The Wandering Photographer

1812 Privateer Replica Sails the Great Lakes

Stern view of the Privateer Lynx docked at Frankfort, MI.

 One of the great thinks about Historical milestones is the chance to attend various reenactments and replicas. The coming 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 is no exception. I previously wrote a post about the 1812 Militia Muster at the Greenfield Village in Dearborn, MI. Today I'm going to introduce you to the replica ship the Privateer Lynx.

The original Lynx received a letter of marque from President Madison. The letter allowed the Lynx to trade with the allied and neutral countries of Europe in support of the American war effort. The Lynx was armed, largely for self-defense. You can learn more about this replica and the original privateer here.

The Lynx was armed with 4 six pounders (cannon) and 4 swivel guns (shown here).

One of the great ways to get remembrances of the ship is to take photos of details of the ship. Concentrating on rigging, flags, bells and ropes presents a great feel for the ship.

Note that the flag has only 15 stars and it has 15 stripes. This was the second official flag of the United States and remained so until 1818, when the flag reverted to 13 stripes and 5 stars were added to represent the states admitted between 1792 and 1818.

Detail of the ship's rail and lines.

Lamp in the area immediately below deck

As you can see from the detail this is a working vessel.

As you can see some of the jobs on board are as dangerous as they were 200 years ago. Imgine climbing this rigging while underway.

If you get a chance, be sure to check out any War of 1812 reenactments or replicas in your home town.

© 2011 Tim Marks

Fun with Reflections

A while back, during a Photowalk in downtown Detroit, I noticed the reflections that were present in almost all of the windows. Sometimes they were a distraction and ruined the image, but other times they were fascinating designs and made great pictures.

Reflection in a window in the Greektown District of Detroit

At first glance this looks to be a confusing hodge podge of colors, buildings and people. After a while, though, it began to grow on me. It seems to represent the lights and glitter of a busy entertainment district. My fellow photographer in the foreground represents our goals for the day.

One building reflected in another along Woodward Ave. Detroit

Further along I came across this tall building reflecting the buildings from across the street. I thought that the similar colors and shapes made a nice composition.

More reflections along Woodward Ave.

Turning around this image showed up in my viewfinder. I thought it was the best of the three. 

Whenever I'm shooting in a urban area I try to keep in mind that the window in the building might hold an image every bit as good s a shot of the building itself. Keep your eyes and your mind open.

© 2011 Tim Marks all rights reserved

The War of 1812 Militia Muster

Always photogenic, military encampments and battle re-enactments are a fun way to learn history and get some great pictures for the photo album. We are likely to see many Civil War battles re-enacted over the next four years in celebration of the 150th anniversary of America's nation defining conflict.

Another war, oft forgotten, is soon to celebrate it's 200th anniversary. In 1812 the fledgling United States again went to war with Great Britain over a myriad of disputes. I had the opportunity to attend an 1812 militia muster at Greenfield Village. Greenfield Village is a living museum that is part of the Dearborn Michigan attraction "The Henry Ford."

Part of every re-enactment are soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the era. The military of the early republic still retained the colorful military style of earlier years. The bright colors were often necessary for the troops to recognize friend from foe.Especially in the "fog od War."

Imagine this smoke multiplied by hundreds of soldiers.

The re-enactment included weapons demonstrations, crafts and a fashion show. This gives the observer a good idea of what life was like. somewhat simplistic but a great starting point.

Firing a mortar in 1812 required a crew of five to six men.

Men's civilian fashion very much mimicked military dress.

Women's fashion began to evolve and become "less proper" I can here the dad now "you can leave the house dressed like that!"

The War of 1812 has been often ignored. It was important and widespread however. Detroit was surrendered to the Canadians without the firing of a shot. The new Americans attacked and ransacked the city of York, Upper Canada (now Toronto), while the British attacked the District of Columbia, burning the White House before they left.

If you get a chance to visit a re-enactment of an encampment do it, and don't forget your camera.

© 2011 Tim Marks

Scenes from the 2011 Concert of Colors Nights 1 & 2

 

Below are a few pictures from the first two nights of the 2011 Concert of Colors. Thursday night was a celebration of the African Diaspora at the Charles Wright Museum of African American History. Friday night at the DIA highlighted honkytonk piano and Latin rhythms.

Make sure you come on down and catch the rest of the weekend at the Max Fisher Music Center Saturday and Sunday.

Details at the Concert of Colors website.

Images from Thursday

 

Images from Friday

Saturday and Sunday promise to be even better. Come-on down and experience Detroit at its best.

© 2011 Tim Marks

Detroit's Best Festival: The 2011 Concert of Colors

The Indigo Girls with Alison Brown at the 2006 Concert of Colors

My favorite festival of the Summer is back with more acts and more days. The 19th Annual World Music and Diversity festival, the Concert of Colors, is set to go, starting Thursday July 14th and finishing up on Sunday night July17th. First held in 1994 as a celebration of metro Detroit, its diversity, its music and the music of its people, the Festival's goal is ". . . bringing together metro Detroit’s diverse communities and ethnic groups by presenting musical acts from around the world." (from the COC website).

This year the Concert expands to four days.

Thursday, with doors opening at 6pm, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History hosts a number of acts including African/Hip Hop, Soul, and traditional dance. Over at the Scarab Club the "Woodward Line Poetry" series will present the spoken word and music.

Friday night things move to the Detroit Institute of Arts with Latin Jazz and Blues performances. A screening of the movie "From Britain with Love: Africa United" will be presented. Doors open at 4pm.

 Jazz at the 2006 Festival

Saturday it all begins at 2pm at the Max M. Fisher Music Center. Three stages will be filled with a veriety of music and dance. Acts include; Japanese Drum, Reggae, Irish Folk, Arab Dance, Classical and much more. The evening ends with, what is for me, the highlight of the weekend. Each year Oak Park native Don Was (Was not Was) pulls together a diverse group of Detroit based musicians and puts on the Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue. The performances are truly a tour de force of Detroit culture. This year's ensemble includes Mitch Ryder, Melvin Davis, the Muggs and a whole lot of others.

 Former Funk Brother Dennis Coffey rocks the 2010 COC with Don Was playing bass in the background

 The Final day of the Festival opens at 2pm on Sunday at "The Max". The line-up on Sunday is as eclectic as Saturday's. It includes such local standouts as The Layabouts, and the Hamtramck World Music Ensemble. The highlight of the day should be the great Bettye LaVette. Born in Muskegon and raised in Detroit, Bettye has been belting out R&B hits since 1962. Ms. LaVette has lost none of her charisma, she retains her soul.

 Bettye LaVette performing at the Detroit Festival of the Arts in 2006

 This is a festival not-to-be-missed. The music is great and the ultimate goal of bringing us together, a mish-mash of cultures, city and suburbs, black and white, men and women is important and worthy. We may be different, but WE ARE ALL DETROIT.

The entire festival schedule can be found at the Concert of Colors web site.

See you at the Festival.

© Tim Marks 2011

Quick Review: Olympus E-PL2 Micro Four-Thirds System Camera and Lenses

William McKinley Memorial and grave site. Canton, Ohio

Note: I know there has been a year long gap in posts on my blog. It was unfortunately unavoidable. But, I'm back and I'll make a sincere attempt to post at least three stories a month in the future. Thanks for all the support.

Introduction of the Four-Thirds camera system allowed Olympus and Panasonic to create high quality interchangeable lens camera systems that are much smaller and much lighter than traditional Full Frame and APS-C DSLRs. The Micro Four-Thirds cameras reduce the size and weight even further, with no loss of image quality. The smaller sensor in the M-Four-Thirds cameras results in a so called lens "crop factor" of 2X, as apposed to 1.5X with my D300 (ASP-C camera). Therefore the 14-42mm kit lens delivers an angle of view equivelent to a 28mm-84mm lens on a 35mm camera.

 The desire to cut weight, and save my poor back, led me to explore the Micro 4/3rds system and I ended up going with the Olympus PEN E-PL2 and the 14-42mm kit lens. The PEN delivers 12 mega-pixel images of a quality indistinguishable to me from my D300, The body weighs only 12-7/8 oz. and the lens add only 5-1/2 oz., My D300 body alone weighs in at 29 oz. (almost 2lbs). As you can see below the Olympus is much smaller than a DSLR.

Olympus PEN E-PL2 with 14-42mm lens sitting next to a Canon EOS 30D with 18-200mm lens

To Round out the kit I added a Panasonic Lumix 20mm f1.7 pancake lens (3-1/2 oz.), yep the Panasonic uses the same Micro Four-Thirds lens mount, and an Oly 40-150mm (6.7oz.) for a complete package weight of only 28-1/2 oz. (1-3/4 lbs). Thats right the whole kits weighs less than the D300 body alone! I carry it all in an unpadded Duluthpack #100 Double Shell Bag That brings the weight of the entire package, incuding bag, to less than 4lbs.

So, how well does the PEN system work for me? So far very nicely. I was able to take system with me on a trip to Mid-Ohio and used it exclusively. I also to it with me on a visit to Belle Isle Park in the City of Detroit. Despite some limitations I was quite happy with the results.

The image at the top of the page is a shot of the William McKinley gravesite in Canton, Ohio. Shot with the 14-42mm lens set at 21mm and an ISO 0f 200 I was qute happy with the results.Image quality is excelent up to 400 ISO and quite nice at 800. Anything above gets awfully noisy but can be used in a pinch. Below is a photo inside the Canton Stark Museum and a small 100% blowup to show the noise. The photo was shot with the 14-42mm lens at 800 ISO as you can see the noisy is noticable but for my purposes acceptable, especially for online presentation.

Interior shot at the McKinley Presidential Museum in Canton, Ohio

!00% example of noise at 800 ISO

The visit to Belle Isle yield some very nice images as well. These pictures were taken with the Panasonic 20mm f1.7 at 200 ISO.

 Downtown Skyline including the General Motors Headquarters (Renaissance Center)

 Belle Isle Casino (not the gambling kind)

So what is the bottom line? This camera won't replace my D300, but I think I'll be finding myself carrying the Oly more and more often. There are a number of pros and cons. The thing I miss the most from my DSLR is a viewfinder. There is an add-on available but it is way overpriced at $200+. Despite the price I will probably eventually buy one.

Pros

• Extremely light weight
• Extremely high image quality, especially at 200 & 400 ISO
• 12 mega-pixels are more than enough.
• Small package fits in a small bag for a very easy day of carrying

Cons

• Noise at 800 is acceptable, at 1600 not so good
• Viewfinder is high cost extra
• Not a lot of lenses available yet
• Build quality is good but not at a pro level

My recommendation is that if you want a lightweight system camera for short trips or long days walking aroung the city take a close look at the Micro Four-Thirds system. It is reasonably priced and the number of lenses and accessories for it is growing.

Below is my Duluthpack bag with body, three lenses and ThinkTank Peewee Pixel Pocket Rocket. Lots of room in the front pockets for phone, wallrt, etc. Since the bag is not padded I have the lenses in neoprene pouches.

Come back later in the month for some more adventures in photography.

© 2011 Tim Marks

2010 Detroit Concert of Colors Recap

Well this year's Concert of Colors is over and a great time was had by all. The Concert of Colors is the annual Detroit diversity festival that brings together music and people from all over the metro area and the world. This year's show included the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, an All-Star Latin band from Southwest Detroit, The Detroit All-Star revue put together by producer and Oak Park native Don Was, and Kenge Kenge presenting music and Dance from Kenya.

Chelsea Tipton II conducting the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the Detroit Institute of Ats on the first night of the Concert

 

The DSO also performed on Sunday afternoon on the Main Stage in Orchestra Hall. Orchestra hall is the DSO's home.

 

Tien-Huicani from Veracruz Mexico performed traditional Mexican folk music Friday night.

 

Kenyan Performers Kenge Kenge brought a piece of Africa to the show.

 

Local native son Don Was put together a show highlighting Music and performers from Detroit's musical past and present.

 

House band for the Detroit Pistons, the Sun Messengers have been entertaining Detroiters with home grown R&B for 30 years.

 

The dapper Andre Williams knocked the crowd out with a rendition of his 1957 hit "Bacon Fat".

 

One of the greatest guitarist to come out of Detroit, former member of the famous Funk Brothers, Dennis Coffey wowed the crowd with his magic fingers. (Notice Don Was in the background on bass)

 

The Southwest Detroit Latin Super Session brought music and dance from south of the border to the concert.

 

Sunday night ended with an inspiring and inspirational 90 minutes by gospel legend Mavis Staples.

Every year the Concert of Colors outdoes itself bringing the world to Detroit for three short days. There is no better way to celebrate the wonderful diversity of the Detroit area. And no better way to see a wide variety of music and dance.

Later on this year you can check out video of the performances of the Don Was Detroit All-Star Revue (including earlier year's shows) on his web site, The Wasmapolitan Cavalcade of Recorded Music.

Looking forward to next year.

© 2010 Tim Marks all rights reserved

Celebrate the Diversity of Detroit: The Concert of Colors July 16 -18

The Concert of Colors

Celebrate the diversity of the metro Detroit area this weekend. Head on down to the FREE Concert of Colors. As far as I'm concerned this is the music festival of the year. Celebrating the diversity of our great city, is a worthy activity. And did I remember to say it's FREE

FREE Music dance and fun with:

• Detroit Symphony Orchestra
• The Don Was Detroit All Star Review
• The Southwest Detroit Latin Super Session
• Kenga Kenga
• R&B and Gospel sensation Mavis Staples
• Simon Shaheen with the DSO

And much more!

• July 16th at The Detroit Institute of arts starting at 4:00pm
• July 17th at the Max Fisher Music Center starting at 4:00pm
• July 18th at the Max starting at 2:30pm

The festival is completely FREE and a great time for all!

For more information and a full schedule, visit the festival web site at http://concertofcolors.com

Photos are from previous years.

© 2010 Tim Marks all rights reserved

18th Annual Detroit Concert of Colors July 16-18 2010

The exciting and fun Detroit diversity festival, The Concert of Colors, returns to for its eighteenth year. Presented by the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), the Arab American National Museum, New Detroit, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) and, new this year, the Detroit institute of Arts (DIA), the concert is intended to bring all of the cultures in metro Detroit together for a weekend of music, dance and fun.

 The festivities will start at 4:00pm on Friday, July 16^th at the DIA with a performance by the Detroit Symphony (a second DSO Performance will happen at 5:30) followed by the Mexican folk group Tien-Huicani at 7:00. Events Friday evening at the DIA will also include Free admission to the exhibit Through African Eyes: The European in African Art 1500-Present and a screening of a 1931 Spanish language version of the film Dracula.

 On Saturday the music continues down the street at the Max Fisher Music Center (The Max), home to the acoustically and architecturally exquisite Orchestra Hall. Performances on Saturday include traditional Irish folk, Reggae, and African and Jazz/Funk, all leading up to the Don Was Detroit All-Star Review.

 For the third consecutive year Don Was has put together an eclectic group of Detroit based musicians to entertain the festival goers. Each artist or group performs a piece and at the end, the ensemble comes out for a rousing finale. In past years the review has included funk, soul, country hip hop classic rock and punk. This year the line-up presents fifteen acts including Jimmy Ruffin, Gary Quackenbush, Kim Weston and Marshall Crenshaw. The Review is the highlight of the weekend for me. You can see video of the 2008 and 2009 review performers at the Don’s Wasmapolitan Cavalcade of Recorded Music.  

 On Sunday the festival continues with the DSO, conducted by Tito Munoz, highlighting soloist Simon Shaheen performing Shaheen’s composition Concerto #1 for Oud and Orchestra. Known for his expertise at Arabic and Western classical music, Shaheen will be a special treat for the Detroit audiences.

 Following a day of diverse music and talent (Asian, Electronic, Steel Guitar and storytelling included), the festival ends with two shows in Orchestra Hall. At 6:15 the Southwest Detroit Latin Super Session will entertain with a varied repertoire from south of the border, followed by the incomparable R&B and Gospel sound of Mavis Staples at 8:30.

 The Concert of Colors is a chance to meet new folk, listen to great music and have a fabulous time. For more information you can check out the festival web site or Dominique's informative article at the Midwest Guest Blog.

© 2010 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