Architecture
I chose to take these pictures of a message written on the side of a restaurant because it's one I've been to quite a few times over the years. The following photos were all taken in Depot Town; I've lived in Ypsilanti for my entire life, so Depot Town is pretty familiar to me. The process of taking these photos was pretty simple, though I had to make sure I didn't get any people or company branding in the shot.
These pictures are of the building next to a railroad. I took them because I liked the way it looked, and it was a pretty easy way to avoid getting unwanted stuff in my pictures. I took this opportunity, as with most of the other sets of pictures, to edit the photos differently, as a result of the otherwise similar shot composition and subject matter I think "A Light in the Distance" turned out better than "A Hazy Shade of Winter," probably due to the heightened contrast levels, though the lowered contrast of the latter is somewhat interesting in its own right.
I didn't have a particular reason to take photos of this train signal, other than that it happened to catch my eye. Trains are pretty interesting, though; they're strongly associated with older days, but there are still a lot of them even now. Actually, the photoset just above this one also includes the railroads that run through Depot Town, and the building with the wreath on the bottom photoset had train tracks running next to it, though they're not visible in the photos.
I photographed this trash can because, for me, photography is about recording everyday life as I experience it, and trash is one of the most obvious yet often overlooked aspects of modern life. (I do recognize that photography can have more imaginative aspects to it, but I personally like to use photography in a more straightforward way. This is probably due, at least in part, to a lack of experience, which often makes it harder to experiment. There's also the fact that I often write and draw, but rarely depict ordinary situations in such art, so it makes sense to complement the one with the other, in my opinion. It's also just fun seeing how interesting some things can be when you get close enough.)
I took these pictures of a wreath above a doorframe because I was intrigued by the way the light looked. I also took a few photos from different angles, but these turned out the best, in my opinion. It was a little tricky getting the light right, since I was taking a photo of a light source rather than of something being lit up by one, but I think it worked out fine.