The River Becomes a Lake, a photo from Michigan, Midwest

Photographer's Note

The recent storms filled all the local flood plains in the area as the rivers swelled. In my city most of the flood plains have been left to parks (as here), golf courses or woods. From this vantage point over Ford Field the Rouge River, which is not very large, would normally be hidden. If you look to your left, below the apartment building, there is a wooden structure that is a covered bridge, also seen in this view . That bridge shows how wide the river actually is which is maybe 10 meters. And in addition it typically sits a few meters down in its channel.

In other areas, though, it wasn't such a great time. In neighboring Dearborn Heights a creek running through overflowed and flooded neighborhoods and an expressway. Also the sewage pumping stations became choked with water and sewage backed up into the basements of hundreds of homes making everything the water touched a complete loss. This happened despite the city touting that the new sewage system would make such backups a thing of the past.

In the northern suburbs the larger Clinton River crested some 6 meters above normal stage flooding homes and businesses. Around the state capital a zoo was flooded and on the other side of the state the longest river in Michigan overflowed its banks.

I'll show a couple better photos of this area soon but just wanted to give an overall view here. This is a stitch from 6 photographs and gives just about a 160 degree view.

CVTJan, Rinie_Hoff, cmartos, jhonny_blue, bertolucci, Spoony, kajenn, taivo, mdchachi, elihesamian has marked this note useful

Critiques | Translate

CVTJan (1244) 2004-05-25 2:51

Dear Paul, technically a very good picture, within the rule of thirds for the horizon and the people in the picture give a very good idea of perspective ! Well done, good panoramic :) Yours, Jan

Rinie_Hoff (9340) 2004-05-25 3:18

Hi Paul, great documentary shot. Together with your note, one can get a very good impression what a flood like this can do to a society. And yes, it's a very enjoyable picture as well, the light is nice and the colours are pretyy, both ladies give a scale to the photo and the bridge as well.
2 dark smileys for you. ;-)

jhonny_blue (4956) 2004-05-25 5:19

Very beautiful composition in panoramic view !
I like very much !
Congratulations

papagolf21 (145294) 2004-05-25 6:22

Belle réalisation Paul pour ce panoramique. Il restitue bien la crue. Les couleurs sont très belles. De l'excellent travail.
Félicitations.
Merci pour la note toujours très détaillée, c'est parfait.
Beautiful Paul realization for this panoramic.It restores the rising well.The colors are very beautiful.Excellent work.
Congratulations.
Thank you for the very detailed note always, it is perfect.

jhm (191607) 2004-05-25 6:26

Very beautiful composition in panoramic view Paul, with beautiful reflections in the water. Jou did good job.

bertolucci (13366) 2004-05-25 13:05

This sharp pano is an excellent device to portray this semi-controlled flooding. The large space you reserved for the water works extremely well and the human element is essential for scale. In combination with your execellent note it's a great and moody docu-shot. Very fine job, Paul!

wilkinsonsg (8662) 2004-05-25 13:56

Great notes and the panoramic image is well done :)

Spoony (3539) 2004-05-25 14:32

Nice overall view from that place. Great colors too.
Agreable environment.
Well done and seen.

kajenn (2454) 2004-05-25 19:13

A superbly composed panorama, Paul. And a technical perfection; I'm impressed by your abilities (6 photos and 160 degrees) and this is clearly an improvement on your behalf. No sign of stitchings and almost no distortion. Well done! Nice colors (although the water doesn't look too nice) and great outline of the elements. I like the human segment - giving scale - and the mallards at the far right. I guess asking for a blue sky under these conditions is out of question...
You've done a great job here!

cmartos (242) 2004-05-26 3:12

Hi Paul, this is a very good panorama. Technically it is excellent. The range covered is really amazing. A superb shot, very well realized. Collage is perfect, 6 fotos is a lot, and 160 degree too! Very well spoted on what you wanted to show, which is great. Well saturated and greens contrasting with water colour. Very well done with again an excellent note. Thanks for sharing Paul.

taivo (1843) 2004-05-28 3:01

Very impressive techinque! Unfortunately, I cannot give more than two points for the photo AND the technique... :) The note is very informative, too. The large version is just great with the lake occupying most of the photos.

c_kyr (1810) 2004-05-31 3:37

Nice photo again Paul.
I like the sharp green color of the field.
The panorama view works really well.
Well done!

mdchachi (1612) 2004-06-18 9:26

Nice stitching job and nice note. I really should have gone out looking for flood pictures but I didn't bother. The two muslim women in the shot add a subtle touch which helps place this shot in Dearborn where, as you know, there is a large muslim/arab population.

sn00zie (2384) 2004-09-10 7:52

a lovely documentary picture... nice panaromic view.. i like the color of the water, which looks soo muddy

elihesamian (26149) 2005-05-22 15:44

A great shot is always great:)
I'm amazed by Large version of it,with a special composition.
I have seen a few time some hard stormy weather with heavy flood in my birth town in south of Iran,everywhere was full of water,many poeple left trheir houses and the town was a bad situation.
You show it skilfully,white sky,the water in the park and cold strormy atmosphere say about this matter.
Great worked and very well composed in this format,Paul!
Best Regards
M