GR Walk

This weekend I spent some time walking and photographing in downtown Grand Rapids, starting on Fulton, then heading north towards the library and St Mark’s, and eventually circling back. Instead of focusing on large images, of whole or near whole buildings, I picked architectural details. Here are a few of my favorites.

At Fulton and LaGrave. I went high key with this image. The bright sun and grey-white brick and the various shapes and lines of the windows and circular emergency stairs made this work nicely.

A couple from Fountain Street Church, the first again high key. Then a couple monochrome. The high key doorway drew my attention for the bright light on grey-white brick and the pastel colors. For the monochrome images it was the lines and shapes, which monochrome brings out nicely.

Finally, a couple of wide aspect ratios. In both cases I saw a frame waited for something to happen. A mise-en-scène. In the first case, a parking garage on Ionia, it was the lines that drew me in. By itself, it was not enough, but the guy on the e-bike made it interesting. In the second case, on Monroe Center, it was the seating inside and outside, reflected in the window. Something was missing, however, in the first couple of photos I tried. But then the guy in the dark shirt and sunglasses sat down, looking back at me, and pulled the scene together.

Cheers! It was a nice weekend, but we’re going to get some high heat this coming week.