I took these photos at the University of Michigan's Stephen M. Ross School of Business. This school's architecture is beautiful, and all the colors go so well with each other to create unity. These photos were taken more on the south side of the building, because I wanted to capture this building's beauty, without any signs or banners to disrupt the image. Ross, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful peaces of architecture in Ann Arbor, and I wanted to convey this through these images. The photographs show individuals the amazing architecture that we have right here in our city, and I wanted to capture this beauty to show others. One challenge that I had with the photo to the left is that there was a lot of glass. The glass looks amazing in this piece of architecture, however, when making the photo brighter with adjustments, the glass started to fade. Even though I had this slight challenge, I was able to persevere and find a brightness and contrast that would not only brighten up the image, but ensured that all parts of this beautiful piece of architecture would be visible.
I took this picture at the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. This college has an incredible build and architecture to it, especially the part of the building that is made completely of glass. When taking this image, I had to take it from an angle, and not straight on, because otherwise the panels of glass would have blended in together. To make sure I could show the beautiful dividers dividing these glass panels, I took it at an angle where they are more visible. This building is very modern and futuristic, and I wanted to share this architecture design in my pictures. I wanted to convey a feeling of excitement about modern buildings, and I was definitely able to do that through the details and designs shown in these photographs. However, I did run into a couple of challenges when taking these pictures. For example, it had started to drizzle when shooting my images. It wasn't raining hard, but I was worried that my photographs would be ruined because of the raindrops. That being said, the raindrops actually added a really cool moody effect in these images. The faint raindrops show how architecture can look amazing in any weather. I was also able to capture this piece of architecture in weather that is very common during the time of year that I took this photo, which is another reason for why the raindrops are so wonderful in this picture. At first, it was hard to brighten up the image without eliminating the mood that these raindrops created. This was also difficult because since there was such a drastic change in color between the smaller brick building and glass building, the brick would brighten up too much when the glass building wasn't bright enough. However, I was able to find a precise brightness to keep the mood that the raindrops created, and was able to find a compromise between the brightness of both the glass and brick buildings.
I took these photos at the University of Michigan's William W Cook Legal Research Library. This library is one of my favorite places that I photographed, because the stone pattern of the building is proof of how much work and effort went into creating it. I took one of these photos from afar, because I wanted to make sure the side of the building with the beautiful arches was able to be seen in the photo. However, I did take another one of these photos closer up, and I tilted the camera up as well, so that people can see this building in a way they have probably never seen before. Many individuals think that older buildings aren't as nice, and they don't look as pleasing to the eye as other modern buildings. Yet, through these pictures, I was able to convey a realization for individuals that a building doesn't have to be new to look amazing. It's so cool that through photography, I was able to show this, and I'm really proud that I was able to capture that. One challenge I had when taking this photo were the vines that were growing up the walls of the building. At first, I thought that these vines would take away from the rest of the building, but I actually think the vines add a really amazing contrast to the grey stone. The vines are proof of the building's age, because this wouldn't normally happen with newer buildings. Once again, the vines essentially reiterate that even if a building is older, it still can look amazing and photograph really well.
I took this photo at the University of Michigan's Ford School of Public Policy. This building's architecture is like none of the other buildings I photographed, and that's for one main reason: brick. The brick work on this building is amazing, and the builder used so many bricks to make an incredible piece of architecture. When taking this photo, I needed to tilt my camera up at a very large angle, because the building was very tall. I wanted to make sure that the top of this amazing building fit in the frame, and to make sure this was possible, I had to tilt my camera up toward the sky. Not only did this technique fit the whole building in the frame, I was able to get a really interesting photo, because the red brick against the blue and white sky makes the building look even taller and brighter. When taking both of these photos, I wanted to convey that buildings made of different kinds of materials are all unique and look fascinating. As I mentioned earlier, this building used the most brick out of any of the buildings that I photographed. Even so, the building didn't look any worse than them–they are all extraordinary pieces of architecture, and the different materials actually create diversity in buildings. One challenge that I ran into while taking this photo was that there were many lights all around the outside of the building. Initially, I assumed that the lights would take away from the brick and the architecture that I was photographing. However, I didn't realize that the lights were a part of the architecture, and that they add to the look of the building. For that reason, I'm so happy that these lights photographed nicely.
While I was on the University of Michigan Campus, it suddenly started raining very hard, so I had to leave campus, and take my last architecture photo the next day. These two pictures were taken of a clubhouse, and this building was really cool to photograph, because the huge pillars look awesome! When taking this photo, I wanted to capture the pillars, alongside the natural look of the framing in this piece of architecture. For example, to make sure that I was still able to see the boards and framing, I didn't brighten up the image too much. This perfect spot of brightness allowed me to make the architecture itself brighter, but keep the details visible at the same time. The feeling I was trying to convey in this image is calmness. The reasoning for why I wanted to convey this feeling is that architecture can be really beautiful, and it's amazing to me that a group of people designed and built what we now see as a building. In the end, a marvelous piece of art is essentially made in the form of architecture, and this art can be really calming. One challenge that I had while taking this photo is that there were many cars near this building. To make sure I kept the cars out of shot, I had to be really careful with the angle and position of my camera, and in the end, I was able to capture these great photos without any distracting cars.