Christmas iPhonography: 25

Peace...

Christmas iPhonography: 22, 23, 24

Gilded deer and tree at Saturday night's Christmas Party:

 

 

Russian Tea Cakes just before they're popped in the oven:

Gift from a friend, on the mantle:

Nearly there, my friends...

Christmas iPhonography: 19, 20, 21

A favorite ornament:

 

This cheerful arrangement sits on top the kitchen cabinet:

My family loves our critters:

Christmas iPhonography: 16, 17, 18

Main aisle of the gorgeous Christmas display at the Rockefeller Greenhouse in Cleveland:

 

Favorite pink of the many colors pf poinsettias on display:

This wistful fellow sits on my mantle, surrounding by twinkling Christmas lights

Celebrating the peace and joy of the season:

Christmas iPhonography: 13, 14, 15

Simple centerpieces for the CVPS Holiday Gathering:

 

Gifts ready to be put into Chuck's stocking:

 

Zucchini bread on a cobalt blue, leaf-embossed plate:

 

The best part of Christmas is making things for friends and family...

Christmas iPhonography: 10, 11, 12

Ornaments ready to be hung on the tree (that's Lisa the Christmas Mouse peeking over his glasses in the lower left side):

 

The neighbor's house, so pretty!

 

 

Chipmunk, hung high enough so Sootie can't get him (I hope):

Feeling very Christmassy!

Christmas iPhonography: 7, 8, 9

Pink poinsettia, my favorite color:

Festive wreath on a Chagrin Falls door:

And a little "candle" in the octagonal window upstairs.

Kind of liking the no-stress December Daily...maybe I'll take some fancy photos once the Christmas tree is done.

Christmas iPhonography: 4, 5, 6

4: The stockings are hung on the closet with care....

5: Panera Christmas Tree cookies (not bad, but highly colored frosting is never really good...)

6: Kent's Black Squirrel in the Acorn Alley Plaza. Right in front of Popped! They make the best caramel corn!

 

Falalala La La La LA! (Humming cheerfully to herself, Christmas spirit up to the eyeballs).

Christmas iPhonography, 1, 2, 3

Doing a little Christmas project, Daily December, with the iPhone. Here are days 1, 2, and 3:

Candles on the mantel.

 

Most of the garland and the new tree are up.

 

Swag on the front door light.

 

So far, I've learned that the iPhone screen is really optimized to show detail on a very small image. When I opened these on the computer, they were pretty noisy and not sharp. Lightroom actually has a lens correction for my iPhone - it's under the lens correction menu dropdown for lens profile - you have to click on it, it doesn't appear like a normal camera lens does.

Cuyahoga Falls - The Gorge

Lisa and I went photowalking along the Cuyahoga River in early October.  Recent rain made the falls even more impressive than usual. Can you tell there's a busy freeway about 100 feet to the right of these view. The color wasn't quite peak here, and the gorge has lots of sycamore which go straight to brown. Still, it's a lovely glimpse of Ohio wilderness in the middle of a busy town.

 Striking contrast of bright green against intense blue.

 

Roaring down the gorge:

 



The Powerhouse, with a little bit of texture to liven up a dull sky.

October 5, 2012

MMMmmmMMM, Apple Bread!

Apple-laden goodness:

Batter-splattered recipe:

My favorite thing to bake:

 

A recipe given to me years ago by my friend Lisa - Thanks!

Farm, Holmes County Ohio

Just one from yesterday's Amish country tour with Lisa. This is the after, with a texture by Kim Klassen (http://www.kimklassencafe.com/) and a couple of adjustment layers:

(double click to see this full size)

As you can see by the before, the sky was the sad grey which so often plagues us in Ohio. But it was great weather for shopping, and I came home tired and happy - can't complain about that!

We stopped at Lehman's Hardware (of course!), Eastwood Furniture (love them, good prices on lovely furniture), Village Gift Barn (a really heinous name for a very nice shop) , Country Gatherings, and Breitenbach Winery. Lehman's is a fun place to shop, all sorts of ol-timey stuff useful when the electricity goes out (or for the zombie apocalypse), plus they have a ton of unusual cookie cutters and candy making supplies. Do not, if you treasure your stomach, eat at their cafe. Unless you're starving and the aforementioned zombie apocalypse has begun. It's not up to par with the rest of the store.

Country Gathering has some sweet garden art, and is definitely worth a visit. We had a very late lunch at Breitenbach Winery, which I would definitely recommend. It would also be a nice place for early morning photography - unusual architectural, wine making equipment, and the occasional llama would make interesting subjects.

Enough for now.

November 19, 2012

Hudson Springs Park and Blue Hen Falls

A couple of shots I was happy with, from the rainiest Cuyahoga Valley Photographic Society photowalk ever.

Rainy sunrise at Hudson Springs Park:

 

 

The sun tried so hard to break through, but it just wasn't happening. Made for some nice cloud drama, though.

 

Blue Hen had a decent flow. Sometimes it's just a trickle. Still raining....

I climbed down below the viewing area for a somewhat better shot. Too chicken to scramble down to the creek bed. Going down wouldn't have been a problem - climbing back up a wet, muddy slope covered with decomposing leaves probably not so good for the camera or me.

 

This would be another nice falls for some winter ice photography. Maybe with some rope and ice picks to get back up the slope.

November 3, 2012

Canaan Valley NWR, West Virginia

There's a little marsh park with a boardwalk in the Canaan Valley Nation Wildlife Refuge, called the Freedland Trail. It's just a short walk, but it leads to a beaver-dammed bog with a bunch of dead trees.

 

 

All those dead trees would be a sad thing, except that they were full of Cedar Waxwings. I've never seen more than two at a time, so it was pretty exciting to see a flock of them. Really hard to get a shot of them, too, because they almost never stop moving. They'll perch for a couple of seconds, then off they go. See the little red "wax" tips on the ends of their wing feathers? Click on the photo to get a better view.

 

 

This panorama is one of my favorite shots from the trip - it looks so peaceful:

 

 

The farm is just across the road from the bog.

 

 

No idea what this flower is, just pretty and kind of frothy-looking. The flowers in bloom in the marsh are different from what you see in northeastern Ohio. The Highlands are said to be closer to Canada ecologically. This is the area that got snow dumped on it last week, during hurricane Sandy.

Pretty gloomy weather, as you can tell from some of the photos, but good for photography.

Potomac Highlands, West Virginia, September, 2012

For those of you who get this via e-mail, it looks a lot nicer on the blog. The formatting looks better.

Cleveland Flats: Bridges

The Cleveland Flats is an overturned spaghetti bowl of bridges. And not just garden variety bridge-over-stuff bridges, but bridges that swing this way and that, ones that rise horizontally, and some that swing straight up in the air like enormous iron dinosaurs. And with that flight of fancy, on the to photos:

How cool, a bright red swing bridge, which obligingly swung both ways while we were shooting around it. Here it's sliding back into place - that yellow line on the road is the center line of the street:

Naturally, as soon as the warning horn sounded, about half the photographers in our group ran onto the bridge. Would've been some great shots if a freighter had come through, but it was a false alarm.

Here's the confusion of bridge work overhead:

Detroit-Superior from the ground - bits of it were laying on the ground, and note the cracks in the cross piece. I decided not to spend a lot of time under it, and not much time going over it, either:

The bronto-bridge:

It'd be fun to do a Flats bridge project - there'd be plenty to shoot.

Cleveland Flats: Details

Just a few detail shots from the Saturday, October 13th Kelby Photowalk in the Cleveland Flats:

Benches on the Nautica Queen's deck.

Left Bank bike.

Very random fleur de lis on the Oxbow Bend building.

Thumbnail size mushrooms growing out of the board walk supports by the Left Bank condos. This can't be good...

Burly chains to prevent pedestrians from tumbling into the river.

 

An exceptionally obliging ring-billed gull posing for the photowalkers. Maybe that shot could use a bit more contrast.