I watched as a flock of birds suddenly flew out of a tree today for some unknown reason. I kept watching as they flew across the road towards me, then I finally figured out what they were doing. They were ganging up on this poor hawk and driving him off. Quite successfully, too, I might add. That hawk was flying away just as fast as he could, and I never saw him again. Shame, I wanted to take his picture. But at least I got some cool bird shots before leaving Ohio.
There seem to be lots of red barns on the side of the road here in Ohio, at least once you get out into the country. I spotted this one just outside of Kent. It seems to be in pretty good shape, and obviously someone is taking good care of the field around it.
Not much to report from Ohio tonight. It's storming outside, and that's pretty much rained out my picture taking for the day. Shame, too, because I had driven up to Mentor Headlands after work and was looking forward to shooting the two lighthouses there. But it wasn't to be, I guess.
Here we are again, exactly half way between last Christmas and next Christmas, and if you remember, it's also my birthday! That's OK, you didn't have to get me anything. Instead, I got you a nice little collection of 32 (I think) Christmas songs from various 45s I had laying around, so why don't you download this collection and see if it doesn't put you into the Christmas spirit. Well, at least half of a Christmas spirit.
Your little slice of Ohio today is this shot of Bridal Veil Falls in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. I used my new tripod to good effect on this one, letting me use a long exposure to get the effect of flowing water. I need to get back to this spot in the fall and really get some color! Oh, wait, I did that already...
If you pay attention, you never know what you might see. I heard some commotion on a hillside in Brandywine Gorge yesterday, and looking up the hill I saw a mother raccoon and at least three of her young playing on a fallen tree. She finally noticed me hundred feet or so downhill, but she never did anything more than watch me the same way I watched her. The young 'uns never paid me any mind. I later spotted another mother and her young walking along the side of the road, but I already had my picture so I didn't stop the car and shoot them. Must be that time of year.
They seem to have had plenty of rain up here lately. Lots of water in the waterfalls. This little rivulet is called Blue Hen Falls. When the snow melts in the spring, it gets really big, but this is plenty of water for this time of year.
Well, here I am, in Twinsburg, Ohio. The shot above is from 35,000 feet. I just can't help myself, I always have to shoot out the plane window, no matter how dirty the window is or how unlikely it is that the pictures will be worth anything. Oh, well. Stay tuned for pics from Ohio with the rental lens!
How many Arby's do you know of that still have their original big hat sign? Well, the one in Bradenton, Florida, still does, so I figured I'd better stop and get a picture before it disappears. These things tend to disappear when you least expect it, so I need to do a better job of stopping and shooting the things I take for granted before they go away.
Down the street and around the corner from work sits this old house. The lot is for sale, and has been for some time. But the house isn't on the market. They're going to tear it down in hopes of enticing a buyer for the property which is now zoned light industrial. So I figured I'd take a picture of this grand old mansion before they demolish it. I'm tempted to call the seller and ask if I can do a little trespassing to get some close-up shots. I'll probably never get around to it, though. I barely found the time and drive to stop and take this picture today with my rental lens.
Sorry about the lack of updates this week. I've been really busy with work and here at home, too. I'm on the road all next week, so I've been trying to get prepared for that. And one of my preparations was to rent a fancy lens for my camera. It showed up yesterday, but weather issues kept me from shooting anything until this afternoon. It's a Canon L series lens, EF 24-105mm f4 IS USM. Gotta love all those initials making the end of the glass heavy. The most important of those letters is the L, that means this is a professional lens that should yield some really sharp, bright pictures. Check out the bird of paradise above, zoom way in, and you'll see it's really sharp. And I hope that with some experience, I'll get even better shots. Stay tuned for more samples! And see you next week in Ohio!
Well, after sleeping in Lakeland for a few hours last night, then driving to Titusville at three this morning, I discovered that the shuttle launch had been scrubbed just after midnight thanks to a hydrogen leak. So much for a picture perfect countdown. It was a long way to go only to miss the big show, but I did get to shoot Endeavour on the pad, albeit from an awful long way away.
I did get to see the sun come up from the causeway, though. But I had to wait a couple of hours for even that to happen. Trust me when I say I was there early! When I finally got back to my house on the other coast, I slept for another four hours.
I'm thinking about heading over to Cape Kennedy early tomorrow morning for the launch of space shuttle Endeavour. That's Endeavour above from the last time she shot into space back in November. This time, launch is set for about 45 minutes past sunrise, so it should make for some interesting pictures. This trip will involve getting up around 2 in the morning, so I'm hoping I don't loose my willpower between now and then. We'll see...
Aha! I did have a picture of the Charlotte (NC) commuter rail. I don't think it ever goes underground, so I can't call it a subway. This was at a stop right in downtown, sometime last August. Lynx, I think they call it. I told you I liked to take pictures of subways and trains. :)
Took me a while, but I finally found a picture of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. This was one of the many places I wandered past during my trip to DC last month, but didn't go in. It was a little off the beaten path, but not far from the subway entrance I used. This is where all the trouble went down yesterday when an armed gunman entered the building and killed a guard before he was shot and killed by other guards. Shame, that. Well, not the killing of the gunman, but the fact that he felt the need to carry a gun, invade a museum and threaten others.
Just down the way from the Three Servicemen sculpture I just shared is this sculpture dedicated to the women who served in Vietnam. It's called the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and was sculpted by Glenna Goodacre (she sculpted Sacagawea on the gold dollars!). This one doesn't seem to get the attention given to either the Wall or to the other sculpture, but it's still a moving piece of art that serves as a fitting tribute to the unsung women who served in Vietnam. Did you know there are eight women listed on the Wall? Neither did I, but I learn things like that while researching my posts. That's why everybody should have a blog, it's a learning experience.
Located overlooking the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall is this sculpture showing three soldiers in Vietnam returning from patrol. The sculpture is situated so that it appears the men have just come out of the jungle and have stumbled upon the Wall for the first time.
The sculptor, Frederick Hart, purposely left off any indication of rank or branch of service on these men, so as to make them more representative of all the people who served in Vietnam.
The genesis of this sculpture lies in the feeling among some veterans that the Wall itself was not a fitting tribute to those who served in Vietnam. They saw it as too cold or too abstract and wanted something more direct and tangible.
There are just so many pictures I have yet to share with you from Washington, DC. There's never enough time in the day for me to throw up all the things I want. Here's a shot of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the giant wall that lists the names of all those who never came back. I saw the traveling version of this memorial many years ago, and it's impressive, but not nearly so much as the real thing.
Happy 41st wedding anniversary to Mom and Dad! Yes, they've been together for a long time now. That's them posing in front of the steam locomotive we rode earlier this year. And either last year or the year before, I believe I showed you one of their wedding photos. Nope, that was four years ago. My, how time flies when you're having fun.
Right outside of the National Museum Of American History in DC, I came across this triceratops skull on a post. I thought it was pretty impressive, and pretty fragile to have out where anybody could touch it. Turns out I needn't have worried. It's not real.
This is a detail of the lower jaw, stating that it's a cast, not a real fossil. Still cool, I guess, but not nearly so cool as the real thing would be. No idea who this Millersville University is though.
