12.1.21Color and AnglesSpent the day inside the Marianne Theater building the second of the placemaking projects: an outdoor chalkboard. This is a zoomed photo of a section of the board from behind. I just liked the starkness of the colors. The ceiling in there is a beautiful dusty yellow and I caught it from just the right angle to not see any of its details besides color.

12.2.21Mr. SlugJust a slug sliding down the edge of a stone step. I like the shape and translucency of them.

12.3.21Big Friday NightWhat a day! I was able to remove and install my two placemaking projects with help from city council members and others. First, I disassembled the chalkboard and reassembled it under the marquee of the Marianne. A volunteer decorated it with garland and painted sticks. Then I disassembled the InVue structure and had to move it a few blocks away using the Mayor's personal truck. We reassembled it on the front lawn of one of the Mayor's properties that faces the Avenue. Took me pretty much the entire day to get it all broken down, moved, and set back up, but it was worth it. The way this little city comes together in such a personal way to accomplish something stands out as one of the best things about living here. There's no divide between residents and local government; everyone knows each other, likes each other, and helps each other. Ashley and Myrtle joined me on the Avenue after dark and we drank a few beers at Darkness, went over to a friend's house, then met some new people who live in the neighborhood who seem cool. Before calling it a night, Ashley added what brings her joy to the chalkboard.

12.4.21Westin ShowerI shot a baby shower for someone I know today. First I've ever done. It was a little stressful because she's a highly skilled photographer with many years in the business who knows her shit, and I didn't want to let her down. Unfortunately, the room everyone was in had horrible mismatched fluorescent lighting with a bold beam of natural light streaming through the doorway, so it was difficult to find the right angle on everything. I ended up dual-wielding with a 35mm and an 85mm and opened the aperture between ƒ/1.8 and 2.2 for most shots just to make sure they were crisp in that dark space. I think they turned out alright overall, but I'm nervous about sending them to her.

12.5.21Parks' Christmas PhotoMy neighbors asked if I would do their Christmas card photo with their son and five dogs. While it took a little effort to wrangle the pups and keep the little guy happy, I think it turned out well. They were pleased with the set, and that's really what matters most.

12.6.21We've Done This Five Years In a RowIt's Myrtle's Christmas photo time! I actually comped her into this scene; the background was shot at a low-grain ISO 50 and she's at a high-grain ISO 4000. Flash wasn't getting me the effect I wanted, so to preserve the glow of the tree, I shot the scene without her at ƒ/11 ISO 50 first, then shot it again with the faster, grainer setting to make sure she was sharp. I then layered both images and pulled her and a bit of the bed into the low-grain image to create the desired image.

12.7.21InVueFinally got a photo of the InVue structure I made over the last two weeks with Ashley and Myrtle tonight. You stand where the 'i' is to become part of the message. Bellevue's social media hashtag is #InVue. It's just supposed to be a fun little interactive public piece that both represents Bellevue and presents a photo op. I may do a blog post about making it at some point.

12.8.21Clinging to AutumnHad a couple of jobs Downtown today. One was on 12th Street. The top floor has a tremendous view. You can’t see a lot of it in this photo, but it snowed overnight, casting rooftops and shaded areas in a nice white powder. It was cold enough to keep the majority of it around until afternoon, too.

12.9.21DIY OrganizationWhen I first started making things in the workshop, I made a quick little two-half shoe rack that ended up being crooked. I pegged the plywood wall with screws to hold and hang bike supplies, bungee cords, and other miscellaneous items, too. I didn’t like the way it looked and wanted to make something more finished—more permanent and functional. Over the weekend, I made this organizer with built-in shoe rack to make better use of the space. It’s far cleaner and functional than what was there, and I got to play around with making cabinets, which I’m still trying to perfect (they’re hard). The right side of the unit also has a single key hook and a small shelf; this is where I will now put my wallet and keys since I always leave them upstairs and have to backtrack to get them before going into the garage. This feature alone will save me hours over the course of my lifetime, I’m sure.

12.10.21Affordable LuxuryI installed a bidet on the upstairs toilet. It doesn’t require a separate power source, nor does it have the bells and whistles of the finest bidets one would find in a luxurious AirBnb begging for easy five-star reviews. Instead, it’s a simple add-on with two settings and works like a charm. Its simplicity is the best thing about it, really. At the low, low price of $40, even a middle-class guy like me can feel like a rich person with elevated hygiene.

12.11.21Night on Vine StreetWe attended a surprise birthday party for a friend on the third floor of the Color Building on Vine Street tonight.

12.12.21The PuppiesThere is no away team for the crew of the USS Puppy. The crew of this ship share coordinates at all times.

12.13.21It’ll Do For NowI’m not a “car guy.” In my adult life, I don’t think I’ve coveted a single car. Sure, I like some more than others, like that little Smart Car or various electric vehicles that would make me feel less guilty to drive, but they’re not my passion. They are, however, something Ashley thinks about. She’s not ready to go full electric, and she really loves camping, so she talked me into trading in our 10-year-old Hyundai for a new Subaru Crosstrek. There’s a tent that attaches to the back of it that will make camping more comfortable and spacious. I’m looking forward to going out West with it next year, if we have the time off to do so. Anyway, we don’t actually get the car for another two months due to the supply chain woes everyone’s facing, so I got her a little ornament for the tree of the exact car in the same color to hold her over until then.

12.14.21ImprovementsI was tasked with highlighting a few improvements made to Memorial Hall, one of which is the lighting on the stairs. My mission was two-fold: highlight the feature and show how it interacts with the building. For this composition, I figured it would be good to have a direct line of sight on a light strip in the foreground and while simultaneously showing the effect of the strip in the background.

12.15.21New ExhibitionsI shot the opening of a new exhibit at the Art Museum tonight. There were quite a few people mingling in the lobby and in the exhibition hall before casually making their way to the hallway with the two spiral staircases. Food and drink were served over live music. It was a pleasant event.

12.16.21My Camera CaseThe upright cabinet fits into a nook in my office. I have battery powered lights on three of the shelves to illuminate the lenses, bodies, and assorted photographic accouterments that I only turn on when I need them. I took this photo with my phone because everything else that COULD take a photo is in this case.

12.17.21PoorlyContinuing the tradition of taking a photo of the beautiful translucent pills I take when I’m ill. Hoping this is a 24-hour bug and nothing more.

12.18.21Surprise CookiesAllie and Travis stopped by to drop of Christmas cookies! I am feeling much better than I did yesterday, so I had a couple.

12.19.21Off LimitsWe are watching Ashley’s aunt’s dog, Fletcher, for several days. We also had friends come over with their dog, Louie, for dinner. The dog count tonight was three. To avoid losing any of them, I closed all of the doors upstairs then realized I’d never closed all the doors up there before. It looked strange to see everything shut.

12.20.21Atop His PerchIf he’s not sitting on my lap with his chin precariously close to the steering wheel, Fletcher likes to perch at the opposite end of the vehicle.

12.21.21BuddiesOur last full day with Fletcher. He and Myrtle get along well enough to hang out on the couch together.

12.22.21The Pains of InlayingBuilding a very large cabinet for a friend. The dimensions he gave me are non-standard, so I had to glue several boards together end to end in order to make each side large enough. I don’t want to add anything to the profile of the wood, so in order to strengthen the entire structure, I inlaid a thin strip of wood perpendicular to the seams as I would a normal structural cross piece. The trench was dug with a plunge router and finished with wood fill where the inlaid piece of structural wood didn’t fit perfectly snug. It’s a lot of work and I don’t particularly love doing it, but it will make the whole side sturdier.

12.23.21Long Day In the ShopI am happiest when by myself in my shop. Something about it just puts me at peace. I listen to my podcasts while I work and lose track of time before Ashley ends up calling me. Sometimes I feel guilty that this is where I feel my best because it’s so solitary and anti-social, but I am an introvert at heart and being productive in a space I can completely control without outside interference is the purest dose of dopamine I get.

12.24.21Couple of New DogsSaw two dogs I’d never met before tonight. They are both very sweet.

12.25.21The Weirdest ChristmasI power washed the entry to my home in a t-shirt, then drove north through a minor thunderstorm to my sister’s house. This doesn’t feel like Christmas in the Midwest. Scientists say the climate of the world is changing—growing hotter with every passing year—and today strongly suggested they’re right. How could anyone not think about it when the biggest winter holiday of the year feels more like a temperate beach day than a winter wonderland? With the impending heating of the planet at the back of my mind, this rainbow was bittersweet.

12.26.21Porch CookingAshley was gifted a propane camping stove for Christmas because we plan on camping more over the upcoming year. The grill being the only experience we have with gas-powered units, we thought we’d give it a test drive tonight by cooking dinner on the porch in the seasonable weather.

12.27.21BleaknessWe went to a park in Alexandria this morning to walk Myrtle and get some fresh air. The weather, though overcast and ugly, was surprisingly warm again, making my jean jacket all but unnecessary after a few meters of an uphill hike. We came upon this body of water that’s surrounded by hills—one of which is a low dam wall. The leafless trees emerged from the green-tinted water in an interesting way, and the sideways hourglass of the landscape made for a nice symmetrical, natural image.

12.28.21Harper’s Weekly, 1884This is a photo of the front page of an original Harper’s Weekly that published in 1884 after the riot in Cincinnati that took down the Courthouse. I was given this paper to photograph for a client. It’s not often that I get to handle something so incredibly old, and I was stunned at how well-preserved it was considering its age. It’s remarkable how old papers like this offered such vivid illustrations of the subjects they tackled. Can you imaging commissioning original artwork of this quality for a weekly publication today?

12.29.21Mont MichelRookwood Properties is a client I’ve consistently worked with over the years. Back in 2019, they hired me to photograph every one of their properties around the Cincinnati area, and later brought me back to photograph before/afters of the apartments they’re renovating. I shot Mont Michel in Clifton back in May, and today I returned to get post-renovation photos from the same angles.

12.30.21The Subway Entrance That Never WasI am working with Hamilton County to document areas of the Courthouse for a history book that one of the judges is putting together. One of the areas is the basement where, behind a large HVAC system, sits a bricked-over doorway that supposedly leads into the abandoned Cincinnati subway system. While the subway tunnels, as I understand it, never extended as far down as the Courthouse, the building was apparently designed to usher people to and from the nearest platform to the street above. Riders would depart the subway here, go up a series of stairs that would’ve been located in the dark corner of the bottom image, and emerge in the lobby in the top image. The staircase would’ve come up where the gold railings are today (they’ve been since tiled over). The bottom image is a composite of four images stuck together; that corner of the basement is dark, so I lit it with my Lume Cube in four different, then spliced each image together in post. I’m going to contact an acquaintance who knows a lot about the subway and see if he can validate the info above after the new year.

12.31.21The PorchTo avoid getting COVID, we stayed in again this NYE. Our plans for a bonfire with friends had to be cancelled because of the threat of rain, sadly. However, I told Ashley we shouldn’t let the end of the year slide by us this time, so we sat on the porch and watched the ball drop with a few beers. Myrtle was terrified because fireworks were being launched around us. Goodbye, 2021.