West Side Market

Apparently, I was tired this weekend, because I posted the photo of the West Side Market to my beer blog on Monday morning. So I thought I would publish it here today. Oops.

One of the best features of the area where I live is the West Side Market. It is an old market building that houses Cleveland's oldest public market. In 1902 the city purchased a site for a new market that stands today.

The market house cost $680,000 to build. It was designed by the firm of HUBBELL & BENES was dedicated in 1912--a massive yellow-brick building with an interior concourse providing room for 100 stalls, an outdoor arcade with 85 stands, and a large clock tower.

The photography was taken on Saturday during the busiest time of the week for the market.

White Trash Only - No More

Apparently, my rousing post about the Trash Only receptacle in the parking lot at the rear of our office building has finally reached the right people.

As my co-worker, Young Adam, and I were walking back to the office after a Web Association meeting, I had noticed that the white trash was removed from the garbage can. It lead Young Adam and I to ask "What happened to the Trash Only rule?"

I guess it is now an equal opportunity receptacle.

It was great timing because I was just talking with Adam about how I have been collecting my plastic bags to put in the 'keep the warehouse district clean from pet poo' container very close to here.

Welcome to the Beer Garden

Last night, I meet a friend at the Tremont Tap House for a late evening bite. As I mentioned in another blog, I really like the chalk board rail at the bar.

Ironically, I was drinking the Bell's Two Hearted Ale again. It is a very yummy beer. I discovered the bar recently installed a Wii game system so the patrons could bowl or play tennis while they were having beers.

While my friend went outside to have a smoke, I was tasked with drawing something on the bar. Since he stepped out into the beer garden, I decided to draw my version of the beer garden.

I have also attached another picture to show a detail of this drawing as well. I feel so inspired by this little drawing, I might recreate this sketch as a t-shirt.

This Way to 9

This photograph is from a bridge that is over the alley that I walk on the way to my car. I have always found it fascinating that the only marker on this building is the arrow with the number 9.

I often wonder if there were more numbers or an address that used to be on the other part of the siding that seems to now be missing from this building.

Coffee Cop

As I was walking into work this morning, I noticed two police officers walking into Starbucks. The other officer was sitting on his bike drinking his coffee. I really wanted a photo of the cop with the Starbucks cup, but admittedly was afraid of being spotted taking his picture.

I snapped a quick photo. Unfortunately, I didn't like the composition of the shot with the three police motorcycles, so I cropped the photo to have the main part of the picture be the police officer sitting on his bike.

As I was editing this photograph, I noticed how strange the sky looked. I guess the bright sunlight was blowing out the exposure on my cell phone camera.

EuroHawks Sprouting Like Spring

As I mentioned last week, there are a lot of EuroHawk haircuts popping up at my work place. My associate Jason was brought to my attention last week. When I went to take his photograph, I noticed he had his hair cut over the weekend.

I think you could categorize this as a EuroHawk, but it is a hybrid. It is like it mutated a little bit and became a whole new thing . . . like the cross-pollination that happens to flowers in the spring.

Take the Poll on the left to help decide!

Cleveland Tressel Bridge

I am originally from Pittsburgh. It is a city known for its bridges . . all 446 bridges. This fact might help explain why I seem to notice them so often in Cleveland.


I think living in Tremont and traveling through the flats exposes me to them more often as well. I had noticed this bridge some time ago, but hadn't realized until a walk I was on the other day that it was a tressel bridge. I think the symmetry of the iron work always interests me.

Some previous bridge photos:

• The Flats Bridge
• Permanently In the Up Position
• Under the Bridge
• Carnegie Bridge Statues

Another EuroHawk

There must be a trend that has come to NorthEastern Ohio. This picture shows the third associate, Mazz, that I work with who has gotten a EuroHawk.

Just to refresh your memory about some of my other Optiem associates with the EuroHawk:

• Patrick's EuroHawk
• Dave's EuroHawk

This trend just leaves me asking . . . who is next?

Tremont Embrasses Springtime

As I have mentioned before, I live in a neighborhood called Tremont. One of the great things about this urban neighborhood is the great mix of cultures and creatures. While it is an up and coming neighborhood that is being gentrified, there are families who have lived in the same house for generations. From what I can see, most of them are not going anywhere.

In addition to those families, there are cultural clubs and other organizations (such as the Polish club or the VFW), that still thrive in my neighborhood. This picture is of one of those clubs. However, the place is so discreet, there is no sign outside. As spring has arrived, the club nodded this head to this fact by placing the chair outside for their members to smoke.

Some people look for the first buds of spring. In my neighborhood, you look for the chair with someone drinking a bud.

Pennsylvania Farm Country

I went to Pennsylvania this weekend. I drove to Freehold, PA to stay on a horse farm called the Galloping Inn. It was a pretty nice day on the drive out there and back. It has been awhile since I have driven through the Pennsylvania country side.

I had totally forgotten about the unique small towns that litter the state roads. I also forgot how there are some totally bizarre houses along the route as well. The best part of driving through the country is spotting a great farm building with a lake. It seems like almost every farm has some obligatory of body of water - a pond, a lake, a stream, a creek.

This picture was taken on my last trip to Pennsylvania, but I thought it really evoked the same type of places I was seeing this past weekend.

Black and White Reflections

I wrote a post about shooting photographs of reflections from rain puddles. As I was editing the photographs to be more optimized for online, I decided to take a look at how they would be in black and white.

I was blown away. The images seemed jump out of the frame much more so than they had when they were in color. This image is the one that I really thought was the strongest one. I have also included the other images as well. You can see:

• Reflection of a church


• Reflection of a tree


• Reflection from a driveway

Reflections from the Rain

There was a big rain storm in Cleveland last night. It was pretty nasty, and I think a few cats and dogs fell last night. The wind was pushing my car around while I was on the road.

However, the rain storm left a lovely gift - puddles. As I was walking to the coffee shop, I noticed some great reflections in the puddle. This type of photo is something I have shot before, but not very successfully. Today, the combination of the rain puddle and the surroundings were much better for shooting photographs.

It amazed me how clearly you could see the church in the puddle. I also shot some other photos as well. You can check out:

• Reflection of branches
• Reflection of a tree
• Reflection from a driveway

Tulips

Spring is finally arriving in Northeastern Ohio. I love this time of year because Tulips are in season. Two weeks ago a bought tulips at the store. These tulips are at the very end of their life.

However, the purple color of the tulip is getting more intense around the very tip of the petals. I wanted to capture the beauty of these flowers before they died.

Bike Racks

As I was walking through the park yesterday, I noticed these three bike racks that are outside of the Tremont pool. I am sure I have seen them before, but I never really took note of how they were laid out.

I think the shapes are very interesting and especially when you see them laid out at this angle. They remind me of a slinky.

Ironically, these racks are across the street from the illuminated bike at Prosperity.

Cleveland Skyline with Carnegie Bridge

A few weeks ago, I published a post with a photo of the Carnegie Bridge. During that time, the weather wasn't so great and the skies were not so sunny.

It seems that Spring has come to Cleveland. While I was out and about, I snapped this picture of one of the bridge towers with the skyline in the background. There is nothing like wandering around Ohio City and going to the West Side Market on the weekend.

When I am in the deep snows of the Cleveland winter, I just remember these great sunny days and how amazing a city Cleveland really is.

The Unbroken Bulb

On the road where I took the photo of the underside of the bridge, there is an abandoned (I think) storage warehouse. There is an old entrance and the bare bulb hanging over the entrance door. A fair amount of the building is tagged with graffiti and some of the doors have been broken.

I find it ironic that the bulb that hangs over the door is still in tact and hasn't been broken. I also like the stripped down, industrial feeling of the bulb. However, the curved arm of the bulb gives it an interesting look that you wouldn't think something so industrial would have.

The Steel Mill

On my drive to the new shopping area, Steel Yard Commons, I often take the back road to go there through the industrial valley. One evening, I had noticed these to stacks on the steel mill. There is a working steel mill, ArcelorMitall Steel, on my route.

Since I was rushing that evening, I didn't have time to take a photo before it got too dark. On my way there yesterday, I stopped the car and shot this photograph out of my car window. I think I want to go back and do a better series of photographs, but I like the symetry of the smoke stacks.

Under the Bridge

The warm weather has finally come to Cleveland. I decided to go for along walk down in to the flats. When I was walking up the hill, I have always noticed the steel structure under the I 90 bridge. I think the symetry and shadows of the structure are really intruiging.

It is the kind of thing that you never think about existing because generally the structures under bridges are not really accessibly. Fortunately, this bridge is near a main street that is accessible by foot.

Little Library Statues

I was walking to the library to return some DVDs that I had checked out. There are two buildings that are part of the Cleveland Public Library. The video section is in the new wing.

There is a reading garden between the two buildings and a series of small statues that start with garden.


The statue in the picture sits on the new wing of the building. The little statue with the book is very engaging and cute. Not really what you think of when you think of the library.