Commercial Fishing in Northern Ohio
>> Apr 23, 2009
The Sandusky/Port Clinton areas in Northern Ohio used to be the largest fresh water fisheries on the planet. Overfishing, the rise of sport fishing, strict regulations and quotas imposed on fisherman have all led to the gradual decline of the commercial fishing industry on the Ohio side of Lake Erie (it's booming on the Canadian side). There are only around 30 commercial fishing licenses left on the northern Ohio coast, compared to over 300,000 licenses for sport and charter fishing.
It's really a topic I'd like to explore more. I went out on a boat with a small crew on Tuesday morning and I got a few more names and contacts of other people still making a living from tradition trap net fishing on Lake Erie. Apparently there is a 75 year old man that still goes out on the water every single day and another 65 year old that does the same- and apparently they have some pretty strong opinions on the state restrictions and the future of their business. The guy I went out with on Tuesday thinks commercial fishing could be completely gone from northern Ohio in a decade. He cited that all the crews are getting older, it's tougher to make a living because of all the strict regulations imposed on them from the state and that the young people in the region aren't learning anything about commercial fishing nor do they have any desire to.
Day one on the boat was mostly process-y type photos. I didn't have a whole lot of room to move around much, but I tried to explore as much as I could.
(a little technical note here on this first photo- I didn't add any of the darkening on the edges. The dark edges you see are the netting that I shot it through as the sun was coming up)
Tennis Fragments
>> Apr 17, 2009
Yet another sport I've never shot before . . .
I enjoyed fooling around with all the colors and shapes- sounds like kindergarten.
This last frame needs some nice bright yellow tennis balls scattered in the foreground. Oh well.
Tea Party
>> Apr 16, 2009
All across the country on Wednesday, conservative groups set up "tea parties" to protest big government and excessive spending (ie- complain about Obama and the Democrats being in control). From what I saw from other photo galleries on the web, larger cities had some pretty big turnouts and people got pretty animated. In Sandusky, it was cold and dreary once again and there was maybe 100 people in the downtown park. It was mostly a lot of standing around listening to speakers and holding up signs. I saw some fairly creative signs from galleries in other cities, but the creativity was a little disappointing here.
One guy tried to argue with me that Obama was comparable to King George. A lot of people there seemed concerned with the U.S. becoming a "Socialist European-like country." Everyone there seemed to buy into the fear-mongering rhetoric you hear from Limbaugh and Hannity and those types. I wanted to talk politics with these people, but I figured it was in my best interest to just shut up and do my job.
3 Completely Unrelated Photos
>> Apr 11, 2009
1. My wandering mind at a softball game.
2. The nicest fluorescent light I've ever seen.
3. A community teeny bopper dance party
Love/Hate... Mostly Hate
>> Apr 4, 2009
I think I sort of have a love/hate relationship with sports. I grew up playing baseball and basketball and golf, and I have a pretty competitive spirit- so I can relate to some aspects of sports. But when it comes to photography, I really have no interest at all at shooting the action of a game. Sometimes you can find interesting things happening on the edges and that can be fun, but I really don't care too much for what is happening on the field. Outside of the great sports photographers, most sports action photography tends to look the same- and its boring. You've seen one pitcher throwing a ball, you've seen them all. I feel like its hard to compose an interesting scene through 500mm worth of lens. But, for the next month or so, I really have no choice but to make the best of all of these baseball and softball games I have to shoot. I'm also taking along my Diana plastic camera with me to have some fun with, but who knows when I'll ever get that film developed and scanned.
Here is one from Saturday afternoon. It was a doubleheader. I camped out with that super long lens pointed at 2nd base for a good 5 or 6 innings, just waiting for something to happen. I'm too slow with a big lens to try to follow the action, so I figured I'd try to let it come to me. It was boring, it was slow, it was tedious. I probably missed some other great moments somewhere on the field. My mind wandered and I thought of everything but baseball. Maybe 2 or 3 players slid into the bag the whole time. Of the 4 or 5 games I've shot so far, I think this is the only image I sort of like. It's not perfect, but it'll do for now.
Read more...
Slow Day
>> Apr 3, 2009
All the softball and baseball games I was supposed to shoot got cancelled (Hooray, hooray, hooray!) I was sent out to the "American Woodcock Walk"- where a group of bird enthusiasts were supposed to go spot the American Woodcock bird. Problem for me was, apparently this bird doesn't come out until the sun is pretty much gone. So... I give a couple pretty pictures en route to the bird walk and a silhouetted birder.
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