Fairport Harbor and the Lighthouses

Some of my favorite images from in and around Northeast Ohio are from Fairport Harbor.

Fairport Harbor is home to two lighthouses: the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater Light in Painesville Township, operated by the United States Coast Guard and the Grand River (Fairport Harbor) Light operated by the Fairport Harbor Historical Society. 

Fairport Harbor is also a popular destination for seasonal activities. Fairport Harbor Lakefront Park, operated by Lake Metroparks features a beach, playgrounds and picnic areas. Nearly a dozen protected marinas and launch facilities provide ample opportunity for boating and fishing.

If you’re ever up this way looking for some great photo opportunities I highly recommend a trip to Fairport Harbor. The two lighthouses offer some great chances for photos at virtually anytime of day and the beach is very nice as well with play areas for the kids and relatively shallow water extending a good ways into the lake.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sean

(All images acquired with Canon Eos 40D.)

Happy Father’s Day

Just a quick post to wish all the Dads out there a Happy Father’s Day and post up a few pics from around Northeast Ohio symbolic of the guidance and hope a Father can provide.

Here’s hoping your Dad finds his favorite chair,

or fishing hole,

and gets to sit back and enjoy the day,

Thanks for stopping by,

Sean

(Images acquired with Canon Eos 40D and Olympus SP560Z)

Flowers, Lighthouses and Sunsets

If I were asked to give advice to someone just getting into sellling photos, I ‘d offer these three words, Flowers, Lighthouses and Sunsets. It doesn’t seem to matter where I post these types of photos, they always seem to be amongst the top draws of the portfolio. I’d also stongly recommend a polarizing filter, but that for another post. So without further adieu, I present a few Flowers, Lighthouses and Sunsets…

So there you have it. Lets see if this post gets the attention like these images do in my portfolios.

Thanks for stopping by,

Regards,

Sean

Mascots and Pepe the Free Range Pinata

Mascots: those sometime beloved, sometimes creepy characters used for product endorsements to push everything from auto insurance to burgers.

In the beloved catagory I think most would say the Gecko is a relatively benign character, cute but not over the top, non-threatening and quite proper with it’s slightly British accent. Probably the biggest reason for it’s success is the clever word play with company name. Insurance is just another one of those things we pay for. It’s a living expense, but who would you rather get it from, a huge iconic corporate logo where you’re just a number, or a company mascot that’s not above having a little fun with it’s own name. I think in most cases the Gecko wins because oddly enough it humanizes an utterly inhuman product.

On the other end of the spectrum we’ve got the creepy catagory, all I’m gonna say is nightmare inducing big plastic headed King. This non-speaking character is ominous with it’s creepy smile and placed in “stalker” type scenarios that remind one of the Clown for Stephen King’s “It”.  I think this company is searching for another hook as we’re starting to see a variety of different themes in commercials. All I can say is ditch the King and start over. When was the last time you saw your competitior’s clown mascot in a commercial?

Somwhere in the middle there’s a cheeky garden gnome, a cheetah that’s trying to come off as uber hip, and finally my personal entry into the mascot fray: Pepe the Free Range Pinata…

Pepe is colorful, non-threatening, has a politcally correct past, and as you can see from the photos is up for traveling, visiting the park and other historic places. Pepe’s adventures might even find his way into a children’s book series if properly persuaded…

Book 1: Pepe the Free Range Pinata details how Pepe was born free in the Southwest United States and is befriended by Louise who takes him all over the country.

Book 2: Pepe visits the Lighthouse when Louise goes to Ohio to visit her family and learns all about lighthouses.

Book 3: Pepe and Louise visit the Park and learn all about nature and different plants at the park from Ranger Dan.

And so on, and so on…

Wow, all of that to post a few photos

Thanks for stopping by,

 

Sean

Trying to find time…

The last two weeks have been an absolute nightmare. Things have gotten so crazy and I’ve found myself with very little time to do anything besides work at the computer.

Needless to say, I haven’t been able to get out and spend any amount of time taking photos with my Olympus SP-560UZ but I hope to remedy that this weekend.

There has been an upside to the debacle that has been the last two weeks, it’s given me some time to find a nice site called Imagekind that will allow folks to purchase greeting cards and various size prints of some of my photos along with frames and matting so they look like “proper” art.

I opted to sign up for the free account to try them out which provides 1 album for 24 photos or 200MB of space depending on the size of your images. So far I’ve only managed to upload a few photos, which can be found here.

Considering the limited amount of time I have today, I think I’ll re-post me previous photo compilation and see if I can actually get out for a few more this evening. (Click thumbnail to enlarge.)

Many thanks to those who’ve stopped by and taken a look at the photos posted here. I hope you get the chance to swing buy again. If you like any of the photos you see on this site please feel free to visit my albums over at Shutterpoint and comments are welcome here on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Smh

Sell your photos online
Buy my art at Imagekind!

Stock Photography vs Shoot First, consider the audience later…

Have spent some time over the last couple of days taking a good look at “stock” photo images and I realized that a lot of the photos I’ve taken probably aren’t  stock or microstock material, rather a lot of the images are of things I like seeing, probably more akin to wall art.

So, the other day I set out to try and create what I thought might be a decent stock photo and the results can be seen below. (Click thumbnails for larger images.) 

The first image of a row of chess pawns is symbolic for just about anybody that works for someone else. The next image of the first move is symbolic of strategy and planning while the lighthouse and church images can represent at the very least guidance.

I’m not at all sure if this is the way I want to take my hobby as the images feel somewhat contrived and my personal preference seems to be shoot first and consider the audience later Which is not to say that’s a better way of taking pictures, just a different way.

I’m wondering if anyone out there has had a similar experience. Feel free to let me know.

That’s about all I really have time for today. If you like any of the photos you see on this site please feel free to visit my albums over at Shutterpoint and comments are welcome here on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Smh

Smhphotos Stock Photo Compilation

I’ve had the new Olympus SP-560UZ for about 3 weeks now and by last count have snapped around 1200 photos with it.

After getting to know the camera a bit I realized I really liked some of the photos I’d taken and decided to spend a few bucks and sign up with the micro stock photography service Shutterpoint. I liked that I not only get space to upload photos, there is also an active community that provides ratings and feedback on your pictures.  Who knows, maybe if I get lucky I’ll actually sell a few and that leads me to tonight’s post.

I’ve decided to try a “compilation” post with all the photos I’ve submitted so far and see what if any feedback I get. Hope you enjoy as much as I enjoyed taking them. (Click thumbnails to enlarge.)

That’s about all I really have time for today. If you like any of the photos you see on this site please feel free to visit my albums over at Shutterpoint and comments are welcome here on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Smh

Random Photo of the Day …

Another random photo of the day post as today was a lot more hectic than I had anticipated. This is a shot of the Fairport Harbor Lighthouse early in the morning after a storm had blown through the night before. The combination of sun, clouds, and lighthouse make this photo one of my all time favorites. (Click thumbnail to enlarge.)

And here’s the photo data:

Camera : OLYMPUS IMAGING CORP SP560UZ
F Number : 6.3
ISO Speed : 50
Exposure Program : Creative (Slow speed)
Exposure Mode : Auto
Exposure Compensation : 0
Metering Mode : Multi-segment
Focal Length : 10.3 mm
White Balance : Auto
Date/Time Original : 2008:08:09 20:54:43
Software : Version 1.1
Components Configuration : YCbCr
Compression : JPEG (old-style)
Orientation : Horizontal (normal)
Exif Version : 0221

That’s about all I really have time for today. If you like any of the photos you see on this site please feel free to visit my albums over at Shutterpoint and comments are welcome here on the blog.

Thanks for stopping by.

Smh

Hobby takes a hit…

Well,

2 days into my new found hobby a family emergency has brought things to a screeching halt. I’ve not really had any time to acquire new images, but thought I’d take a few of the free moments I have this evening to finish posting the remainder of my photos from day 1 with the new camera.

In all I think ended up snapping around 130 pictures day one while playing with all the different settings, but only kept about half of them based on quality and personal preference. One item of note, I give the Olympus high marks for it’s ease of use and the 25 or so pre-defined picture modes it comes with.  For anyone new to digital cameras, I would recommend playing with all of your shooting modes to find which ones suite your tastes and fill the bill for the moment or subject matter you are trying to capture.

Now then, onto the remaining samples of day 1 photos… (Click thumbnails to enlarge.)

That’s about all I really have time for right now. I’ll try to post some additional photos from day two forward as time permits, or feel free to visit my album over at Shutterpoint.

Thanks for stopping by.

Smh

Getting Started…

Getting started with my photography hobby was pretty easy. I’d spent the last several years working with digital imaging in the health care field and I’d been trained in the technical aspects of digital imaging. After a awhile the whole thing became well, quite “clinical” and the whole “art” of imaging began to escape me. The needs of the company I worked for also began changing and I found myself moving into an IT roll.   I eventually found myself as a Database Administrator monitoring the company’s servers.

As time past I found myself seeking a new hobby. By the time I wittled down the list of things I liked and the list of things I could actually afford, photography found itself at the top of my list.  So after a particularly rough day at work I stopped off at the local consumer electronics store and bought myself a new camera to kick things off.

All of the photographs on this site have been and will be acquired with my newly purchased Olympus       SP-560UZ digital camera. It’s a nicely featured camera (probably more than I’ll ever use) with a nice “heft” to it and a quality feel. It’s optics pack an 18X optical zoom so it doesn’t exactly fit in one pocket, but for the price, features and 8MP picture quality I’ll “suffer” with a camera bag.

Now that’s been addressed, off to  a few of the pictures from day one. (click thumbnail for larger image and additional information.)

That’s about all I really have time for right now. I’ll try to post some additional photos from day one forward as time permits, or feel free to visit my album over at Shutterpoint.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

Smh