Fiery Solstice Sunset, Cleveland Flats

Spent a fun evening with what seemed like a couple hundred other photographers at the Solstice Shoot in the Flats on Friday. Many thanks to Dale Kincaid for organizing the shoot and to Cool Photo Ops (Cool Photo Ops and Creative Challenges) for promoting it.

The skies were pretty glum when I arrived at 7 - gruesome Northcoast grey - and as sunset approached, the sun plopped behind a thick bank of clouds, crushing any hopes for lovely color. However, it's Cleveland and you know what they say about the weather - start packing up your tripod, and - BAM! - magic:

The clouds shredded, and the sky took fire. If you look close, you can see a bit of blur as the distant railroad bridge lowers for a train.

Tiniest sliver of a moon above the Shoreway Bridge.

The Detroit-Superior Bridge, also know as the Veterans Memorial Bridge, looking like wedding cake.

This fountain is lit with a couple of different colors in the evening. Faintly lit in the background is an old railroad lift bridge. If you want to see moving bridges, the Flat is the place to go. There's even a bright red swing bridge.

Fabulous cloud formations and reflections.

Terminal Tower illuminated in blue. I think the old warm lights looked better, but they were having fun with the light show.

I fled before the Indians game ended (If you've been in an Indians traffic jam, you know why). They must have done something fabulous, because there were fireworks over the stadium. There is nothing like driving down Huron, desperately searching the construction madness for the 77 South ramp as the sky explodes over your head. And knowing your camera is safely stowed in the back of the car, well out of reach...

Everett Road Covered Bridge

Spent a happy hour shooting the Everett Road covered bridge today, while there was still some snow left. Lost the light before I could get to the downstream side.

 

Played around with some black and white conversions. I think they look better with a little bit more contrast and grain added.

 

 

 

The bridge crosses Furnace Run. Must be glacier rocks, they're different colors and kinds. Every once in a while, tiny ice floes crunched into the rocks - it was so quiet, even that little noise was startling. 

 

November's muted color palette is austerely beautiful. I love trees pencil-sketched against textured clouds and snowy stubble-fields showing the contour of the land.

The bridge is in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, just off Riverview Road.

April Outside in Hocking Hills

Love this place in the Spring! We were lucky enough to get rain Thursday overnight, and the streams and waterfalls in Hocking Hills were gorgeous. This is Cedar Falls. We took the easy way down, since the bridge on the rough but beautiful path was taken out by a falling tree. As you can see by the photo, where I had to lay on the rocks to use the boulders to cover that ugly downed tree, falling trees are fairly common. The soil's really thin, and no matter how burly the roots, wind and water will have their way.

The upper falls at Old Man's Cave. Beautiful old stone bridge.

More falls, leading down to the bowl below Old Man's Cave.

 

A beautiful view from the Conkle's Hollow rim trail. Took this a few minutes before I realized that the drop, straight down, is about 250 ft. And the trail is roughly three inches wide....

Rock House, a very cool cave, and very full of hikers on a Saturday.

Another great trip to Hocking Hills!

 

April Outside: Zoar

Did a little side trip to Zoar before the photo workshop in Hocking Hills. Had lunch at a German restaurant, and took this photo of the footbridge over the Tusc and the remnants of the Ohio and Erie Canal.

Hard to believe the Army Corp of Engineers is considering letting Zoar drown instead of repairing the levee or reducing the height of the dam. Worth a side trip on your way down 77 to Amish country.

 

April Outside: Storm!

From Kent's Main Street bridge:

Aren't Spring thunderstorms wonderful?

 

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.