smith

Thanks for the excellent feedback. Great points to give me ideas/things to think about next time I am out.

If you are referring to my pics - they are the East and West Falls in Cascade Park in Elyria.

Wow - Sherman, those are awesome. I am embarrassed to show these - but maybe I can learn something here. I went to Cascade Park in Elyria last weekend. I had a bit of trouble with the raging waterfalls creating too much mist and getting on my lens. Anyway, can you tell me how you darken the outside of the pics? Also, why are your waterfalls so "neat" compared to mine. Am I leaving my shutter open too long?

Blog post from a great sportswiter (and former Clevelander) One Last Bitter Moment Posted: May 14th, 2010 | Filed under: Other Sports | 23 Comments » The clock ticks down – 56 seconds … 55 seconds … 54 seconds — and Mike Brown waves his arms, and his players just stand there. They just bleeping stand there. You know they’re not going to win. I know they’re not going to win. Boston is beating Cleveland by nine, and that’s too much. There are no miracles left, not for this disappointing Cleveland team, not for this wooden version of LeBron James. They are not going to win, not tonight, I know that, everybody knows that. But they just stand there. They just bleeping stand there. “MOVE OR SOMETHING!” I hear myself shout. http://joeposnanski.com/JoeBlog/2010/05/14/one-last-bitter-moment/

Here is some good promotion of the schools... Heights High on Academic Challenge May 22, 7 p.m., Channel 5 http://www.heightsobserver.org/read/3/6/heights-high-on-academic-challenge-may-22-7-pm-channel-5

It's unfortunate that anytime someone brings up the Heights it turns into an argument with some of us saying how much we love the Heights and others saying how it's a terrible place. Agree to disagree I guess. Let's discuss some other things. I wanted to throw this out there to my fellow CH residents (and rest of County district 10) - A friend of mine is running for county council for our district. His name is Julian Rogers and he is young, bright, and energetic, something I will admit we need in CH. We have had the same old politicans in this city for too long. We can use some new leaders for our community. Here is his facebook page if you are interested. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Julian-Rogers-for-Cuyahoga-County-Council-District-10/111332302227849?v=wall EDIT - I can't figure out how to get the facebook link to work.

I don't think CH needs to make any street improvements. Yes, things will be a bit slower, but I can't imagine it will turn into a gridlock. As far as parking, I agree it seems like it would be an issue, but I think Melt will utilize the parking lot behind them as well as maybe the lot catty-corner (sp?) to them. Do you ever drive on Cedar Rd. through the Taylor Rd. intersection?!?!? It's an absolute nightmare since there is no left turn lane, and cars are allowed to park in the right hand lane. Either you get stuck in the left lane behind someone waiting to turn, or you get stuck in the right lane behind parked cars. This is just going to make things even more awful. I used to do it every day after work when I worked on Lander. I guess you are right it can be a mess, however, I am one of those agressive drivers that fly up on the right and go around the drivers turning left before I hit a parked car. It wouldn't hurt to add turning lanes, but is there enough room?

I don't think CH needs to make any street improvements. Yes, things will be a bit slower, but I can't imagine it will turn into a gridlock. As far as parking, I agree it seems like it would be an issue, but I think Melt will utilize the parking lot behind them as well as maybe the lot catty-corner (sp?) to them. Parking is going to be a nightmare over there, if my understanding of how busy Melt can get is correct. The parking lot behind them is already used by several other businesses and the one caddy-corner to them is not really theirs to use. Taylor is probably the worst, but there are a lot of streets in CH that need some serious help. Agreed on A LOT of streets on CH that need help. That's probably why I just had to buy 4 new tires yesterday and fix my seriously messed up alignment! I think I heard that Melt will have an agreement with that parking lot owner to use some of their spaces (or it might have been another nearby parking lot). I imagine they will have valet. I think we are too spoiled in the Cleveland area. Park on a side street and walk a block or two! It won't kill us to walk off that grilled cheese sandwich! As to the Shaker shooting, I never want any shooting to happen, but at least it wasn't an innocent person shot by a criminal (assuming the shooting was on the up and up). And an average of 1 police shooting incident per year doesn't really qualify as an epidemic.

I don't think CH needs to make any street improvements. Yes, things will be a bit slower, but I can't imagine it will turn into a gridlock. As far as parking, I agree it seems like it would be an issue, but I think Melt will utilize the parking lot behind them as well as maybe the lot catty-corner (sp?) to them.

Another? When was the last one(s)?

Rob - Not sure how to link to it - but my favorite of the set is the 5th from the bottom. Nice work!

Took this in Avon Lake last week.

Thanks for the tip. I did some research and called the parks dept. Phase I is complete and they are starting construction on Phase II 5/1. It's not accessible right now but the person I talked to gave me a good tip on another park out there.

So I'm thinking I want to get some nighttime sky shots, maybe experiment with 5 min+ exposures and try and get some star trails. Eventually, I am planning a camping trip out in the middle of nowhere. However, I would like to try it out first without an overnight trip. I realize I need to get outside of Cleveland a little bit to do this. Does anyone know any good spots no farther than 30-45 mins outside of Cleveland that I can get some good sky shots?

That the Garfield Monument at Lake View Cemetery in Cleveland. I typically use a tripod since as I said the only flash I have is my internal flash. This is the reason I basically hate taking pictures of people in low light settings. It just ends up looking like a point-and-shoot kind of picture (of maybe I just need to learn different techniques).

I like it. I am excited for in the future to start experimenting with new flashes besides my camera's interal flash (which basically sucks). Did you use that flash for other pics on your website? I''m curiuos to see other pics with that flash besides the flower shot. Do it take good portrait pics?

Great shot. Was that taken in low light or did you do some editing to make it look like that?

Take a look at the Cedar-Fairmount neighborhood in Cleveland Heights. Very safe and very close to the hospital. You should be able to rent a one bedroom apartment for $600-$650 per month and that will include heat.

I'd much prefer the metroparks turn Oakwood in CH/S Euclid into a public course. Sounds like they could get that land cheaper. Oakwood is on the market for $5,950,000.

Great pics - I love those houses!! I enjoy checking out the $1,000,000+ houses on howardhanna.com to see the inside of the houses. Here is the fourth one in your set of pics... http://19201southpark.howardhanna.com I can't figure out the link to it, but look up 15970 South Park on howardhanna.com. Awesome!

I have someone who wants to open a retail restaurant in UC (not Little Italy) and can tell you the options are very limited right now.

Alright, let's not get into this argument again - that was on a different neighborhood than what is being discussed here. There is no question that Cedar-Fairmount and Coventry are two of the safest neighborhoods in Cleveland Heights. No need to get into a discussion comparing different parts of CH or the government structure of CH.

http://blog.cleveland.com/architecture/2010/04/euclid_corridor_design_review.html Euclid Corridor Design Review Committee approves Uptown architecture, but hammers developer MRN Ltd. for lack of detail on landscape and public space By Steven Litt, The Plain Dealer April 08, 2010, 1:24PM There's no question that Richard and Ari Maron, father and son, are among the best local developers in Cleveland. They know as well as anyone that good urban development requires more than hiring an architect and designing buildings. You also need landscape architects and urban designers to shape the public realm around the buildings. It's been obvious for many months, however, that landscaping and urban design for the Uptown project in University Circle, for which the Marons are developing a crucial pair of apartment buildings, has been lagging. Today, the Marons got hammered for it publicly.