Land Before Time
Nelson-Kennedy Ledges State Park
The past weekend I visited this park for the first time. I only hiked the blue trail - the easiest - but spent a couple hours photographing the rock formations that are among the few outcrops in northern Ohio still exposed to view. Most of the outcrops have been covered with soil and rock left by receding glaciers.
The sandstone cliff formations resulted from the forces of erosion--wind, water freezing and thawing--that wore away at the softer rock layers. As these soft layers eroded, large blocks of rock called slump blocks fell away leaving more resistant layers to form ledges above.
ASM International
ASM International World Headquarters
The campus serves as the headquarters of ASM International, formerly the American Society for Metals. The dome is the "world's largest open air geodesic dome", and is rare among Synergetics, Inc.-designed geodesic domes in that it was never intended to be a covered structure.
Originally serving as headquarters for the American Society for Metals in September 1959, the geodesic dome was built on a 100-acre parcel donated by William Hunt Eisenman (1886–1958), a charter member of the American Society of Metals and its secretary for nearly four decades. In 1961, ASM purchased William Hunt Eisenman's Sunnimoor Farm and 400-acres of land adjacent to the ASM campus.
The geodesic dome is actually a triacon truss rising to a height of 103 feet and is 274 feet in diameter. The dome is built using approximately 65,000 parts, including 13 miles of extruded aluminum tubing and tension rods bolted into hexagons. There are no internal supports and the entire 80-ton weight rests on five concrete-filled pylons driven up to 77 feet into the earth.
The original investment for the building and landscaping was $2.4 million. The semi-circular building, capped by a geodesic dome, symbolizes humanity’s mastery of metals and materials.
The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 22, 2009.
-description excerpted from Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM_Headquarters_and_Geodesic_Dome
Featured on Lake Metroparks website
I recently took at hike at Hell Hollow Wilderness Area, one of the many Lake Metroparks. It was surprisingly green compared to other parks. I took some pictures out there, and the Lake Metroparks liked one photo enough to make it the feature photo on the top of the website. Also have the photo featured on Gully Brook Park.
HELL HOLLOW
SKOK MEADOW
INDIAN POINT
Punch Bowl Social
Had a meeting at Punch Bowl Social in Cleveland today. I only saw part of the restaurant, but this is a really cool building with a lot to photograph.
Lake Metroparks Photo Contest 2016
This was my third year entering photos in the Lake Metroparks (Ohio) Photo Contest. There were 6 categories in the contest, I chose three photos to enter - one each in Lake Erie, Black & White, and Landscape/Floral. I was honored to receive First Place ribbons for all three photos.
The Birds is one of my favorite photos and has been quite popular on social media. I went to Headlands Beach State Park to photograph a sunset. I was sitting on the beach about 15 feet from the water's edge. Gulls were hanging out on the beach behind me. The ranger came by in a four-wheeler startling the birds who took off in flight. I continued taking pictures, thinking these would likely be throw away shots - I normally don't like birds in my photos. When I opened the photos in Lightroom, I was pleasantly surprised with the composition. After some post processing for color and exposure, I came up with the shot.
Available for purchase: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/the-birds-adam-kilbourne.html
Category: Lake Erie
Category: Black & White
The White Lighthouse. Fairport Harbor has two lighthouses, a historic one up on the hill and an active one at the junction of Lake Erie and the Grand River. The day I shot this image, the sky was overcast and the water was fairly calm, but not smooth as glass. At the horizon, the sky almost faded into the water. With some creative post processing, I made the horizon disappear and completed some other cleanup to produce the final image.
Available for purchase: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/white-lighthouse-adam-kilbourne.html
Category: Landscape/Floral
The Magical Garden. Every summer the Holden Arboretum hosts a summer concert series. This particular evening, the temperature dropped about 15 degrees during the 90 minute concert. The sky had potential for a nice sunset, so I grabbed my camera from the car. As I walked back to the butterfly garden, the mist was rising from the drop in temperature. I was able to setup and take multiple photos to create a panoramic image.
Available for purchase: http://fineartamerica.com/featured/garden-in-the-mist-adam-kilbourne.html
Lake Erie Bluffs
A couple weeks ago a photographer friend was in town from Central Pennsylvania. We visited several photographic hot spots in the area. The sky looked promising for a nice sunset, so we went to Lake Erie Bluffs. When we got there, the horizon was covered with clouds, limiting the color in the sky. I was able to get a shot with a deep red sky and lots of contrast.
A week later the sky was like a painting.
Chapin Forest in Autumn
Yesterday I made my first trip to Chapin Forest. The leaves are about at their Autumn peak. There is a really nice lookout up on the ledges that provides a view of Downtown Cleveland, 18 miles away.
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
I met up with a fellow photo enthusiast familiar with some of the locations within the CVNP. Here's a collection of photos from that hike. Blue Hen falls are quite beautiful, and I probably have an over-abundance of pictures, but I was experimenting from different vantage points. I couldn't decide which views I liked best.
