Thursday, July 31, 2008

Lazy river downtown

A lazy river image. It was hot. No one was downtown last night, except at the Jake. A sand freighter was slinking it's way through the Cuyahoga. The clouds and lighting were optimal. So here's what you get!


Canon G9
ISO 80
35mm
1/640 @ f4.0

This is the first image I've posted using the new Adobe Lightroom 2. It's a great app but geez is it ever sloooow! Speed it up Adobe!

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

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Thursday, July 24, 2008

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

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Wednesday, July 23, 2008

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.

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Monday, July 21, 2008

Along the River's Edge


A line of rail cars along the break wall of Lake Erie near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. Behind the cars are piles of sand. The setting sun makes the cars glisten.

Canon 20D
Canon 70-300mm DO Lens @ 70mm
Exposure 1/160 @ f7.1
ISO 200

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

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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

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Thursday, July 17, 2008

The National Packard Museum

Another Northeast Ohio gem is the National Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio.






Note Lincoln Highway Stamp.





Remember the day.....49 cents a gallon. The display doesn't even go over a dollar!

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

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Trumball County Courthouse




Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
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Monday, July 07, 2008

P___orn Shop

The famous and popular Popcorn Shop on the main street in Chagrin Falls. Apparently the pole caused a little confusion with the name. Can you see it?


Thanks for Jeff Dolsen for spotting this before it went into a client's Web site.

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

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Playing with Rocks

I took a quick visit to nearby Nelson Ledges Park to try HDR shooting. With HDR you use a tripod and shoot multiple exposures of the same image using bracketing. I went for two stops under and two stops over. The three exposures are blended together via Adobe PhotoShop. This technique helps you recover from very dark or very bright areas in your image.






The Ledges are beautiful. While shooting I met another photographer who found the Ledges on the Internet. He loves shooting rock formations and had recently shot in Sedona, Arizonia. Those rocks are a beautiful red color. I showed him the little falls and the Devil's Icebox. He was thrilled.

Canon 5D
Lens 16-35mm L
Tripod Manfrotto 190 Carbon Fiber

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

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Sunday, July 06, 2008

Clock and Moon

An early morning moon behind the clock tower in Chagrin Falls, OH.


Canon 5D
Lens: 100-400mm L
ISO 200
1/320 @ f8.0


Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

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State Road Covered Bridge

Another one of the great Covered Bridges in Ashtabula Country.


Canon 5D
24-105mm L
Exposure: ISO 100, 1/10, f16

Copyright © 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved

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Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Aaargh!!! Canon G9 and Sensor Dust

It appears there is a problem with the Canon G9 regarding sensor dust. For the second time in the past few months a huge blob (middle-top) has showed up on my images.


It appears little attention was given to properly sealing the sensor from dust. In each case I've sent the camera to Canon factory service and they cleaned it free-of-charge under warranty.

But after the warranty period it will probably cost $70 a cleaning. At the rate I'm going that will be about $280 per year with four cleanings.

This new sensor blob occurred while I'm in Atlanta and the camera became inoperable.

Plus, with shipping and cleaning, it's a two to three week turnaround. So back to my Canon 5D for now.

Copyright 2008 James D. Fisher
All rights reserved.

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Tuesday, July 01, 2008

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.

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