Ann Arbor Photographic Arts
A Staircase of Creative Expression
A spontaneous pop-up photo shoot happened when photographer Evans Koukios encountered A2 bikers at their midpoint stop on their last Friday of the month Bikeinannarbor. It was late evening at Mary Beth Doyle Park, known for its urban wetland environment.
Click to view the youtube video shot with a Lumix Panasonic FZ2500 bridge camera in 4K and converted to slow motion in post. The original soundtrack is used to present the park’s evening audio ambiance.
Photo study galleries were also created that show a group picture captured with the FZ2500’s built in flash, a potpourri gallery of stills, two galleries of a2photographic’s “photodesigns”, animated video slideshows and a gallery of “snaps” or frame extractions from the 4K footage—all to show the creative efforts that Ann Arbor Photographic Arts can bring to its artistic portfolio.
Explore it all by clicking the slideshow or the button below. Leave your comments in the gallery guestbooks and buy from our photo product shopping galleries. Click on!
We at Ann Arbor Photographic Arts celebrated a one year milestone as our photo coverage of the Ann Arbor Electric Bolt Race last year was the impetus for creating our a2photographic.com website. This year we returned to the photo site of our maiden web voyage and created a new video slideshow, “Pressing the FZ2500 Finish Line Camera” at this year’s Electric Bolt on July 28, 2019.
The play on the word “pressing” is an understatement, as this photographic assignment has a continuous stream of runners approaching from a distance and heading right at the camera. Bands of light streak across the path from the east, and the camera is “pressed” into keeping zoom, focus and exposure at a blistering pace, as the goal is to capture all of the individual finish line photo stories.
The first video slideshow is running at a pace of 6 high resolution shots a second, about the same burst rate of the Panasonic Lumix FZ2500 camera. It is fast action sports photography, a study in the capabilities of this powerful bridge zoom camera.
The second video slideshow, “Photo Story at the Finish Line” is more measured at 148 high res photos and feeds into the PHOTO BOOKS we created especially for this year’s run. Enjoy the drama at the finish line with this poignant selection of images.
Please share your stories about this photography by clicking below and signing the gallery guestbook. Create your own PHOTO STORY BOOK by picking your favorite pictures. A2photographic.com is the place for 2019 Electric Bolt photography. Click below for our galleries.
The Ann Arbor Art Fair 2019 happened again this year with artists from across the country coming to Ann Arbor to display, sell and share their artistic creations. A2photographic.com was in attendance, too, taking in their stories and working its own street photography. See our first creation made with editing brushes, palettes of color, in the youtube “photo designs video”. For our second creation, watch our 900 shot video slideshow “The Spray”, a new exhilaration for a “treat on the street”.
So as to the first creation, what are “photodesigns”, anyway? Well, one answer is graphic changes to a photograph by use of mathematical algorithms that can, step by step, transform a digitized photograph into a new rendering. In this “video photodesign”, a2photographic worked four photographs to produce 300 unique transformations, investigating this relatively new genre of art making that has come to us with the computer age and electronic displays. Plus, an a2photographic extra, the transformations are in motion !!!
Then there is the unexpected event in street photography adventure, “The Spray”. Quick thinking to adapt the camera to the scene and hope for the best. A2photographic.com even pressed with shutter speeds to 1/10000 of a second to investigate what was coming out of those sidewalk jets. No work, however, involved in asking the photo subjects to pose, smile and say cheese. It was the magic of “the spray” that did the tickling.
A2photograhic.com is still matting and framing these artistic creations, but it considers itself another pioneer of artistic expression. With a niche in street photography, we greeted this year’s street-vendor artists, who braved the hot temperatures, storms and booth flooding, to bring us this year’s fair. The flourishing culture of art in Ann Arbor, Michigan is alive and well. Thanks to everyone for contributing !!!
Visit our photo galleries for all of our Art Fair photography by clicking on the button below.
It is now a tradition for Ann Arbor Photographic Arts to cover the Ann Arbor Independence Day Parade. With more than 60 marching organizations–from politicians, non-profits, organizations for causes, schools, cultures–it is a vibrant expression of being American on this festive national holiday.
We are a country of diversity, a nation of nations, an America of principles and ideas, a United States of children, families, seniors and land of opportunity. View the full 4K parade video we recorded by clicking on the youtube link.
Then view our albums in our gallery store and leave a happy comment for others to see. You’ll be convinced of Ann Arbor’s commitment to expressing the soul of our nation from the time of its independence.
Click the button below for the full gallery of photos.
We at Ann Arbor Photographic Arts celebrate a one year milestone as our photo coverage of the Electric Bolt 5K last year was the impetus for creating our a2photographic.com website. One year later, Ann Arbor Photographic Arts is still a vendor at The Sunday Artisan Market in Kerrytown, selling creative canvas prints and photo designs. As our website demonstrates, we were active this year as photographers and videographers of A2 events, reporting on a variety of social, political and artistic themes.
To thank Electric Bolt and help in its fight against ALS, we created an Electric Bolt slideshow from last year’s finish line photography. To our great delight, these were perfect pics for our maiden voyage in photo story telling.
This year’s race is Sunday, July 28, 2019 and you can sign up at www.activeagainstals.org . Following the race, visit our Kerrytown Sunday Artisan Market booth. We will make history again with coverage of our second annual Electric Bolt Race. See you at the finish line and click below for last year’s photography in our gallery store.
Memorial Day is special for Ann Arbor Photographic Arts as it has covered the parades and ceremonies for years. This year was memorable for its in depth look into stories at Ypsilanti’s Highland Cemetery following the Memorial Day Ceremony.
Click to see our video including interviews from Chaplin Lawrence Vollink, DAR member Roberta Kemp, EMU history students Jay Frye and Lacey Opdycke, and Willow Run Chapter of the Civil Air Patrol volunteer Norman Terry. The sights and sounds of the day were captured with the live video vignettes followed by a photographic slideshow. in the video as well as still images captured in our photo gallery store.
It was a beautiful, sunny day that helped us reflect on the heroism, sadness and tribulations of soldiers for every nation who have fought and are fighting in the world’s wars. May the valiant be secure and rest in peace and those safe at home be vigilant in sending a constant message for peace. And click on the gallery story that includes an album of photo designs on a playful spinner.
The Hon. Damon J. Keith’s life was celebrated May 13, 2019 with a service at the Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit Michigan. When he passed away at age 96, he was still a jurist on the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and still mentoring at the service through those sharing memories of his legendary accomplishments.
Keith had deep connections to Detroit, Wayne State University School of Law and civic organizations. He was a jurist of national stature. Dignitaries from Michigan and across the nation came to pay their respects.
Ann Arbor Photographic Arts became acquainted with Judge Keith when it photo documented the Civil Rights Museum at Wayne State School of Law in 2012. It’s one of the albums in our collection of galleries on this website.
We attended the satellite feed of the funeral service on Wayne State’s campus and video recorded the ClickonDetroit telecast from that auditorium. There we met Peter Hammer, one of the authors of Keith’s biography, Crusader for Justice, professor in the Wayne Law School and Director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights. Thanks to Wayne, where a2photographic’s founder Maria Koukios received her BFA degree in photography, we were able to witness, record and share the outpourings of love and reverence for Keith’s life and work.
Our photo journalistic endeavor was a blessing and timely for today’s urgently needed activism for social justice. Judge Keith ruled in his pivotal case: “Democracies die behind closed doors”. It is now Donald Trump who is in need of a “Keith correction”. Click on the button below to visit our Judge Damon Keith photo/video galleries. Our democracy is in peril and must not perish. Judge Keith sounded the alarm. See more in our galleries.
A2photographic.com covered the 18th Annual Greek Independence Day Parade in Detroit’s historic Greektown with two video cameras and Maria’s awesome street photography. There was a spectacular rain that drenched those walking, making for a “one of a kind” experience. Click on our youtube.com videos for the sounds and sights of the day! Then click on the slideshow to go to our Greek Heritage photo galleries and comment in our guestbook. OPA to the Greeks and their fight for freedom! Great Greek food at the Golden Fleece afterwards, too. Efharisto!
North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) | Detroit
Ann Arbor Photographic Arts makes a trek each year to the North American International Auto Show in downtown Detroit to take in the sights and lights, the concepts and customers, the gigantic and model arts, the cars and the city.
It’s a visual photographic delight to our cameras and art making. See for yourself from the hundreds of images in our galleries. Select and buy prints that will amaze your artistic and historic sensibilities. Click below to go to our Detroit Auto Show Galleries.
The Sunday Artisan Market Kerrytown Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor Photographic Arts has had an artist’s booth at the Sunday Artisan Market with it’s framed photography, photo canvases, photo calendars, photo badges and photo cubes. Plus, we make instant framed photo portraits to commemorate your day at the market, or the day of your pet, or the day of your event. The market is closed for the winter but our market products can be purchased online, too. The market reopens in April. See you there.
We’re vlogging about a Design Review meeting in Ann Arbor on a new building for 616 E Washington Street, across from the First United Methodist Church. Find out what it looks like and where it fits in the list below, from the architects themselves and our vlogging video coverage!
- Tower Plaza Condominiums, William Street, 26 stories
- Burton Memorial Tower, U of M Campus, about 21 stories
- University Towers, South University, 18 stories
- University Village, South University, 14 stories
- Campus Inn, East Huron Street, 14 stories