Rack Photography

Local photographer Ron Rack has some amazing panoramic photos of downtown Cincinnati locations. You gotta look at them. I especially like Fausto Ferrari's Barber shop:
 

Ron's studio is on Main Street in OTR. Rack Photography has been in business for 22 years.

Whittling on Stoop

Couldn't get more all-American than this
 

Doorbells

 

 

Deepest Winter

 

The dark and cold of January is most difficult at the mornings and evenings. When dusk comes at late afternoon. At our house we have a recurring, never fruitful discussion about possibly going south for a vacation in January.

There is a good book, Frederick, by Leo Lionni, in which a lazy mouse, instead of gathering food, gathers summer memories. Then in the depth of winter he releases these memories to warm his friends. For some reason kids especially enjoy winter themed books.

I find that memories of hot summers don't do much for me this time of year, except increase the longing for winter to end. Better to accept the pleasures of winter: beautiful quiet snow, hot cocoa, soup and warm bread, clothes warm out of the dryer, candle light, reading books under covers or finding camaraderie in a warm watering hole:
 

Ultimate Squash Picture

 

Random OTR Building

 

I think it is interesting how our abstract modern mind will see something like this composition as art.

I like this too but not as a composition, but as a historic relic. Notice the door on the upper right has a timber and a pulley for lifting things up to the second floor: 

[where: Clymer Alley, Cincinnati, OH 45202] (I think)just south of Findlay Market.

Tilt Shift Vine

This was just a regular photo I took today, but it turned out looking like a tilt-shift photo or a painting.  

Sorry for the lack of posting the past week or two. I have a ton of posts half-way done, so stay tuned...

Brick Walls OTR

Random stuff from past 2 days

layers of paint

bangs

kicking it

new storefront going in on Vine

Peace Nachos

Some Random cell-phone photos from the past week:

brick detail
 

Down and out in OTR:

playing with fire, at a party at the art gallery (Space Dock Gallery)[where: 18 E. Thirteenth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202] above the Tucker's on 13th Street:
 

Checkered Room at said art gallery:

The start of the 5K Flying Pig, last Saturday:
 

Peace Nacho car 

St Patrick's Parade

 

Out Sledding

 

gone sledding 2 

The Way We Were

Here was a great find. The grandson of photographer Nelson Ronsheim revisited a dozen of his grandfather's pictures taken between 1939 and 1941 and replicated the shots. He has put the set of pictures up in a Flickr set called 70 Years Later. Thanks to drew-o-rama at design cincinnati for the heads up.

Here is one sample taken on Eggleston:


I spent quite a bit of time last night wandering through some of the other sets. He has 94 shots in his Nelson Ronsheim - Favorites set, there is a Planes and Trains set, some pictures from the Cincinnati Flood of 1937, and also a set of Nelson Ronsheim - other Cincinnati Photos.

It's a great collection of old (and new) pictures. Many of the pictures have some great background comments on the photos and locations.

Fifth Third First American and Courthouse

Just caught my eye. The foreground building has offices for Fifth Third, and is a building no one ever notices:  

View From Broadway and Liberty Roof

Looking South: 

View south and west:

Northwest:

North, looking at Mt Auburn:

The Day of Small Things Photo Exhibition

A photo exhibit of local photographer Michael Wilson's work entitled The Day of Small Things opens this evening at the Weston Art Gallery. It is billed as a mid-career retrospective of the work of Michael Wilson.
The exhibit will include a number of portraits he has created over the years. He has photographed many musicians, including Lyle Lovett, B.B. King and local artists Over the Rhine. I have seen a lot of the portraits, but what I am really looking forward to is the other photos he chose for this exhibit. Be sure to check out the CityBeat article on the show, and make to the exhibit which runs April 10th through June 7th.

Orange Sky

The photo doesn't really do it justice, but the sky was dramatic yesterday 15 minutes after the tornado sirens sounded.  

 

"Hacking" Google Streets

I am very intrigued by Google's street view. For those who don't know, Google sends specially outfitted cars around the country to take pictures from the street. Any street that has been captured can be viewed.

This has lead to some interesting finds on Google. One site compiled the Top Ten Moments Caught on Google Maps. When they came through our street, I missed the car but could determine the day because the in-laws were in town and it caught their car on the street.

But this is the coolest thing I found so far. There is a web site called Street With A View that documents the Google car coming through. In fact, the web site shares:

On May 3rd 2008, artists Robin Hewlett and Ben Kinsley invited the Google Inc. Street View team and residents of Pittsburgh’s Northside to collaborate on a series of tableaux along Sampsonia Way. Neighbors, and other participants from around the city, staged scenes ranging from a parade and a marathon, to a garage band practice, a seventeenth century sword fight, a heroic rescue and much more...

So actually the #1 moment caught in the first link, was actually this staged event. If you watch the video you can see what a Google car looks like. It is nice to see a company like Google have a sense of humor about their product.

Misc Pics

Some miscellaneous pics from travels last week to Massachusetts:

compact travel vehicles:

a typical Greek Revival house:

fishing boots:

windswept beach:

inside a fort:

National Day of Mourning Plaque at Plymouth Rock:

Improved Order of Red Men, 1921, also at Plymouth:

Sunset at Vine and 13th

Long summer evenings ...

 

This was a few weeks ago. Now this building has big holes in it and is under renovation.

Looking at You

 

[Where: Magnetic Marketing, 227 Stark Street, Cincinnati, OH 45214]