Finally it's March...Soon there will be flowers!

As we somehow plod through the longest winter in Cleveland history (sic) we know the flowers will someday burst out.

Copyright © 2009 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

Presti's Bakery - Little Italy

Closing time at Presti's Bakery, Mayfield Rd., Little Italy, Cleveland.

Copyright © 2009 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

Tiffany Glass Window

Ooops! I forgot something from my recent Art Museum tour. This is a selection from a beautiful Tiffany Glass window. There will be a Tiffany exhibit in the fall at the Art Museum.

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

It's beautiful: The Cleveland Museum of Art is Open

A few weeks ago the great Cleveland Museum of Art reopened its main building with 19 galleries and 900 pieces of art after a two year fix-me-up. Well, it's more than that. It's just the start of a wonderful $350 million plus renovation. In a few years there will be new galleries and more outstanding art. It was so wonderful to see some old friends there and some things I've never seen before.


Rodin's The Thinker. You always ask, "what's he thinking about?" How great the museum is behind him? Of course! He's also wondering, who blew my butt off the stand? (C.B., where are you?)


The new stunner at the museum is this five piece series. All the paintings were recently painstakingly cleaned and the result is fantastic (person walking in image was purposeful in order to give scale...in case you were wondering).


The Muse is a best-of-class sculpture.


As kids we loved the armory room. It's back and looking great.


This horse and rider armor set-up is a favorite.


Back outside we took a look at the fountain and the Wade Oval.


We used to call this church the "Holy Oil Can". I'm sure the Thinker is thinking he's glad not to be sitting on that!

All images Canon G9.

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

We really missed this place.

Nautica Queen on the Cuyahoga River

It was a great night for cruising up the Cuyahoga and here is the Nautica Queen with a full load of Friday evening partiers.

Soft evening light. Quiet waters. Skyline off to the side.

Canon 5D
24-105mm L @ 45mm
Exposure: 1/400 @ f/11
ISO 400



This second version was enhanced by adding a red filter in Adobe Lightroom to give it more nostalgic look. Which do you prefer?

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

Arena Football

My son Nathan and I took in the Cleveland Gladiators vs. Orlando Predators game last night at Quicken Loans Arena. It was my first time watching arena football and being a long-time Cleveland Browns die-hard, I thought this game would be goofy.

Again, leaving the Canon 5D at home, I attempted to capture some of the game using the pocket-size Canon G9. Was it up to the task? Well, sort of. It can't really do sports or action at all so, using what was given me, I got a few frames that help tell the story.

This is what the field looks like. It's only 50 yards long.


After a touchdown you kick-off from the goal line.

Each team plays with eight players on each side except for the usual eleven.

The Gladiators won 69-66. Overall it was fun and exciting.

Exposure setting: ISO 400, f4.5, 1/40

I didn't want to go any higher with the ISO because of the noise problem.

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

I love it when the pictures just come right to you!

This happens every couple of years. It's a nice quiet weekend at home. I'm reading a book or watching Nascar. Mary comes down the stairs and says the balloons are right outside.

I know what that means. They are landing in the cul-de-sac on our street. For once my camera is ready and available. The chase is on!


Two hot air balloons from the Blossom Festival are coming down.


It's a community affair. Neighbors from everywhere pour in.


Dropping the baggie.


This hot-air balloon gives a couple more blasts before falling.


Getting it ready for falling. Our house in the background, neighbor Vicki and new baby in the foreground.


Here it goes. Our neighbor Mark, to the left, helps keep it down on the ground.


What's in there? Just a lot of hot air.


A sprint to the front in full pajamas! What a great night.

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

West Side Market: people and produce

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

Loaves, fishes and some pork too

This loaf is from a new baker at the West Side Market. I love the way they baked these.


Crunch and crusty on the outside but soft and chewy on the inside.


Pretty colorful. Too bad I couldn't fuzz out the background better at f2.8.


Nice and sharp through the glass display. The G9 did the job on this one.


Don't get too close! They'll snitch ya. This was a tough one because of all the glass lighting bouncing around.


Every shot using a Canon G9.

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

West Side Market Signs

Every shot using a Canon G9.

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

We beat the Stankees!

A night at the old ballpark. and it's the Yankees. We had great seats (courtesy of Herbruck Alder) but we were surrounded by smatterings of Yankee fans (yech! Summon the midges!).


Here's my bat-on-ball shot. When shooting baseball the baseball almost always needs to be in the picture. Of course, the ball is going 100 miles per hour! Every now and then you catch it in the right place.


A perfect evening at the Jake, or the Prog, or whatever they call it. The Goodyear Blimp does its floating around thing.


My favorite beer guy. Though I don't drink these guys are institutions. The beer guys now sell both beer and Aquafina. I think that's weird.


The evening coming on and the field is getting lit up just right.


Hey, it's fireworks night! What a great show.


The folks at Wilberts and the Thirsty Parrot watch the sparkly blasts.

Every shot using a Canon G9 including video

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

A Bratenahl Lamp

I'm still trying to get out of the winter doldrums. The best thing about winter images is that you can convert them to grayscale. Then you don't have to worry about bleak white/gray skies, lifeless color and low contrast.


On my way to downtown Cleveland, I hopped off the highway at Eddy Rd. and cruised along Lakeshore Blvd. I love the incredible mansions along the road built during a time of great prosperity in Northeast Ohio. I spotted this street lamp at the front of a long driveway. Using Adobe Lightroom I did the usually color treatment,--converted from RAW, white balanced using the eyedropper, cropped, added some vibrance and clarity, and finally, sharpened things up.

So now it's time to play!


First, I went for a more subdued version of the original at the top. Instead of rich color, this one goes for the faded. This is called cross processing which means doing a reverse of the normal way to adjust colors. Lightroom users have provided a number of "presets" you can use to experiement with cross processing or you can create your own presets.


This is a brownstone effect, not quite a sepia tone, but darker. It gives it the 1920's look it deserves.


Finally, I went for a faded color look. I wanted it to look like it was a print from the 1940's but starting to deteriorate. After reading the book, Nash Editions, I learned about how so many of the color images printed on Kodak paper in the 1940-50's faded out, especially the magenta color channel.

This image was captured on the Canon G9.

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

Heavy Metal(s)

I went back to the Pollock Hot Bottle Car at Steelyard Commons to play around with the Canon G9.


Big rivets along the side of the car. The streaks come from rust.


Big springs that hold up this solid steel, multi-ton car.

To see the other Pollock picts click here.

Copyright 2007 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.