NE OH Gathering May 14-16, 2010

ic-racer said:

OK, that would make it a lot easier. I eventually wound up on a high, narrow divide with Boston Mills Road down on one side and the creek on the other side. It was pretty steep on each side. It connected the back of the ski slope to the big cellphone tower.

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Not sure, but I think we may be talking about different sides of the creek. The path I mentioned goes up first NW, then N from the creek. If I understand you, I believe you went south from the creek. If so, obviously we arrived at different places. Both might be very interesting, if not strenuous to explore.

John

Nicholas Lindan said:

As to the get-together. At this time it looks like I will be in cloudy, cold and miserable Northern California that weekend. If things change, I will certainly be at John's with the rest of you. If not, I'll say hello to Pt. Lobos, Muir Beach and the Yosemite dogwoods for you, though I will be wishing I was back in Cleveland.

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Thanks for letting us know what is happening for you. I for one would happily go along to see those wonderful places. A safe trip and takes lots of pictures to share next time.

John

There is a darkroom setup for sale on the Cleveland Craigslist that's just north of our meeting area. Omega D series and C700 enlargers with trays, drums, roller base, several timers, grain focuser, color analyzer, etc. $125 for the lot.

http://cleveland.craigslist.org/pho/1688814000.html

Not an endorsement, just a heads up for those traveling here who might want to look into it or are looking for a good price on a 4x5 enlarger (with lots of other stuff thrown in).

Lee

The girls and I decided to hike the two water falls (Blue Hen and Buttermilk) this morning just to see how the trail was and what was the potential for photographs? Locally the dogwoods are beautifully in bloom, but down by the waterfalls it was too early and cool for the blooms. We arrived at Blue Hen just after 8:30 AM.

Here is a link to Blue Hen at various seasons. http://www.nps.gov/cuva/photosmultimedia/index.htm?eid=166559&root_aId=385

Today the water flow was most like the spring image. http://www.nps.gov/mwr/customcf/apps/pgallery/photo.cfm?pid=5559&aid=385&gid=385

By arriving by 8:30 AM the sun was still low enough that the dark area below the top of the fall, but above the landing of the water, was nicely illuminated. There would have been detail in a photograph that probably would have been lost in darkness if photographed at the time of the second link.

There is a sign that says “Blue Hen Falls, Trail ends.” We went on to Buttermilk Falls, about a mile further down stream. Since the trail is closed, a lot of trees have fallen and not been removed. The trail is still very obvious; you just have to walk around a few obstacles. You have to cross the stream three times to follow the closed trail. You can usually find rocks to step on. Wear boots or shoes that will hold wet, slimy stone. I would suggest against tennis shoes because there are so many rocks and roots you would not have the support and protection my feet need. If you slip in the water, water proof is nice, but for most boots it is only up to the lace holes. The water was quite cool this morning.

Buttermilk Falls was partially illuminated by about 9:00 AM. Full lighting like this http://gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/buttermilkCUVA.shtml must be earlier or later, I am not sure. Lee L. this is more your area of expertise. When do you think the lighting would cover the whole fall? The water is falling east.

We got back to Blue Hen about 9:30 AM and the fill light mentioned above was gone. We had a wonderful walk. The girls were wet and muddy. One of my socks was wet, but it was a great a beautiful walk that I hope you will enjoy. I am showered and dry now. The girls are damp but asleep. Savannah, the 12 year old is groaning in her sleep.

Come on down and visit.

John

Two messages copied from the Mid West LF Asylum

I'm looking forward to checking out Ohio. I'm not sure when I'll get there Friday-the weather forecast will probably determine if I'm going to try and get up super early and get through Chicago before morning rush hour, or if I'll sleep in and try Chicago mid-morning. I'll probably drive around and scope out Cuyahoga a little then drop in Friday night to say hi and see if anyone has any dawn shooting plans and wants company.

Colleen

Colleen,

Glad to read that you are coming. If you are going to prowl around the park a bit first, take a look at this page for over all and specific maps of the many features of the park. http://www.nps.gov/cuva/planyourvisit/maps.htm
We will have a paper handout map for you when you get here, but they are also in wooden boxes at just about every trail head. That is where I grab them to give out.

I just noticed the park link I gave at the start of this thread is no longer functioning. The http://www.nps.gov/cuva/planyourvisit/ page is a good starting place.

Lee, Dorothy and Shawn are the usual dawn shooters and can show or tell you about some of the places they have been before. The girls and I are usually out hiking by 8:30 AM and can tell you what we like.

It is a long ride, 360 miles from here to O’Hare. Don’t be surprised if it feels like a nap when you get here. It always has for me in the thirty years I have driven to Chicago, but Dolly thinks the Mennonite pork chops, gravy and mashed potatoes mid Indiana may have something to do with it.

Let me know if you have any information requests. We usually gather about 5 PM, talk, show prints, go somewhere for dinner and come back to the house.

John

That's the first picture I've seen of Buttermilk. It looks like I will be coming Saturday afternoon sometime and staying through Sunday afternoon (but you know me - don't engrave that in stone just yet). I will DEFINATELY be at buttermilk falls around sunrise for some "quiet light" shooting Sunday morning! Thanks for the update and info, john!

Shawn

Net views of Buttermilk Falls

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2903336130011572354mTAbRE

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2098508240011572354oflWrj

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2905636550011572354XTWlHJ

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2257701570011572354PfOrtk

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2193381830011572354vtRQPB

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2855662420011572354OfeQkp

I think I may have mentioned earlier that at one of our Hiking Hounds events we walked to the bottom of this falls. While one of the owners was not looking his dog, about Labrador size, climbed about half way up the falls. The owner then climbed about a third of the way up trying to talk his dog down. The girls and I just sat back and admired, thanking someone that it was not us.

John

You Hiking Hounds folks sound like you have one hell of a time! LOL

Thanks for the pics - not only am I excited to go but now I can't concentrate on my work. Leave it to john... =)

Shawn

Isn't that a retired person's purpose in life?

JP

Thank you so much for the visual update. I am really getting excited about the journey and meeting the new friends.

I just picked up a Voigtlander 12mm M mount lens to use on my rangefinders I will bring along, having experimented with it for about an hour and a half as I look at the falls I bet I will need a snorkel to use it right with these falls, you have to get so close to things to get a presence in the frame.

So hikes begin at 0830? Any hearty 0600 people out there to do some pre hike hikes? I got one of those 0422 AM biological clocks that God blessed/cursed me with and maybe there is an opportunity to do a few night shots too somewhere.

Lee

Lee,

I have the C/V 15mm with M adapter. If you'd like to try that out, let me know and I'll bring it. I usually bring 35mm rangefinders and lenses.

John hikes with the labs about 8:30 on a normal day, but stays around and is a gracious host a lot in the morning during these events. Others of us have been known to go shooting earlier, but access to one favorite shooting area is cut off before about 6:30 am. There are a couple of good spots to look for early morning fog on the water, and the area that opens up at 6:30 has good morning light on some interesting cliffs.

Lee

(is there an echo in here?)

Lee L said:

Lee,

I have the C/V 15mm with M adapter. If you'd like to try that out, let me know and I'll bring it. I usually bring 35mm rangefinders and lenses.

John hikes with the labs about 8:30 on a normal day, but stays around and is a gracious host a lot in the morning during these events. Others of us have been known to go shooting earlier, but access to one favorite shooting area is cut off before about 6:30 am. There are a couple of good spots to look for early morning fog on the water, and the area that opens up at 6:30 has good morning light on some interesting cliffs.

Lee

(is there an echo in here?)

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Lee, this is Lee (No echo here, here, here, here)

Do you have a 15mm VC viewfinder? I have not picked up a viewfinder for the 12mm and rumor has it that the 12mm is the full view of the 15mm outside the bright lines. I have a 21mm finder and when I put that on the M8 and go full view it is very close in framing by ignoring the frame lines in the finder and looking at everything you see in there with the 12mm VC lens. So yes add a few ounces to the camera bag and bring the 15 and finder.

Look forward to the early morning fog walks. Brings out a few chords of the old Rock song, Smoke on the Water, dum dum dum, dum da dum...... and nice erie spires rising from the water.

that other Lee or DaLeeMan as some know me.

Thanks for the kind words Lee L.

Other known suspects for early ventures are Dorothy, Shawn (Sunday morning) and Colleen. All others have yet to declare themselves except Dale who said earlier (possibly an earlier thread) that 2 PM was a nice morning time for shooting. I am just grateful that there are doctors awake 24x7 when we need them.

There are so many wonderful places to walk and photo in the park that you all just have to keep coming back again and again. The girls and I just got back in from a three mile stroll in the woods near the Kendall Ledges.

Perhaps that is a good segue to say that if you are reading this, have not already said you are coming, and would like to come to this event as a film shooter, you are most welcome. Just contact me by PM with name, address, phone, an emergency contact person and phone, and when we might expect you. I will return with directions and our contact information.

John Powers

Shawn Dougherty said:

I will DEFINATELY be at buttermilk falls around sunrise ...

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You may, or may not want to bring your chainsaw to the falls . Looks like there is a big tree that has fallen down the falls.

daleeman said:

Do you have a 15mm VC viewfinder? I have not picked up a viewfinder for the 12mm and rumor has it that the 12mm is the full view of the 15mm outside the bright lines. I have a 21mm finder and when I put that on the M8 and go full view it is very close in framing by ignoring the frame lines in the finder and looking at everything you see in there with the 12mm VC lens. So yes add a few ounces to the camera bag and bring the 15 and finder.

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Yep, have the 15mm finder and will bring it. It was automatically sold with the lens, as with nearly all the wide C/V lenses+finders in LTM. Have heard the same about the 15mm finder working full-field for the 12mm. The same finder without bright frame IIRC.

What's an M8? Is it like half an M16? Or 2 M3's plus an M2?

Lee

Here are a few more shots from my adventure. This is another view of Buttermilk falls from above:

Here is the top of the slope. This is the area where John and I must have taken separate paths. I wasn't able to imagine the dogs pulling John up to the top via this route

jp80874 said:

Buttermilk Falls was partially illuminated by about 9:00 AM. Full lighting like this http://gowaterfalling.com/waterfalls/buttermilkCUVA.shtml must be earlier or later, I am not sure. Lee L. this is more your area of expertise. When do you think the lighting would cover the whole fall? The water is falling east.

John

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John,

Missed that part of your post on first reading. I'm not really sure, but I'll see what I can come up with.

What time was icracer's shot taken?

Lee L

ic-racer said:

You may, or may not want to bring your chainsaw to the falls . Looks like there is a big tree that has fallen down the falls.

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Cool! No chainsaw required! Thanks for the visual updates, Dale.

Sounds like Lee L and I are going to do the Sunday morning thing - very early - before the lights starts pouring down through the trees. We'll be sure to get a time together for anyone interested in joining us. It's easy to get to the parking lot so if someone wants to come before 10 o'clock coffee but not as early as us we should be able to meet up easily enough. I'll bring my cell just in case.

Here is another place of interest. The old paper mill. Just down the road from the falls.

Is that paper mill on Boston Mill Rd, Dale?

Lee L said:

What time was icracer's shot taken?

Lee L

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That shot was taken in the afternoon. Probably between 2 and 4 pm last week.

Shawn Dougherty said:

Is that paper mill on Boston Mill Rd, Dale?

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It is actually a little farther north on River Road, then off Vaughn. I was thinking it was near the Boston Mills ski slope, but it is near Brandywine (though now renamed to Boston Mills).

Anyway here is the view. Looks like the complete building was still standing when this shot was taken. Now just the old machine remains.

Lee L said:

What's an M8? Is it like half an M16? Or 2 M3's plus an M2?

Lee

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ItZa M2 Cubed

L

Here's what I could come up with.

This is with The Photographer's Ephemeris, an Adobe Air application. It uses google maps with astronomical algorithms to draw sunset/rise and moonset/rise lines and calculate times.

Location of Buttermilk Falls is taken from the Great Lakes region waterfall web page referenced by John. 41.2628N 81.5673W You can just cut and paste that location into google maps to find it.

Thick yellow = direction to sunrise 6:06 on Sunday May 16 at Buttermilk Falls
Thick orange = direction to sunset 20:38 on Sunday May 16 at Buttermilk Falls
Light blue = direction to moonrise
Dark blue = direction to moonset
Thin yellow = direction to sun at 8:01 am on Sunday May 16 at Buttermilk Falls
at 8:01 am the sun will be at azimuth 81.3 degrees and 19.6 degrees above a level horizon

Since I haven't been to the falls, I can't tell exactly which direction it faces although downstream is generally east, and you can't tell from the map how the tree cover is for the falls.

So even with reasonably good info and computer simulation, we'll just have to go there and find out for ourselves. How quaint ... and analog.

Lee L