Category Archives: Ohio

End of Year and a New Beginning

22 Tuesday Dec 2020

Posted by in Christmas, Columbus OH, Events, family, Ohio, personal, photography

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HI All, with no explanation needed, it’s been a long year.

It began great with a trip to Cuba in January via Global Volunteers.

That was the tip of the iceberg that is still working it’s way around the world.

While visiting Hemmingway’s house I became enveloped in a group of tourist from… China. A day or so later the virus announcement happened and we wondered about getting back to the States. Last day in Cuba and we had a new housemate from… Italy. Cuban airport packed, Miami International packed. First of February and still very clueless, and… lucky!

March came the great flood. 1500 sqft under 2 ft of water in the lower basement turned production area. And it was ‘black’ water. The new house is the first on the sewer line :-] Turns out the replacement powerline pole ended up in the sewer chamber in the corner of the yard. Sewer chamber filled with dirt washed from around the pole. The basement was convenient so it filled. Lost 3/4 of a decade of BW images from the 70’s and about 10k color images. Yep, up off the floor on racks out of the way. Water was so high and forceful that it took the containers – heavy containers – off the racks and turned them over. :-[ By the time I got the water pumped out and had a chance to start looking around it was too late to save. Everything had be so violently pushed around it was hard to what was where, plus everything was covered in crap water, literally.

Now back to that virus thing. A crew showed up to help cleanup, which was great. Could not have done it myself. Had 10ish people at anyone moment in the basement with and without masks for a couple of days. Then 2 weeks of repair and replace people in and out. Might have dodged a virus bullet there.

Spent the rest of the year seeing a few friends and keeping to the house, plus reworking that flood thing. Had to start from scratch, again. Very depressing every time I looked at the containers with the lost images.

It’s been a long year for everyone, much longer for some. To those that have lost a loved one a heartfelt hug.

So we come to the end… of this endless year. Time to brighten up, think positive, make new plans, get shot and hopefully move on. To that end a little something to cheery to look at. Within minutes of the house a little light at the end of the tunnel.

Enjoy the Holiday’s and look forward to a new New Year.

All images © 2020 Ed Zirkle

If a person falls in a creek…

28 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Exploring Ohio, Ohio, Photo shoot, photography, Photojournalism

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Went to Rockbridge State Nature Preserve today to photograph the falls for Exploring Ohio photo magazine. Rockbridge only runs after a good rain and we have been hit pretty good here lately. I must say that Rockbridge is quite a hike. Not for the faint of heart, bad knees or hips, nor heart issues, plus if you don’t like heights then you don’t want to walk the rockbridge it’s self. No guard rails, just straight down. Looking forward to spring and a green walk. So the story goes like this… when in your head you keep repeating ‘this is a bad idea’ over and over you would think it’s a bad idea. But then as a photographer logic sometimes, a lot of the time, goes out the window. ‘The’ place to get the photo was down a very steep bank covered in leaves after a lot of rain. Would be a hard climb down and very difficult back up given the extra weight of gear and wet leaves covering the ground, but then…
Once down the realization for getting back up sinks in, not good. Did I mention I’m not 20 something anymore, did my mind remind my body of that??? NO… but then you are a photographer and can do anything. Like taking a swim in the creek! Fortunately I had set the camera’s up on the rocks in a safe place and moved the phones to the camera vest before slipping on the wet rocks and doing a face plant in the creek. Did you know that the rather light Nike hiking boots get very heavy with filled with water.
So the moral of the story is don’t think like a photographer sometimes, be reasonable, think like a normal human being. But then I’m an old school shooter, photojournalist. In the end I got the picture.

– 30 –

 

The scenery to and from the falls is quite nice. Go when it’s a bit dryer though. :-]