Pioneer Cemetery

I have a long list of "things to do" for my times in Cincinnati. Any given trip, I only have time and opportunity to do a couple of them. One of the things that has been on my list for a couple years is to take my camera and check out the Pioneer Cemetery (aka Columbia Baptist Cemetery) down by Lunken Airport. This past trip, Shelby and I woke up relatively early on a very crisp clear morning and had a look around. Buried in this cemetery are the earliest white settlers to the area.


Pioneer Cemetery - Columbia-Tusculum, Cincinnati

Harriet

Frosted Headstone

Frosted Grass

Along the Little Miami

During my time in Cincinnati, Shelby and I took a walk along the Little Miami River near Camp Dennison. It has become almost a tradition when I'm in town that we go for walk there with our cameras. Here are some of the photos I took.


Wavy Glass - Little Miami River Reflections

Bench - Camp Dennison

Red Leaf - Little Miami River

Fossils - Little Miami River

Yellow Springs

Had a couple weeks off back in Ohio for Thanksgiving with the family including a couple days of a get away up in Yellow Springs. The entire two weeks was a great break from work. The weather was generally crisp and clear, a beautiful late fall.

I'm sort of surprised they don't call it "Orange Springs".

The Yellow Spring - Yellow Springs, Ohio

The Yellow Spring - Yellow Springs, Ohio

The Yellow Spring - Yellow Springs, Ohio

Upset Alert???

I think CNN/Sports Illustrated needs to learn what "upset" means.

When a team is 1-9 and they are losing...I don't care who they are losing to...newsflash...not an upset.

When a team is 9-0, ranked #1....and they are losing....I don't care who they are losing to...upset.

Fireworks!

Everyone loves fireworks. In celebration of the 50th anniversary of its constitution, Kuwait put on what is reportedly a world record fireworks show. Tonight's extravaganza was over an hour long, a few miles of fireworks along the Gulf Rd. We watched from a friend's apartment.


Traffic Looking for Parking

The Red Ones

Grove Of Palm Trees

Blue Ones (My Favorite)

More Blue Ones (Because this is my blog, and they're my favorite)

White Ones (My Second Favorite)

walking around

with my camera and here is what I saw today.


Minarets - Salmiya, Kuwait

Rocks in Black and White

Sunset in Abstract

Kuwait Towers - Kuwait

been very busy....

and blogging isn't what pays the bills (somehow, I don't suspect that surprises you).

Finally got a break in a very long weekend and I took the opportunity to start working on my photos from our trip to Istanbul. Still have a way to go, but I've worked through the food and market themed photos... here are a few:

Carpets - Istanbul, Turkey

Lamps - Istanbul, Turkey

Schawarma in the Making - Istanbul, Turkey

Turkish Delight - Istanbul, Turkey

The Evil Eye - Istanbul, Turkey

Medusa in the Baslica Cistern

I did think of it earlier...I just didn't generalize from underground and indoors darkness to the darkness after sundown...

The Basilica Cistern was well worth the visit. Pretty cool how they light it in modern times. I'm sure it was an engineering marvel in its time too. All the way back in the corner are two pillars with Medusa heads at their base. I took these photos just moments before hoards of tourists literally gridlocked the walkway around them.

Medusa - Istanbul, Turkey

Medusa - Istanbul, Turkey

Second Medusa - Istanbul, Turkey

Istanbul at Night

I wish I'd thought of this earlier...just putting the camera on the ground to hold it still with the 16-35mm wide angle on it, a real small aperture (f22), slow shutter speed etc. Unfortunately, I only started messing with it on our last night there. Here are some night time shots of the Hippodrome with the Obelisk of Theodosius aka the Egyptian Obelisk, and with the minarets of the Blue Mosque playing a supporting role.

Obelisk of Theodosius - Istanbul, Turkey

Hippodrome - Istanbul, Turkey

Back From Vacation

And our luggage made it too...apparently that is an uncommon miracle when flying though Istanbul's Ataturk Airport.

Lost Luggage - Istanbul, Turkey

Lost Luggage - Istanbul, Turkey

Lost Luggage - Istanbul, Turkey

Rust and Iron

Via the wayback machine....from 25 June 2006...I can't believe I've had my camera for over 6 years!

Rust and Iron - Antigua, Guatemala

A Little Bit of Green

It has been a month, insert the usual excuses here:________
A bit of green from our visit to Hawaii in the spring.

Valleys and Waterfalls - Na Pali Coast - Kaua'i, Hawaiʻi

Waimea Canyon - Kaua'i, Hawaiʻi

Waimea Canyon - Kaua'i, Hawaiʻi

Photos From Our Greek Adventure

Finally finished with my photos from Greece. I ended up with 146 or so, which is too many and I still may cull a few. So if anyone wades their way through the entire slide show, and sees ones they don't like, tell me and I may remove them. Here are a few teasers. The full slide show hosted on Photobucket can be seen HERE.

Column Details, The Acropolis - Athens, Greece

Grand Vista & Monasteries - Meteora, Greece

Water Taxi - Hydra, Greece

White Columbine

In Our Front Yard

Butter, Lost in Translation

Churn the corn milk and get...Butter! I'm not guessing when I say it wouldn't pass my sister's taste test...the sign used to just say "Homemade Butter", but now they've come clean and defined exactly what they are churning here.
"Butter"???

Action Scenes From Car"cass" IX

Here are a couple of my cellphone shots from the scene. At this point the occupants of the vehicle on the right had been removed, and the fire was extinguished.

Bystanders

Smoke and Haze

Car"cass" IX - Ear Witness

I haven't done a "Carcass" series in quite a while...more out of laziness than for lack of subject matter. However, I couldn't pass on the the remains from an accident I witnessed last night.

Last night on my walk, a few minutes after seeing two consecutive cars pass by with ~2 year old girls hopping up and down in the front passenger seats on their moms laps, totally unrestrained...I heard the short squeal of a car sliding and the big boom of a big impact. The accident was not even a couple hundred yards away on the other side of the highway and immediately people were running to the scene. When I came upon it, the two cars were side by side as if they had backed into adjacent parking spots in a parking lot except they were in the middle of the road. The cars' front ends...obliterated. People were frantically trying to open a passenger door, eventually resorting to using a flag pole to pry the passenger door open and get the passenger out as the car began to burn. Bystanders were everywhere yelling and trying to get the fire out and the people out. Eventually some came running with fire extinguishers, most of which were promptly used improperly and ineffectively. I even saw a couple extinguishers being sprayed willy-nilly 20-30 ft away as the person carrying them ran toward the car. But the fire was suppressed and the passenger removed from the car.

In the confusion of the night, the lights, the yelling people everywhere, the smoke from the fire and haze of the fire extinguishers, I walked away. I got back to the apartment 10-15 minutes or so later. I was left with the following in my head and emailed my sister my basic thoughts:

How did they have such a forceful head-on wreck on a one way road in such heavy traffic when neither car was traveling the wrong direction?

The ambulance took at least 30 minutes to get there, weaving thru at least 1/2 mile of stopped dead traffic, I figured all occupants probably died, unless airbags are miracle workers (in general, only Americans and a few select other westerners wear seatbelts here).

This morning I happened to drive down that stretch of Gulf Road and noticed that the vehicles involved have been pulled over about 100 yards down and to the side of the road, but still in the same relative positions to each other. I walked down a little later and took the photos below. I also learned a little in the light of day:

This is about how the cars came to rest relative to one another but out on the road itself.

Carcass IX - Evidence Exhibit A

Looking at it's windshield, I'm still thinking the occupants of the Marquis considered themselves very skill drivers and so weren't wearing their seatbelts and probably did not survive.
Shattered Windshield - Exhibit B

The Marquis' pried open passenger door.

Pried Open Passenger Door - Exhibit C

The Marquis' deployed driver side airbag and dashboard broken in half.

Deployed Airbags - Exhibit D

The Marquis' passenger side, In the light of day, I don't think the main impact was head on...not that it explains how it happened though.
Evidence to the Contrary

Epilogue:

The Honda Accord's airbags, both front and side-curtain were also deployed. Except for a small crack where the review mirror is attached, the windshield was intact. In retrospect, none of the panic of the people was focused on the Honda....although they may be a bit bruised up and shook up, I now believe the driver of the Honda was probably not so confident in his skill as a driver and so was wearing a seatbelt...and survived.