Chasing Trains

Had a blast chasing trains today - specifically, Nickel Plate Locomotive 765, which has been operating on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad tracks for the last couple of weeks, and will be back next weekend, October 3 and 4.

765 is an impressive steam engine: big, inky black, billowing smoke, and thundering down the tracks. It's whistle is pretty distinctive, too, quite different from the diesel engines used by CVSR.

Here is 765 at Brecksville Station. It's being pulled back to Fitzwater Yard by a diesel on the other end of the train. If you look closely, you can see the plume is flowing forward over the front of the train.

Kind of like the look of this old locomotive in black. That's the Rt. 82 bridges in the background, the one some knuckle headed neanderthals wanted to blow up.

One of the CVSR diesels, pulling the regularly scheduled scenic train. It headed south while 765 was at Fitzwater.

765, headed back south. I was standing about 15 feet from the tracks, and the whistle is deafening! The plume's flowing the right way now.

Same shot, color. The old-time sepia works better, I think.

Mid-afternoon, 765 made another run, this time south of Boston Station.  I caught it at the Furnace Run Bridge across from Bolanz Road.

For more details about 765, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_Plate_765. The CVSR website has details about and tickets for the runs next week: http://www.cvsr.com/steam-in-the-valley. If you're a photographer, check out Duane Stephen Loya's 765 page at http://www.zensphotography.com/SteamintheValleySteamDays.pdf.

Got 'Em!

Went back to Beaver Marsh in CVNP looking for kingfishers and found the whole family. Both shots below are at the limits of my longest lens, and cropped to boot, but I'm happy to have caught these guys. They move pretty fast, and rarely stay on the same perch for more than a minute.

Found a few more interesting critters. Here's a red squirrel overhead, chattering away.

Eastern Phoebe - like the bird's pose, entirely too many sticks in the background.

Better. Apparently the phoebes nest under the boardwalk and hunt from the shrubs on either side.
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One of many bullfrogs in the marsh - which explains the presence of so many Great Blue and Green Herons.

Still no otters, so the search goes on.

Flowers and Favorites and iPhone Photos at Night

Flowers from Heinen's - 3 huge bunches for $12! I felt like I hit the motherlode on a particularly gloomy February day. (yes, I am a tad behind in posting...)

 

I hacked the amaryllis down in September, when they came indoors for the winter. In late December, I turned on the plant lights and gave them some Miracle-Gro. The flowers this year have been spectacular. You just have to be confident that not watering from September to late December will produce good results. A peach amaryllis is blooming in the living room today, and another stem of 'Apple Blossom' is just about ready to go.

 

Love.these.boots. As Mother Nature is my witness, there has never been a more comfortable pair of hikers made. Merrill Moab waterproof hikers - got them on sale at Gander Mountain.

iPhones do a lot of things well. They even do a good job on photos in decent light. They do not do a great job at night without a lot of contrast. And grain, holy mackerel! This is the burly Civilian Conservation Corp worker who stands outside the entrance to Happy Days Conference Center in CVNP.

 

I'm not much for rings - they catch on everything, and I'm always sure I'm going to yank out the stone. This one is so pretty, silver swirl and amethyst. Worth the annoyance to wear. Occasionally. This was a 50mm 1.8F. Barely got the stone and clips in focus, the depth of field is so shallow.

Random Bits of Life

Another box full of projects, patiently waiting for time that never comes.

 

 

Mourning dove on the deck railing. They're too big to fit in the feeders, so they wait until the smaller birds have thoroughly scattered seed all over the deck.

Two steps to the right and I could have had a branch-free shot of the Rt. 82 bridge - or a chilly slide into the river. Did see blue birds: Great Blue Heron, nuthatches, bluebirds, and a very chatty kingfisher. No eagles, though they are nesting nearby.

 

 

Lots of stuff I love - family photo album, photography books, quirky history, gardening, and, of course, Downton Abbey.

And homemade popcorn. Just popcorn, olive oil, and popcorn salt. Nothing unpronounceable and no fake chemical-butter taste.Sorry, Orville, even you can't make that stuff taste as good.

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.

Couple of Cute Bugs

From the Cuyahoga Valley Photographic Society photowalk at the Pine Valley trailhead in Kendall Hills. Sometimes I forget how lucky it is to have a National Park right in my own back yard.

Anyway, this shiny little bug is a dogbane beetle. Round, polished, and rainbow metallic.

 

And a katydid on ironweed. There's more antennae there than bug.

The Pine Hollow trailhead is nothing much to look at during the day or evening, but on the right kind of morning, the sun catches the mist rising from Kendall Lake, and the puffy popcorn clouds, and transform the hills. Now if only I could catch that in the camera...

April Outside: Photowalk

Saturday's Photowalk was to the Bath Rd. Heronry and the Wagner Daffodil Trail. This is one of the nesting trees - very close to the road, which is unusual for birds as shy as herons.

 

Bedford Reservation, CVNP

Thought I'd get these posted since winter is just about done. They're from Bedford Reservation in early January. Some one thoughtfully dumped seed on a parking lot snow bank, so I was able to shoot these birds from the Honda at just a little lower than eye level. No way were they going to land when I was out of the car. Note how suspiciously Papa Cardinal is eyeballing me anyway.

 

Chickadees are just the most cheerful little things.

 

 

Even in January, the buds were starting to fatten up. Looks like a Titmouse tucked in there. Juncos and sparrows were enjoying the seed, too. You're not supposed to feed birds in the National Park, and I heard that they recently started cracking down on folks. So, if you want to hand feed, go to Seiberling NatuRealm - chickadees will light right on your open hand.



A tiny falls on a tributary of Tinker's Creek.

This is Tinker's Creek from one of the overlooks. Pretty, but I sure won't miss  the snow...

Bye, bye, Winter! No need to show up until mid-Decemberish!

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.

The Conrad Botzum Farmstead

The Botzum Farmstead was our first shooting location for the Tony Sweet workshop. Picturesquely decrepit barn, fields receding into to early morning mist - it was just beautiful. Here are a few of the shots:

 

I still have a few more to process - shot a bunch for HDR (high dynamic range), but the software was corrupt, so I could not get them processed for the work shop.

 

August 3, 2012