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.

 



Kelby Worldwide Photowalk: Cleveland Flats

Lisa and I joined a group of photographers for the Kelby Photowalk on Saturday morning in the Flats. We started at Shooter's parking lot, curled around the old powerhouse, down to the Left Back condos and the old lift bridge, the across the swing bridge and under the Detroit-Superior bridge, at which point we stopped for lunch and chimping at the Flat Iron Cafe. The weather started off cold and windy, but warmed up to a relatively balmy mid-60's. The sky was pretty blah, not a terrific background for the city skyline.

Despite the cold, there were a couple of groups of scullers on the river - all that rowing probably kept them nice and warm. There was one woman rowing in a sleeveless shirt - probably raised in Chardon, even native Clevelanders (usually) aren't that crazy.

Some skylines (picture beautiful blue skies and big puffy white clouds in place of the flat grey sky):

Above, from Shooter's deck.

The two views above are from the board walk by the Oxbow Association building.

This one's from the swing bridge, looking east.

 

Good time, I'd do it again - maybe with bluer skies, though.

The Inn at Brandywine Falls

More shots from Brandywine Falls. The Inn is a pretty old house with a big front porch. Never met the innkeepers, but for sure they're kindred spirits - 6 ft of anti-deer fence surrounds their garden. My fence is a more modest 4 ft, suited to my garden, but I feel their pain. (When we came home tonight, some midnight marauder had nipped off most of the mums. Mums, for heaven's sake - those things are used to make bug repellent. That can't possibly taste good. But I digress)

 

A brilliant maple, blue sky and puffy fall clouds frame the Inn.

 

 I like this horizontal crop.

Whoever invented the circular polarizer, bless your clever heart!

 

Bike path from the Inn to the falls. Some of the trees have been blown bare of leaves, some are brightly colored, some haven't even started.



New bridge over the turnpike. Keeps the hikers and bikers off the road, much safer.

Brandywine Falls on a Gorgeous Fall Day

Wow, Brandywine Falls was beautiful this morning. Plenty of water, nice light and some puffy autumn clouds. The park has really fixed up the parking area and paths. There's a nice bridge over the turnpike now, so hikers and bikers don't have to use the street anymore. The parking lot is bigger, too. By the time I got there this morning at 7 am, there were already a couple of cars in the lot. Mostly hikers, but one crazy photographer who decided to scramble down the slope in front of the observation deck to get down to the base of the falls - despite some rather fierce warning signs posted on the railings. Here are some of today's shots:

Forgot to count how the number of stair into the gorge. It's a bunch, but there's so much to look at, you don't really notice.

 

It starts out like a regular water fall:

 

Is it better portrait or landscape? I can't decide.

Then it sheets down a steep cliff, before crashing into the pool.

I want to go back this winter and get the same views when it's ice and snow.

If you're going, go soon, the leaves are are starting to fall, and the color will soon be replace with November's starkly elegant browns and greys.

Blackwater Falls State Park

Chuck and I went to West Virginia for a short vacation Labor Day week. We stayed at the Bright Morning Inn in Davis, just a few minutes drive from Blackwater Falls State Park. Blackwater is in the Potomac Highlands on the east side of the state, just below the Maryland panhandle. Pretty spectacular scenery, deep gorges, rocky outcroppings, and a hundred waterfalls on every stream. As you can see in a couple of the photos, the Blackwater gorge was invisible in the fog at times.

The first three photos are were taken from the Pendleton Point Overlook shortly after we arrived at the park. 

 

 

The view below is from the overlook at the Lodge a couple evenings later. It's a HDR to cope with the contrast in the sunset and mountain sides.

 

We stopped early in the morning for sunrise - but got dense fog instead. It look like the world ended just past that ridge.

We made friends with a young cat - he was just a bundle of energy, zooming around the terrace, chasing leaves and grasshoppers. Quite the cutie.

That white behind Chuck is a wall of fog blanketing the entire gorge.

An elderly deer pretty much ignored us as she snacked her way down the side of the road.

More photos to come - it's just a beautiful area.