Notice

I have recently decided that I am not committed to keeping this blog as a daily blog, I will continue to post blogs here but not in a daily basis. I have another daily blog that I started before Xenia Daily Photo where I will spend my time and will be blogging on a daily basis, please feel free to visit at http://photoman-mine.blogspot.com/.

Thank you for visiting my site,

Photoman

Well I did get to take pictures of my wife's flowers today but I haven't had a chance to download them. I also am having some issues with this computer and I have installed all of my software and moved all important files so that I can wipe the hard drive and do a restore. I will hopefully be back up and running soon. So for today I am sharing with you this image of a Lunar eclipse that happened recently.

Photoman

Wedding Day

I promised that I would try to put up images from my wife's flowers, well I have had a busy day and I have not had an opportunity to shoot them. I am hoping that tomorrow will be a better day but I am no hopeful. I will try to get some time to shoot them and get them posted asap.

Photoman

Wedding Rings

This is an image from the last wedding that I shot in Xenia, it is Valentines Day so I thought it would be appropriate to share an image that had something to do with love. I bought my wife some very pretty flowers today and I plan to photograph them tomorrow for fun. Perhaps I will share them with you tomorrow.

Happy Valentines Day,

Photoman

XCHS Homecoming

What a stud with 2 beautiful girls for Homecoming!

Photoman

Snow Shoeing

This image is not an image of Xenia, but it is taken by me and I am a resident of Xenia. Just about a week ago this is kind of what it looked like in Xenia. We had a lot of snow and it was cold and gray, but it warmed up and now the snow is gone and it is just gray. I am afraid it will be getting cold again soon though.

Photoman

Free Advertisement

Photoman

Winter Fun

Sledding is a lot of fun, as you can see from this photo, though in this image they are not really sledding more like rafting. I think they are on an old deflated raft trying to make it down the hill. I can't remember if they made it or not. I do know that on this particular day there were no serious injuries, unlike many other times of sledding on this hill. I don't get it, when I was a kid we went sledding and every once in a while you heard about a kid getting a broken bone, but now a days every time my kids go it seems like someone comes back with a broken bone. Odder yet is that they don't get hurt going down the hill it seems they always get hurt on the way back up the hill. I mean I remember one time we took 4 giant inner tubes and had this really big guy lay on top and hold them together. Everyone else about 20 or 25 of us climbed up on top of him and went down together. I was the smallest so I had to climb up on the top and hold on for dear life. Which I managed to do quite well for the first 25 feet or so, then we hit the bumps that someone had dug into the snow for more fun and the tubes started bouncing and so did all 20 or so of us. It was at this point that I lost my grip on whoever I was hanging on to. As we bounced down the hill I bounced forward of the pile of people and eventually bounced right off the front of the tubes. Yep you guessed it I fell right in front of the tubes and became part of the hill, they tubed right over me like I wasn't even there. As far as they were concerned I was just a bump on the hill that screamed ouch when they hit it. My point is, I got up and went right back down again only not on top this time. I never got hurt let alone broke any bones.

Photoman

Cold War Relic

This image of a fallout shelter sign is hanging proudly on the courthouse building in downtown Xenia. I am not sure how may times I have passed this building but I had never noticed the sign until recently. If you look closely there is a capacity limit of 240. I don't know how long this sign has been up but I am sure it was during the cold war era. I don't know who they intended to allow in and who they were going to turn away but there are and were a lot more than 240 people in Xenia both then and now.

Photoman

Pow Wow

I took this photo at a local Indian Pow Wow. Each year there is a group of American Indians and their descendants that get together for a family reunion or what they call a Pow Wow. It is open to the public and is quite interesting and entertaining. If you get the chance you should try to attend a Pow Wow in your area.

Photoman

Abstract

Tonight is one of those nights where I don't really feel like writing but I must if I want to have a daily blog. I don't remember when I took this image but it is a bunch of lights out of focus. I have always liked images like this so when I came across this one I thought I would share it with you. I had a fun day of shooting couples portraits at a local high school homecoming tonight. Now I have a basement full of teenagers in my basement having a very loud after party. I think I am going to be up for a while tonight.

Photoman

Senior Portraits

I thought I would share this image from a recent Senior Portrait shoot that I did. I love shooting Seniors especially when they are as photogenic as this young lady.

Photoman

Happy Birthday to me!

I recently had a birthday and thought I would share a photo of me blowing out the candles on my cake. So happy birthday to me!

Photoman

Help!

I need help in finding out what kind of flower this is, one of my faithful followers has expressed an interest in flowers, I am hoping that she may be able to help. If any one knows I would really appreciate some help. I have loved this image since I first made it and I have never known what to call it. For those of you who are interested in photography I made this image by painting with light. It was my first real attempt at painting with light and it was probably the best I have ever done. It must have been a case of beginners luck as I have never been happy with my painting with light results since.

Photoman

Passageway

This is an old farmhouse that sat empty for a while before a group of crackheads moved in an started making crack. Once the police found out about it they seized the property and burned it. It was good practice for the Xenia Fire Departments and it made for a great photo op for me and a friend. Of all of the properties that I have snuck into to shoot this is the first one and the only one that I have been approached by someone and asked to leave. When we explained to the person what we were doing they gave us permission to stay and shoot. One of these days I will not be so lucky, but hey trying not to get caught is half the fun, shooting is the other half.

Photoman

Covered Bridge

Do covered bridges bring back memories from your childhood? If so then you are probably old! I have a few memories of them but not many, there are 6 covered bridges in the Xenia area, this one is the best kept of them all. I really like this bridge it is very photogenic within it's setting. Most of the others are not as easy to photograph. I will go back out to this bridge later this year to check on her but it is to cold right now.

Photoman

American Colors

This huge flag used to hang in an even bigger barn in Xenia. The barn is no longer there as it was demolished. You can see my friend Dave standing by the flag to give you an idea of its size. This is also the 2nd floor of the barn it has another level below where the dairy cows were milked. This level is where the hay was stored to feed the cows. It was an amazing barn, I loved investigating it looking for the next cool photograph.

Photoman

Messed Up Manger Scene

I came across this scene while I was investigating an old unused building at the Legacy Center formerly the Ohio Soldiers and Sailors Orphans Home and the Ohio Veterans Children's Home. I am not sure but I believe this must be the manger set that the orphans used at Christmas time. It was quite odd to find them kind of forgotten and alone in this old building.

Photoman

National Day of Prayer

The image from yesterdays blog and today's blog were taken during the National Day of Prayer Rally at the Legacy Center in Xenia. These students are from Xenia Christian High School, I love the emotion of the moment that is visible on the face of the students as they pray and sing praises to God.

Photoman

Summer Time Fun.

Image from a street fair that is held in Xenia every summer. I wish it were summer time here now.

Photoman

5 Alarm Fire

This used to be my favorite place to shoot, so when this fire hit I was very disappointed. Shortly after the fire the remaining structure that didn't burn was quickly brought down and the rubble was cleaned up. Now there are only weeds growing where this once magnificent barn stood. I took well over 100 images that night as I knew that I would probably never get to shoot inside the barn again.

Photoman

Pepsi my vice of choice.

I found this old Pepsi sign in a building while I was out shooting a while ago. I drink Pepsi everyday and if I could I would bring this sign home and hang it above my fireplace. Unfortunately I don't have a fireplace where I live and if I did it is bigger than any room in my house. This thing was huge.

Photoman

Abandoned

I like this image of an old basketball sitting about mid court in an abandoned gymnasium. The netting hanging in front of the windows adds a mystery to the image and the light from the windows adds warmth. This particular image is one that hangs in my gallery.

Photoman

Broom

I love this image, I took this while I was in photography school. This is one of those moments that I will remember forever but will in my lifetime never be able to return to it. This building has been remodeled since this image was taken. The room you are looking into is now an office in a beautifully remodeled banquet center. While I was walking through this building I came up a stairwell and was immediately drawn to the broom that you see in this image. When I made this image I had my camera on a tripod and had it set up in the stairwell. I couldn't actually see through the viewfinder so it took me a few exposures to get this shot. My new camera has a live view feature that would have made this much easier.

Photoman

Architectural Detail

This figure of a winged lion adorns the Greene County Court House Steps in Xenia, Ohio. It has a twin sitting across from it as guards to the Court House entrance. I don't know who the artist is but I like them so I decide that I would use them as my subject for tonight. If I can find out some more information I will post it later for you to read.

Photoman

Clock Tower

This is the clock tower of the courthouse in Xenia. I love this image with the beige stone building contrasted against the rich blue sky. I can't believe it turned out so nice. I didn't do anything to the colors of this image in photoshop. The sky was pretty much cloudy and gray while I was shooting, the sun was out and the sky was blue for this image but I didn't know it was a deep and rich as it was until I saw this image on my computer. I had tried to get this same image a few days ago but when I got the files up on my computer I noticed spots all over the image, predominately in the blue sky. I looked at each image of the clock tower and it was on each one. I looked at the rest of the images I had shot and sure enough there were those ugly splotches. Long story short something had found its way onto the cmos sensor inside my camera. I was almost sick, I just got this camera. I was able to get the sensor cleaned and I shot this image again and voila no nasty spots just clean blue skies.

Photoman

Green Living Grandma

I was walking through town one day and I was looking for images for iStock. My primary goal was to find images that related to seniors and senior living, my second goal was to find images that related to green living. I was totally surprised to find this senior citizen riding her scooter instead of driving a car. It was the perfect mix between senior living and green living. Unfortunately I had to get the shot quickly as she was sitting at a stop light that was about to change. In my haste I didn't hold the camera quite still enough and at high resolution the image is soft. So it didn't make it to iStock. I have the ladies contact info and as soon as it warms up a bit I am going to see if I can get her to do some modeling for me with her scooter. I hope to get some good images this time.

Photoman

Victoria's Eyes

I am in a monthly photography challenge and this months challenge topic was eyes. This image is the image that I chose for my entry though I left it in color for the competition. I really like the contrast of this image in Black and White with a high contrast red filter applied to the image. I really like this young ladies eyes, I had been looking for a subject for this image and had a couple of people in mind but when I saw Victoria I knew I had found the eyes that I had been looking for. The image came out just as I had planned, I am very pleased. I am very thankful to her and her family who worked so well with me to allow me to get this image. I do not know yet how I did in the challenge but I will let you know as soon as I find out. The results should be posted some time next week. I hope you enjoy this image as much as I do.

Photoman

Water Drops

I like shooting water droplets but they have proven to be hard for me. I am not sure why but I have never had good luck with them. I found a way to make it easier but of course everything has a price. It is easier to get the droplets to stay in place for the photograph if they are frozen to whatever it is you are shooting. The problem that it poses is that it makes it very hard to keep yourself warm. I found this one on a very cold day, one of the coldest days of 2008. It was fun to be out shooting even though it was cold. I would recommend that you be patient and do your water droplet shooting in the summer months. This image was shot just outside of the Hooven Allison property on the south east side of Xenia.

Photoman

Positively NO Trespassing!

The sign says positively no trespassing, but the property is just begging for me to come in and have a look around. I love old abandoned buildings as they make great places to take pictures. This particular sign is on a property that has many abandoned buildings, some of which are literally falling down and some that are completely intact. I will some day make my way onto the property and check out the remaining buildings. A few years ago this was a working factory today it is a ghost town that continually beckons me to come and photograph it. I intend to make a trip into the property sometime this summer. I will share the photos with you once I have attained them.

Photoman

Were off to see the Wizard!

This is a photo I took during a production of The Wizard of OZ at Xenia Christian High School. It was a great production, to me it was by far the best high school production I have ever seen. I have seen many theatrical productions with professional actors and I can only think of one that rivaled this production, it was Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. I have never seen another high school production that came close to the quality of this production. It was really very professionally done. This production was 2 years ago and since then they have put on Peter Pan which was also very good and they just finished tryouts for the next production Annie. I am excited to see Annie it is one of my favorite theatrical productions. I just do not think they will be able to top The Wizard of OZ.

Photoman

Xenia's finest in action.

This image of part of downtown Xenia is pretty bleak looking at this time of year. If you look at the picture closely you can see a Xenia Police car with its light son, someones day just got a bit bleaker. As I look at this image I realize for the first time why people say Xenia is a hick town, it really looks bad in this image. Looks like some small backwoods community. Xenia's downtown really needs some updating. Maybe the city officials will read my blog and be motivated to do something about it.

Photoman

Photographer in training

This is my apprentice photographer that I have been training for the past couple of years now. She is really quite the little photographer, she has a great natural eye. She still has much to learn but I think she will someday make a great photographer if she will stick with it. Not only is she my apprentice photographer she is also my little adventurer, she loves nature and wildlife. This image was taken in one of Xenia's nature preserves. We were out hiking and as you can see from the photo taking pictures.

Photoman

What Xenia looks like right now.

This photo is not from today, as a matter of fact it isn't even from this winter. It is however pretty much what it looks like right now. We have at least this amount of snow if not more. It is very cold, way to cold to enjoy the snow. So I just stay in and enjoy the blog instead. I shot this image with a Sony digital SLR, it was the first digital SLR I ever used. It was a crappy camera but it was better than my point and shoot Pentax. Well I just wanted to let you have a glimpse of Ohio weather at this time. I will try and get a shot of our current snow if it warms up a bit.

Photoman

Sister Cities?

I haven't been able to find out what Xenia's sister city is but I have not stopped trying yet. I called the Chamber of Commerce and asked and this is the response I got "Hmmm, that's a good question, it seems like I should know this but I don't. I am going to have to refer you to the Greene County Historical Society." So I called the Greene County Historical Society and this is the response I got from them, "I don't know I have been trying to find out myself, I am going to have to refer you to the City Manager. The Community Development department should be able to answer this question." My first thought to this response was, if you have been trying to find the answer to this question and if the Community Development department should be able to answer this, why haven't you already called? Oh well, I called them and all I got was a voice recording saying that the office was closed. I will try again tomorrow, hopefully they will be open. A friend also suggested I call the library so I will try them tomorrow as well. For tonight's post I wanted to show you a better picture of the new Xenia Station bike hub building. I wasn't able to find this image the other day but i found it tonight so I wanted to share it with you.

Photoman

Quack Quack

Shawnee Park is in the heart of downtown Xenia, it is a busy park and is used throughout the year for many events. My friend Earl and I took a walk one day last summer so that we could take some pictures. I was shooting specifically with Stock Photography in mind, Earl was shooting just for fun. I must admit that even though I had the goal of Stock Photography in mind that doesn't mean it wasn't fun. I have fun anytime that I am using my camera, even if it isn't what I like to shoot. To me the best part of photography is just using my camera. Anyway I shot this image of the two young ducks during our walk. We walked from my house all the way through town into the park and back, taking pictures of whatever we saw that said "shoot me". It was during this walk that I happened to get my most successful Stock image, which is not the ducks. I have had a total of 41 images downloaded and this particular image counts for 36 of the 41 downloads. 41 downloads is far from successful but I did just start the stock thing about 6 months ago. I do see a potential to make money at it and I intend to continue, it will likely take me a while to see any real revenue but I am having fun with it in the meantime.

Photoman

Xenia's Finest

I sometimes do some photojournalism work for the local newspapers. The image in today's post is not from one of those times but it could have been if I had submitted the images to them. I was just to busy to make the time to give them the images from this shoot. This building is across the street from where I work and when I got the call that a building was on fire I had to go and see it for myself. Of course before I could go I had to get my camera, lucky for me I live where I work so my camera was close by. I grabbed my camera and was on the site in time to get quite a few images. This fire is nothing in comparison to the first fire that I had the opportunity to photograph, which was probably the biggest and worst fire I will ever have an opportunity to shoot. If you look close enough you can see some small flames at the point where the roof is damaged. This building is attached to another building that is part of a historical pickle packaging factory. Unfortunately the building was lost to the fire but thankfully the rest of the structures were not affected. I credit Xenia's fine fire department for saving the remaining structures.

Photoman

Bicycle Capital of the Midwest?

Yesterday was my first post and I mentioned that Xenia has a sister city somewhere in Europe. I tried my best to find out what and where it is but I tried to no avail, I still do not know the answer. It is the weekend and the local Chamber of Commerce is closed until tomorrow so I won't be able to find out until I can call them. So I will post the answer as soon as I am able to find it.



The image that I am posting today is a photo I took at Xenia Station. Years ago when trains were a major means of transportation Xenia Station was a bustling place. The advent of the Bus was the ultimate demise of the train system in the U.S. With the Interstate people could travel faster and cheaper by bus and soon the trains were used for transportation of cargo. Then not long after that the Semi Truck replaced the train as the cargo carrier of choice, much for the same reason they were faster and cheaper. After the demise of the rail system Xenia Station sat empty for many years and ultimately it was demolished. The tracks have pretty much all been removed and replaced with blacktop bicycle and walking trails. Xenia Station is once again a bustling hub of activity, this time instead of trains coming through Xenia we have bicycles coming to town. Instead of a train hub we have a bicycle hub. A replica of the original train station has been built in much the same place and bicyclist's, walkers, runners, and roller blader's of all shapes and sizes make their way through Xenia Station on any given day. The station house is a place for folks to stop to have a break and get a refreshing drink or snack. While they are there they can also learn a bit of the Xenia Station history. In the above image you just get a glimpse of the building and one of the trails with a walker and cyclist in the picture. I hope you enjoy the photo and will come back to visit my blog in the future.


Photoman

Day 1

Welcome to my blog, this is my first attempt at a city daily blog. I have another daily blog that is more of a personal blog. I am doing this to see if I can keep two blogs updated on a daily basis. My personal blog will likely take precedence over this one but I will do my best to at least post an image from the city of Xenia, Ohio every day. I may not have time to write an article daily but I will do my best to post something everyday.




The above image is a picture of Xenia's Court House and flag pole. If you look at the pole you can see 4 flags flying and the bottom flag is I believe the flag from Xenia's sister city somewhere in Europe. I don't remember what city it is exactly but for some reason it seems to me that it is a city in Switzerland. I am not sure so I will try and find out before tomorrow.

Photoman