving substantial and worthwhile answers to questions. I’m just sayin’…accents, man. Accents. They’re powerful.)

After the rest of the crowd found seats, Marshall McLuhan took the stage. (Well, he didn’t TAKE it. He just stood on it. He left it where it was when he was done.)

Just so you know, this isn’t Marshall McLuhan the Canadian philosopher. This is Marshall McLuhan the pastor in Michigan. While it might have been interesting to see McLuhan the philosopher open for Peter Furler at Knox, I think we got the right one. (In part because the philosopher is no longer alive, but mostly because of, you know, music and stuff.)

In this next photo, McLuhan’s drummer bears a faint resemblance to Detroit Red Wings legend Steve Yzerman:

Here’s Yzerman:

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If you’re a Red Wings fan you probably got extraordinarily nostalgic when you saw the above picture. I’ll give you a minute to relive your favorite memories of The Captain.

Okay, back to the show.

When McLuhan finished his set, Furler took the stage. (Well, he didn’t…oh, never mind.)

I wasn’t the only one taking pictures.

PHOTOGRAPHER ASIDE: There were quite a few people taking photos with their smartphones, and a few made the mistake of forgetting to turn off their smartphone’s flash. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I saw the occasional smartphone flash lighting up the people directly in front of it and…nothing else. These are the kinds of things that amuse me as a photographer.

Furler had a drummer, but I don’t think his drummer resembled any Red Wings legends.

Later in the show, McLuhan and his band joined Furler on stage.

Many thanks to Furler, McLuhan, and all who worked hard to put this show together. It was a great evening.

Photo of the Festoons and Flourishes Now: 20 February 2012

If you pay attention to the post titles, you might be wondering why we’ve jumped back to February. I’d like to say it’s because it’s been 80+ degrees in March and I wanted to remember a time when temperatures made sense, but that would be false. Well, okay, it might be a little bit true, but it’s not the primary reason. The real reason is that I was waiting for a website to go live before I posted these photos so I could link to the site so you could buy stuff. BUSINESS, y’all.

Anyway. My friend Ashley is one of those crazy artistic people who makes stuff that looks cool. She was preparing to offer her cool-looking stuff for sale and she needed pictures to help entice browsers to become buyers. I have cameras and I have been known to take pictures of various things and such, so she dropped by to avail herself of my cameraocity.

So, with further adon’t: here are the product offerings of the fabulous Festoons and Flourishes.

Those are paper rose globes. In that photo they’re hanging from a tree. You could do that with them, but it’s not a requirement. Here they are in a more conventional setting:

You can also get them with convenient handles:

The paper roses come in a wide variety of colors, and yes, they are sold separately!

They also come in two sizes: wee and not-so-wee. The above are not-so-wee; here’s a photo of the two sizes together:

But wait — there’s more! The roses also are available with Swarovski Crystals.

Guess what? There’s still more! The roses are available with glitter, too.

(If you’ve already made a Twilight joke, we can be friends.)

We’re not quite done with the paper roses. They can be multi-colored, too!

There are bunches and bunches of color scheme possibilities with these roses. Here, this should give you an idea:

And just for fun, here’s what that arrangement looked like from the back:

That took a while to put together. It almost seemed a shame to take it apart.

Ah, but Festoons and Flourishes is far more than flowers! Here’s a fine idea for the soon-to-be-brides:

That’s a bouquet made from the bows from bridal shower gifts. You can send your bows to Ashley, and she’ll send them back looking less like bows and more like a bouquet.

If you’d like a bow bouquet but don’t have a collection of bows, she can still make one for you.

Festoons and Flourishes also offers thank-you notes.

For you kids out there, thank-you notes are pieces of paper upon which you write words of gratitude. You then put the paper in a mailbox for the United States Postal Service to deliver. Think of it like slow email you can touch. It might sound strange, but trust me: it’s wonderful.

If you need eye-catching table numbers or seating charts, Festoons and Flourishes can do the job.

That’s all the photos for this post. What are you waiting for? Go check out Festoons and Flourishes!

Photo of the YOST YOST YOST YOST YOST Now: 25 February 2012

To conclude the regular season, Chelsea hockey traveled to Ann Arbor to play Skyline. Given the substantial gap between the two teams and the mercy-shortened meeting earlier in the season, the game promised to be somewhat less than exciting. However, I decided to head to Ann Arbor to take in the game anyway. Why? Because Skyline’s home ice is none other than Yost Ice Arena, a classic old barn of an arena that’s a joy to visit simply because it’s YOST.

I’m posting only two photos from this game, but because they’re photos of Yost, they’re the equivalent of 20 photos. I went primarily for the venue, so I took photos of the venue.

If you’ve never been to Yost, you should make plans to go to a Michigan hockey game next winter. The building is a classic sports venue with character only age can produce, but it’s THE BEST because of the environment Michigan hockey crowds provide for games. I like to call it the happiest hockey place on earth. Here, this happens every game (watch all the way to the end — it’s worth it):

If you’re a sports fan, Yost should be on your list of venues to visit.

Finally, one humorous note: go back to the first photo and look at the little pink spot on the far left side. I didn’t notice it the first few times I looked at the photo, but when I did notice it I had to laugh. Here’s a closer look:

That’s a little girl where she’s certainly not supposed to be. She must have climbed up the retracted bleachers to…I don’t know, get a better view? She must have decided there was something appealing about that spot.

Oh, and as for the game: Chelsea won a lot to a little. With the win, the Bulldogs finished undefeated in the conference.

Photo of the Basketball Now: 24 February 2012

The Ann Arbor Huron girls basketball team visited Chelsea. As it turned out, for the gentlemen in charge there was a bit of a dress code for this particular game.

Indeed, it was a classy evening at the CHS gym. I mean, it’s classy anytime I’m there — together, a scruffy beard and a hoodie are the epitome of sophistication! — but it was especially classy this time.

It was senior night, too. Here, one senior shares a laugh with the assistant coach.

Eventually they did play basketball.

At halftime the Chelsea Athletic Boosters presented the district with a big check that had a big number on it.

The athletic boosters do a great deal to support Chelsea athletics. If you appreciate the school’s athletic programs as a part of the students’ educational experience and as a part of the culture of Chelsea, then you also appreciate the efforts of the boosters. If you don’t…well, I forgive you. Don’t let it happen again.

Chelsea put forth a valiant effort, but Huron is an outstanding team, and one River Rat made Chelsea’s task even more difficult by making a whole bunch of three point shots. In the end, Chelsea couldn’t keep up.

Photo of the Hockey Now: 21 January 2012

While Saline was playing on one of the Ice Cube’s rinks, Chelsea was over on another rink playing Ann Arbor Huron. The Saline game ended early due to the mercy rule, so I made it to the other rink in time to see the third period of the Chelsea game.

Before the third period could begin, the refs had to fix a blemish on the resurfaced ice. Anthony kept an eye on their progress.

When the third period began, Chelsea was leading Huron 2-0. That didn’t last long. On paper the teams weren’t evenly matched, and after two periods of close play, the paper came to life. Chelsea scored early and often.

Like I said, early and often. Oh, here’s another goal:

The hockey mercy rule is an eight-goal differential after two periods, and maybe halfway through the third — if that — Chelsea scored its sixth goal of the period to bring the game to an early end.

Photo of the Basketball Now: 10 January 2012

Chelsea basketball visited Skyline. I made it to Skyline’s football stadium last fall, but this was my first trip to the gym. I already ranted about the school’s name, colors, and mascot in a previous post, so I’ll let you go back and read that if you really want to see an irrelevant guy complain about inconsequential matters.

As for Skyline’s gym: it has its good and bad points. The good: it doesn’t have seating on all four sides, so it tends to look more full than other newer gyms. Since basketball games around here seldom attract large crowds, I prefer this arrangement. Also, the gym has an…exciting sound system. Do you know how many speakers they have in the rafters? You do if you were following my twitter feed that evening. If not: 37. Thirty-seven. Yes, there were so many that I had to count them. It got loud.

The bad: I have only one bad point to list, but for photographers this one point can outweigh any and all good points of a gym. Are you ready? Okay, here it is: it was dark. No, strike that. It was all-caps DARK. The problem wasn’t the number of lights in the gym or even unnecessary and baffling opaque light covers — I’m looking at you, Saline — but instead was the lights themselves. You know how fancy restaurants have mood lighting? Yeah, that’s exactly what the Skyline gym has. It’s like they popped in a few 25-watt soft white bulbs and decided that was good. Was it? No. No it wasn’t.

(For the record, it’s fine for spectators. Just not for photography. And most gyms in the area aren’t much better — if at all. It’s just that I’d hoped for more from an otherwise good gym in a very expensive building.)

The Skyline basketball team is very talented this year, so it was a tough night for Chelsea. This photo sums up much of the evening.


So does this one.

Still, basketball is basketball: no matter how badly you lose, there are always scoring highlights. The only time basketball teams get shut out is when the NBA has a lockout. ZING!

The evening belonged to Skyline, so there was plenty of this:

And at one point in the third quarter, Skyline’s star athlete did this:

That dunk ended up providing me with the funniest photo of the evening:

I did not alter that photo. I laughed out loud when I saw it, but I did not alter it. Leave your captions and/or jokes in the comments.

After getting the crowd fired up with the dunk, he greeted his teammates with a big smile on his face.

This might have been a foul. Maybe just an itty-bitty little tiny one:

With the game well in hand, this player got on the floor, and immediately it became obvious that his teammates’ goal was to help him score. Over and over they passed him the ball and got him shots.

I don’t know why they were so determined to get him points, but when I noticed what they were doing, I started rooting for him to score. (Every time I’ve seen a Chelsea team do something similar, it’s been for a good reason.) Sadly, he didn’t manage to score any points. But every time he put up a shot, the Skyline bench was ready to erupt. It put a smile on my face.