Mother's Day

A set of photos I took of the girls on Mother's Day.

Take Time to Smell the Flowers

Saturday Monring Photo Outing

Last Saturday, I decided to get up before the sunrise, grab my coffee, camera, lenses, tripod, etc. and head out for a bit of shooting. The forecast looked like the weather would be great and it did not disappoint! My first stop was the Rocky River fishing pier just down the street to catch some photos of the sunrise. It was quiet and empty until a couple of fishermen arrived as the sun was coming up.

After the sunrise was over, I decided to just head west down Lake road and ended up near the Rocky River. It is amazing how many interesting things we pass by hundreds if not thousands of times in our lifetime. There is a building on the west side of the Detroit Rd. bridge that spans the Rocky River that is built on the abutment of the old bridge. I have seen this building many, many times but never really explored it. I stopped there and found a road below it for a parking lot that was right along the Rocky River and I spent a little time wandering down there.




My final stop was to head down to the Cleveland Yacht Club. I have ridden my bike past this entrance many, many times and always wondered exactly what was down there. Many was I surprised! It was hard to believe that this was Cleveland - it looked more like Florida. There are many amazing homes nestled on the bank of the Rocky River and the yacht club rests right in the middle between the river and a canal. The strangest sight, however, is the fact that the I-90 overpass is right in the middle of all of this making it even more surreal.

It turned out to be a great day for photography and just a great day to be outside.

The entire set of photos can be found on Flickr.

Cheap Home Phone Service

In a quest to reduce our monthly outflow of cash, I've setup a new phone service using our high-speed internet. I decided to look into something even cheaper when Vonage decided to raise the rates from $15 to $18 / month for basic service. I selected Gizmo5 which give us a local, incoming phone number for only $35 / year! I had to buy another phone adapter since the Vonage adapter was locked but this was only $40 online. Call out minutes are then billed at $.02 / minute and you purchase credit in bulk similiar to a calling card or prepaid cell phone. This is perfect for us since we nearly never use the home phone to call out and it is mostly used for doctors, financial institutions, etc. to contact us.

Easter Weekend

My sister and her family were in for Easter weekend and fun was had by all. Unfortunately, Kim was a bit sick and Lily was just getting over a cold as well. Thankfully, everyone seemed to feel better by Sunday. Photos are below.

Back in the Swing of Things...

It's been over a month since Liliana came home from the hospital and we are all settling in and enjoying life at home. I plunged in and started to get some more repainting and home improvements done. We moved in almost 4 years ago and our remodeling plans came to a grinding halt. The house we bought was my grandmother's and in desperate need of paint and flooring. The flooring is actually coming up or broken in several spots and the carpeting is so bad that the padding is disintegrated underneath so this is not just a question of personal taste.

I finally finished painting our our dining room this weekend and I think it came out looking pretty good. Spending so much time in the house, the state of disrepair and old faded walls was driving us both crazy. Click on the image for a set of before and after photos.

Gwyneth Portrait

This image was taken with a Nikon D300 and Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens.
ISO 200 f1.8 1/80 sec, pop-up used for fill flash

The Way It Is - Simon Townshend