Year in Photos

Here it is - my annual 'Year in Photos' where I try to pick my two favorite photos from each month of the year. It gets harder every time - so man great travels, events, and shoots this year.
Click HERE to view it!

Christmas

A few photos from Christmas Morning and Deck the Hall at Stan Hywet.

Missile Toe 2019

Missile Toe at the Akron Art Museum has become a holiday tradition for me and my friends. As usual Jeff and the boys did not disappoint.

Cleveland Bazaar

A few of us went up to the Cleveland Bazaar Holiday! at 78th Street Studios on Sunday. For an Akronite's frame of reference it is basically like a big Crafty Mart. We had a fun time Christmas shopping and checking everything out and then headed over to Good Company for lunch after.

Viaduct Park

I had a shoot at a machine shop in Bedford on Tuesday and afterward I decided to get some lunch and explore a bit. I went to Viaduct Park to see the Great Falls of Tinker's Creek. It is a short but scenic walk. An 1865 train bridge, mill ruins, waterfall, big gorge, giant tunnels etc. After that I went and checked out downtown Bedford since I had never been there before. Cool little downtown.

Thanksgiving Weekend

My Thanksgiving started out as usual with our annual football game. Then it was over to Mom & Dad's for "dinner" and a relaxing day. On Black Friday my family went on its annual brewery crawl. I rode down to Quarter's Up in the Valley to catch some of the Ohio Sate game with friends and family on Saturday, Saturday evening was a chill fire at Erin's and today I am doing some chores and working on photos like these... Here are some images I captured on Thursday and Friday.

2009/2019

I've been seeing a lot of people's end of the decade posts - showing themselves at the beginning and end of the decade. Now some hilarious and depressing memes are popping up to mock the posts. I guess I kind of went the depressing route recreating one of my most popular posts from the Chief Source days - but unfortunately without Josh. Anyways - life and work have been good - but I miss Josh all the time.

Richland B&O Trail

I had a photo shoot in Upper Sandusky last week(which is nowhere near Sandusky fyi) so I decided to see if there was anywhere interesting to stop on the way back. I ended up bringing my bicycle and riding the Richland B&O Bike Trail from Mansfield to Butler and back. It is a scenic 18.4 rail trail that is nicely paved. I also looped around the couple small towns it passes through on the way. I definitely want to come back and ride this again when the weather is nice and spend some more time.

I shot this with my new GoPro Hero 8 Black at 120fps then slowed it to 24fps in post. Besides the awesome stabilization I'm finding the image quality is also a big upgrade from my older Hero 5.

Gorge the Gorge

A coffee, a hike and then a beer? Sounds like a plan. 

'Gorge the Gorge' was put on by Asterisk Coffee Bar and HiHo Brewing. We started at the coffee bar, hiked the Glens Trail and then had a beer at HiHo. Pretty nice day for it.

Zhug

Erin's friend, Chef Douglas Katz, invited her to a preview of his new restaurant, Zhug, in Cleveland Heights and I got to tag along as her plus one. The place has a Mediterranean theme serving small plates meant to be shared... and with a side of the sauce that the restaurant is named after. We had a couple cocktails at the bar before sitting down and eating some pretty amazing food.

First Snow Ride 2019

I hopped on my bike Tuesday afternoon to test out a few things. First I wanted to make sure my old Trek mountain bike was road worthy - I really only use it as my winter bike now. I had also just bought the new GoPro Hero 8 Black. Its most touted feature is the HyperSmooth 2.0 and it did not disappoint. I can't believe how well it stabilizes the video - attaching my old GoPro - the Hero 5 - to the bike handlebars made the video almost unusable, with the new one it looks like I had it on a gimbal. I also shot a hyperlapse with it that looks really great too. The slow motion bits are from my old GoPro... speaking of which GoPros are never known for their low light capability but I did take the new one out on Wednesday night and it is definitely an improvement. Anyways - I'm all around impressed for this small, inexpensive camera - I didn't think I would have ever bought another one but I'm glad that I did. Although not visible here I did make an IGTV version of this video using the new "auto-reframe" tool in Premiere Pro - and that is amazing too - you can check that out on my IG page.

Another One Bites the Dust

Last Friday I was leaving leaving Earthquaker Devices after picking up some guitar pedals to photograph when I pulled over the car and decided to capture some photos of the demolition of the 1918 building that originally housed Akron Pure Milk Co. The block had a few cool buildings on it that would have been great lofts & more as Akron redevelops - but instead we will get an awesome new surface lot for hospital employees!! Woot. Anyways - I made a lap around the block and took these images.

The Minerva-Swerva

My second recent slow-motion video. This was shot in the same way as the last GoPro video - I just should have realized shooting 120 fps indoors on a GoPro would not look all that great. Is still like this video of our day trip to Minerva though. I hope my next Canon camera has 120fps in 1080 so I can really do this kind of thing better.

Day Trip

Erin and I felt like getting out of town for the day but didn't have any plans. We basically ended up picking a town on Google Maps that had a brewery and a place to eat that was within an hours drive - Minerva. We turned the "no freeways" option on the navigation and drove to Sandy Springs Brewing. They were having a second anniversary party with live music and special beer releases. We had some really good beers and a great lunch then decided to also hit the brand new UnHitched Brewing on our way back home.

Halloween Cover Show

On Halloween evening I went to Akron Recording Company to see their Halloween Show. They had three bands doing cover sets and all were amazing. First was Kate Bush, then Tom Petty, and finally Amy Winehouse. ARC is mainly a recording studio but it is such a cool spot to see a show too.

Back to Boston

I had never been to Boston before going three times in the last two years after my friend Eric moved there. This time Erin came with me as I was in Eric's wedding. We left on Friday evening(I had to work all day Friday) and stayed until Wednesday morning(I had to work Wednesday evening). I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning doing wedding things and wedding friends' things - which was a lot of fun - and then most of the next few days with Erin and with Erin's friend Colleen who also lives in Boston.  Most of these photos are from the latter part of the trip.

Halloween Charity Ball 2019

The Halloween Charity Ball is a great event that raises tens of thousands of dollars for a different charity each year. It is also one of my favorite event to photograph - people in costumes dancing and having fun. I believe this is the 5th year I have shot it. View all of the photos on the website.

Epic Slow-Mo Ride

I haven't messed with slow-motion video too much mainly because my Canon dSLR's aren't that good at it - they only record 1080 at 60 frames per second. My GoPro Hero 5 Black on the other hand can do 120 fps in 1080 so I shot this video with that. In Premiere Pro I then convert the footage to 24 fps for that classic slow motion look. GoPro's obviously have their image quality limitations but in bright sun like this the footage came out looking pretty good.

Asterisk Grand Opening

Though Asterisk Coffee Bar on Front Street in Cuyahoga Falls has technically been open serving coffee for a few weeks and a couple of days serving cocktails they held an official grand opening last night. Asterisk is Albert Masco's second location - they will be serving the same coffee and espresso drinks as Akron Coffee Roasters but also have a liquor license and are serving beer and cocktails. For now the evening hours are just Thursday - Saturday but that should be expanding in the future.

Morning at the Bridge

I woke up the other morning and was finishing my breakfast when the sun just started to shine in. With Fall color just about at its peak i decided to walk over to the High Level Bridge and snap a few photos before I got to work. I'm glad I did - the light turned out to be beautiful. 

Weekend Round Up

Between work and some social events I had a pretty busy but nice weekend. I will have a few posts based on some of my shoots soon - but here are a few snaps I took that wouldn't constitute a full post on there own. 

Above is my family hiking at Silver Creek Metro Park.

Savor the Summit

'Savor the Summit' is an annual event that raises money for the Summit Food Coalition, an organization focused on promoting local food. The event always features amazing food and drinks as well as a pie auction, wine/beer pull and more. They also give out the Local Food Hero award which this year happened to go to my girlfriend, Erin Molnar. Here are a few of my favorite images from the evening.

Fall-ing Hard

I didn't snap a ton of photos this weekend but man did I do a ton of things. My weekend actually started on Thursday evening when my friend Aaron took a group of us to Pittsburgh to see one of our favorite High School band, The Queers. I didn't want to worry about the venues camera policy so I didn't bring it. On Friday evening Erin and I went to a market at the amphitheater in downtown Cuyahoga Falls. On Saturday I left my house on my bicycle at 11:30 and rode through a festival in Peninsula, to Oktoberfest in Kent, to Oktoberfest in Akron, over to the closing of my show at Summit ArtSpace, then to a house show in Highland Square. Sunday Erin and I hit two farm markets and a makers market in Willoughby. There were also a couple brewery stops sprinkled in throughout....

Ohio to Erie vid

I posted a bunch of photos and a short instagram video shortly after our Ohio to Erie Trail trip over the Fourth of July but I just finally got to editing the long version. Four days of riding captured with my GoPro Hero 5 Black. My goal was to edit the video to the music as best as possible. It took some time but I think it was worth it.
The song is by my old band - The Strange Division.

Kendall Morning 2019

Late Summer/early Fall is one of my favorite times to hike and take nature photographs. Last week I headed out to the Kendall hills in the Cuyahoga Valley before sunrise to make some images. I was hoping there would be a little more morning fog to shoot the sunrise through but I still got some cool shots. The shallow depth photos of the dewy plants were my favorites.  

Chargers Street Gang

I saw The Chargers Street Gang a number of time on their first go-around in the late 90s/early 2000s. They were a favorite local punk band of my friends and I and I was glad I caught them early on at a few rad small house shows. They recently reunited and a few of us rode to see them with Fringe Candidate and White Lighter. They put on an amazing show that was exactly as I remembered - pretty incredible.

Akron Soul Train

Micah Kraus had an opening at the Akron Soul Train gallery on Main Street downtown Akron. The show was fantastic - screen prints, photographs as well as other mixed media and collage combinations of all of them. Really cool and interesting pieces to check out. I'll be back in the space a little later to professionally photograph some of the pieces - these are just a few snaps from the opening party.

Analog NYC

I brought my 1940's Kodak Hawkeye Brownie with me to New York. I still enjoy experimenting with vintage cameras and film and I like using something super simple sometimes. I shot two rolls - Kodak TMax 100, which came out exposed pretty nicely,  and a long expired roll of Fuji NPS 160 color negative film which has the exact vintage look you would expect. The key with these old Kodak box cameras is to hold them really still - I would guess the shutter is around 1/50th so its easy to introduce blur in the shots. I lost a few images to that....

Steve McCurry in Canton

On Saturday Rick and I went down to Canton to see Steve McCurry do a Q&A at the Joseph Saxton Gallery of Photography. If you don't think you know who that is you at least know his most famous photo - Afghan Girl(google it) - it is probably in the top five of most famous photographs ever taken(if not just #1 at this point). He is an absolute master of color and light and the gallery had an incredible collection of large prints on display. If you haven't been to Joseph Saxton it is always worth the trip as their collection in general is up there with museums and galleries in NYC or Chicago. Anyways - McCurry was interesting to hear from. There were some of the boring technical questions(he isn't a studio photographer bro, knowing what f-stop he used isn't going to help you) but most of it was thoughtful.

Bike Bag Camera

As I've been riding around this summer I have usually had my older camera(Canon 6D with a 40mm pancake lens) in my bike bag. I've been snapping photos with that then transferring them over its wifi directly to my phone for social media posts. Here are a few from a few weeks ago that were on my card.

CX at Edgewater

My friend Woody has been racing cyclo-cross with Joy Machines Racing for a few years now but I hadn't had the chance to see him. With Sunday looking like a beautiful day Ben and I decided to ride up to Edgewater Park and take in the first race of the season. Since it was going to be over a 70 mile day for Ben and I in the saddle I just brought my usual riding set-up - the Canon 6D with the 40mm pancake lens - not an ideal rig for sports photography but I still did my best to catch a few cool photos of my friends.

Day in Brooklyn

We spent our last full day in New York exploring Brooklyn. We both had a couple of spots we wanted to check out. Erin lived in Brooklyn and had spent most of her time there. She couldn't believe how much some of the neighborhoods had changed - or some areas where there hadn't really been anything before. Not to mention the glass towers that are now going up in Brooklyn too.

Brooklyn Bridge Walk

You've seen this photo of the bridge, I've sen this photo of the bridge - but I still wanted to take mine anyways. Walking over the Brooklyn Bridge is always on my list when I go to New York but this time I finally made it happen - in good light and everything.

NYC Part Three

After a coffee stop I rode my bike back to the rental place then met Erin at the Union Square Green Market - a farmers' market in Union Square. We spent most of the morning/afternoon shopping - or more accurately window shopping. A highlight was the Chelsea Market where we ate lunch, but also checked out many boutiques, artist markets, and all sorts of other spots.

New York City by Bike

On our second day in NYC we got up and hit another one of Erin's excellent coffee shop choices(apparently I didn't take any photos - probably because I hadn't had coffee yet). We then went back to the room and got organized for a day on bicycles. We rented a couple of hybrids from Blazing Saddles near the base of the Brooklyn Bridge. We rode around Lower Manhattan, along battery park, and then followed a trail all the way up the Hudson River into Washington Heights before cutting over to The Bronx. Erin wasn't so fond of these bikes so she hopped a subway back south and I rode along the East River meeting her in Soho.

New York City Day 1

I always love visiting New York City - there is just an energy there that I haven't quite felt anywhere else I've been. I've wanted to get back for a while. Erin ended up finding a really good deal on some plane tickets and then we found an Air BnB in Two Bridges that seemed cool and affordable.

Summer Things

Downtown at Dusk, Countryside Farmers Market at Howe Meadow, Magic City Brewing, and more - all great Summit County summer places to ride and meet friends. Here are are a few shots I took while out and about on my bicycle over the last week.

Roller Skating on Cascade Plaza

Downtown Akron Partnership has been hosting monthly themed roller skating parties on Cascade Plaza. This month I photographed the 90's party for them. I stay off of the skates though.

Weekend Rides

I went on a couple cool bike rides last weekend. On Friday night Ben, Ryan and I rode out to Bent Ladder at Rittman Orchards - it is a cidery on an absolutely beautiful farm. We were in time for a perfect sunset - and their hard cider is fantastic. On Sunday we rode out to Portage Lakes State Park and had a picnic and went for a swim. 

I always make a "summer list" and these were two things I get to check off.

Ratz2Derby

Riding the the demolition Derby at the Summit County Fair is my small bicycle group's yearly party - we open the ride up to anyone(normally we are just a small group of friends that rides every Wednesday). We drink the over-priced awful beer, slam some fair food, and cheer like crazy.

Akron2Akron: Bikes Along the Towpath

So this one is obviously up my alley! Instead of the typical neighborhood walking tour we took the Towpath around town. Interesting stops and people as always!!

Rave on Main

Downtown Akron Partnership held a family friendly dance party at Cascade Plaza last night. I captured the fun for them, drank my first White Claw and Ben taught me how to line dance!

Christmas in July

Every year I shoot Akron Snow Angel's Christmas in July. In the cold months Snow Angel's pass out supplies to those who are in immediate need. This event is the day they do it over the summer. There are snack, haircuts, health check ups and more.

White Lighter and The Dreemers

White Lighter are a band of friends that I have known forever - The Dreemers are a band that I've more recently become friends with. Both are great. Here is some photos of them playing Musica.

Akron2Akron: South Akron

I was bummed to miss the last Akron2Akron - but I had a colleague photograph it for me. Anyways - this edition was in South Akron and was a good one since I had never been to most of the places that we visited and learned about.

Ohio to Erie

Over the 4th of July Ben, Erin and I rode the Ohio to Erie Trail from our doors to Cincinnati. We did it in four days - 312 miles. We camped two days, stayed with a friend one, and then an Air BnB in Cinci. A few friends joined us in the beginning - all the details follow below.

Super-Domestique

Le Tour de France starts tomorrow!!! I'm ready!!!

Touring Machine

A few of us are about to embark on a multiple day bike-packing adventure to Cincinnati on the Ohio to Erie Trail. This is my weapon of choice. The frame, fork and bars are my 1983 Trek 500 but all of the components and wheels I took from my 2007 Trek 1500. The goal is modern tech with that smooth, steel, vintage ride. Now that I have it loaded and photographed its time for the test ride!

Torchbearers in Pittsburgh

Last weekend I photographed the Torchbearers trip to Pittsburgh. I have been to Pittsburgh a few times now and I always enjoy it. There was plenty of fun and good food on the trip but the most important thing was how much I learned. We met with so many interesting organisations that are doing amazing work - great ideas that can be brought back to Akron. I also saw parts of Pittsburgh that I had never been to before(even snuck a little ride in on a citi bike).

Akron2Akron West Hill 1

A new season of Akron2Akron neighborhood walking tours is upon us! The first one was the West Hill mini-tour. The weather didn't really cooperate but we managed to learn, mingle and and have fun anyways.

Lunch Outside

Erin and I rode out to a spot in Kent to have a little picnic lunch. I've heard to this spot referred to as the "Moon Tower" - one of the few remnants of the Erie Rail Yard that used to be here. It is obviously a popular hang out spot as the decades of broken beer bottles can attest.

Memorial Day Ride

On Memorial Day a group of us decided to ride up to Cleveland and go to Noble Beast Brewing's Second Anniversary Party. Ben and I rode down and met each other at the Dog Park, we met Erin at the Ira Trailhead, and the three of us met Brad in Boston at TrailMix. We ended up running into a couple more friends by the Towpath Mounds in Tremont and they joined us for the ride as well. This was the perfect chance to test out my latest photography purchase - the Canon 40mm f/2.8 pancake lens. I was curious to see how this tiny and inexpensive($200) lens would perform.

Cleveland Ride Vid

Ben and I rode up to Cleveland to check out the new Joy Machines Bike Shop and have lunch at Saucy Brew Works - I made a short GoPro video of our adventure.

Farmer's Feast

Last Saturday night Erin and I attended "Sprung Spring" a "farm to table experience collaboration from Colin Brown & Annabella Andricks" at Erin's friends' farm Yellow House Cheese. The night started off with cocktails, cheese, and other snacks during live music - but I was pretty much wandering around taking photos during the beautiful sunset. The home infused cocktails and snacks were amazing and then Colin started bringing out the three courses of lamb that were from the farm. The food, music and overall atmosphere couldn't have been better.

Summit Lake Loop Trail

On Saturday I went to Summit Lake to check out the new Summit Lake Loop Trail - they were having a kick-off event. It really is amazing what some signage, mowing and a small bridge can do. Much of the trail is just a line mowed through a few fields - but it totally transforms the area. It is somewhere you never have would've walked and now it feels like beautiful park.

They had different activity stands along a few different points of the trail for the event. 

Augmented at Lock 2

New Territory created an augmented reality canal boat at Lock 2 for the Ohio & Erie Canalway. You simply download the app then point your camera at the photo on the banner and the canal boat comes to life - you can walk in it and all around it. Very cool. I can imagine so many cool applications for this technology. I rode my bicycle down and shot some photos during the kick off event.