It's Dead

My computer is officially dead. I re-installed the operating system and after many restarts the hard drive started clicking and wouldn't load the OS. Thank god I had already moved all of my photos and music off the main drive. I won't be able to post any new decent photos until I purchase a new computer....

Ciders and Wines

My desktop computer is on the fritz again....and I have so much to post. I'll figure the situation out this weekend. In the meantime this is a photo of Zipper City Cider Werks....a spiced apple wine K made tonight in front, a hard cider I racked tonight to clear in back, and the Christmas Ale bottle conditioning in the coke crates - shot with my Surface....and posted that way too......

Mitchell's Orchard and Farm Market

For a few weeks Dave and I had been passing a sign for Mitchell's Orchard on our way home from where we work(outside Ashland, OH). I had been wanting to get some cider for brewing spiced, holiday apple wine for New Year's Eve. Today we finally decided to stop and check the place out. To our surprise it was filled with all kinds of wines(including local), a large selections of micro brews, and a home-brewing supply section. I was in heaven. I forgot to check out most the other treats that they had(including their apples which I had planned on buying). It looks like they also have a tasting room and occasionally have brewing and other classes. I believe that in the Summer they sell other fresh produce. This won't be the last time we'll be stopping at Mitchell's. 

Ohio Brewing Christmas Party

Last night Laura and I went downtown to Ohio Brewing Company for their Christmas Party, which I had read about it in the food section of the Beacon Journal. There was free food, bands, and we bought a growler of Jingle Bell Ale to share. The location was cool - they had a small bar right in the brewery, a "tap room" or "tasting room" as they say, and they set up some extra tables to sit at. We did some dancing to a cover band called 'Average Joe' but didn't stick around for the other bands. The crowd was extremely eclectic. I wouldn't rate Ohio Brewing's beer nearly as high as Akron's Thirsty Dog or Hoppin' Frog - its more or less average for a micro-brewery - but we ended up having a really good time and we would both return for other events. 

I shot these photos at the extremely high ISO of 5000 which is why they are so noisy/grainy. It was one of those situations were I didn't bring my flash and grainy photos are better than no photos.

Horses!

The mobile home park that I'm working at this Winter is next to an Amish Farm. This morning the farmer's horses and goats were right by where I park. I snapped a few photos before getting to work. The area surrounding where I work is beautiful country of rolling hills, large grain farms, and Amish Farms. Its not uncommon to see horse drawn carriages and tractors passing by....

Morning Lights & Empty Lots

A couple of the morning light photos that I couldn't get to post yesterday because of my computer troubles. After the Jump are a couple of photos from work...
Tractor wheel.

Spaghetti and Computers

This morning I took some pretty photographs of a frosty sunrise in the Cuyahoga Valley - so you're probably thinking "why am I looking at Tim's diner?" If you think its because I've started to make my own spaghetti sauce, which make me feel good and save money, then you are only partially right. Its mainly because I really like the original idea of this blog (posting at least a photo every day) and because my computer won't turn on(so I can't edit of upload this morning's photos).  The computer troubles have been going on for a while but for the last week or so the thing had been working great - loading Photoshop actions like it was just out of the box! After deciding that I was going to buy a new computer my old one lulled me into a false sense of security just long enough to make me miss the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Anywho, I'm typing this from my Microsoft Surface RT .....and dang - I make good spaghetti.

Kodak Black and White + 400

Last weekend I shot a roll of Kodak Black and White + 400 in my Nikon L35 Af(after I finished my roll of Fuji NPH 400). This is a film that comes out black and white but is developed using the color process of C-41(the processing photo labs use) instead of black and white chemicals(that I use at home). My friend, Dave, gave me a few rolls of this which was leftover from when he was in College Photography - so it is a few years expired. The reviews say its a fine grained film and comparing it to my Tri-X negatives I would say that the age added a bit of grain, but I didn't seem to notice any loss in speed. I don't believe Kodak still makes this specific film but they do make a different C-41 black and white film(BW400CN). Overall I was happy with the results I achieved with this film, however I prefer to develop my own black and white film so if this wasn't a free gift I probably wouldn't have ever shot it.  I can see why this would be a great for someone who wanted to shoot black an white film without doing home developing.   

Fuji 400 NPH

I shot my first roll of Fuji 400 NPH over the last few weeks but I can't really judge the quality of this reportedly beautiful film because it was well expired - and as you can see above it developed a very cyan-ish tone and became quite grainy. Color shifts and extra grain are to be expected when shooting expired film but what I can't figure out is why it didn't happen in a few of the frames(like the one below). The only explanation that would make any sense to me would be that my scanner was compensating on certain frames but I doubled checked my settings and there was nothing. The same thing happened to me with an expired role of Kodad Gold 400 once and I kind of shrugged it off - now I'm really curious. I need to ask the lab and do some more research into what is going on. Both roles were shot with my Nikon L35 AF - my go to camera when I want something small, cheap(now), and with a flash.

Akron History Museum

As usual we headed Downtown Akron for the lighting ceremony at Lock 3 on Friday night. The fireworks and lighting were great as usual. We then checked out the Akron History Museum - we do this every year also - but I always enjoy it. I cranked up the ISO on my Canon 7D and took some shots.

Modern Tradition

On the Friday after Thanksgiving it has become tradition for my family to do some shopping at the West Side Market followed by some drinks in the area. This year Great Lakes Brewery was a little to crowded for our large group so we grabbed our food and drink at the Market Garden Brewery. 

Thanksgiving

Family, food, laughs, and hikes. Lots of 'thanks'.

Old Friend Meet New Friend

I believe my Dad was given this Panasonic Stereo as a gift from the bank he worked for sometime in the early 70's. My memories of it start when I was quite young - it was always in the family room. I remember hearing it play Christmas songs on many Christmas mornings, my Parent's record collection, and un-televised sports games(remember those days?). I acquired it around twelve years ago(though I had used its now-dead record player since college). I've had it hooked up to a new record player, a DVD player, MP3 player and now I use it with my Microsoft Surface RT. When my former band, The Strange Division, would record we would never be content with a mix of our recordings until we could play a copy of the sessions on this stereo - it just sounds so classic. 

Just Walking

Just a self-portrait of me walking down the tracks in my neighborhood.
I like it.

Frosty Morning

Frosty leaves on a chilly fall morning at the farm...
Frosty broken corn stalks....

Evicted

An interesting and unfortunate place in the country. A vanishing community. The farmers and the poor. Where dreams come to die.

Surface Camera

I forgot to mention in my Surface review how awful the cameras are(there is one on each side). I had mostly shot them inside so I thought maybe they just performed lousy in low light. On Friday I needed to work on my car and I had my Surface outside with me in case I needed to look anything up. I shot the above photo of my old gas filler neck next to the new one in fairly bright light - this smaller version looks just OK but when you see it full size you can see the pixelation and some noise. Microsoft labels the cameras and 720p but they only shoot photos at 1 megapixel. I don't plan on using the tablet's camera as anything more than a webcam(and probably rarely for that) but I think the lack of quality here may turn some other people off(especially with the way I see people carrying around and shooting with iPads these days).

By the way, I successfully replaced my filler neck only to find out my gas tank is rusty and leaky too - that's gonna be a fun job..... 

The Hardest of Ciders

Last year my girlfriend and I started to get into homebrewing(post)a little and we made a batch of IPA. I've wanted to brew beer again but didn't have the time. After some YouTube searches I realized how much less time consuming making ciders and wines are so I brewed a cider first. The cider came out really well so I decided to try another round. My first batch was made from unpasteurized cider, brown sugar, and champagne yeast - the batch I just put up is the same except with pasteurized cider - I wanted to see if the flavor is different without the wild yeasts. I bottled a batch of 'inmate brew' or 'country wine' also - that consisted of 2 gallons of grape juice, one gallon of apple cider, dry wine yeast, and a bunch of sugar. The taste wasn't bad and the brew had a definite kick - I got tore-up on it election night. This weekend(now that I have more time) I'm going to try and brew a Christmas Beer. I'm sure I'll be posting more brewing related articles as we get into Winter...