Full of Hot Air

It’s hot air balloon time again in Northeast Ohio and it seems like every weekend brings opportunities to photograph these beautiful vehicles.  A few weeks ago I attended the evening balloon glow at the Blossom Time Balloon Festival in Chagrin Falls.  The event allowed me and a small group of photographer friends to circulate up close and personal during the inflation and the glow itself.  These images were some of my favorites showing close-up details and some of the vibrant colors of the balloons.

A Phoenix Has Risen

Back in early 2013 I published 2 blog postings about the old abandoned Cleveland Trust Company.  It was a incredibly beautiful bank building which had become deserted for newer more modern facilities under newer and more modern names.  It’s future was uncertain at that time but this week it reopened as a new downtown Cleveland Heinen’s supermarket.  The first major supermarket in downtown Cleveland in many years and much needed by the masses of new urban residents who have made Cleveland an exciting and vibrant city once again.  As far as I can tell from photos and TV reports most of the original flavor (excuse the pun) has been preserved so I thought I would re-post those original photos that I shot in 2012.

It’s nice to see something old made new again!

Inside of a vault door. They don’t make them like this anymore.

Vault door detail.

Rotunda skylight by Tiffany.

Round vault door.

A lone key.

Not like all the others.

Evidence of the past.

I can’t wait to make a trip downtown to see this new supermarket!

Vintage Bikes from Simpler Times

Old English Racers

About a week and a half ago my shooting friend Debra Rozin and I took a little trip to the Simpler Times Vintage Bicycle Gallery on Cleveland’s west side.  Externally the old storefront and larger warehouse behind would not draw your attention, but inside was a treasure trove of hundreds of old bicycles and bike parts in various conditions. Some were relatively new and others were over 100 years old.  For me, I was instantly transported back to my childhood, seeing old 3 speed bikes that we referred to as “English Racers” with their Sturmey Archer gear shift levers and smaller heavy balloon tired bikes that looked just like my first bike.  My secondhand “English Racer” was made in America, but some of these were actually made in Great Britain.

The Cleveland made Road Master

A couple of the most pristine old bikes were Road Masters, made in Cleveland by the Cleveland Welding Company.  These were big balloon tired bikes with hand brakes unlike most balloon tired bikes I’d ever seen.

I’ll definitely make a trip back some day soon.  I saw some accessories there that I’d like to add to my own bike.  Owner Jef Janis, his uncle and another assistant could not have been more welcoming and interesting to talk to.  Jef is a great photographer and artist in his own right and really appreciated our interest and efforts to capture unique photos of his treasures.   If you are in to bikes and bicycling pay a visit to Simpler Times, you won’t be sorry!

The World View

A Worldwide View

Friends have asked me occasionally why I started a blog.  Two reasons really:  1.  While I was actively trying to market my photography work, I wanted to get my work out there for people to see.  2.  I never liked to write but wanted to become more comfortable with it, so a blog would force me to do some writing.   The writing did get more comfortable, yet I still find it somewhat difficult.  As far as getting my work out there, I never dreamed that it would get the worldwide exposure that it has gotten.  Below is a listing of all of the countries and numbers of views from each that my blog has received during the past few years.  Not even close to some more popular bloggers, but mind boggling to me none the less.

The world has grown smaller and I thank all of you for looking at my photos and reading my words.  If you know of anyone else who would enjoy my work, please let them know about the blog.  It can be viewed on Facebook and LinkedIn and/or you can follow it by clicking on the follow button on the blog page.

Country	Views
United States	24,128
United Kingdom	1,836
Canada	1,326
Germany	910
Japan	745
France	594
Brazil	427
India	382
Australia	365
Spain	301
Italy	267
Indonesia	252
Mexico	213
Netherlands	206
Philippines	205
Thailand	196
Poland	195
Sweden	178
Belgium	138
Russian Federation	132
Argentina	123
Republic of Korea	121
Malaysia	114
Turkey	110
Switzerland	108
South Africa	101
Hong Kong	97
Finland	97
Taiwan	90
Greece	80
Denmark	74
New Zealand	73
Portugal	72
Colombia	72
Romania	71
Hungary	70
Norway	69
Ireland	69
Czech Republic	68
Austria	66
Israel	65
Singapore	61
Chile	53
Viet Nam	50
Virgin Islands	44
Ukraine	43
Serbia	42
Pakistan	41
United Arab Emirates	41
Croatia	33
Bulgaria	32
Saudi Arabia	32
Slovakia	30
Egypt	27
Lithuania	25
Panama	24
Puerto Rico	22
Bosnia and Herzegovina	21
Macedonia, the Former Yugoslav Republic	20
Jamaica	17
Cyprus	16
Venezuela	16
Bangladesh	15
Slovenia	15
Ecuador	14
Trinidad and Tobago	14
Algeria	13
Sri Lanka	13
Qatar	11
Georgia	11
Jordan	11
Lebanon	11
Albania	10
Estonia	10
Costa Rica	9
Iraq	9
Peru	9
Dominican Republic	9
Syrian Arab Republic	9
Nigeria	8
Morocco	8
Luxembourg	8
El Salvador	7
Cambodia	7
Iceland	7
Latvia	7
Kenya	7
Uruguay	6
Azerbaijan	6
Belarus	6
Montenegro	6
Paraguay	6
Mauritius	5
Kuwait	5
Oman	5
Zimbabwe	4
Botswana	4
Malta	4
Tunisia	4
Nicaragua	4
Suriname	4
China	3
Uzbekistan	3
Cayman Islands	3
Guatemala	3
Antigua and Barbuda	3
New Caledonia	3
Sudan	3
Rwanda	3
Jersey	3
Yemen	3
Moldova	3
Palestine, State of	3
Papua New Guinea	2
Maldives	2
Libya	2
Guernsey	2
Afghanistan	2
Fiji	2
Honduras	2
Macao	2
Myanmar	2
Martinique	2
Bahrain	2
Barbados	2
Armenia	2
Nepal	2
Guadeloupe	1
Réunion	1
Kazakhstan	1
Mongolia	1
Ethiopia	1
Andorra	1
Uganda	1
Madagascar	1
Bahamas	1
Bolivia	1
United Republic of Tanzania	1
Bermuda	1
Guam	1

Grungy Gritty Still Lifes

Grungy Tool Bench

When I hear the words “Still Life” I think of flowers, vases, tea cups and bowls of fruit, none of which are my “cup of tea”!  Yet, during the cold northeast Ohio winter I sometimes want to stay indoors and shoot something along the lines of a still life.  Last year, during a discussion with my photo friend Debra Rozin I realized that I could produce a series of more masculine still lifes and Debra even clued me in to a source of more masculine types of textures that I could add to my photos, Photomorphis.com .  With this in mind I started to accumulate items that I could use such as rusty tools, oil cans, gears, and other types of
“guy stuff”!

A few weeks ago, Debra, myself and another photo friend, Barbara Pennington, gathered in Barbs basement studio and started shooting some still lifes.  While Debra and Barb were shooting different items under artificial light, I set-up by a window and shot these two photos in natural light.

Folding Ruler

Now, when the outside temperature discourages me from venturing outside to shoot some photos, I can pull out my growing collection of gritty “guy stuff” and shoot away producing fine art images that don’t fit the norm for still lifes.

Photography to Digital Art

Digital Art #1

I’ve taken a creative turn over the past few years and while doing so have asked myself the question, am I still a photographer?  Well the answer I’ve come up with is YES, I am still a photographer.  My output however, which starts out as a photograph, could perhaps be best described though as “digital art”.  It still takes my eye as a photographer to see the subject, compose it, expose it, and capture it.  Then the creative side kicks into full gear and with digital tools I enhance the photo into something beyond a photograph. I am happy with this transition.  I can still capture an interesting “straight” image and at times that’s what I want or need, but at other times now I want to show more creativity.

These 2 images were captured on a rainy October morning with my photo friends Debra Rozin and Barbara Pennington, on Barb’s back deck.  Debra and Barb were concentrating on the flowers and I was playing with the concept of combining soft flowers with hard steel gears.  We all eventually worked the gears and some interesting glassware into our images as well.

Digital Art #2

I’d like to hear your feedback on this topic.  Are they photos or are they something else?

A Salute to One Who Serves

I posted this originally on January 25, 2012 but recent events have brought me back to it and I think it important to re-post it. I think most of us believe that most police officers are great people and we all appreciate what they do for us. Unfortunately the few bad apples get all the attention and lately many of those bad apples are dominating our news sources. As I re-read this I had forgotten Jeff Stanczyk’s connection with the Cleveland Browns and in respect to the Cleveland Police Union President’s remarks yesterday, it just seemed that maybe they should beg Jeff Stanczyk to come out of retirement! We need more Jeff Stanczyks in every police department!

Please take the time to click through and read to the end!

Photography Unposed by Kolman Rosenberg

This past Sunday HandsOn Northeast Ohio sponsored the annual Homeless Stand Down at Cleveland’s Masonic Auditorium.  As a member of the Cleveland Photographic Society clevelandphoto.org , I was there to assist in taking photos and providing professional quality portraits for the participants.  While I was shooting near the entrance, in walked a Cleveland Police Officer who immediately attracted everyone’s attention.  Homeless participants, volunteers, the media, and children all seemed to gravitate to Cleveland Police Officer Jeff Stanczyk.  I immediately sensed that this was a very special person!  I followed Officer Stanczyk for a few moments and one homeless participant, watching me, said to me, “Be carefull or he’ll invite you to his retirement party.”  I decided right then and there that I wanted to talk to this guy.  He was kept quite occupied by people and I thought I’d try to catch up with him later.  An article published on…

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A Busy Year

It’s been a busy year of ups and downs and I apologize to my subscribers for my long lapse in posting!  I’ve done plenty of shooting since my last post but have not had much time for writing and posting.  My ongoing transformation to more of a fine art focus has continued this year and along with several great friends, who I might introduce on this blog in the near future, I’ve been shooting many rural barns and and many rusty cars!  As I hope you will agree, there’s much beauty in these otherwise common and maybe ugly sounding subjects.

I’ve taken many rides with my friends out into Ashtabula, Lake, Medina, Wayne, Geauga and Holmes counties looking for interesting looking barns.  We even took an extended  trip to Northwest Georgia!  Today, I’ll post a few of my favorite photos from those trips.

A Canton Surprise

Traffic Woes

I travelled to Canton, OH on Sunday with fellow photographer Debra Rozin, to visit and shoot at the Canton Classic Car Museum.  We went based on a tip that it was worth visiting and after looking at their website I have to admit that I was a bit dubious.  The website photos looked like it was small and very tight in terms of closely spaced and roped off autos, being hard to shoot.  What a surprise though!  It was tightly spaced, but the collection of automobiles, automobile related items and just plain nostalgic items of all sorts was just amazing!

The photo above of a clown sitting in a vintage auto caught my eye. It was very colorful but I converted it to black and white and removed some detail with a post processing plug-in called Topaz Simplify.  This treatment seemed to emphasize the clown’s expression, which to me seemed to represent the woes of driving in traffic.

Front End Service

The second photo, of a vintage Lincoln, was made more interesting by shooting it from an angle that included the mock-up of an old service station behind it.  I think it looks like a very authentic old scene.

The Time Clock

The last photo of the face of an old time clock, was just a portion of a clock that workers punched in and out on at the Timken Bearing Co. in years past.  It was quite worn, showed lots of wear and tear and the cracked paint texture was added in post processing to add to it’s interest and aged look.

This museum had so much to see that it warrants more trips to Canton.  We spent several hours there and in fact when we had gone thru it once, we turned around and went back thru it in the opposite direction just to see what new things we would notice from a different perspective.  That paid off with additional photos!  Well worth the trip!

Museum Musings

Double Vision at the Museum of Art

A couple of recent visits to local museums led to some further play with creative effects added to my photos.  The first photo, shot at Cleveland’s famous Museum of Art captured two visitors, one dozing, one walking, on the balcony surrounding the new atrium.  Shot with a Lensbaby, the sweet spot was split left and right by flipping and producing a mirror image.

Bendix Trophy Replica

This second photo was shot through a plexiglass case at the Western Reserve Historical Society’s Crawford Auto Aviation Museum.  It’s a replica of the Bendix Trophy, awarded to the winner of past transcontinental air races.  Also shot with a Lensbaby, a strong texture was added to somewhat obscure a very busy background.