4/20: A Hippie New Year

I photographed the 4/20 Super Jam at the Blind Pig this past Tuesday for AnnArbor.com and had a blast! The night was full of tunes and groove and reminded me of some awesome nights hanging out with my Muncie homies dancing the night away! (Miss you guys!) The band was comprised of Ann Arbor favorites the Macpodz with special guests jumping on stage to play along.

Photos © AnnArbor.com 2010

Self portrait

I had some time to kill in between a couple of assignments last week and ended up hanging out in my car listening to NPR while I waited. I started messing around trying to take photos of myself, much to the amusement of those passing by, and I came away with his photo.

Vintage finds

I checked out the first weekend of the Ann Arbor Antiques Market today with my mom and Mark. Lots of interesting items and people to look at.

How I love Danish Modern design! Threw in some peanut men for good measure.






These are antique chocolate molds. The large bunny on the left was made in 1937 and sells for $38,500! The merchant said that a solid chocolate bunny weighs 75lbs!


Meet Tulip! Middle name Bouquet! I kid you not.




These are string holders.


I guess one got away!!


Self portrait!

Chasing sunsets

It might not be considered hardcore, but I chase sunsets. I have no armored vehicle, no special tracking system, I just shoot em' when I see em'. Plus who wants to endanger themselves driving around in severe weather looking for tornadoes? The threat of a cow landing on my cute, little red Vibe is just to great. So I think I'll stick to chasing sunsets and rainbows and other pretty things. Perhaps one day I'll find a pot of gold?

For those who haven't seen my series UP, you can check out more photos of pretty things under landscapes.

FestiFoolin'

Oh my! What a cool event! I was assigned by AnnArbor.com to cover the annual Festifools parade in downtown yesterday and what a good time it was! Check out the video and some of my favorite snaps below. Here's a link to the article page.

Untitled from Melanie Maxwell on Vimeo.

Video © AnnArbor.com 2010

Photos © AnnArbor.com 2010

Sonny Browskey

I recently spent an afternoon with Sonny Browskey and his two youngest children Isabel and Angeles' for a story for AnnArbor.com. You can read it (and you should!) here. Sonny rents a room in a friend's house while his wife stays at a nearby homeless shelter. The kids stay with Sonny half the week while his wife looks for a job.

Photos © AnnArbor.com 2010

ARCHIVES: Player of the Year (Fall)

I've just wrapped up the winter season of AnnArbor.com's Player of the Year honoree portraits. I am going to wait for them to run in the paper before I post them here, so I thought I'd feature a few from the fall season (shot before I had mad bloggin' skillz.)

Photos © AnnArbor.com 2010

You know what they say about April showers...

After waking up to realize I left a window open in my living room and that's why there were little wet footprints throughout the house, I figured it'd be nice to remember what better weather looks like.

This is an outtake from a project I worked on last week for AnnArbor.com

No camera, no problem!

With my D3 sent into the techies over at Nikon, I've been feeling a little lonely lately. When my brother Jeff, sister Julianne and I decided to visit our mom and her boyfriend Mark out at his boat in Detroit for Easter this past Sunday, I decided to use what I have. And what I have is cell phone. I have been dumb-founded by what people can produce with cell phone cameras. I use mine mostly to photograph my cats. (Lucky them!) So here is my attempt at iPhone photography while out on a walk around the marina yesterday.

And just who is "top priority" around here?


This is where Mark and mom keep the boat, it's called a dockominium, get it? :)

Hanging around

I made this photo while shooting a control burn/demonstration for the community at Buhr Park for AnnArbor.com. Not even a field set on fire could distract this kid from playing with his dad.

If you, however, are interested in seeing a field set on fire then click ---> here.

©AnnArbor.com 2010