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