I visited Holden Arboretum on a great sunny day. While I was there, the bumble bees were hard a work pollinating all of the flowers.
Since bumble bees don't sting, I worked up my bravery and got close enough to the flower to take this photo.
I love the fact that you can see the bee is covered with pollen. It took some trickery because I didn't have a macro lens, but had to shoot with a wide angle.
While I was at Holden Arboretum this weekend, I made my way to the frog pond. Although there were not any frogs there, I did managed to see some fish.
There were two things that I found kind of strange. First, the water was extremely blue. Second, a school of fish swam over to the group I was with and started lining up.
Our guess is that the fish often get feed, so it is a learned behavior.
In order to see the fish better, I did an auto color balance and ended up with this photograph. I posted the original photo of the Holden Arb Fish on Panaramio.
I had noticed a new graffiti tag on my way home. There were a couple of these all in a centralized area. I am thinking it is a skater tag because some skate rats have made a series of ramps at the abandoned cold storage facility on University.
I have seen some groups of skater there using the ramps and the concert barriers to practice tricks. They will occasional bring a skater chick with them or be taking photos or filming each other.
Of course, there are a million other graffiti works, but this seemed a bit too much like a stencil because all of them looked similar.
I am really not a flower photographer. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I shot a picture of a flower before I started this blog. That is not to say I don't like to take photos of landscapes or nature.
However, I have found that walking to work has really exposed me to a lot of interesting blooms in Tremont. It has been really enjoyable watching the different species of flowers grow and bloom. It always makes my journeys interesting, and helps to keep my observation skills a little sharper.
Right now, I am noticing Morning Glories popping up all over Tremont in the oddest places. It is almost as if they are growing wild. They are such happy little flowers. It just perks up the morning.
On my walk to work through morning, I noticed a car making a sudden swerve. I thought it might be a raccoon or skunk or some random flotsam on the road. Much to my delight, I noticed a deer start to trot up the road
The next car did notice it and the deer ran across the road into a fenced in area. I was lucky enough to get a picture of it.
What a great surprise on the morning commute.
The photograph really isn't that great because I had to use the extended digital lens, but I was happy to get something before he got scared away.
I did manage to walk quietly up toward him while the cars were buzzing by and get another photo of him over the fence.
As with a lot of cities in the United States, Washington, DC has a China Town. The area has recently undergone a renaissance, but the residents have not forgotten their roots.
During the summer, there is a Chinese festival that has a parade with dragons.
Maybe it is because of the Olympics or something, however, I thought I would post this photo in the spirit of Beijing.
As I was working on some photographs, I was filing the pictures that I shot from the Cleveland Zoo.I noticed this photograph that I had taken in the Butterfly House. The ironic thing is that this butterfly was the only one that we saw while we were in there.
Maybe they were away on Summer vacation.
As I was on my regular journey to work this morning, I noticed the great reflection of the skyline in the Cuyahoga River. Generally, the sun is not shining hard enough to create a reflection this brilliant in the water.I have taken other pictures of the Cleveland Skyline, but today felt shimmery and special.
I stopped and grabbed my camera out of my backpack. I was completely aware that the people in their cars stopped in traffic were looking at me.
Oh well, I am ok with suffering for my art.
This weekend, my company had an outing at Put-In-Bay. Part of the festivities included a scavenger hunt. One of the items we had to obtain was a peanut from Frosty Bar.Instead of buying a pack of peanuts, I asked someone who was eating them for a peanut. I took this photo as proof that the peanut was from Frosty Bar.
I thought this was a fun photo. I also LOVE Frosty Bar. It is one of my favorites places at Put-In-Bay.
I even once said "Don't you wish there was a Frosty Bar in your neighborhood?"
That would rock!
On a recent trip to visit a potential client, my boss and I passed the factory for Middlefield Cheese. Since we were in search of some cheese on a stick, we stopped to check out the store.Much to our surprise, we also noticed that they had a Cheese Musuem. We ventured into that are while we had stopped. I took a photo of this statue that had been imported from Switzerland of a man carrying cheese.
It almost seems unreal.
In Dublin, there used to be a statue of Anna Livia. She is a character from Finnegan's Wake. The local's lovingly call her the floozy in the jacuzzi.
When I was in Charleston and we were doing the Gateway Walk, we noticed this statue. I instantly called it the Floozy in the Jacuzzi.
My friend Ky decided to take some liberties with the photograph and the statue.
In all of our silliness, neither of us bother to see what the statue was. Oops!
A bit ago, I was wondering downtown with my camera on the weekend. I had stumbled across Grays Armory. It is a great building that originally housed the Cleveland Grays that were organized in 1837. The building itself is year marked between 1837 and 1839.It is a very impressive building with great architectural features. I have never been in this building, but I know there are a few events that are held there during the year.
While I was visiting Portland, my friends and I noticed there were two of these signs outside of the place where we were having our breakfast.
Yesterday, my co-workers and I headed to the Nauti Mermaid to bid a fond farewell to my work roomie, Dave Mead.
While we were sitting there, some of the performers from Sparx in the City walked by us on stilts. I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped a photo of the pair.
I can't even imagine how much it would hurt if you fell off of the stilts.
After I posted the photo of Hotel Conneaut last night, I started thinking about the park in general. The best ride in the park is the Blue Streak. It is a relatively old, small roller coaster. Nothing compared to the modern day thrill rides you would experience at another amusement park.
A heard a short time ago that the lake resort where I went as a kid, and continued to go to as an adult is no longer around. Afer several years of struggling to stay open, Conneaut Lake Park has met the final fate of closing.
I have taken a few pictures of police officers having coffee outside of the Starbucks near my office (lovingly known as coffee cops). As I was walking to work today, I was thinking that I hadn't posted a photo in a couple days.Low and behold, a coffee cop in my neighborhood. He was sitting outside of Civilization where I go for my coffee on my walk to work. Yet again, I had to take a picture with my mobile phone, but I really like the police cruiser in the foreground.
I wish I would have had more nerve to take a closer picture because he was smoking a cigarette as well. I think this is one of the glories of living in a neighborhood like Tremont. I bet the people in the 'burbs didn't see their beat cop smoking a cigarette at the local coffee house this morning.
In every city, there are a few restaurants that are considered institutions. The thing I really love about the south is how these restaurants look. You would never come across a pink building in Cleveland that didn't look out of place.
During my recent trip to Charleston, I was lucky enough to have friends who lived in town and showed me around. On my last night there, I took a water taxi to Mt. Pleasant where they meet me en route to Sullivan's Island.
As I mentioned in my last post, I was in Portland and took some pictures of the Portland Coast. Since I posted the last photo in black and white, I thought I would have a color photo.
