Flickr Friend Fun Weekend

Torontonians at the tracks
Originally uploaded by mfophotos.

It was quite a while back that I encountered Barb Dingwall (highwaygirl67) on Flickr. Her photos are of course, interesting and sometimes a bit mind-bending, but always done with purpose and I believe with some of that renowned Canadian sense of humor. Last month I mentioned to her on Flickr that she should paw through the camera remainders in my garage if she ever got out of Toronto and came through Ann Arbor. Well, it so turns out that she was ready for a break from Canada, and she and her friend Petra arrived in Ann Arbor Friday evening.

They stayed close-by, and walked over to my house Saturday morning, whereupon I drove us to Ypsilanti for some shooting. I chose Ypsi first, as it's a delightful place to walk around in the Depot Town area, and there are lots of interesting photographic opportunities in a small area.

After shooting in Ypsi, we went back into Ann Arbor, and had lunch at Grizzly Peak (Petra's excellent suggestion), and then did some photo-exploring downtown and over the other side of Main St. into the Ashley/Miller area. We dropped in on Ross Orr (voxphoto), and he joined up with us a little later and led us through some interesting parts of Island Park.

Later in the evening, Ross joined us for dinner at my place. I had a devious plan to ply Barb with wine so she would take back a bunch of cameras to Canada, and not realize just how many she was taking! It worked well, as I think I filled a shopping bag for her.

Sunday was time to return to Standard Time, which was good, as I needed that extra hour of sleep. Barb and Petra drove over and we went to Matthaei Botanical Gardens. It was Adrienne's weekend to work, so it was nice to see my wife's handiwork with the beautiful mum display and tell her while she was there how great it is. Afterwards, the three of us headed over for coffee and food at the Moonwink Cafe in Dixboro Rd. right next to the Dixboro School, another fun place to shoot. Then, it was off to Parker Mill, and after that, Dexter, where we visited some of my favorite spots to photograph. Barb and Petra left for Toronto right after we returned to Ann Arbor, and I hope they enjoyed some of the places that we visited. The two of them were great companions and we certainly had some good laughs.

What I really enjoyed was meeting the person behind the Flickr avatar, and Barb was every bit as interesting as I thought she would be. She is a thoughtful, funny, and knowledgeable photographer, and I hope to get over to Toronto sometime so she can return the favor of being a guide and shooting buddy.