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

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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

Day 14

Today we got up early and headed to Chicago. Once we arrived we checked in and got a taxi into the city area. The views and buildings were stunning. It was so busy and we caught a typical yellow taxi. We bought tickets for a river trip were they take you along the canal and explain about the history of the different buildings. We also booked on a tour bus were they took you around and you could jump off at the different places then get back on to continue the tour.

The building were so talk and the architecture it so details and stunning. When on the boat the tour lady pointed out that there was window cleaning cleaning. They were absailing down and cleaning each window

A close up of the window cleaners

Whilst we were out on the boat we got further out into Michigan Lake and unfortunately there was fog and it became really cold.

The harsh fog

People on the boat wrapping up warm

After the tour we went to a Diner for some food and a some rather different service. There food was delisious but the waitors and waitresses were rude on purpose. They had attitude but in a joking way and every hour the staff would get upto the counter and dance, for example they danced to YMCA. Our waitress was flow and when I asked for her to smile at the camera she through straws in my face.

Flo our waitress

Day 13

This morning we went to a place called "Ihop" were we went for breakfast. I had a stack of pancakes. In the UK you don't see many if any places serving stacks of pancakes so I wanted to but some. I got "The New york Cheesecake Pancakes", pancakes filled with pieces of New york cheesecake, I couldn't finish it all. I'm glad I tried the pancakes as it was another experience in USA. That today we are heading out to the Lakes to have some food and packed for the Chicago the following day

New york Cheesecake Pancakes with a strawberry lemonade to wash it down with.

Day 12

We went to vets to drop off my friends dog "Roxy" then went to "Big Boys" for some lunch. At "Big Boys" they sell burgers, sandwiches, toasties, milkshakes etc.

Big Boy

After that we picked up Roxy and headed home to prepare for church. I must admit I am not a very religious but if church was like the church in UK I would attend more often. They preach from the bible but make it relevant to life, they admit that they have been through hard times in life such as drugs and alcoholism. I was sat having a smoothy before service and I noticed how they one gentleman was reading his bible whilst drinking coffee and having a laugh it was something Ive not seen in the UK.

The gentleman reading his bible whilst drinking coffee

Unfotunately whilst we were in church an elderly man fainted during the service so when we got out of the building there were cop cars outside in aid of the person. I hadnt seen a police car so I captured it

Police car from behind

Police car from the side

For tea we went "Texas Roadhouse" they serve steaks and ribs etc. They give you free basket of bread with instead of butter they come with a cinnamon spread and they give you peanuts and on busy nights you would break the shell off the peanuts and chuck it on the floor then they would sweep it up after.

Peanuts

Outside the Roadhouse they had chalk messages outside. At first I thought it was some teenagers who had drawn on the floor but when you look closer it is advertising for the roadhouse