Terrible Reality

Learned of the sudden death of a friend and neighbor a couple of hours before my Monday night drawing class. I’m at a loss for words right now. More tomorrow.

Detour

Ashley had a whole day planned out. We’d get up early, get coffee, and go to Trader’s World—a place neither of us had been to in 15+ years. But after talking to friends who’d been more recently, it was decided that Trader’s World was not something we’d probably be into.

Instead, we planned on hitting up a couple of proven antique stores nearer to home. However, with the Flying Pig happening, road closures made that plan too difficult. Getting down to Riverside Antiques proved impossible due to road closures no matter which way we went, and we were up too early to go to any of the other nearby shops.

In an effort to find our way back home along a route that didn’t involve marathoners, we drove past Burger Farm in Newtown and decided to make a pit stop. I hadn’t been to the nursery there in a long, long time. Ashley found some nice plants for our yard, and I enjoyed the copious amounts of novelty statues they had stocked, like Bigfoot and R2D2.

Trashurday Night

I’m in a funk and I don’t know why. Just in a bad mood. We got invited out, but my heart wasn’t in it. Instead, we ordered Poke Hut and sat on the couch and watched old episodes of Jerry Springer on TV.

I also randomly watched all of The Gate (1987) again.

Inaugural Flight

Shot a series of STRs downtown in the Thomas Morrow building on Ninth Street. I took this opportunity to fly the drone and get some aerial shots to showcase the mural on its side. This was the first time I’ve flown the drone in the core, and I’m eager to do more soon.

Cold Drinks

I went to a number of hardware stores today looking for a very specific adapter that would connect a utility sink faucet to a hair washing sprayer for Marlene’s studio. The two needed to be connected in order to make the hair wash station operable, and while replacing both the sink and the faucet were an option, I figured a small adapter that works with what she already had would be cheapest and easiest.

Well, I got the ‘cheapest’ part right…

Finding something with two different diameters and two different styles of threads proved too specific for a general hardware store. I ended up having to go to a plumbing specialty store where they connect two pieces together to create the ultra-specific, magic part I needed. It took me about 4 hours to find the right part, but for $17, I solved the sink issue for her without spending more money on it.

Nothing about the day was photogenic, but I did find this retro vending machine in the plumbing store amusing.

Still Life

Last night’s class was great. It was nice carving time out of my schedule to go draw in a new setting. It was my first time visiting Manifest after years of hearing about it from friends and other artists.

After the class, one of the artists took me upstairs to show off the photo lab and other areas of the building. All of it was genuinely impressive. I can see how this place serves as both a functional space for artists as well as inspiration for creativity.

After getting a few things done this morning, I took another half day and finished the still life drawing I’d started the evening prior.

Off Day

I decided to take some time off today and enjoy the outdoors on two wheels. Since I didn’t have the weekend free, a half day would do.

Last week I received a mount for my 360 camera that straps to my bike. Took it out for a spin and recorded the ride.

Tonight I start a drawing class at Manifest over near Northside, too.

AIB Final Day

Final day of Art In Bloom featured a well-attended drag show, workshops, and much more. I’m exhausted from working hard the last four days and can’t wait to have a day in the office tomorrow.

Fashion Show

Designer Asha Ama put together a fashion show featuring models wearing a variety of floral-enhanced looks. The runway kicked off at the back of the Great Hall and turned around in the accompanying gallery. The models came out one at a time, giving myself and the other photographers time to grab a few shots before they moved on.

This presented a challenging technical task when it came to getting the right shots. My background was undesirable, and nothing would change that, so I did the best I could with the situation. Having shot in the Great Hall a hundred times, I know how tricky it is to get the right shot with decent lighting, so I improvised. Before the show started, I put my speed light on some feet, took it upstairs to the second floor, placed it on the ledge and aimed it at the wall, and used my trigger to fire it remotely during the show. This provided consistent lighting every time, and I wasn’t blinding those who were physically nearby me.

The choice to throw the light up on the second floor was ultimately a good one. While I wish I had more to work with background-wise, the shots turned out well, and I’m happy with them overall.

Floral Artistry

Artist Sue McLeary puts the finishing touches on a wearable floral arrangement that will later be worn by a model for tomorrow’s fashion show.

Art In Bloom 2026

I’m at the museum for the next four days to cover all of the Art In Bloom events. Like last year, I will be pretty non-stop while I’m there, and in order to make sure I don’t overload myself with work, I’m going to be getting as much processed as I can on site between events. This means bringing my laptop with me and finding a place to post up for the short breaks between programming.

I shot all the arrangements with their corresponding works of art, some artist portraits, and loads of images of people walking around enjoying the exhibition.

Jill & Liz

Short session with Jill and her daughter, Liz, in Tower Park this evening.

The Observatory

Had some photos to make at the Cincinnati Observatory this morning. They’re performing a big renovation in the basement to make it useable for exhibits, so they needed shots to document what’s there as well as some artifacts and telescopes they had on display.

At the end of the day, I flew the drone to get some eye-level shots of the dome as well as some fun top-down aerials. While I was flying, some random guy yelled at me for “following him” with it. In his mind, it was apparently more likely that I’d be filming a random man on the grounds of the Observatory than making images of the beautiful historic building in front of him. I wish he understood how quickly I would remove him in post for a clean shot.

All’s Quiet

View from my office window. I find the glow from the neighbors’ curtained windows relaxing. I also still can’t believe a phone can take a long exposure like this, even if it is run through an algorithm to enhance it.