6.1.2022No LoafingA much lighter sign than the one in yesterday’s image. We were walking on Taylor Avenue this evening when I looked up and saw this very old sign. In faded letters, it reads “NO LOAFING $25 REWARD for information leading to arrest & conviction of anyone defacing or damaging this property.” It’s located on the front of 348 Taylor Avenue—a building I read was once Bellevue Town Hall (and mentioned in this blog post).

6.2.22Unexpected WinIn my haste to get out of the door to my morning shoot, I left the connector plate for my tripod at home, rendering it useless. To make matters worse, the skies opened up on my drive to the Wyoming house. Without a stable platform from which to shoot in a darker-than-normal atmosphere, I started sweating. Would I be able to successfully get my shots without shooting with obnoxious grain? I normally shoot at ISO 32 and bracket my shots for later HDR conversion, but I would have to do it all handheld. It wasn’t ideal. However, I’m pleased to say the shoot ended up being really good. The Z9 is unstoppable. I managed to keep every shot between ISO 1000 and 2500, and the combinations even with all that grain weren’t glaringly fuzzy when I got it into Lightroom. I unexpectedly proved to myself that a tripod, while very much preferred for listing photography, isn’t actually necessary for these quick house shoots. That opens the door to a faster workflow, which I wouldn’t have been brave enough to test out had I not been forced to do so. Still, I will continue to use my tripod when I have it.

6.3.22Yin and YangWhen I awoke this morning, I was totally deaf in my left ear. It feels like I have an ear plug buried deep in my ear canal that I can’t remove, but the ear itself is free of debris; I confirmed this with an unplanned doctor visit late this morning. He said it’s clean in there, but suspects I have blockage in a tube somewhere in my head. For my troubles, he prescribed me a hearty dose of antibiotics to kill whatever’s in there and reopen the blocked passage. The good news, though, is that Judy made me a WHOLE RHUBARB PIE THIS MORNING. She’s made this pie in the past, and I believe with every tastebud on my tongue that it’s the best one I’ve ever had. Reader, I wish you could taste this thing. Our symbiotic neighbor relationship—one in which I help her with her house and yard while she makes me pies—is my favorite thing about living on our street. Thankfully, my ear being totally blocked doesn’t affect my sense of taste.

6.4.22HOE of KYSometimes you take only one photo a day and it ends up being an image you took because you’re immature and thought it was funny. And then it becomes catalogued in your very personal and important photo project, cementing your immaturity forever.

6.5.22The MoatIn 1884, the verdict of a murder trial turned the city upside down and an angry mob burned down the courthouse. After a replacement courthouse was built and stood standing for a couple of decades, it was torn down to make way for a more permanent structure—the one we still use today. Keeping in mind what happened to the courthouse of 1884, the redesign built in defenses that would all but ensure the new courthouse wouldn’t meet the same fiery fate. Ornamental balustrades on an elevated plaza would give the high ground to soldiers firing at mobs, narrow outdoor walkways several stories above the street on the building would give line of sight and extended range for rifle fire, bars over windows on the street level protected against forced entry, and sunken moats were built on two sides of the building to prevent short ladders from being placed there. The building is as much a monument to fear of the public as it is a center of justice. You can still see the moats and other defensive elements of its architecture today.

6.6.22Switching Back to StereoLast Friday, I mentioned going randomly deaf in my left ear and seeking the help of a doctor to figure out what was going on. Long story short, the doc, who graced me with his presence for maybe 60 seconds total, was lazy and threw pills at me when he should’ve seen I had something in my ear blocking the canal. After three days of being deaf, I decided to try Debrox again late last night, and lo and behold, a piece of a clay ear plug I tried months ago flushed out of my ear (that’s a long story and not worth elaborating here). As soon as it came out, I swear I could hear stardust in space scattering across an asteroid a thousand lightyears away. My left AirPod’s leave of absence ended and was called back to join the right pod for duty on the front lines today. The joy of being able to simply hear in stereo again surprised me.

6.7.223D TrackingNikon’s 3D tracking detection isn’t something I’ve used until the Z9. While it’s been embedded in the system since at least the D750 (or at least that was my first Nikon to have it), it never clicked with me until seeing it in action on the Z9. This photo is a completely unedited JPG straight out of the camera. Truly couldn’t be happier to be shooting with equipment capable of producing something this surreal in low light.

6.8.22Delivery to Rochester Drove this beautiful piece of West African khaya up to Rochester for a client. The trip was surprisingly quick, clocking in at around 8 hours. Bill and I unloaded the van, leveled it on the rug, dusted it off, and I took a photo of it in the space for John’s website/Instagram. After the job was done, Bill and I sought out a Rochester garbage plate (Google it) and stayed at a weird little roadside hotel that was recently converted to a Best Western. Overall, it was a nice day.

6.9.22While You’re Up ThereWhile in Rochester, we were also tasked with getting photos of a previous woodworking project John had delivered at some point in the past. Because the Z fc has a cropped sensor, I had to do a three-panel pano and merge in Lightroom to get all of the table into one shot. As such, the aspect ratio isn’t what I’d normally go for, but it’s fine for John’s purposes. On the way back, we detoured and stopped in PGH to pick up building materials for the shop, ate a Primanti Bros. sandwich, and got back to Cincy around 8:30 PM. It was a LONG day of driving, but a good one. I would like to be done traveling for a little bit.

6.10.22Everything Is AlrightI’ve spent the majority of my life not liking going to shows for myriad reasons, but when my friend Mike told me Motion City Soundtrack were going to be playing the entirety of Commit This To Memory at Bogarts, I threw my reservations to the wind (and took some meds to lower my anxiety). Mike and Steve went with me and we spent the evening enjoying the songs we loved when we were 18 all over again. The show was incredible and I’m wondering if maybe I just need to A) only go to see the bands I love instead of bands I don’t know or care about, B) stand in the back with a beer, and C) just go with Mike and Steve since they’re on the same page.

6.11.22Attention NeededAshley is out of town, so I’m single dog-dadding at the moment. Our upcoming farmer’s market material isn’t going to build itself, so I spent the day working on making the components for 15 plant stands while Myrtle slept on the porch alone. Having worked many hours below her toiling away in the garage, I eventually felt horrible about not spending more time with her, so we went on a nice walk.

6.12.22BirdingHouse finches are trying desperately to roost in my ferns. This morning, Myrtle and I went out on the porch with coffee and a podcast and I photographed them on electrical wires as they stared me down, unsure of what I was doing in *their* space. It felt good to use the 600mm again; I haven’t had a reason to bust out that lens in a long time. Really need to get back into birding. It’s so satisfying.

6.13.22Subterranean SafetyAfter sweating out a full 5 lbs of water from riding my bike to and from the shop, I showered and made an easy ravioli meal before sitting down with Myrtle on the couch. As the TV played an episode of Star Trek: Discovery, I practically inhaled my meal while transfixed on the story playing out on screen. I didn’t notice how dark it was getting outside nor Myrtle’s attention to the windows. At some point, the wind blew the porch ferns enough to catch my eye and I suddenly realized we were on the precipice of a big weather event. As is the custom, the porch became my perch upon which to feel the cold front wipe away the thick stickiness of the day until the threat of being struck my lightning made it untenable. I was only inside for a brief time before the power went out and Myrtle retreated to the basement. I joined her with battery powered lanterns until the storm passed. We were without power for a couple hours before it popped back on—something I’ve not experienced in our house in the two years we’ve lived here.

6.14.22Dogs ToiletI love wholesome graffiti. The drawing of the happy dog face sealed the deal for me. Posting this early in my day because it will certainly not get any better than this.

6.15.22A Fruitful HarvestIf there’s one good thing to come out of this diabolical heatwave, it’s this. My garden is growing and ripening at an accelerated rate. I gave everything a drink and plucked this tomato when I got home from the shop. It’s stem mates aren’t far behind. Growing your own food is deliciously satisfying.

6.16.22Lo-FiI tie up/hide ugly wires when doing real estate photos. While shooting a place in Covington this afternoon, I had to use my watch to keep hold of a bundle because I forgot my twist ties and the cords were laying all over the floor. There’s a first time for everything!

6.17.22One Last GoOur wonderful neighbors, Max and Kelsey, are moving back to Kansas City in a week. As physicians, where they get placed after school is based upon where doctors are needed. They put in for Wichita and got KC. We knew the day would come when they’d be moving from the day we met them; it was always their intention to be closer to their parents after finishing school and residency in Cincinnati. Their son was born here, so they have a special connection to this place and promise they’ll return some day. We promised them we’d go see them in KC at some point in the near future, too. To savor their in-person friendship, we got together with them and another neighbor couple to have one last night out together. The night ended with drinking hard seltzers until late, all of our dogs co-mingling, laughing and being as raucous as we wanted since everyone who lived around us was there on our porch. Nights like these—the ones where a little bit of the neighborhood hangs out together—are the ones I remember most.

6.18.22Lucky Says ‘Hello’Good old Lucky. He’s 14 years old and will wander up the street to sniff every stoop whenever he gets out of Lacey and Jordan’s house. He was checking me out earlier this evening.

6.19.22Riverview Animal HospitalSpent the last two days working on materials for our upcoming farmer’s market and did little in the way of serious photography. After seeing my father for dad-day, I had to go get a photo of the new animal hospital down on Donnermeyer for the architect. I shopped out the telephone pole shadows and overhead wires to give it a cleaner look.

6.20.22Unexpected Half DayiCal told me I had a full day of work, but I had a hunch something was off. I texted my morning client to casually confirm our appointment and they cancelled last minute due to a positive COVID test. Praising myself for having good instincts, already parked and settled downtown, and having sent the dog to daycare for the morning, I had a little time before my next shoot. No sense in going home. I’d brought my half-read library book with me, it’s due date today, and decided maybe instead of giving up on it, I’d read a chapter or two more. It wasn’t an overly good book, so I didn’t have much interest in finishing it, but I had nothing else to do until my next appointment. I sat in Ziegler Park while dogs occasionally ran up to drop a snoot on my arm as their owners yelled apologies from across the lawn and recalled their pooches with the toss of a ball the opposite way. Walkers lapped my perch and a few mothers with strollers stopped to rest under the shade tree I’d commandeered while I finished the other half the book. Much to my surprise, I liked it well enough to consider reading the next book in the series. The photo is from 15th and Vine Street—my second shoot of the day.

6.21.22LimitedYears ago, Arcadia Publishing approached me about possibly writing a book about historic Cincinnati hotels. At the time, I was very into researching Cincinnati’s downtown legends like the Sinton and the Gibson and had quite a bit of surface research completed. While we ultimately decided not to pursue working together, my love of hotels remains. In Hamilton, a group is rehabbing an enormous former paper mill building into a hotel and mixed-use space and hired me to come up to photograph the areas that are customer-facing and ready for business. The three historic buildings comprise a whopping 1.2 million square feet in total, a fraction of which I saw this afternoon. The hotel is still under construction, but rooms are presently available to rent in key areas. The event space and retail/restaurant/brewery spaces are incoming but should be completed within the next couple of months I’m told. While the shoot was formulaic and unfortunately didn’t give me much latitude for creativity, it was nice to see an old building saved and modernized for hospitality instead of demolished for a new build.

6.22.22Alien LandscapesWe have a load of rough sawn wood in the shop at the moment for a big job for a multi-national corporation headquartered in Manhattan. We intend to work it into finished product over the course of the next two months. One of the pieces has a bit of live edge that looks like an alien landscape, and I couldn’t help but imagine Commander Riker standing at the edge of one of these cliffs and yelling “ANYBODY” into the echo-y cavern below. I wanted to do a focus-stacked image, but I didn’t set the step depth correctly, so I couldn’t manufacture the finished image the way I wanted.

6.23.22Alice OTRAlice OTR had its soft opening tonight. One of the owners, Seth, invited me to grab a few photos of the space. Four years ago, I took photos of it before it was a bar, so I lined up my shots with the previous ones to illustrated how far it has come. Seems like it’ll be a good place to enjoy a weekend night on Main Street.

6.24.22Needed Calm After a Historically Bad DayAfter women in the United States of America were stripped of their right to choose what to do with their bodies by five pathetic conservative assholes in Washington DC today, I didn’t feel like doing much of anything. It’s sickening that we’re living in a regressive country led by a minority of Christians who feel it necessary to foist their religious beliefs on the entire population despite crying like babies whenever others don’t want to. “Separation of church of state” is the biggest lie I’ve ever been told. Bunch of sickening, lizard-brained hypocrites who believe a magical man in the sky means half the population shouldn’t have a say in what to do with their own bodies. Anyway, we had a dinner date with neighbors on the schedule, so we kept our plans in an effort to feel something besides despair for the evening. The night ended with drinks on their porch. That calm was medicine I didn’t know I needed until I got it. I won’t stop feeling angry about what’s happening in our country, but for a few hours, I could get away from my frustration.

6.25.22A Good DistractionWent to a dog party. Not feeling overly social from the news of yesterday, I took a jazz gummy and drank a few beers to put myself at ease. The party was a good distraction for another night.

6.26.22Partied Too HardMyrtle played so hard at the dog party last night, she wanted to rest on the floor of Unataza this morning instead of begging for treats.

6.27.22The AA Bike LaneNot really sure where the AA Highway ends and Licking Pike/Lowell Street begins, but there’s a bike lane on it. Convenient if traveling between Covington and Newport. I use it to get to and from the wood shop. It’s unprotected, but I feel better using it than cycling in traffic.

6.28.22Made in BellevueWe’re preparing to participate in our first local farmer’s market. I’m building 15 plant stands and 18 flight boards to sell at the Bellevue Beach Park on July 17th. Each item will be branded with this custom text. It’s taken a month of my spare time to cut the pieces for 15 plant stands (several of which have been stained and assembled), and I haven’t even started on the flight boards yet. It’s going to be a long month, but I’m determined to build it all.

6.29.224 to 4I have never seen FCC win a game and tonight they made sure I kept the tradition alive with a tie. We went with Maria and Mike—they have season tickets and were gracious enough to bring us. Despite being not-a-sportsman, I yelled myself hoarse because the game was so close. Of all the games I’ve been to (which is, like, five) I think this one was the most exciting overall. I managed to get a few frames with my Nikon Z fc while there.

6.30.22Fourth & WalnutThe owners of Fourth & Walnut Center plan to turn the Daniel Burnham-designed former office tower into apartments. They asked me to get a few exteriors. The tricky thing about getting exteriors of tall high-rises in the business district is the angle; no wide angle lens has the perspective control able to get a good architectural shot from the street at that close of a distance. So converging lines keep converging.