The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan

I could spend days exploring The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and probably still not see everything. From planes, trains, and automobiles to giant machines, inventions, and even showcases on design, fashion, and architecture, there is something for everyone here. 

While visiting the Motor City we became enthralled with the history of places like the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant, the concept cars at the North American International Auto Show, and the architecture and history around downtown Detroit. What made The Henry Ford so fascinating was that it had elements of all of these places we had explored under one roof. 

I could go on and on about this amazing place but I'll let the images speak for themselves. This is only part one of my exploration of The Henry Ford so be sure to check out these additional photo sets of the museum as they're released in the weeks ahead: 

Henry Ford Museum: Part 2 | Henry Ford Museum: Part 3 | Ford Rouge Factory Tour | Dymaxion Home of the Future | Presidential Vehicles | Rosa Parks Bus

These machines were all over the museum. I bought a lot of plastic cars.

Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, California

Our journey along the Pacific coast seemed to be leading us from one pier to another, so perhaps it was no surprise that we ended up at Stearns Wharf after arriving in Santa Barbara, California. Although it was only a brief stop on our way to Los Angeles, Stearns Wharf revealed more incredible views and provided another picturesque locale to wander and soak up the sun.

Editing Luke in 2016

For the record, there's something pretty uplifting about recapping the best parts of your year, editing out all of the stress and exhaustion, and then making it appear really organized and focused - go figure! In all seriousness, 2016 was an ambitious one for me. It was also incredibly scattered and uneven in terms of how everything played out, but I did get a lot done. 

This was a year of some massive new projects, a year when Editing Luke reached more people than ever before, and a year, when frankly, I've never worked harder to open new doors and make things happen. Here are some of those things that made my 2016 memorable:

January 2016 - At the very start of the year shooting was already underway for what would become the massive schoolwide documentary that I was filming at Dr. Roy Wilson Learning Centre in Medicine Hat, Alberta. We still weren't exactly sure what we were embarking on, but I put together this post to announce the project. 

January 18, 2016 - I flew out to the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan and shared the experience with my Dad. We had a blast exploring the city and my Motor City photo series that followed got a lot of traction over the course of the year. I also put together this brief video to highlight the auto show and new series. 



January 27, 2016 - After being asked to photograph the structure for archival record, I finally debuted the images I captured of my old high school after renovations began. The nostalgia of seeing Medicine Hat High School as it was one last time proved popular as the series attracted tens of thousands of hits. See Part 1 here.

February 12, 2016 - I was up in Calgary, Alberta working on an ongoing video production in collaboration with Streamline, MHC, and Medalta. Not only was the production a lot of fun to work on, but the shoot was also a great opportunity to explore and photograph more of Calgary for my Alberta travel library. Explore more of that here.

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on Feb 12, 2016 at 3:12pm PST

March 15, 2016 - I debuted a brand new video with the Travelling Exhibition Program highlighting artwork in rural Alberta. 



March 16, 2016 - Indulging one of my former film student whims, I bought myself a really expensive piece of memorabilia that I've wanted since high school. See it here. 

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on Apr 4, 2016 at 5:49pm PDT

April 2016 - I spent a week road tripping and shooting travel photography all over Vancouver Island, British Columbia. The trip was a great excuse to get away for my birthday and expand my Pacific Northwest travel series at the same time.

April 25, 2016 - Following up on an earlier series of images, I returned to my old high school again to photograph the aftermath of some of the demolition / renovation in full swing.



May 13, 2016 - After months in production, Innovation @ Medalta debuted.

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on May 26, 2016 at 6:14pm PDT

June 2016 - I flew down to Atlanta, rented a car, and spent two weeks road tripping through the American South and Midwest on another photo journaling adventure. I shot a ton of material for my brand new Middle America photo series. Needless to say, I met a lot of characters along the way and became one myself.
  

June 29, 2016 - On the last day of school before summer, I shared a few updates about how the schoolwide documentary I'd been filming was unfolding.

July 1, 2016 - I shot a little video of the Canada Day fireworks that went over pretty well.



July 13, 2016 - I photographed my friends Enslow performing at the Monarch.


July 29, 2016 - I decided to challenge myself by shooting and editing a little visual exploration of the midway at the Medicine Hat Stampede. 



September 1, 2016 - I kicked off a new video project with the Canalta Centre (soon to debut). On a side note, I shot some awesome concert photography at the Canalta Centre over the course of 2016 as well. More of that can be found here.

September 5, 2016 - After receiving yet another random message asking for free images, I put together this post about why supporting creative content matters. Clearly a lot of other people agreed, because the post took off.

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on Oct 5, 2016 at 12:18pm PDT

October 5, 2016 - After months of organizing and rebuilding my travel library of Southern Alberta, I finally began debuting it to potential clients. At 1700+ pics (and growing) it's the largest preview gallery of final images that I have assembled to date.  


October 14, 2016 - I won the 2016 Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on Oct 15, 2016 at 9:35am PDT

November 2016 - For Christmas I began debuting all of the Disneyland and California Adventure travel photography that I had shot in December 2015. These made for some really popular additions to my Roadside California series that I expanded substantially this year.

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on Nov 21, 2016 at 7:48pm PST

December 2016 - My year culminated with the official end of production on the schoolwide documentary that I'd been collaborating on since mid-2015. I provided more clarification about the project in a new post here. With this one project being such a major part of my year, it's been amazing to look back and realize how much else was going on. It should also be no surprise that with post-production just kicking off, this documentary project will certainly be a big part of my 2017 as well.

So, that was my 2016 in a nutshell. I've glossed over a lot of the "work" that actually took place because that would mostly be shots of me editing at 2am or scheduling shoots or returning emails. But really, I can't complain. For all the ups and downs this was a pretty good year. 

Thank you to all those that I've had the pleasure of collaborating with in 2016 and to all of you who have continued to visit this website and explore my work. The support that so many of you have shown me has not gone unnoticed. Thank you for sharing your time with me in 2016 and for making this even more fun than it already is. Happy New Year! 

A photo posted by Luke Fandrich (@editingluke) on Dec 31, 2016 at 12:30pm PST