OH To FL (+40)

Hooray! I finally made it back to Florida today. I think it was just a little above 40 when I left Cleveland, and it was almost 80 when I landed in Florida. As expected, as I was leaving Cleveland, the clouds were blowing away, the sun was coming out, and blues skies were breaking out all over. After landing in Tampa, there was nothing but blue sky. I put the top down and drove too fast all the way home. However, I did notice a distinct lack of red trees here in Florida. I wonder why that is. For the next week or so I hope to bring you highlights from my trip to Ohio. There's plenty of stuff I shot that I didn't share during the trip, so stay tuned!

Elvis Is Alive And Well And Living In NE Ohio

So here's the setup. I'm in Ohio, it's late in the day, I'm at work, walking from one building to the other. It's wet, cold, windy, downright miserable. There is a truck backing in to unload some material. As I'm walking by, the driver gets out, walks by, nods his head at me, and goes inside. I do a double take. The driver is Elvis. Wha-huh?!?! I keep my mouth shut, thinking the cold has finally gotten deep into the recesses of my brain. I walk inside and comment to the first person I see, "I just saw Elvis." They respond "Yeah, the truck driver", like they already knew this. I still can't believe I saw what I saw.

The next day, I happen to mention several times that I saw Elvis, and everybody knows about him. I'm thinking, this is national news, someone alert Soledad O'Brien! So then today, my Nextel goes beep. I answer, and someone says Elvis is back. I run out of the meeting I was in, out the back of the shop, past the truck at the dock, and into the shop. Sure enough, there's Elvis, chatting away, waiting for his truck to get loaded. Turns out, the guy is an Elvis impersonator, and he really takes it seriously. Nicest guy you could hope to meet in a dark alley at Graceland, too. The shot above is him with my buddy Cliff that I've been working with while I'm here in Ohio. I don't think I need to tell you which is which. Anyhow, he's got a website if you want to check him out. I'm thinking that I may keep my eyes open for Jimmy Hoffa and the Easter Bunny tomorrow. I might get lucky on my last day in the great white north.

Here Comes The Bride

Every time I tried to post a picture to my blog this weekend, the system was screwy. So that's why you didn't see any new pictures. But I assure you, I was out there, shooting away. My trip was extended by a few days, so I'm still in Ohio, where temps are in the mid thirties, and they are predicting rain and snow flurries for the next few days. Hooray. I took this shot Sunday, when it was completely overcast, with intermittent rain, but that didn't stop me, and about a dozen other photographers I bumped into, from shooting the fall colors. This is Bridal Veil Fall, located in the Bedford Reservation at the north end of the Cuyahoga Valley. This stream flows into Tinker Creek, which is the largest tributary of the Cuyahoga.

The Last Full Week In October

Are you tired of the Ohio pictures yet? How about a nice beach scene for a break? This week's calendar page is a shot of sunset at Venice Beach, I think, taken right before the Christmas boat parade last year. I was pretty excited that I was able to catch the moon in there as well. That's just icing on the cake.

After The Rains

The rain finally quit falling today in Ohio. The sun actually managed to peek through a little bit, too, for about 5 minutes at a time. I hadn't seen it since last Sunday, which is a long time for a Florida boy to do without sunshine. Anyway, after all that rain, I was curious to see what the effect was on the stream flow down at Brandywine Falls, and I was not disappointed. Compare the picture above to this shot from last Saturday. There wasn't enough light for me to get a really great shot, but you get the idea, I suspect. You can also see that more of the trees have turned beautiful colors in the past week. I'm going out tomorrow for a full day of leaf peeping. Wish me luck!

What's that? You want to see the actual falls? How's this? :)

All The Little Chicks With The Crimson Lips

Yes, I did make it into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. But they wouldn't put my signature up on the wall until I paid the $25,000 fee. They're going to be waiting a long, long time for that.

You can't take pictures inside the hall itself, so those of you waiting for those pictures will be disappointed. It's a great collection of memorabilia inside, but having been to half a dozen Hard Rock Cafes, the Elvis museum in Vegas, and various other collections of cool pop culture memorabilia, it wasn't all that and a bag of chips. Still, if you're in Cleveland, and you can't stand the thought of talk radio, check it out!

Attack Of The 50-Foot Guitar

This giant neon guitar looms high over the parking garage at Terminal Tower Center here in Cleveland. I'm on my way to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame tonight, so I hope to see many more guitars, although I expect they'll be somewhat smaller.

Come On Ride The Train

It was rainy and windy all day in Ohio, although it was slightly warmer. I didn't get out to take any pictures, so you get a picture from last Saturday. The picture above shows the tourist train that runs through the Cuyahoga Valley on the weekends when the weather is nice. I'd never actually seen it before, but I knew it was coming based on the number of photographers that were waiting for it's arrival. That's the Route 82 bridge in the background. I've thought about riding the train the whole length of the valley, but you are pretty limited in what you see, and I much prefer to stop when I see something interesting.

Over The River Through The Woods

Wherever you look around here, there's something to see. I caught this bridge over a small creek down in the Cuyahoga Valley on Saturday. This is the same creek that flows under the covered bridge I've shared with you before, but it's maybe a mile downstream. I tried to walk down the stream, actually, from one to the other, but I couldn't.

I guess whatever is wrong with Hello is back again. The picture above is all there (after the second try), but the full sized picture is truncated at the bottom. Maybe I should start hosting pictures through Flickr or something...

Land Of The Rising Sun

Here's the sunrise from this morning in Twinsburg, Ohio. I just can't get away from these power lines...

October, Week Three, Live From Ohio

What are the chances that Blogger and Hello will let me post a whole picture today? Let's see. This week's calendar shot is quite fortuitous, since I'm in Ohio, and it's a shot from Ohio. This is the stream crossing at the bottom end of Brandywine Gorge, so I guess that's Brandywine Creek flowing through the stepping stones. I was in this exact spot Saturday, and I noticed one of the rocks was out of place, so you have to make a pretty big jump to get from one rock to the next. Thankfully the water wasn't too high.

Wow! The picture is all there! Who'd a thunk it? Maybe I'll get ambitious tonight and post more views from Ohio if it's going to work with me instead of against me...

Cleveland Rolls

Cleveland may rock, but not in the fall on a Sunday night. I took this shot from The Flats tonight, and I was the only person around. I was a little nervous because of that, in fact. But I got a pretty picture.

I got Blogger and Hello to post the tiny version of this picture OK, but I think it cut off the dark bottom on the larger version you get when you click to enlarge. Sorry about that. Hopefully this is a bug they'll work out soon.

Testing 1, 2, 3, 4

Well, let's see if Blogger can get it's act together and post a full picture this morning. This shot is one of my favorite spots in the Cuyahoga Valley, Brandywine Falls. The falls actually start right at the edge of that rock you see, and they fall almost 100 feet to the bottom of the gorge below.

Nope, I still don't get a full picture when I post. You have to click on the picture to see the whole thing. Sorry about that...

Golden Lumbers

Well, here I am in Ohio. I spent the day trying to find some color, and boy did I find some. Not all of the trees are turning colors, but plenty of them are. I don't know what species this is, but it sure in attractive. It remings me of some of the flowering trees you see in Florida.

Oh, great. Here we go again with Blogger and Hello screwing up my posted picture. I don't have time to mess with this tonight. I was hiking all day and I'm tired. Click on the half picture above, and I believe it will take you to a larger and complete picture. Goodnight!

The Sun Also Sets

Earlier today I brought you sunrise in Florida, so here is sunset in Ohio. Sorry I couldn't get a better shot of it. I was in the van on the way to the hotel, and there was no good place to stop and get a nice shot. But it was a pretty nice sunset...for Ohio.

Self Portrait

This is a shot of me on the way to the airport today. Nice blue skies, top down, driving across the Sunshine Skyway. It was 87 when I left. It was 50 when I got to Ohio.

1K

Just for the record, this was the sunrise this morning. I'm off to Ohio this afternoon, where it's in the 20's this morning. It was almost 70 here when I took this picture 10 minutes ago. Also for the record, this is the 1000th post to my little blog here, and this is picture number 61,105 out of my RebelXT. Nobody can say I don't get my money's worth out of a camera.

Setting Sun

OK, I'm down to only one day from my trip to Ohio. It's in the forties up there now, and it's likely to snow tonight. I'm sure it's not going to stick, but still, snow! This shot is from my visit in January, when there was snow for a grand total of one day. This is the sunset from atop the Virginia Kendall Ledges, which you can't see in this shot, but they are pretty awesome. Trust me...

Bird Power

I caught this red-shouldered hawk on a power pole behind my shop this morning. He was just sitting there making hawk noises for a while. I waited for him to take off in hopes of getting a shot in flight, but he waited until I was looking down making an adjustment on my camera before taking off and gliding over the nearby lake. Figures...

Is This What I Have To Look Forward To?

Well, the weather forecast for Ohio is looking a little better, but it's still going to be cold, cold COLD! This shot was me cavorting in the snow the last time I was in Ohio. I was there for a week in January, and this was the only real snow I saw the whole time. It lasted less than a day...

Oodles Of Doodles CCV

It's been a while, but I haven't forgotten those if you who love the doodles. These dancing guypies are from, where else, Gypsy Sandor And His Orchestra-Play, Gypsy, Play (RCA Victor LPM-1739, 1958). The name looks to me like Mezelle Thompson, which doesn't seem to return much. Why is Hello chopping off my pictures? Is anyone else having this problem? I'm sure by the time most of you see this post, I'll have it fixed, but right now the lower third of my picture above is missing. When I posted the bee shot earlier, I had to try like 5 times before I got it up. What a pain...

OK, I've tried four times now and I can't get the picture to post properly. I'll try again later. Perhaps something is screwy out in Cali. There, I finally got the entire doodle to display. It only took seven or eight tries. I think I'm going to bed...

Wait, it still doesn't post the whole picture when you click on the smaller version. This is going to have to get fixed tomorrow.

Bee My Neighbor

Two ladies were on the sidewalk this afternoon as I parked my car. One of them warned the other not to go near the tree at the end of the street, as it was covered in bees. Being the adventurer that I am, I pulled out the camera and headed that direction. Sure enough, some bees were swarming on a branch, but it was only a few thousand, nothing to be scared of. So I walked right in and stuck my lens into their business. And, no, I didn't get stung, or even buzzed. These guys were too busy trying to keep the queen cool in the middle of this mayhem.

Not In Ohio

Don't forget, I'm on my way to Ohio here at the end of the week, and I'm looking for some color. The sea grape above is about all the color we get here in Florida on the coast, and it didn't turn this way until January!

The Second Week Of October

Here's your picture of the week for this, the second week of October. These beautiful pink flowers are on a silk floss tree, and by a strange coincidence, I drove past this tree last week and it's in bloom right now. The tree is located in a cemetary south of Bradenton, Florida. But don't let that creep you out, it just happened to be the only tree of it's type that I could find that wasn't on private property. These trees get to be 50 or 60 feet high, and they are quite the sight when covered in pink flowers. They also have stubby spikes on the side of the trunk to discourage tree-climbing youngsters, I suppose.

Sunset-Moonrise

OK, after a long, hot summer, it's finally starting to cool off here in FL. Well, not so much cool off, since the thermometer in the car said 105 when I got in it this afternoon, but at least the humidity isn't so bad. The upshot of all that means I can get excited about going outside and taking pictures again! So I went down to North Lido Beach tonight and got a whole series of great shots. And since I'm so happy about that, I'm going to share a whole pile of them with you tonight. This first shot above is right as I arrived. The sea oats are just a little past their prime, so they've lost some of their seeds, but they still look pretty good in silhouette. And the lifeguard tower is pretty much always the same.

It only took a few more minutes for the sun to set, and I missed most of it while I was fiddling with my camera. I even saw a bit of a flash out of the corner of my eye that looked like something other than orange, but I missed it. There was plenty of orange left in the sky, though, as this second silhouette shows.

And, after watching this great sunset, I turn around, and get to see moonrise! Yep, it's October, which I think makes this a harvest moon. (Maybe? Maybe not...) Anyhow, there it was, big as life and twice as beautiful. It was even still light enough in the sky that you can see the trees just below. Usually, when I shoot the moon, it's by far the brightest object in the field of view, and everything else is just reduced to black.

I kept bouncing back and forth, shooting the moon on one side, and the sunset on the other. I almost missed this shot as a lady walked her dog into a massive flock of seagulls. They erupted into the air like those films you see of bats leaving their cave for the night.

Have you ever seen pictures where something is silhouetted against the moon? Have you ever wondered how they do it? Well, most of the time I think it's faked, but sometimes you can make it work. I happened to catch the top of this tree against the moon, and they are both relatively in focus. I was maybe a quarter mile from the tree, and the moon of course is roughly 238,000 miles away, so it can be difficult to get both things in focus, and in line. But with some jockeying for position, I managed to get it. I'm sure this wasn't how Steven Spielberg did it in ET, but it's a start. Oh, I neglected to mention that the tip of that tree is something like 60 feet up in the air. It just gets harder and harder to do.

Is that it? Yeah, pretty much. By the time I got back to the car it was pretty dark, but I was happy because I knew I had some good shots in the can. Well, on the chip anyhow. And then on the way home I found gas for $2.17 a gallon! It took less than $40 to fill the tank. What a bargain!

Not Quite Famous

I just noticed that Robert X. Cringely linked to my blog in his latest column! Hard to believe. I'm sure all those people that are sure to come by will look at the one single, solitary post, then move on, but it's still the big time for me. That column gets emailed out to many, many IT people (including me) on a weekly basis, and I think it will go out next week. So I'm about to get some bonus traffic. So far I've gotten a grand total of 6 hits from there, but it's only been out a short while. Just for future reference, my current hit total is 93941. Oh, the page he linked to is here, a story about how we baited a rat trap with Cheeze-Its instead of cheese or peanut butter at work.

I used to watch Mr. Cringely on PBS back in the day (Triumph Of The Nerds, I think, was the show I watched), and have read his weekly column for 5 or 6 years now. It's geeky computer stuff, and sometimes odd tales of his lovelife. I'm so excited, can you tell?

Wait a minute. There are two guys using the name Cringely? I'm confused... I guess the person I remember from TV is no longer the person writing the column. Maybe I'm not going to be so famous after all.

Last Time

Last time I was in Ohio, it looked like this. I'm hoping it's a little warmer up there this time around. Only one week to go!

Dead In Ohio

I'm coming back to Ohio, and hopefully I'll find something more colorful to take pictures of than dead flowers. Not that dead flowers are all that bad. And I guess this is really a seed pod. Look close and you can see a seed or two still wedged in there...

Christmas Is Still In July

I was quite surprised yesterday to find that my Best Of Christmas In July 2006 collection is still available for download at Rapidshare. That means that more than two months later, folks are still downloading it. Well, just under eighty people, but that's still not too shabby for Christmas music released at the beginning of August. So click on over and get it before it's too late. And if you really want, you can get some neato cover art for the collection from my buddy CaptainOT over at his Christmas blog.

Look Ma, No Arms!

Since I'm going back to Ohio, I'm making a list of all the places I need to go shoot. This is a copy of the Venus de Milo that stands in front of the US Courthouse in downtown Cleveland. I took this shot last year from a moving tour bus, then never made it back to try and get a better view. So this is on my list of places to revisit. I know some of you folks reading this are in Ohio, so if you have any places you think I should visit, drop me a line!

Falling

OK, it's not quite set in stone, but it's likely enough that I can mention it. I'm heading off to Ohio in a couple of weeks to do some work, and hopefully I'll be in time to see some fall color. We don't really get any seasonal change in the foliage here in Florida, so I'm sort of excited about seeing leaves that turn funky colors before they die. I was in Ohio last year about a month early, but I did happen to catch the tree above that had recently been transplanted, and I guess that shocked it into shedding it's leaves early. Wish me luck!

Bonus Page, Part Three

Here's another picture that almost made my weekly calendar, but didn't. This ray was swimming in the water next to the Rod 'N Reel Pier on Anna Maria Island here in Florida sometime last year. I seem to recall he was about 2 feet from wingtip to wingtip, and certainly over four feet in length with that tail. He was in water that was maybe a foot deep, maybe less. I wish I'd had a polarizing filter on the camera when I shot him, as that would have filtered out some of the glare and reflection you see on the water. But you never know what you're going to see, and you can't be loaded for bear every day.

Now You See It...

Take a good close look at the sunset above. See the little bit at the bottom that looks like a reflection of the part above? Well, this is a mirage that is created when a layer of air at a different temperature is trapped at the surface. Sometimes, the net result of this mirage, at the instant the sun dips below the horizon, is a green flash. Yes, it really does exist. I didn't get one Saturday night when I took this picture, but I keep hoping. It helps to be a small distance above the water, and I was right at sea level, so that may be why I missed it. Next time I see this, I'm heading for the nearest seawall.

October

You get a new monthly picture, too. This is a view of Terminal Tower in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. I was all excited last night when they mentioned this building on Antiques Roadshow, and I knew where it was. I guess the little things just excite me so...

The First Week In October

I'm a couple of days late with this week's picture. I've been a little under the weather for the past few days. But here's a great shot for you from the shore of Lake Erie in Ohio. This lighthouse is in Mentor, I think, right down the road from where they mine Morton salt. From the lighthouse itself, you can see this other lighthouse I posted a couple of weeks ago.

Houseboat

Many of you may have seen this house on the news recently. They moved it from the spot where it sat since 1910 on the Manatee River in Palmetto, Florida, to a new lot on the Little Manatee River. And they moved it on a barge! I took this shot last year during the Fourth Of July celebrations in Palmetto, and wondered what the story of the house was. Now I guess it doesn't matter. I didn't know they were moving it or I would have gone out and gotten shots of it in motion.

Bonus Pages, Part Two

Here's another shot I thought about using in my weekly calendar, but didn't. This lizard was giving me the evil eyeball for whatever reason. Perhaps he thought I was going to steal his soul with my camera. Perhaps not. The shot below is a rather uninteresting picture of a sea snail of some sort. I think it's pretty obvious why this picture didn't make the calendar.

September Goes To The Turtles

Is this the right page for this week? I hope so. I don't like it when I can't seem to post pictures in the correct order for the correct week. If this is the picture for this week, then it shows a bunch of baby turtles in a tank at a street fair over in New Smyrna Beach. They were for sale, along with any number of other crawly critters, but I thought these guys made the best photo. Just to give you a sense of scale, these terrapins are each about an inch long.

The Accidental Squirrel

Here's another picture that almost made my weekly calendar this year, but didn't. That's a happy little squirrel above. I think I left this guy out because the page break down the middle would have split his head from his body, and that would have looked pretty poor. You have to think about things like that when you're putting together a project. Appearance is everything.

Hmmm, when I tried to post this picture last week, Blogger was giving me problems. Thus, I didn't know it was actually up here. So if you were wondering about the lack of a title, the bad grammer, the mention of a second, non-existant picture, or anything else that seemed odd, it's because I never got to go in and edit my post. Sorry about that.

Magnolia-Classic Ernie

Here's a picture from long, long ago. I think I took this back in 2002 or so. I found it in a book of pictures I turned into a calendar for 2003. This is a magnolia blossom, and I most likely shot it in my parents front yard.

Bonus Pages, Part One

Well, I screwed up the posting of my weekly calendar pages a few weeks ago, so I posted the page that should normally go up today sometime last week. So, to help you get over your pain, here are some pictures that almost made the calendar, but didn't for whatever reason. Above is a lighthouse from Mentor Headland in Ohio on Lake Erie. The shot below is a great blue heron along Lake Myakka here in Florida.

A Missing Week From September

Uh-Oh. Somehow I got my weekly pictures all screwed up. I missed this picture a couple of weeks ago. I remember trying to upload it, and Blogger was down, so at least I have some measly excuse. Anyhow, this shot shows a couple of windsurfers enjoying a stiff breeze on Sarasota Bay. I was learning to shoot with my long lens and hold it steady at the same time. That's tougher than you might think sometimes. I still hope to get a longer lens sometime soon, but I'm not holding my breath for it. At least not until it cools off a little bit. Errr, make that cools off a lot.

Another Week Into September

This week brings a cool picture of a bronze copy of the statue of David located in the main courtyard of the John And Mable Ringling Museum Of Art here in Sarasota. You're looking west in this shot, so you have to get up early in the morning to catch the light falling on the front of the statue. But I did it. Michelangelo would be proud.

A Week Into September

This photo was taken in some small town in Ohio. I'm afraid I don't remember the name. I'll go look it up when I have a chance, but I'm in a hurry right at the moment.

Last Night At Sunset

Once again, I was looking in the wrong direction. Sunset was behind me, but I caught these brilliantly lit clouds in the other direction. Pretty cool, eh?