A Closeup of St. Thomas

Charlotte Amalie Street Scene

While visiting St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands a few months ago I wore 2 hats as a photographer.  In fact I do that at almost any location I go to as a tourist and a photographer.  One hat involves capturing those record photos that purely document the trip.  The other hat is all about finding the artistic or publication worthy photo.  The photo above, looking down a hill in downtown Charlotte Amalie, the capitol city of St. Thomas, toward the harbor, was meant to be publication worthy but I wasn’t too crazy about it.  That is until a month later, looking at an issue of “Inside Edge” a Sony Camera magazine, the cover photo was a very similar scene looking up a hill in Cuba.  The scene was very similar with wires and electric/telephone poles prominent in the photo.    http://discover.store.sony.com/insideedge/ie_alpha_nex_1.html

Once I saw Peter Sills’ photo on the cover of a magazine, I reevaluated my own photo and decided that it was worthy after all.  It shows some of the dichotomy of St. Thomas, poverty and modest living conditions living right alongside of elaborate cruise ships and tourist amenities!

Apartment and hanging laundry in Charlotte Amalie.

At the very bottom of the hill, looking back toward the interior of the island, I came across this scene of laundry hanging outside of a very modest apartment building.

Fresh coconut!

Then, within a few blocks, standing on a corner surrounded by jewelry shops, I came upon this fresh coconut vendor, waving a machete in the air!  He put on quite a show, slicing open coconuts held in his left hand while weilding the machete in his right.  It was a real slice of the life of the islanders, making a living from the much wealthier tourists.

These were some of the types of photos I truly wanted to capture in St. Thomas, more than merely the typical record shots of beaches, resorts and cruise ships!

 

Appearances Can Be Deceptive

Administration Building

If you’ve never been there, or even if you have and may not remember it, you may be thinking, what a beautiful mansion or resort hotel!  Well, it did house special guests.  It is the administration building at the old abandoned Mansfield Reformatory, one of Ohio’s former maximum security prisons!  I don’t think they build them like that anymore!

Inside the walls however, tells a very different story!

A rusting 2 prisoner cell.

Closed in 1990, the facility now sits as a rusting, peeling edifice of stone, steel and paint flakes.  Tours are available on weekends with special emphasis on ghost tours.  The facility has quite a reputation for being haunted!

The one and two person cells were very small and confining and were stacked like animal crates one on top of another for 5 and 6 stories.  Solitary confinement cells had solid steel doors with only slots for passing food in and for observation.

Cells stacked to form a cell block.

There is a new, modern facility now built next door.  It looks much different and reflects society’s different view of incarceration today.

The history of the Mansfield Reformatory includes the filming of a number of major motion pictures.  Most notably, “The Shawshank Redemption” and scenes from “Air Force One”.

Ohio Historical Marker.

About an hour and a half south of Cleveland, the facility makes a fascinating subject for photographers!  Beauty on the outside, something else entirely on the inside!  What a contrast.  They do warn however that the peeling paint contains lead and may pose a hazard.

Beachcombing at Mentor Headlands State Park

Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Lighthouse and Beachcombers

Last Friday I decided to get some work done early and head out to Mentor Headlands State Park to do a little beachcombing with a couple of camera and lens combinations.  With me, trudging through the sand were my Nikon D700 with the Nikkor 70-200 mm 2.8 lens and my older Nikon D200 with the Nikkor 300 mm 2.8 lens on a monopod.  Lots of weight to carry through the thick sand on what turned out to be an approximate 2 mile hike!

It was still quite cool out, especially on the shore of Lake Erie whose water temperature is still in the 40s.  That didn’t stop the other beachcombers from wandering along the water’s edge looking for interesting looking rocks and beach glass.

Gathering Beach Glass

While walking along the edge of one of the sand dunes, I even came across the super hero, The Flash!  I thought I was having trouble walking thru the soft sand!  The Flash was up to his ankle in the stuff!

The Flash trudges through the sand at Mentor Headlands

Signs Say

I spent a week last September at a workshop in Missoula, MT and every free moment I had was spent walking around about 16 square blocks photographing anything and everything of interest!  This sign on the side of a building which had once been a stable, Chevrolet Dealership and Studebaker Dealership jumped out at me with its graphic nature as well as the interesting shadows from the lights.  I have a fondness for Studebakers as my childhood neighbor drove one that looked just like the one on this sign!

Neon signs often capture my attention too.  This sign drew me to a great hamburger and beer one evening and made for a nice image as well!

Signs are made to capture your attention and they often capture mine.  They can be interesting, graphic, and colorful subjects.  These are just 2 of the many that I photographed in Missoula.

Spring Keeps Coming

Spring in the park for a young boy.

As our early spring in Northeast Ohio continues, despite a little cold weather this morning, I’ve gone out a few times recently to capture some photos that convey the joy we find in the end of winter!

This first photo gave me a chuckle because I often mention that whenever you see a young boy in a park, he’ll always be carrying a stick!  This young guy was not only carrying a stick but had mud on his leg as well.  He was hanging around a park pond searching for frogs, turtles, or anything else he could find on this beautiful spring evening!

The James A. Garfield Memorial on a spring morning.

This second photo was taken yesterday at Cleveland’s Lakeview Cemetary.  Not too many cemetaries are known as tourist attractions, but this one, known for it’s historic gravesites of Cleveland’s who’s who, and it’s spring flowers, is a site to be seen in the spring particularly.  Here, the Garfield Memorial is surrounded by the blooming spring foliage.  Shooting up a hill makes the building appear to be leaning backwards, a perspective problem for photographers!

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Approaching impact.

With spring here early, I ventured out to the golf course a few weeks ago to do some action golf shots.  I shoot a lot of sports but have not shot golf before, so I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and headed to our local public course, Blackbrook.

I’ve always been amazed watching golf on TV, at the ability of the camera to follow the ball from tee all the way down the fairway!  When reviewing these images, shot in continuous mode at only about 5 frames per second, I noticed that I captured the ball from just prior to impact through 4 more shots!  Here are 2 more in the series that show the ball in it’s flight.

Ball in flight 1.

Ball in flight 2.

Virtually all of today’s cameras feature a continuous mode shooting anywhere from 3.5 all the way up to 60 frames per second!  In this mode, all sorts of interesting sequences of action photos can be taken with often surprising results!

Spring Has Sprung

La Jolla Foliage

Green is my favorite color and with St. Patrick Day just yesterday and spring seemingly arriving early this year in Northeast Ohio, the color green is abundant!  Every time I come upon this image in my digital files, it seems to jump off the screen with it’s vibrant green color and graphic impact.  So….in honor of spring I thought it deserved to break out and grace the screens of all of my blog viewers!

Enjoy!