Saturday, September 29, 2012

Sunlight and Fog: Return to Dundee Falls.

I can't explain 100% why, but, I love going to Dundee Falls near Dundee, OH.  I had heard about it but hadn't found it until this past year.  Seeing that the morning was sunny, I decided after dropping off Denise at work that I would head out there with the camera bag.  I am SO glad I did.  It was one of those times where you hope the lighting and environment is set up a certain way and when you get there, it is.  Today was that day.  Dundee Falls is a very interesting place.  It's actually public wildlife lands but it is not maintained.  There are cliffs, waterfalls, gorges and unfortunately trash and graffiti everywhere.  It's a place that I wish there was some sort of metropark system that could get funding to come in, clean it out and place some safe trails through there.  But, there is also a park of me that loves the rugged natural setting.  Regardless today worked out the way I wanted it to.  On the way home, I stopped through Zoar.  Of course.  Enjoy!







Sunday, September 23, 2012

Fall has arrived.

Spent some time around Zoar this afternoon.  I know, big surprise.  But the weather was perfect.





Sunday, September 16, 2012

Artsy Collaboration at Cleveland Ingenuity Fest 2012

The Cleveland Ingenuity event is amazing.  It's a mix between art, technology and music.  It's a place were local groups can perform in front of large numbers of people.  Local artists can display their works.   Thought leaders present are given a chance to lead presentations and discussions.  It just has a really cool vibe.  Sights and sounds filling the senses.
One of the things that we spent a lot of time doing yesterday was watching our good friend Craig work on a mural project with his fellow artist friends, the Rust Belt Monster Collective.  And as I watched their mural progress, I noticed something happening that has become, I think, so mechanical for many of us that work in IT.  The natural flow of collaboartion between the artists.  There was no status updates, no tweets, no file sharing, no enclosed private online meetings.  Just a group of people working together for their common goal.  So many times in the day job, (I work in IT at a large company and electronic collaboration is such a huge part of it), when I collaborate with others, it not face to face, side by side.  It's going into a shared file location, updating a document, saving it back to the shared collaboration space and sending an instant message or an email saying that the task is complete.  What I witnessed with the artists yesterday was just a natural flow of collaboration.  Everyone was working on their own tasks for the project, but then one would stop and ask another for an opinion.  The two would discuss different ways to approach the idea maybe calling in a third to get a different perspective.  Then, it was back to work.  It was refreshing to watch.  Natural collaboration.  I'm sure that outside of getting together for projects this group communicate with each other via electronic methods, but when it came down to it it was the whole working together without relying on making sure they had the right technology vendors product to collaborate.
I guess the point to my story here is, don't rely on technology to solve all your collaborative needs.  Get off your butt, get in groups and solve the problem together.  Not sitting across the room behind the computer at your desk.
Here are pictures from the event.  Really hope to go back to it next year.












For the full set of images, click here

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Adventures in F/stops for Sunday, September 9

When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, I couldn't believe how blue the sky was.  So rather then lounge around I jumped up and got going.  I decided I wanted to go check out Dundee Falls again.  We went out there earlier this year in the spring, but was a little disappointed with the lighting.  On the way there, I was getting disappointed again as I saw the clouds rolling in from the west, but I decided to keep going anyway.  I'm glad I did.  The lighting didn't matter too much with the canopy of leaves that covered the area.  But I did realize that in another couple of weeks when the leaves start changing, this is the place to be!
After my morning hike, I headed home to pick up the wife and head down to New Philadelphia. While she worked away in the gym, Molly and I explored downtown New Philadelphia. Spent some time studying the monument to the WWI soldiers that located in the town square. I loved how the lighting was working on it today. Not a lot of pictures today. Just wanted to focus on a couple things rather then a lot of things.