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...

High Bridge Glen

Hoping to get a little fall color, I went to High Bridge Glen Park in Cuyahoga Falls last Monday. It was still quite green, with just a hint of yellow and orange. It's a great place to shoot, with a nice, clear view of the cascade.

The remnants of the Sheraton dam are barely visible. By next year, the raw bank where the heavy equipment stood will start showing green, erode a bit, and gradually blend into the rest of the gorge.

 

I'm not sure the trees on the side of the gorge are helping the composition. Looks a little better slightly off-center, below.

 

 

Closer, more dramatic, lots of texture in the water:

The water is so pretty rushing down the cascade - this looks almost like a Japanese woodcut, dark rock contrasting against the silky water:

 

So pretty and so dangerous...

Tall Ships Parade of Sail, July 3, 2013

Tall Ships arriving in Cleveland Harbor, July 3, 2013:

 

Above, Pride of Baltimore assembling for the parade.

 

Fire boat, Tall Ships, and hangers-on (really, did they not know to get out of the way of the photographers?:))

 

Above, Peacemaker.

 

 

Pride of Baltimore under full sail, above.

Above and below, Swedish ship Sørlandet entering the harbor.

 
Below is Lynx, flag streaming in the wind, one of my favorites:

Scientific Vessel (S/V) Denis Sullivan out of Wisconsin, not a state you'd think of for Tall Ships. The triangular topsail is unusual.

 

Below is Cleveland's abandoned Coast Guard station. Very cool design, the photo doesn't do it justice. Even though the clouds looked threatening from time to time, we never got rained on.

 

The Cleveland skyline from Wendy Park, below.

It always amazes me that these giant freighters can wind their way up the Cuyahoga River to dock.

 

I didn't know what we'd get from Wendy Park, but it turned out to be a great place to shoot the Parade. Thanks for the suggestion, Lisa!



April Outside: Storm!

From Kent's Main Street bridge:

Aren't Spring thunderstorms wonderful?

 

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

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.

Kayaking on the Cuyahoga

My brother Gary and I kayaked from John Brown Tannery Park in Kent to Brunt Park in Munroe Falls. KSU's Crooked River Adventures runs kayak, canoe, and tubing trips from Tannery Park as far as Waterworks Park in Cuyahoga Falls. This is me, grinning like a gargoyle (photo taken by Gary with his iPhone).

Note the life jacket choking me. One size does not fit all.

Pleasant trip, perfect weather. Right up til about 100 feet from the take out point, where I got stuck on two rocks square across the current. Couldn't rock it loose. In full view of happy picnickers and other kayakers. Sooo embarrassing!! Gary paddled back out and rescued me. Thanks, Brother!

This is Gary, while we were waiting for the KSU kids to load up the kayaks. Note the kayak tattoo. He really likes kayaking.

That long, skinny red and yellow kayak is Gary's. It has a rudder, which makes it stay straighter in the current. The stubby yellow kayaks are like coracles - left to themselves, they'd just spin slowly around in circles and drift down river.

Yup, I'd do it again - and again. Rocks or no rocks. 5/20/12

Ducks at Waterworks Park, 1/8

I decided to go to Waterworks Park to see where the kayakers land, and was happily surprised to see a huge flock of mallards. The males are already in their snappy breeding plumage, even though it was still early January. Check out the bright orange feet.

A couple of domestic ducks had joined the crowd.

In the short time I was there, at least three carloads of people came to feed the ducks - and the ducks sure weren't shy about about visitors with food in their hands.

Waterworks Park is along the Cuyahoga River in Cuyahoga Fall, Ohio, on Munroe Falls Ave. There's a big community pool in the front, drive beyond that, and under a bridge, and the park drive runs past the river access, picnic areas and playing fields.