Subscribers Rule

One of our graphic designers has been working on a project for ExactTarget called Subscribers Rule. It is a great initiative to get email marketers to think of the people they market to via email as people not just a list.

I was fortunate enough to attend a conference about this earlier in the year and some of the swag from the meetings made it back to the office. I though there was a nice symmetry since the designer working on it had one of the foam fingers at his desk.

It was also a great way to sneak a photo of our designer, Chris Yanc.

A Little Cornhole in the Fall

I have mentioned a few times that I play cornhole with my friends. I thought it would only be fitting to take some photos from playing cornhole. I was playing with my brother and his family this weekend.

Even more ironic was that when I woke up on Saturday morning, the neighbors across the street brought out their cornhole boards to play.

Not really a typical sight in Tremont.

Carrot Cake For Breakfast

During my walks to work, I often stop at Civilization for my morning cup of coffee.

Today, when I walked in the door, I noticed the lovely carrot cake that was sitting in the display case.

I generally don't eat breakfast, but the carrot cake was very appealing. It got me thinking - is it ok to eat carrot cake for breakfast?

The answer: who cares. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough cash for both, so it was just coffee for breakfast/

Oliver Cromwell Mural at Belfast Estate Housing

After I posted the mural of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), I started looking through the other photos that I shot that day.

I remembered that I had shot this one with Oliver Cromwell in the series. I remember thinking it was quite odd to have this mural of a man who is such an historic figure intermingled with modern UFF murals.

Ulster Freedom Fighters Mural at Belfast Estate Housing

Last night while I was at the Map Room with some friends, we started talking about the map of the British Isles that was hanging near our table.

I started talking about a Black Taxi tour I did of the city. Part of the tour entails taking a tour of a housing estate that has several murals for Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), a loyalist group that is the equivalent to the Irish Republican Army (IRA). It reminded me of the photos that I took when I was there. This photo was a bit creepy because the gunman followed you around the common area no matter where you walked.

Young Adam Strikes a Pose

From time to time, I have taken photos of Young Adam for my blog.

He is always a willing photography subject. In this particular case, I snapped a more candid picture (sort of) of him standing in the corner of my office while we were conferring with a co-worker at Optiem.

We had been talking about the trend to more casual fashions around the office during the weekdays, and ironically, he was sort of striking a nice pose after that conversation.

That is right, it is always serious matters at work. Actually, I think it is the random 5 minutes social breaks that keeps me and our hard working team sane!

Sidewalk Chalk Artist

During the Tremont Arts festival, there were several arists who were singing, performing and also exhibiting their art in several booths. As part of the weekend, an artist was creating a sidewalk chalk piece of art.

Since I did not have my camera, I snapped a picture with my camera phone. The artist had all weekend to create the piece, so this was only partly done because it was early on the first day.

Rowing Teams on the Cuyahoga River

While walking home, I was crossing the Cuyahoga and there were two rowing team racing down toward the bridge. They were far enough down the river that I was able to get out my camera.

For this photo, I was able to prepare a bit more and take a few snaps - unlike my photo of the lone rower that I took a few weeks ago.

It always seems very peaceful. However, the biggest shock is how blue the river looks.

The Broken Strand

While I was posting a photo from Dun Laougheris, I also found a photo that I took in Dublin of the Strand theater. It is a movie theater that had been closed and fallen into a state of disrepair.

It is definitely a photo that has more impact when it is in black and white. The building seemed so out of place to me in Dublin because the town was undergoing such a massive building boom. Yet, this small place was still neglected.

Dun Laougherie Walk

As I was going through some photographs and organizing them, I came across this one. I took it while I was doing a day visit to Dun Laougherie. I had spent a lot of time there since I studied photography at IADT.

I remember being kind of disappointed in it after I took it. It wasn't exactly the perspective I had wanted.

However, in hind sight, I thought converting it to black and white might add something to it

There are a lot of these port walls and strands that are up and down the east coast of Ireland. It seems like walking is such a big part of the culture. They even have walking festivals all over the country.

Just the QUO

I was at a concert last night at the Beachland Ballroom. While I was eating a grilled cheese at the back bar and waiting for Shawn Mullins to start.

While I was sitting there, I noticed a cool liquor sign that was above the bar. I went to snap a photo of it, but could only get three letters in the frame from where I was sitting.

Interestingly enough, when I realized this, just QUO was in the picture, so I snapped it. I thought it was an interesting statement that since I was not willing to move, I just got the quo.

Yes, quo is a word. How do you think I always win at scrabble?

Tree Snapped From Wind

When I was walking to work this morning, I noticed there were a lot of branches that were brought down by the 78 mph wind gusts during the storm last night. There were a few branches down in my yard last night, but nothing major.

I spotted this 'limb' on the way to work while walking through Tremont. There was a car in the next spot, and I sure they are glad they didn't pull up any further or their car would have been crushed.

Walking the Dog On Walk

As I was coming up the hill to my office, I noticed this woman was walking her dog across the street. She also had the walk sign.

I like the parity of the situation and had my camera out from shooting some urban garden photos, so I snapped a quick picture. Although this picture looked good in color, I thought the black and white version made the scene look a little more spare.

Given the fact that I was shooting this picture from behind, I think it added something to the photo.

Urban Garden Cabbage

Yesterday, I posted a photo of an urban garden eggplant. While I was walking through the garden, I also spotted this lovely cabbage.

I thought the leaves almost looked iridescent. You can see how odd a color it is compared to the other green plants that are around it.

I am pretty amazed that there haven't been any critters that have been nibbling on the plants. Come to think of it, maybe that I why I saw a deer in the flats. It is just across the river.

Urban Garden Eggplant

On my daily walk to work, I go past a small urban garden. I have watched this small patch of earth all summer long.

It has going from a patch of rough earth to an area with several gardens that have been built from scratch - including the garden boxes.

I have noticed in the past few weeks, these gardens are starting to bear fruit. The garden has the typical vegetables such as carrots and tomatoes, but I just noticed the eggplants the other day.

I am not the biggest fan of eating eggplant, but I love their color. It is such a rich and wonderful purple.

Sleeping or Passed Out

While I was on vacation in Ireland, my family and I took a bus tour around Galway. I shot this photo of someone 'sleeping' on the side of the road.

Unlike the person sleeping on the train or sleeping in the park, this man didn't look like he had done the sleeping by choice.

Although it was a lovel day and trees and grass were green, I like the contrast of black and white for this photo.

Sleeping on the Train

I decided to start posting photos from my ShutterEye series. My last post was a woman sleeping in the park.

This photo was taken while I was on an Amtrak train from Chicago to Pittsburgh. I really like taking the train when the distance isn't too far. There is so much to see inside the train and outside of the window.

While I was sitting there for the 6.5 hours of the trip, I glanced across and noticed the man in the seat across the aisle had fallen asleep. I snapped up my camera and grabbed this shot.

It was so sunny outside, the background is totally blown out through the windows.

Sleeping In The Park

The weather in Cleveland today was amazing. It was the kind of day that makes you want to hang out in the park and just totally relax.

I had taken a photo of a large spider web this morning that didn't really work out, so I decided to post this photograph that I shot in Market Square in Pittsburgh. This girl was sleeping in the park during lunch.

Rower on Cuyahoga

I have posted several photos of the Cuyahoga River and Cleveland Skyline from my daily walks to work.

When I have taken these photos there are many times I wish I had seen some of the rowing teams or rowers that traverse the river in the morning and evenings. I have never really been able to get a good shot since they tend to be far away.

This morning, I left a bit early for the office and managed to get this perfectly timed shot of a single rower in the morning sunlight.

Not a bad way to start the work week.

The Paper Trail

While I was unpacking from my move, I was unwrapping lots of glassware to put away. As I got each box unpacked, I was gathering up all of the paper on the floor. While the day rolled on, I was getting lazier. This pile of paper was the result of a few boxes of glassware.

I liked the texture of this paper and took a few different pictures. I think the black and white version of it was great as well.

I think the way the paper got crinkled brings a lot of nice depth to the photo.