photograph

All posts tagged photograph

Maison des morts

Posted by Photonstopper on August 23, 2012
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Photo: Stone arch over the entry to a mausoleum. Photo by James Guilford.

Detail: carved stone arch over mausoleum entrance.

It is possibly the oldest structure in North Royalton, Ohio and it was built to house the dead. In my city walkaround I visited the cemetery at the top of the hill … the one across the street from Taco Bell. In the churchyard stands a little mausoleum bearing the date 1879. The stone structure is definitely in distress and could use some repair. I don’t know if any bodies are inside but window gratings are falling from their openings and some of the stones look like they could just tumble to the ground. Still the little maison des morts stands, built with attention to detail, its beauty in some ways growing as the decades pass, as testament to love for the departed.

Oddities can be interesting

Posted by Photonstopper on August 22, 2012
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Photo: Signs point the way to barber shop. Photo by James Guilford.

Signs point the way to the barber shop.

Old North Royalton, Ohio is oddly developed. There are few truly old buildings and no really old commercial buildings at all. Low commercial structures, apparently put up in the ’60s and ’70s, are uninspired and even ugly but they serve their purpose. The haphazard placement of businesses leads to odd situations where buildings sit behind other buildings; entrances to stores can be on sides or at the rear with no street exposure at all. Occupants do what they can to inform customers of their locations and how to reach them. Looking around, the oddities can be interesting.

Yellow fan, blue sky

Posted by Photonstopper on August 22, 2012
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Photo: Brightly painted carnival ride against deep blue sky. Photo by James Guilford.

Yellow Fan, Blue Sky

Photographing around the site of the 128th Annual Community Festival in North Royalton, Ohio, I had a fine time with the clear sky and beautiful morning light. Carnivals and festivals attract photographers like cotton candy attracts, well, everything; their usual photos are of rides at night but I’ve often noticed how interesting and even beautiful those same rides can be by day. I spent a good long time at the town’s square observing and shooting the scene, in the company of only a few workers. Got some nice shots around the old town as well, perhaps to be seen here later.

Beautiful cloudy skies and a green lake

Posted by Photonstopper on August 20, 2012
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Photo: Masses of clouds against a deep blue sky. Photo by James Guilford.

Stepping out the back door produced a wonderful view.

Lately the sky has often been a splendid combination of open and cloudy. Great, puffy cumulus clouds bloom all around and, with enough open sky between me and them, offer wonderful profile views as they evolve against a blue background. Today was especially interesting as thunderstorms passed to the north and south of my vantage point. I ducked outdoors to shoot portraits of the towers drenching towns to the south. At lunch I made for the Lake Erie shoreline mostly, I must confess, to see if I might glimpse waterspouts. No waterspouts but a heavy storm was away out over the lake and the water had a strong green coloration. Beautiful cloudy skies and a green lake made my day a happy one.

Photo: Intense thunderstorm over Lake Erie. Photo by James Guilford.

An intense thunderstorm passes to the north.

Snapshots from Mars

Posted by Photonstopper on August 19, 2012
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Photo: RAW image from Curiosity rover Sol 12. Credit: NASA/JPL

RAW image from Curiosity rover Sol 12. Credit: NASA/JPL

It’s kind of fun to download some of the RAW images sent from planet Mars by the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity rover. Nothing fancy really (at least not yet), but for stretching the levels of the image, making a few adjustments here and there, and cleaning the pictures up a bit. I’m not doing this for science — all I want is a nice snapshot — so I’m not terribly worried about skewing data. It’s enjoyable and truly amazing that images recorded yesterday on the surface of Mars, many millions of miles distant, are available for me to play with and enjoy today. I’ll play with and share a few more; there are panoramas to be made!

Photo: Processed image from Curiosity rover Sol 12. Credit: NASA/JPL

My processed image from Curiosity rover Sol 12. Credit: NASA/JPL

Lost amongst shallow waves

Posted by Photonstopper on August 18, 2012
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Photo: Trees clings to a cliff overlooking Lake Erie. Photo by James Guilford.

Trees clings to a cliff overlooking Lake Erie.

Around 1:00 this afternoon I found myself on cliffs overlooking Lake Erie. It was a wonderful time and place to enjoy the 70-degree (F) fresh air blowing in from across the waters. At land’s edge, trees cling to the soil and live full lives as the ground around their roots gradually abandons them. In the far distance, appearing to be on the horizon, was an ore carrier steaming from east to west; the blue expanse of the lake made the big boat look tiny, easily lost amongst the shallow waves.

Photo: Lake Erie ore carrier boat on the distant horizon. Photo by James Guilford.

Steaming westward on Lake Erie.

It was time well spent

Posted by Photonstopper on August 12, 2012
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Photo: Tiny orange-colored mushrooms sprout from the bark of a fallen tree branch. Photo by James Guilford.

Tiny orange-colored mushrooms sprout from the bark of a fallen tree branch.

It was a pleasant afternoon for a photo-hike at the F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm of Summit Metro Parks in Akron, Ohio. We chose to take a 1.6-mile earthen trail that traverses woodlands and gullies. I shot a good many photos but not many good photos this time — I really must take a tripod when I do these things! If, however, the journey is the destination, we accomplished what we really came for — a time in nature, paying attention to the world around us. It was time well spent.

Photo: Orange wasp forages flowers. Photo by James Guilford.

An orange wasp and other insects forage among the blossoms.

Changes

Posted by Photonstopper on August 11, 2012
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Photo: Clouds moving over colorful waters of Lake Erie in Ohio. Photo by James Guilford.

Clouds move in over Lake Erie’s deeply colored waters.

A quick visit to Cahoon Memorial Park in Bay Village, Ohio, Friday gave me a wonderful view of the changing weather. It was lovely and warm near the lake midday. Cold and rainy later. The skies and the waters reflected changes that have already taken place, and those about to occur. It was all good.