Luke made a funny face while I was taking this photo

Brian and Heather at Belle Isle, standing across from GM Headquarters!

The entrance to Belle Isle Aquarium. Apparently Mayor Kilpatrick cut funding for this place and closed it down. It happened to be the oldest Aquarium in the country, the only one in Michigan, and one of the top 10 best places for fish (I guess they invented some great way of taking care of them or something). So sad that it was closed. On this special saturday the "Friends of Belle Isle Aquarium" opened up the aquarium to try to raise awareness and get it re-opened. There was a great turnout and it was hard to take pictures without people in them! In this shot I had to wait quite a while for there to be no people in it. You can also see in the upper right corner that the sun was pretty bright and I had to get close to the building so that the sun would be hidden behind it!

This is the opposite end of the Aquarium, looking back towards the entrance. Apparently Mayor Kilpatrick cut funding for this place and closed it down. It happened to be the oldest Aquarium in the country, the only one in Michigan, and one of the top 10 best places for fish (I guess they invented some great way of taking care of them or something). So sad that it was closed. On this special saturday the "Friends of Belle Isle Aquarium" opened up the aquarium to try to raise awareness and get it re-opened. There was a great turnout and it was hard to take pictures without people in them!

All the exhibits had been emptied except for this one tank still had fish in it!

The Belle Isle Aquarium

This is the center of the Bell Isle Aquarium. The basic shape of it is one long hallway with a giant circular dome in the middle. I had to wait a while before all the people were out of this shot, and then shot it as quick as I could! On this special saturday the "Friends of Belle Isle Aquarium" opened up the aquarium to try to raise awareness and get it re-opened. There was a great turnout and it was hard to take pictures without people in them! Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/14, ISO 320, hand-held HDR composed of 5 photos (3 sec, 4/5, 1.6 sec, 6 sec, 13 sec) in Photomatix Pro and edited in Photoshop.

A friend of mine asked if the next photo was a single shot or if it was an HDR. Alas, it was an HDR combined from the 5 photos above (I also included the HDR). To show you how tough the lighting was I took the shot and blended in the 5 exposures. I either got big shadows or blown highlights. Pretty much the only shots that I got from here were the HDR's. I even brought my flash in and tried to see if that would help but the ceiling was just too high and the room too big for the flash to make any difference. You can use the left and right keys on your keyboard to go back and forth between this photo and the next. This is the center of the Bell Isle Aquarium. The basic shape of it is one long hallway with a giant circular dome in the middle. I had to wait a while before all the people were out of this shot, and then shot it as quick as I could! On this special saturday the "Friends of Belle Isle Aquarium" opened up the aquarium to try to raise awareness and get it re-opened. There was a great turnout and it was hard to take pictures without people in them! Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/14, ISO 320, hand-held HDR composed of 5 photos (3 sec, 4/5, 1.6 sec, 6 sec, 13 sec) in Photomatix Pro and edited in Photoshop.

A couple of the info-boards in the center of the aquarium.

The tile mural on the end of the aquarium.

I liked the little sign outside the Belle Isle Conservatory

The Belle Isle Conservatory

The Belle Isle Conservatory

I thought this "No Smoking" sign on the entrance to the conservatory was really neat because of all the condensation on the glass. Apparently when I walked into the conservatory the ladies inside were wondering why on earth I was taking a picture of a "No Smoking" sign. Little did they know it would turn out this cool!

There was a little stream here and I thought it looked awesome, but the water wasn't running fast enough for me to get a long/silky exposure on it (and I sadly hadn't brought any of my filters inside).

This plant was wicked cool -- not to mention wicked looking!

Neat colors in the greenhouse class, inside the Belle Isle Conservatory

This is my favorite cactus and they had one inside the Belle Isle Conservatory! On the way up to Ridge Winery in Cupertino, CA there's a real cactus like this. Every time I drive by I want to stop and take pictures but it's always too dark. One of these days!

Another neat looking cactus inside the Belle Isle Conservatory

Heather found some moose antlers inside the Nature Center

My friends and I arrived at Belle Isle around noon and we were lucky because it happened to be a special day when the Belle Isle Aquarium was opened (it's been shutdown due to lack of funding). I took a bunch of photos in the Aquarium that I'll post soon. As we drove into Belle Isle you could see this off to the left and I got all excited! When we finally got here it was freezing but luckily I had a hat/gloves with me. I walked around this numerous times trying to get the best angle and I've got a couple photos that I really like but I thought this shot was the neatest. The Belle Isle Ice Tree has been an annual attraction since at least the 60's. Blogger Chris Rabior found some information showing that this ice-tree was being created all the way back into the 70's. From what I've been able to determine the Detroit Fire Department sets this up each year. Apparently oversized evergreen trees are used to form the core of the annual 'ice tree' at Belle Isle. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/9, 1/30 sec, ISO 320, hand-held HDR composed of 5 photos (1/1000, 1/4000, 1/2000, 1/500, 1/250 sec) in Photomatix Pro and edited in Photoshop.

It turns out that not only has my good friend ShinsanBC gotten me interested in going to Antelope Canyon to shoot, but I'm also unintentionally following him around. He posted shots of this a month or two ago and it turned out that my friends took me here (to Belle Isle) while I was back in Michigan for a recruiting trip! My friends and I arrived at Belle Isle around noon and we were lucky because it happened to be a special day when the Belle Isle Aquarium was opened (it's been shutdown due to lack of funding). I took a bunch of photos in the Aquarium that I'll post soon. As we drove into Belle Isle you could see this off to the left and I got all excited! When we finally got here it was freezing but luckily I had a hat/gloves with me. I walked around this numerous times trying to get the best angle and I've got a couple photos that I really like but I thought this shot was the neatest. The Belle Isle Ice Tree has been an annual attraction since at least the 60's. Blogger Chris Rabior found some information showing that this ice-tree was being created all the way back into the 70's. From what I've been able to determine the Detroit Fire Department sets this up each year. Apparently oversized evergreen trees are used to form the core of the annual 'ice tree' at Belle Isle. Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S: 17mm, f/9, 1/30 sec, ISO 320, hand-held HDR composed of 5 photos (1/1000, 1/4000, 1/2000, 1/500, 1/250 sec) in Photomatix Pro and edited in Photoshop.