Upon Further Reflection...

I don't know the name of either building you're looking at, but the reflection in both is Cleveland's Terminal Tower. I'm a sucker for these reflection photos. I'm not sure why...

Gorge-ous!!!

As promised (about 60 seconds ago), here's another shot from the Brecksville Reservation, a natural area set aside as a nature preserve by the city of Brecksville, Ohio. This is a the gorge through which the Chippewa Creek flows. The stone bridge you see in the background carries Route 82 (which is also the road that goes across this bridge). I shot over 100 different views of this gorge, during 5 different visits during my almost two week stay. I wanted to get just the right light, and just the right trees, as well as some blue sky. I don't think I got everything I wanted in any one picture, but this is close enough.

Massed Mushrooms

I'm still working on all my pictures from Ohio. The grand total was something close to 4800 shots, so I have plenty of them to go through. This mass of mushrooms was sprouting from a fallen tree in the Brecksville Reservation. This may well be my new favorite spot in the Cuyahoga Valley, or at least one of my favorite. There are miles and miles of trails to wander, small streams to ford and even gorgeous gorges to shoot. Oh, and black squirrels, too. I'll get you up pictures of all those things, I promise.

Unnecessary Closeup

Zoom is your friend.

Speed Dolphin

There must have been four or five of these dolphins at the beach today, but man, are they fast! This was the best I could get.

A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood

I just wanted to point out that not all my days in Ohio were beset with rain and snow. I shot this on my first Saturday in town. I'm not sure of the name of the place, but it's down in the Cuyahoga Valley, right next to Szalay's, which if you know what I'm talking about, then you know right where this is.

Kestrel Konfusion

I hear you all asking "What did Ernie shoot today?" and I have the answer right here. I was visiting my parents house, picking up my cat (she stayed up there while I was in Ohio). I was about to leave when I hear some bird commotion going on out in the pasture. I saw a small bird flying up and down, up and down, squawking and crying like crazy. After watching for a few seconds, I grabbed the camera and started heading in that direction. Naturally, as soon as I had the camera in my hands, the activity stopped. I walked slowly towards the trees where the action had taken place, and as I got closer, the hawk above took off out of the tree. I'm not sure if it's a red-shoulder or a red-tail. The red-shoulders are much more common, and my parents have seen them around, but the guy above looks suspiciously like a red-tail to me. But either way, I was surprised. I was quite far away from him, so what you see is a very tight crop of a much larger picture, as are all the ones I'm sharing tonight. If anybody wants to chip in and get me a larger lens, please feel free. Anyhow, I followed this guy into the trees, and kept shooting. It wasn't until I got the pictures onto the computer tonight that I realized he was a different bird than all my other shots.

When I shot this picture, I thought it was the same bird as earlier, but you can see that it's not. Look closely, and you can see this is a much lighter bird, and it's actually much smaller. Looking closely at the 100 or so shots I squeezed off, I believe this is an American Kestrel, which would make it the first time I've seen one of those in the wild. The giveaway is the bands of dark feathers on the face, as well as the small size. I only wish I could have gotten closer, because in good light, those bands on the face are blue!

Maybe this shot of the Kestrel on a fence post will give you a better feel for his size. He flew from post to post for quite some time, perhaps scanning the grass for some prey. I was trying to slowly get closer the whole time, but probably never got closer than 100 yards or so.

When he got tired of hopping from post to post, he flew into a large dead oak tree on the other side of the fence. I couldn't get any closer at this point, so he stayed still longer. I've shown you this tree before, with a beautiful full moon behind it. (Well, I thought I had, but I can't find the post. I'll have to dig up that picture for you.)

From my far away vantage point, I could see other specks moving around my bird. I couldn't tell what they were, other than they didn't act like the kestrel. Looking at my pictures, I figured out that they were blue jays. You can see the one I caught on the wing at the upper left of this shot. Look close and you can tell he's certainly blue.

Here's a shot of another blue jay in flight. The color here is really evident. I wish I could get in-flight shots like this when I'm closer. Gotta work on getting that longer lens. Anyhow, what I finally decided happened was that the kestrel had spotted the bigger hawk in a tree, and was trying to scare or intimidate him. That was the behavior that initially drew my attention. The big hawk wasn't scared until I got closer, then he took off and flew away. The kestrel then probably returned to the area to hunt. My eyes weren't good enough to spot the difference in the field, but the camera was, thank goodness. This is all terribly exciting, isn't it?

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...