February 11, 201114 yr ^ I was taken aback by the baby mural, too! Hahaha! Scary! I don't even get the point -- it doesn't seem like a positive message.
February 12, 201114 yr I'm over winter!! Here's a shot that I took last fall of Dorothy Ann pushing Pathfinder through Cleveland. I love watching them while they navigate their way through here.
February 12, 201114 yr Neat shot! Of all the times I've visited Cleveland, I have yet to see one of those big ships navigating that twisting path. I need to keep trying - in warmer weather :-D.
February 12, 201114 yr Thanks Rob! I spent at least 30 minutes watching them working their way through here. It's rather awe inspiring, especially that turn.
February 12, 201114 yr This morning the temperature at the airport purportedly was -10F, but at my house in a city neighborhood it was warmer (-1F). With each passing day I'm increasingly challenged to find beauty in winter. Nice shots, though. I like the splash of color from the traffic signal against an otherwise bleak scene. Regarding those push-to-cross buttons, the pedestrian legally has the right of way in every state I know of. I think it's time we enforce pedestrian priority; drivers should have to get out of their cars and push a button - and then wait - to get a green light. Sometimes hitting the button will give you a longer green cycle to allow groups of pedestrians to pass. There's one intersection near my house where traffic will back up around 5pm as workers leave Capital University. The green is only long enough to allow four cars though normally, but if a pedestrian uses the button to cross, 10 or more cars can go. When I'm driving the opposite direction, I see those cars backed up for a couple blocks and think "A passenger should just hop out of one of the cars and hit the button to end this." But of course, every car just has one person in it.
February 12, 201114 yr But I CAN still walk to the downtown area, right?? Where is this? I'm sure they have an extensive complete streets program in place as well :-D What an intelligent town. Seems that instead of dealing with a couple bored teenagers on skateboards or BMX bikes individually, a bunch of car potatoes decided to ruin street life for everyone. And they wonder why people snap and shoot up public places in this country.
February 13, 201114 yr This is the last time I take photos in 14-degree weather. This is killing me with asthma:
February 13, 201114 yr That's Farnsworth Park (Toledo Metroparks) on the Maumee River looking at the old interurban bridge.
February 13, 201114 yr LOL, I've wondered what cities enforce that. My parent's town has the same ordinance which was enacted in 1996. 15 years later, the town has never issued a single ticket despite that skateboarding and bike riding on sidewalks downtown is still very popular.
February 13, 201114 yr I thought about taking my bike to Allegan when the weather warms up and riding around the Forbidden Zone to try to provoke a confrontation. Then, I looked up the ordinance on the city web site, and saw the part about fines, impounding bikes, and even jail, and decided to let someone else make a test case. I might write a letter to the mayor and perhaps to the editor of the newspaper, though.
February 14, 201114 yr If it is on the roadway, then they cannot do anything. Lest they need a lawsuit.
February 14, 201114 yr Nice shot C-Dawg! Love the colors! Where was this taken? Thanks. It was taken on the Maumee at Farnsworth (Loretto nailed it). The section of the river from Waterville to Defiance makes for a great day drive. It's pure Midwest. There are lots of small farm towns along the river (and also considerable industry in Napolean and Defiance). There are sections of slate cliffs, overhangs, and when the water is low, you can climb down. I would advise against it in winter though. The entire cliff was covered in ice, and there was so much snow, I couldn't even see my footing. I was playing with fire when I took this photo. I also broke through some ice in the river (rapids prevent it from freezing solid here- out in Defiance, people take snowmobiles on it). My feet were soaked, and I was freezing. The high that day was only 16. It felt like the Arctic Circle or something once sun went down. I fell at least three times too. From top, it's about 30 feet straight down to some rock piles, so it was scary with all the ice. Camera equipment only makes it harder. Summer and fall is the best time to climb down the cliffs. It's a cakewalk when it's dry and warm out.
February 18, 201114 yr I thought about taking my bike to Allegan when the weather warms up and riding around the Forbidden Zone to try to provoke a confrontation. Then, I looked up the ordinance on the city web site, and saw the part about fines, impounding bikes, and even jail, and decided to let someone else make a test case. I might write a letter to the mayor and perhaps to the editor of the newspaper, though. I've heard it more as a way for a city to avoid liabilities. Cities don't want to be responsible for someone else's actions. It's one of those cases where if a person gets hit by a cyclist because they were riding on the sidewalk, someone at least needs to get a ticket for being reckless. Otherwise without the ordinance, people will get off free while the person is laying injured on the sidewalk. Despite that I see people skateboard around on Chicago's sidewalks all the time (which is permitted), I find that highly inconvenient, and stick to longboarding in the streets....though Longboarding and skateboarding on Michigan Ave driving lanes isn't allowed because of traffic congestion.
February 19, 201114 yr Messing around with the itouch at lunch this past Thursday Lunch at Macy's on State
February 19, 201114 yr Neat! It's hard for me to get used to "Macy's" though. For the first several decades of my life, as Marshall Field it was an iconic symbol of the Loop.
February 20, 201114 yr LOL. I called it Marshall Fields for awhile as well, but then it wore off. It's just quicker to say Macy's. Some native Chicagoan's complain to me about that, but I don't care. Marshall Field swallowed up Hudson's which was an excellent department store chain. How can I have any sympathy? Anyways, I like the food court on the 7th floor. The noodle place is good. That rice and pork dish was actually quite filling.
February 23, 201114 yr It grows some between here and there. At the confluence in downtown Fort Wayne, I've actually scraped mud with my canoe paddle in the narrow channel that flowed in dry summer weather. The photo links to more Toledo shots on my web site.
February 23, 201114 yr Great photo Rob! And this is one of the reasons why I love living in central Pennsylvania. This road also sports three hairpins and provides gorgeous views of the valley:
March 8, 201114 yr the triple-hairpin! loves it! actually there are jags like that around ohio too. fun to drive on if you are not in a hurry -- and you should not be hurrying if you are on these kinds of roads. *** i sawr the dethmobile! :mrgreen:
March 14, 201114 yr Correct! That was quick! Outwardly, at least, Good Shepherd appears to be in a good state of structural repair. In that respect it stands apart from a lot of old parishes in rather hard-times neighborhoods.
March 19, 201114 yr Dredging through the archives again, I came up with some photos I took during a 1963 sojourn in the vicinity of San Angelo, Texas courtesy of the USAF. The negs are mostly crappy because the film was sent through the base exchange for processing by some fly-by-night operator and there was no base hobby-shop darkroom that I could find, nor any place locally that I could buy a changing bag to allow me to load a daylight tank. My fledgling skills at photography may have had something to do with it, too. They're 35mm Tri-X (400 ASA), grainy and with some digital noise from scanning. They is what they is. Here's one, and there may be more later. Try not to be overwhelmed by the scenic beauty.
March 22, 201114 yr beautifully desolate - no doubt enhanced by b&w and the degrading factors you noted!
March 22, 201114 yr I was there for only a few months, maybe from late February to late April. There was a period in early April when rains came, and the desert went from brown and gray to a most brilliant Spring green. That lasted perhaps two weeks, and then everything dried up again. There wasn't much development in that area in the early 1960s and the skies were dark at night. The air was dry, and when the air was still there wasn't a lot of airborne dust. My most vivid memory from the time was on the evening of my first day at Goodfellow AFB; I saw a movie at the base theater, and it was still light when I went in. Later, when I left the theater it was completely dark outside and the near-black skies were spangled with more stars than I ever imagined existed, bigger and brighter than I had ever seen them in the hazy, over-lit skies of the Midwest. There was a sort of porch with a railing outside the entrance/exit of the theater, and I just stood there leaning on the rail with my jaw hanging, taking it all in for a while. That triggers another memory; I saw "Hud," starring Paul Newman, there. Many in the audience reacted audibly to recognizing sights in the film, because San Angelo wasn't all that far from Odessa and it was part of the territory we had covered in weekend outings.
March 23, 201114 yr Robert, your pictures are absolutely stunning. :) I'm flattered, kayteeohh. Actually, in that photo the climate and topography did all the work. I just did my tried to capture it with my camera. What I got wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I like the way it turned out. The photo was taken southwest of San Angelo, Texas. The vantage point was one of the Twin Buttes that gave the adjacent dam and reservoir its name.
March 28, 201114 yr Exquisite! The flowers are crisp in detail with saturated colors, the background blurs out softly, and there's just enough variety in the patterns to make the photo very eye-pleasing.
March 28, 201114 yr Thanks Rob! ALWAYS appreciate your feedback. I was playing with my buddy's zoom lens and got lucky with this shot, probably my favorite of the day of shooting.
March 29, 201114 yr One more from the archives: Irion County, Texas' first permanent courthouse, built 1901 at Sherwood from locally-quarried stone. In 1911 the new Kansas City, Mexico and Orient railroad bypassed Sherwood by about a mile and a half, and established the new railroad town of Mertzon. Businesses began to leave Sherwood and relocate to Mertzon, and in 1937 the county seat migrated there after a popular vote. Sherwood became a ghost town. The sign says "Sherwood Baptist Church" and gives the hours of worship. There never was a clock; the hands were painted on pointing to the supposed time of Abraham Lincoln's death. This wasn't uncommon in hardscrabble communities where there wasn't enough money for a clock right away. Camera: Zeiss-Ikon Contaflex Super, 50mm lens Film: Kodachrome II, 25 ASA/ISO Filter: Zeiss Polarizing, 3X filter factor
March 29, 201114 yr ^Nice find, Rob! The town has only 73 or so residents today, and it's not like the relocated county seat has many more - 800 or so. What a desolate county! Here is one from Tennessee shot Saturday. Picked it up and the damn bug secreted yellow ooze all over my fingers (have another pic for that)....
March 29, 201114 yr ... Here is one from Tennessee shot Saturday. Picked it up and the damn bug secreted yellow ooze all over my fingers (have another pic for that).... ... That's how they reproduce. Instantly, microscopic spores in the yellow ooze penetrated your skin and found their way into your lymphatic system. In a few days you'll break out in painful blisters, and then myriad tiny worms will pop out all over. :-o Striking photo, by the way.
March 29, 201114 yr Sherman, nice shot. What type of flash did you use for that macro shot and did you use a macro lens? And Rob, love that photo.
March 29, 201114 yr I used a Nikon 60mm f/2.8 macro, a SU-800 Wireless Speedlight Commander, and 2 SB-R200 Wireless Remote Speedlights that are affixed on the macro lens. There is an adapter ring and diffusers that I used as well. http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/technology/scene/18/index.htm
March 29, 201114 yr That's how they reproduce. Instantly, microscopic spores in the yellow ooze penetrated your skin and found their way into your lymphatic system. In a few days you'll break out in painful blisters, and then myriad tiny worms will pop out all over. :-o No thanks for that image.
March 31, 201114 yr Undisclosed state hospital in Pennsylvania that closed in 2009. This was the geriatric ward - actually two separate buildings, both built in 1949 and are identical in shape and function. We made entry at dawn and stayed until security rolled up next to the room where we were shooting at. We packed our gear in complete silence and made our way out the way we came in - and ran for it down into the woods and embankment. Another building, which was a nurse quarters, housed Civil Defense canisters and Nixon bumper stickers - from 1974.
April 1, 201114 yr Sunset in Washington, PA at a factory that we had believed was abandoned. The juxtaposition of the working class bar mirrors that of the factory adjoining it that once provided over 1,000 jobs.
April 4, 201114 yr This guy must be so used to people. He let me get so close to him and I probably could have gotten closer if I wanted to. I stayed about two-three feet away though. Oh hai!
April 4, 201114 yr Cute shot! Somebody probably has been feeding him. A few years ago a neighbor raised an orphaned baby squirrel that he found. The critter had no fear of humans, and I had a heck of a time teaching it that I was bad news if I caught it in my bird feeders. Most squirrels would scram at the sound of my back door, but this one would just look up, and then go back to pillaging the sunflower seeds. It took a few garden-hose blasts to make it averse to human presence.
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