Experience's in USA

My whole experience in America was very different and I didnt know what to expect but I had the best three weeks. There were so many differences between the USA and UK.

The different differences I remebere were things such as:

• The traffic lights
• The traffic signs
• The streets are so much bigger then UK
• The way the waitors serve in restaurants.
• The guns
• The shops in the shopping mall e.g. they had a hat shop full of different hats with different football, baseball, soccers teams etc...
• The cinema, how waitors serve you if your sat in VIP seats
• The accsent, I realised that when watching American televsion I don't notice it but being in America I notice it more.
• How they advert Doctors/Hopitals on TV because they ay for there medical.

Through the time I was there it was hard for me not to put my camera down. Everything was so different and opened my eyes. Speaking to the people and finding out the difference and their thoughts on what they think of UK.

Number Plates

I was walking past the cars I kept noticing that's the registration plates looked different. In the UK we have the standard yellow panel with black bold numbers and letters. So on the last day I walked past 20 cars and captured the ones with different registration plates and I managed to find 9.

The different coloured square labels in the top right hand corner is the equivalent to our "tax disc"

Day 22

Today is my last day so I took the oppurtunity to capture as many different images as possible on the way to the airport.

People on the street of Detroit

A white school bus. I found it funny because the typical American school bus are yellow so to see a white one was so surreal

I was asked to photograph the "8 mile" sign for a friend who is obsessed with the fil "8 mile" starring Eminem in it.

As we were getting closer to the airport in Detroit, the building were starting to change and turn more towards deralik and unused.

Day 21

Today we went through my friends University and as we were driving through I saw some people playing basket because I don't really see people playing basket ball but it is a main sport in USA

Another main sport is baseball, we drove past the batting cages so we pulled over to get a picture. They looked just like on television and how I imagined. I was allowed to go inside but I wanted to capture the cage to show that it was the batting cages.

Machine you put your money in to start the balls going

Bats at the batting cages

Another shot of someone who was playing basket ball. It just reminded me of a typical after shot of someone playing basket ball, with a towel over his head to cool down. Unfortunately when I shot the image my exposure was to high and it came out white so I turned the exposure down and I liked the effect it created so decided to keep and use it.

After driving thought the University we went to the vets to pick up my friends dog. The vets is near a more rural area. I noticed that even though its houses on a street it looks very American and how they don't have any fences and the grass was lovely and green. While I was photographing the shot a women was looking at me through her door in a very mysterious look, because of the area I felt again a little weary of the fact someone was watching me.

Day 20

I really wanted to try and capture different shots of bullets. So, my Uncle Mike asked someone at work if we could borrow them for me capture and luckily he said yes. He have a large range of different size and types. My idea was to use my lens baby to give the effect of the bullet being fired and traveling but unfortunately it wasn't successful as I imagined it. So, instead I used my 24mm to 105mm to soon in on the bullet.

Bullet




Near my friends University there are fraternity houses. Again we done have fraternity houses in the UK so it was something new to me. I captured the image to show the signs for the house. I'm not too sure what they mean though, I asked someone and she was unsure as well.

Fraternity House



In America they have garage sales its the equivalent to car boots but instead in their own garage. The entrance to the colder sack would have a sign out and when driving around the houses they would tie balloons to there letterboxes so people would know that they have a garage sale.

Garage Sale sign



Local neighbour having a garage sale



Later that day we went to church again for the last time. As we were going into the lecture theater for church there was a sign outside saying "This service is PG13". The topic of the service was about sex. I thought that in the UK, the church's would never talk about sex. After church we headed to a shop called "Dicks" where they sell different types of sports clothing and accessories. Again, something I would never see at home is an area selling guns and ammunition in a sports shop but because hunting is a sport in America it is normal to sell products to be used for hunting.

Gun area in sports shop

Day 19

Today went headed out to the "Silver Dome" an outside theater. Unfortunately it was closed due to repairs to the speakers. It not only have a outdoor theater but the dome can be used for other events for example Lacrosse.

Silver Dome Theater



After finding the dome we head to "Jerry's gun shop" to capture some images of guns and to speak to the staff about what they think about guns. I was speaking to a man who worked there about guns and he was explaining that's 21 years and older can apply for a licence, all that needs to be done is for you to fill in a form, that form to be sent to Federal Bureau where they check if you have a criminal record, if not you then receive a licence that needs to be renewed every 5 years. I couldn't believe how simply it was to actual buy a gun. He was also talking about the different types of gun licenses. He mention there is a licence that you can have a concealed weapon, as he was talking about a concealed weapon and he lifted his top to show that he has a concealed gun. In my head I kept repeating in my head he has a gun and didn't know it. I couldn't believe I was speaking to someone who had a real gun with real bullets in it.

Jerry's Gun Shop



The gentleman got out different handguns for us to have a look and hold. He explained how to hold a gun for example when testing different guns point it either down or up and not straight at anyone. He was showing us the revolver.

Hand gun


Gun with a price tag for you to purchase



After I left the gun shop in amazement as to what I had saw we were driving and we saw a car full of bumper stickers. I haven't seen anything like that in UK before and Ive seen them in movies.

Car with bumper stickers



My friend took me into show sub divisions to show me more expensive area of Michigan

Day 18

My friend looks after and sometimes tutors three children occasionally and the mother has seen my children portraits and likes my work so has asked if I could photograph her children. Normally I would photography portraits in the studio so to do them on location especially at their home might become challenging but hopefully Ive planned some ideas that should work.

They have an outside area that you can go down some stairs to get to the play area so I'm hoping to photograph them on there and get them playing on the jungle gym and hopefully get some natural smiles off them. At the moment the weather is cloudy but dry If it starts to rain I will move inside I use the house to capture some portraits

Hailey



Alex



Owen



The three of them



They were a bit wild to capture but the weather stayed nice so I got them to play so I could photograph them

Later that evening we went to restaurant called "Ticonderoga" were they have animals head hung on the wall and the lamp shades were made of hooves. The atmosphere reminded me of a hunters lodge.

The lamp shade



The walls



On our way back home from the restaurant we noticed there was a school game happening. At first I thought it was American football so I got in closer to take images but then I realized that t was lacrosse. Still, in the UK we don't have lacrosse so I was interesting to watch and see how it is played. For example, how when one player had the play the apposing team would attach them to get the ball or to prevent them from throwing the ball

Lacrosse



Lacrosse



The seating area for the lacrosse game

.

Day 17

To we went to McDonald to order a "Supersize Meal". They don't sell that size in UK so I wanted to buy one to see what how big it looked and to capture an image of it. In honesty it wasnt as big as I thought. I asked for a cheese burger supersized and they gave me two cheeseburgers, large fries and a large drink, I thought that the burger would be bigger and same with the fries and drink. I captured an image, my aim was to use a wide angle lens and go low down to be give the impression of it being bigger then it really is but unfortunately when looking thorugh the images I was able to achieve this. I hope to before I go back to try a supersize "Wendy's" to see if there supersize meals are larger and more obvious that it is a supersize meal.

Supersize Meal

I was walking out of McDonalds and I came across an American postbox. Its smaller, more square and blue instead of red.

American Postbox

After we had lunch my friend took me around the different residential area so I could see the difference between all the houses. The first estate area we came across was small and reminded me of a holiday park full of static houses. They have a hut full of letter boxes were they collect their mail from

Letter boxes

We moved onto a different area that looked more like the working class area and I came across a small tree house.

Tree house

As we were driving through the different estates a school bus was infront of us and stopped off to drop off some children that loved on that estate area. When the bus has stopped you are not aloud to go round you have to wait until they have dropped off the children and pulled off.

The school bus dropping off children

In America it is illegal to have fencing around your own house as it is unsociable unless you have a swimming pool in your back garden or live near a main road so instead people would have tree or shrubs to give them some priviousy

A house with tree to give some priviousy.

Day 16

My aim of today was to capture images from the Detroit Tigers (baseball) because we were going to one of there matches but unfortunately because of the bad weather the game was cancelled so I managed to capture some images of the outside of the stadium so you can still get the effect of the stadium itself. We then went to the Casino in Detroit and headed back home to do some Uni work and relax and watch a film.

On the floor into the entrance there were hundreds of different names with the Detroit symbol imprinted in the walk way.

There is a big statue tiger outside the entrance of the stadium were people were snapping each other in front of the statue.

A little boy going to stand in front of the tiger.

Day 15

This morning we had to get up early to to come back t Detroit to drop my mom off at the airport but before we left we stopped off at "The Bean" in Chicago. The reflections coming off the bean were breath taking. Its alot better in real life then seeing it on pictures.

People underneath the building

We dropped my mom off at the airport and on our way back we went throug Detroit and on to 8 mile and telegraph to capture more rural houses in Detroit. Whilst we were driving through It wasnt safe for us to stop so I wound down my window and captured as we kept driving. As I was taking pictures of the different house a lady shouted out"why you taken pictures" in a confrontation way and in honesty scared me the way she was so confrontation towards me and the fact that it was a bad area and guns are legal in America. That area was also known for peoples children to be taking away.

Houses on telegraph and 8 mile