Veterans Park

Most of my photo excursions always seem to begin or end at Veterans Park here in Northeast Ohio. I’m not sure if it’s the park’s proximity or how unique the park is with it’s ever changing scenery and wildlife.

Veterans Park protects the largest inland pond in Lake county and is a remnant of original Ohio swamp forest. The park offers four accessible fishing piers, a 1.78-mile loop trail though native wetlands with 830 feet of boardwalk, and a wetland/wildlife viewing area. Granger Pond is generally stocked with catfish, bass, bluegill and rainbow trout. The property was purchased from The Granger Family by the City of Mentor in 1970 and was Mentor’s first neighborhood park. (Courtesy Lake Metroparks)

Now for a few photos Veterans Park…

Thanks for stopping by,

Sean

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

Paine Falls and Indian Point

I recently had the opportunity to head out to the eastern part of Lake County and visit a few of my favorite parks out there for hiking and taking a few photos, Paine Falls and Indian Point. The parks are relatively close to each other, within a couple of miles, and are far enough off the beaten path that you really get that feeling of “solitude” while you’re out there.

Colonel Hendrick Paine, nephew of Edward Paine, founder of Painesville, moved his family from Parkman, Ohio, in 1818 to this little valley. It became known as “Paine’s Hollow.” Paine built a log cabin on the terrace on the north side of the valley. With the planning and financial help of his son’s (Elazer A. Paine) father-in-law, Samuel Phelps, Paine carried out the industrial development of Paine’s Hollow. He first built a sawmill.

In the years that followed, many other industries came to the Hollow. By 1840, valley businesses included an iron forge and furnace, a tannery, a shoemaker, a blacksmith shop, and a wagon maker. An ashery was built to produce lye for soap and potash production. The area also included several houses and a school for local children.

By 1850, surrounding forests had been felled and prosperity began to decline. With the lumber supply gone and new technological advances, water power was no longer needed. The area fell to ruin and many of the settlers moved to neighboring cities. In 1974, the area was named Paine Falls at which time it was dedicated as a park by Lake Metroparks. (Courtesy of Lake Metroparks website)

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places by the National Park Service, Indian Point has one of the earliest architectural works in this part of Ohio. A tribe from the Whittlesey Culture lived here; a Whittlesey structure was built on the 100-foot ridge between Paine Creek and the Grand River. Two parallel mounds of their earthworks can be seen. The Whittelsey were an early people who lived from 900 AD to 1650 AD in stockade villages on high bluffs overlooking rivers and lakes. Because they had no contact with Europeans, the name of their tribe is unknown. The culture is named after the archaeologist who discovered the tribe.

Charles Lyman bought several acres at the Point in 1901. He had camped here often. In the years before World War I, he used the area as a military camp for high school boys. More than 150 youngsters attended Lyman’s Camp Wissolohican during its seven-year period of existence. Lyman began carving the names of campers into a Totem Stone, which can be seen along the trail near the point. Later, the point became a Finnish camp, Kaleva Lodge. During this time, a stone hut was built and used as a sauna, intact until the 1970s, when the park system dismantled it. The property was purchased from John Phelps in 1964. A plaque was erected here, in honor of James and Edna Phelps, his parents. (In 1802, part of the property had been deeded to his ancestors by the Connecticut Land Company.)(Courtesy of Lake Metroparks website)

For more infromation and directions to Paine Falls and Indian Point, please visit:

Indian Point Metropark

Paine Falls Metropark

Thanks for stopping by,

Sean

(Images acquired with Canon Eos 40D, 28-135 IS Lens and 72mm Polarizing Filter)

Brandywine Falls

On a recent trip to Holden Arboretum there were some photos on display at the visitor’s center from the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The Cuyahoga Valley National Park system is a huge park area cutting a swath through some of Northern Ohio’s most beautiful scenery. Some of the photos on display were of Brandywine Falls and I commited myself to visiting on the spot.

Unfortunately I chose to go on a day when a I had limited time due to other commitments and did not get nearly as many photos as I’d hoped for. None the less, I still wanted to post a few up here…

When you first get to the falls there is a nice boardwalk trail leading to a falls over look.

Following this boardwalk, the trail diverges with one of the walks leading down for a direct view of the falls,

while the other trail leads up to the top of the falls for a nice view to the bottom,

There are additional trails rated from moderate to difficult running along the lower portion of the falls and along the river and this where I regret not having more time to explore. The hike through the gorge was beautiful,

but time was limited and I needed to head back up north. I enjoyed my limited time at Brandywine Falls and will make every effort to return.

Thanks for stopping by,

Sean

(All images acquired with Canon Eos 40D and Polarizing Filter)

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

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!

Sold my first photo !!!

After the last couple of days of looking at stock photos and realizing that I really wasn’t taking a lot of that type of photo, imagine my surprise today when I checked my account and realized that I’d sold my first image. (Click thumbnail to enlarge.)

The above photo that sold today was shot at Veteran’s Park the morning after a storm blew threw. I thought I might get lucky and capture a few cool pictures. Things were pretty hectic at the time and just getting out to the park and taking pictures provided a fair bit of relief.

This photo on the other hand is an actual attempt at a stock photo and was the more difficult of the two to acquire. Took about 20 trial and error shots to get the end result. (Click thumbnail to enlarge.)

 

I think I’ve decided to follow the shoot first and consider the audience later approach as it would seem that I can actually sell this type of photo and enjoy taking them far more.

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

Veteran’s Park early morning…

Snuck out early this morning with the Olympus SP-560UZ to Veteran’s Park just after sunrise, before the day started to get too crazy. It was a windy, slightly chilly morning after a storm the night before. The combination of wind, sun, clouds, and the park made for some nice pictures. Hope you enjoy. (Click thumbnails to enlarge.)

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

Thanks for stopping by.

Smh