The Wandering Photographer

Glen Haven Michigan: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

One of the jewels of Northern Michigan is the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, part of the U.S. national park system. The lakeshore encompasses the natural beauty of sweeping sand dunes and wooded forests as well as abandoned villages turned into museums. One of those abandoned towns is Glen Haven.

Glen Haven was settled in 1851 when C. C. McCarty built a saw mill and inn on the Lake Michigan beach near Glen Arbor, MI. By 1878 Glen Haven had become a harbor for steam ships to replenish their supply of wood fuel. D. H. Day continued development of the community and by 1920 Day had established a fruit canning company near the beach.

The Cannery building is now a boathouse museum with a number of interesting vessels on display. With the extension of the railroad to Glen Haven the shipping dock went unused and closed in 1931.

Glen Haven continued to be a tourist destination until the 1970s when the National Park service bought up what was left in the village. The inn Closed in 1972. NPS has restored a number of the buildings as museums and tourists continue to visit especially in the summer.

The General store has been restored and serves as an exhibit and visitor's center. Other buildings that have been restored include the blacksmith's shop.

All of the vintage hardware in the restored buildings is made on site in this working blacksmith's shop. During the summer visitors can watch skilled smiths and apprentices make hooks, hinges and other iron products for restoration use.

Glen haven gives all the opportunity to learn about the life of loggers, sailors and tradesman in Northern Michigan. Insights about fishing, farming and tourism are ours for the asking.

Source material from the National Park Service web site

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photo Friday: Fishtown in Leland, Michigan

About 20 miles Northwest of Traverse City Michigan is the small resort town of Leland. Leland sits on Lake Michigan, has a quaint downtown, a protected harbor and a very cool old historical district called Fishtown.

Set along the mouth of the Carp River, Fishtown includes a number of small retailers, restaurants and a working fishery. Above is a net drying rack. Racks like these were used to prepare the fish nets for use.

The "Janice Sue," now owned by the Fishtown Preservation Society, once supplied Northern Michigan with delectable Whitefish. Below are a few more images of Fishtown for your viewing enjoyment

More fishnets drying.

A retail clothing shop in the district.

A View of the fishing sheds in the Fishtown Historic District. The boat in the distance is the society owned Trap Net Tug the "Joy".

All in all, Leland is a great place to spend an afternoon. Activities include shopping, swimming, fishing, boating and of course photography.

Thanks to Debbie at Delicious Baby for providing for Photo Friday.

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

A Photo Walk around Grand Valley State University

I attended Grand Valley State for the 1972/3 and ‘73/4 academic years (back then it was called Grand Valley State Colleges). I left in ’74 and didn’t finish my BA until the 90s at Wayne State but I have a soft spot in my heart for the GVSC (oops GVSU) Lakers.

 I had a chance to return to campus this past summer. Took an hour or so to walk around, make some images and bask in nostalgia.

Lake Michigan Hall was one of the original 1960s buildings on campus. I had a number of classes there.

The original dorms were built to conform to the shape of a ravine that traversed and split the campus. Navigating the halls of this squiggly building after returning from the bar was difficult.

The ravine bisected the campus. You had to cross this bridge to get from the dorms to class.

Not all of the buildings are old. This is the Student Services Center. It wasn’t there when I was hangin’ out.

There are a number of sculptures on campus.

I spent way too much time lying in the sun next to this pond and not near enough in the library just beyond it.

As I walked to the far end of campus I was dismayed to see that they were tearing down my apartment from my first year there. Probably not a bad thing though, since I seem to remember that it was condemned when I lived in it.

 Well it was good to be on campus again and see all the changes. GVSU, You’ve come a long way baby.”

 © 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Happy Halloween

There is nothing like a walk through an old graveyard on Halloween. Here's some ghostly inspiration.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France

Pere Lachaise in Paris again

Church Yard in Old Charleston, SC

New England Grave Yard

The Old Yard, 1725 - New England

Happy Halloween. Beware of ghosts!

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Hockey fights Cancer: Whalers Wear Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness

On October 24^th the Plymouth Whalers hockey team joined the fight for breast cancer awareness by donning pink jerseys for their regular season game against the Bellville Bulls. Even the referees joined in the action by wearing dapper pink striped shirts and pink laces on their skates.

A new design for hockey official’s uniforms

Matt Hackett, Whalers Goal tender.

Tyler G Brown lines up the big check.

A. J. Jenks shows that wearing pink doesn’t relieve aggression.

The Plymouth players also dyed their hair pink for the occasion. The hockey club was able to raise some funding for cancer research and stand with those fighting this horrible disease.

Thanks to Debbie at Delicious Baby for sponsoring Photo Friday

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

A Photo Walk around Millennium Park, Chicago

In July I had the opportunity to spend some time in Millennium Park in Downtown Chicago. This is a great place to make some images and spend some down time people watching.

Here we have people cooling off in the Crown Fountain. The pictures on the pillars change though out the day.

When I was there, a Chinese sculpture exhibit was on display.

The J. Pritzker Pavilion was designed by Frank Gehry and is a favorite spot for afternoon concerts.

And of course, Chicago’s famous “Bean,” the Anish Kapoor sculpture “Cloud Gate.”

Walking around any downtown area is bound to produce a number of fine images. Try it in your town before the weather gets too bad.

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Photographs from Chicago’s Navy Pier

One of the great places to visit in Chicago is Navy Pier. Situated just off of the Miracle Mile, Navy Pier is a combination of amusement park, restaurant row and museum all rolled up in one. I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon there this summer with my camera.  Great shots are available all around you.

This is a shot of the iconic ferris wheel near the center of the pier.  We didn’t take the ride but I’ll bet the view from the top is spectacular.

About half way out the pier you will find the Smith Museum of Stained Glass Windows. A steady hand is need but many great photos await you here.

Two shots are required from the end of the pier. This one is a shot of a tall ship approaching the harbor with the Chicago Lighthouse in the foreground. The tall ship is available on the pier for pirate themed tours of the Chicago shoreline.

Views of the Chicago Skyline from the end of the pier are a standard Chicago tourist shot. But you just can’t resist those shots, can you? I know I can’t.

At the end of the day head back to the mainland but make sure you get a nighttime shot of the pier before you head home.

Comeback next time when I blog about walking around Millennium Park in the Chicago Loop.

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Going Back to College: Update

I promised I’d write occasional updates about my adventure returning to graduate school at Wayne State University after all these years. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am returning to finish a Masters in History that I started about ten years ago. Well, it’s been about two weeks now and there are things to report.

You may have noticed that I didn’t write a blog post last week. Frankly the workload is larger than I expected and I just didn’t have time to write anything. It appears that this blog is going to drop to one or two posts per week, most likely a post on Wednesday and, with any luck, a Photo Friday post. The blog will still be photography centered but I will try to write a monthly blog post about my experiences at school. 

 Getting back into the academic world has been both interesting and a bit frightening. The first thing that happened was that one of the classes that I registered for was cancelled and I had to find something else to take. Fortunately I found another course that, it turns out, should be very interesting and valuable. Originally I planned to take a course in “Colonial America” and a second course in the “Early American Republic”. The Early Republic course was cancelled but I was able to replace it with a class in “Women in U.S. Life and Thought.” I’m really excited about both classes.

The “Women” class is particularly interesting because it is from a field of study (Women’s History) that barely existed when I first went off to college in 1971. Certainly if there was such a class available it would not be near as rich and complete as this one seems to be so far. The “Colonial” presents a lot of new scholarship and a brand new way of looking at the colonial world. Far from being stagnant the study of history is rich and diverse. I especially enjoy being able to study a subject in-depth instead of in a rushed survey that are common at the undergraduate level. 

The one thing that gives me pause is the need to get back into very serious writing. Between the two courses I have to write six short papers and two quite extensive ones. All together they will likely total in excess of 10,000 words. It has been a long time since I have written a long and serious paper and I know these papers are going to take some time, if for no other reason than that I am out of practice (you can probably tell from this run on sentence). I’m actually happy that I have the six short ones to do first, since they will allow me to get back into the real writing mode.

I am really pleased to be on campus during the day as it allows me access to opportunities for more informal educational experiences. Many free lectures and presentations are available and both students and faculty take advantage of them. Last week I had the chance to attend a mini-seminar presented by Rogers Smith PhD. of the University of Pennsylvania. We had the opportunity to discuss Dr. Smith’s paper delving into Equality and Differentiated Citizenship. Being able to sit around a table with fellow students and faculty from different departments having an intelligent discourse about important issues is a gratifying experience.  I intend to take advantage of as many of these opportunities as I can.

All in all it has been a pretty good start. I am thoroughly enjoying myself, and I am feeling pretty good about this adventure.

© 2009 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Taking a Photographic Walk around the Detroit Cultural Center

Filled with a number of classic Detroit gems the Detroit cultural center is a great place to spend a day, a weekend or to just take a walk. I did that one afternoon and I thought I would share a few of the images I made.

This bust of Mikolas Kopernic (Nicolaus Copernicus) sculpted by Ferenc Varga sits on the lawn of the Detroit Public Library, main branch. 

The Library building was completed in 1921 and expanded in 1963. It houses an extensive collection of books and documents.  Its Burton Historical Collection is one of the best local archives available.

Across Woodward Ave. from the Library is the world class Detroit Institute of Arts. The DIA houses an extraordinary collection of art including this bronze sculpture by Antoine Coysevox, Le Fleuve et La Garonne, that sits in front of the main entrance to the museum.

Here is a detail from Le Fleuve…

Behind the DIA you will find the Charles Wright Museum of African American History. Its unique building is topped by a large glass dome.

The main entrances to the museum are “guarded” by gold and aluminum representations of traditional African masks.  The masks, titled ‘Sentry’, were fabricated by Richard Bennet for the museum.

Well that’s enough for today.  There are many more things to see and photograph in the Detroit Cultural Center and I promise to revisit them in this blog

© Tim Marks all rights reserved

The First 100 Years: Photography Exhibit at the Detroit Institute of Arts

Unknown to many, the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) has an extensive and extraordinary collection of photographs dating back to the Civil War. For a number of years the museum did not mount a exhibition of purely photographic works. Recently that has changed.

In the Spring and Summer of 2009 the museum presented the moving exhibition “Of Life and Loss.” This show highlights photos of the Jewish Ghetto in Poland in 1935 and compared and contrasted them with photos in the same area from 1996. The artists Roman Vishniac, in '35, and Jeffrey Guskey, in '96, told the story of Jewish life and loss in the prewar years and how much of the old ghetto has remained the same. The Exhibition closed on July 12, 2009.

Now comes an exhibition surveying the first 100 years of photography utilizing the museum's extensive collection. “Photography - the first 100 Years: A Survey from the DIA's Collection” opened on September 2, 2009 and runs through January 3, 2010.

The Show includes photographs from the mid 1800s into the middle of the twentieth century. Highlights include a 1860s tintype portrait of African American soldier and his female companion, and images from such photographic luminaries of the twentieth century as Edward Weston, Walker Evans, and Dorthea Lange.

Following “The First 100 Years” the DIA will present an exhibition of 180+ fashion photographs from the great Richard Avedon. That exhibition opens October 18, 2009 and closes January 17, 2010. More is promised throughout 2010.

Want to see some great photography? Head down to the DIA and catch these amazing exhibitions.

• Photography - the first 100 Years: A Survey from the DIA's Collection
• Included with museum admission
• September 2, 2009 – January 3, 2010

• Avedon Fashion Photographs 1944-2000
• Separate ticket required – on sale September 30 (Sept 23 for Members)
• October 18, 2009 – January 17, 2010

© Tim Marks all rights reserved