11.1.22HaNoBe AptsWorked with GBBN today to photograph a couple of model units inside College Hill’s new HaNoBe Apartments building. GBBN always likes to add people to their photos, so we had a few different people using the spaces in a way that illustrates “living” without it looking cheesy.

11.2.22Ipe FlightsI was given a design for a quick and easy flight board and tasked with making 25 of them for a cidery in Norwood that’s yet to open. I made the prototype today and will be building the rest this weekend.

11.3.22HBD AshleyShe’s successfully entered her mid-30s and there are great things on the horizon. One thing is she’s quitting the job she hates so she can start fresh somewhere else, I’m very happy for her.

11.4.22Morning Over the RiverWhile riding my bike into the shop today, I was rolling through the parking garage in Bellevue when I was struck by the wonderful view over the river. The stillness of the water coupled with the warm tones of autumn and morning light was perfect.

11.5.22Root for Snoot!I’m allowing myself Photoshopped images so long as they were made that day. Ashley’s parents are in town and we were joking about political yard sign slogans. Someone came up with “root for snoot” as Myrtle’s slogan were she to run for pawffice. (One of Myrtle’s thousands of nicknames is Snoot). I couldn’t get the image of a vintage-style political poster featuring Myrtle’s disembodied head out of my mind , so I threw something together to scratch the itch.

11.6.22A Full DayI saw friends from Philadelphia, ate outdoors at a good restaurant, walked Myrtle in the sun, helped a neighbor install a push-in fence, rode my bike to see other friends, frequented a few pubs and rooftops, then did an absolutely glorious night ride through Downtown and Covington to help a coworker at the shop before riding home with a drained headlamp on my bike. It was a phenomenal day.

11.7.22Install DayLast night, a friend asked me how work was going and I was able to say with a straight face that I genuinely love it. While photography has been my regular thing for years, I’ve also been working with Single Batch Designs for the last 11 months. Every day I wake up and get to go to that shop, I enjoy it. I get to work with talented and likable dudes who make incredible things, and then we get to deliver them to the client with pride. This photo is from today’s install. From left: Joe, Brad, John, and Joe. Not pictured: Anthony and Keith.

11.8.22Hyde Park CozyPhotographed an apartment building with something like six units in it in Hyde Park. It had that beautiful mix of 1930s style with a hefty dose of coziness. Warm wood floors, loads of ornate trim (but not too ornate), cute little nooks to sit in, and miniature versions of areas usually reserved for large homes, like a dedicated foyer. The whole place just made me feel warm and welcome. I get the same feeling from my house, but if I were single and living alone in one of these units, my natural inclination to be a recluse would become unstoppable.

11.9.22Careful RestorationWe’ve been working on and off to restore the wooden facade of Hierophany & Hedge in Covington for about two weeks. After only a couple of years, the storefront has taken a beating from the weather, as did the opposite side that faces Braxton. It’s taken a lot of sanding, stain, and varnish to get it looking great again, and even a few passersby have commented on how nice it looks. We’re trying to get it all done before the unseasonably warm autumn we’ve had scrams for good, so the process has been challenging. Personally, I find this work satisfying, though I can imagine how much harder it would be if it were done in the middle of summer or winter. The whole thing should be finished within the next week or so. I decided to place a sepia filter on this one because I thought it looked good.

11.10.22BethesdaHospitals aren’t generally a place I prefer spending my time. I will likely live some of my worst days, if not the remaining days, of my life in one. That’s sadly yet to come. Today’s shoot led me to Bethesda North where a new area was renovated for…hospital things. Truthfully, I don’t know much about medical wings and their uses, so I just made the photos I needed and didn’t ask questions.

11.11.22CAM GalaAfter spending the day battling what I think was food poisoning, I managed to take enough meds and drink enough water to drag myself to photograph CAM’s annual gala. The museum was absolutely decked out in colorful decor. It’s honestly never looked better. Each area had a different color and the Great Hall was a mix of them all. Dinner was served to guests, they had a DJ at the top of the stairs doing his thing, and waitstaff walked around offering drinks and treats throughout the evening. After a cursory review of the photos of the evening, I am satisfied that I covered the night adequately.

11.12.22Important Hardware Store DevelopmentShe has discovered that Lowe’s has clothes now. This was a bigger news story than the fact that it practically blizzard-ed today. Or that my shoot this evening started by me overhearing an attendee say the work I did for them last year was horrible.

11.13.22Patience is a Myr-tueChose this photo solely for the title pun.

Macro View of ChildhoodIf you recognize this, you were probably told to stop looking at it lest you ruin your vision. I recently picked up a small tube TV from a friend as my toxic impulse for nostalgia yearned for something from before. The familiar gummy button, the high frequency tone upon it powering on, the static that prickles your finger tips when you wipe away dust from the corner of the convex glass; all of it part and parcel of using supremely outdated but effortlessly charming technology. No cold efficiency, unparalleled visual fidelity, or Borg-like connectivity. Just warm, fuzzy, blissfully dumb 240p. The flag from a time when I didn’t give a shit about anything but what these little micro lights synchronized for my entertainment. When I stare into it now, I feel a little bit of that carefree feeling again, lest I continue to ruin my vision.

11.15.22Plan BThe plan was to hook a Roku up to this old TV so I could watch Star Trek the way I remember originally seeing it. However, no modern Roku apparently supports a 4:3 ratio. I successfully got it to work using an HDMI to AV adapter, but the feed is squished and dark. Unwatchable, sadly. But I was determined to make this TV work for me regardless. Plan B was to dust off my childhood PlayStation and see if I couldn’t have a little fun that way. I found all five games I still had for it and fired it up. The disc drive is a little louder than I remember it being, but only at startup. Honestly, playing Mega Man 8 on this thing is so much more wholesome and enjoyable than I ever realized it could be. (Also, yes, I lit this with green and purple for effect.)

11.16.22WeldingA shot of Anthony welding. I hid my eyes behind my phone’s screen to protect my vision.

11.17.22Bi-LightingI wanted to play around with dramatically lighting something tonight before bed. I didn’t spend the time to figure out the shadows, though, and I should’ve done better about dusting it off before lighting it. My Lume Cube (yellow) is great when I can match the output on my off-camera strobe (purple), but finding that point between is tricky sometimes. Because I’ve been working so much and because I’ve always wanted two flashes for better ways to light things this way, I actually ordered a new flash. When paired with the other one and set to the right receiver channel, I should be able to fire both at the same time. Looking forward to trying some portraits and coming up with easier ways to dynamically light objects for effect.

11.18.22Finished ProductsIf you go to Northwood Cider Co. and get a flight, you’ll be serves four small glasses on one of the flight boards I made for them. Had I been told the proper glass size, the grooves would’ve actually fit the glasses, too. Regardless, it was cool going up to the bar top we made and installed, ordering a flight from the barkeep who has no idea of my relationship to this place, and enjoying some beverages on finished work that I did alone on a mild, windy Saturday several weeks ago.

11.19.22Alternate UseI turned our inoperable fireplace into a cozy little nook for plants after cleaning out the soot and grime and installing a grow light to the flue hatch. Since it’s unusable in its current state and we have no intention to use it for gas or wood-burning logs, it made sense to turn it into something useful. I’m pretty happy with the end result.

11.20.22Impossible-to-Erase TreeI love it when nature has a chokehold on human development, no matter how small it is. There’s an electrical wire on Ward Ave with two bits of tree lumped around it. Obviously the tree grew around the wire over the years and when the tree was removed, the pierced sections of branches couldn’t be safely discarded without potentially damaging the wire in the process. Seeing no other route but to avoid a headache down the line, the lumps of branches were left in place to rot on the wire 20 feet above the sidewalk. Normally the remnants of a felled tree are a stump in the ground. This tree did things differently. On the plus side, this is an all-natural and accidental way to keep ice from collecting on the wire during snowstorms.

11.21.22Night BallAshley’s on something like five medications at the moment to solve a sinus and chest congestion issue, so instead of taking up space in the bed (and listening to her hack up a lung/blow her nose all night), we agreed that I would sleep downstairs on the couch to give us both a chance to have the best possible night of sleep. After tucking Myrtle into her dog bed and settling into the couch for the night, I closed my eyes and drifted toward slumber. I heard Myrtle stir and move around a bit, then go still. It was typical of her behavior, so I dismissed it. After a few minutes of not hearing anything, though, I got the feeling I was being watched. Slowly opening my eyes, I saw before me a blanket-draped Myrtle with a ball in her mouth staring intently. It was clearly NOT bedtime.

11.22.22The Details305 Overton Street in Newport was one of two of my assignments today. The owner apparently recently passed away and a relative, the executor of her will, is selling the property. East Newport is one of the nicer areas of NKY, so I don’t expect it to last long once it hits MLS. It needs work, and there’s a lot to update bathroom/kitchen-wise, but the thing it has in spades is old-house beauty. While the fireplaces in this house are designed more like altars of worship than places to burn wood for warmth, there’s a fair amount of positively jaw-dropping stained glass on the first and second floors. The second story room in the front (pictured) had the most stained glass contained to one area.

11.23.22Little White-Wall LiesOne of my favorite things to do is fake the number of items or people in a single frame. We only had one stool for this table shoot, but I moved it around the scene and spliced it all together in post to get what you see here.

11.24.22New Addition to the PackMy sister had a baby recently. This was our first family gathering with her present. She’s very cute and doesn’t really fuss at all. I’m really interested to see who she becomes as she grows up and starts developing her own identity.

11.25.22Ash for AshVince gave me two rough pieces of ash a few months back and I’ve been meaning to find a project for them. Ashley came up with an idea for the kitchen, so I sanded them down, attached them into an L configuration, routed a channel for a piece of 1/8th inch steel underneath them to give the joint added strength, and routed the edges. Both pieces were stained and treated with Danish oil, and now it’s drying. Also, I have to keep taking Dayquil or else I feel like I’ve been hit by a train.

11.26.22First Annual Christmas TreeAs I understand it, Bellevue had to take down a pine tree in one of the parks and instead of pitching it, they put it up on the Avenue and decorated it for Christmas. It’s the first annual Christmas tree for the city, which implies this will become a yearly tradition. I imagine future trees will come from elsewhere, but it’s neat that Bellevue’s first tree was grown locally and has been part of the city for years. It’s really cute and I love that they did this.

11.27.22Milestone AchievedThis isn’t going to look like much, but it’s a big deal to me. While cutting straight lines and finding angles is hard, it’s even harder to make a decent curve in woodworking let alone a circular shape. Having no lathe to turn wood on, I’ve been weary about trying to cut something circular lest I ruin a good piece of wood. But tonight, after making a frame for Ashley, I decided to give it a whirl. Using the bandsaw, I cut a really good oval out of this block of wood. Relief cuts helped along the way, and after getting the rough shape, I proceeded to sand the sides down and route the edges to give it a nice, smooth surface on all three sides. Overall, the process went easier than I’d thought it would and it’s emboldened me to keep doing it. This will eventually become the top of a step stool once I make legs for it.

11.28.22Just Having FunOn the 17th of this month, I mentioned my desire to have fun lighting objects with gels from two sides. My new flash came in and works well with the one I was using previously. Using a transmitter that sits in the hot shoe atop my Z9, I can fire both strobes simultaneously, each with a different colored gel loaded on them. Tonight, I wanted to experiment with it a little more so I grabbed a miniature Genius of Water statue I have on the shelf and tried lighting it multiple ways. This activity is so satisfying.

11.29.22Moving OnThere’s a man living on 7th Street in Covington who is moving to another, much larger home in a nearby neighborhood with his significant other. He didn’t give me all the details, nor did I ask for them, but he made it clear he was going to miss his bachelor pad. He’s bummed he won’t be close to the bars and nightlife he said he conveniently frequented while living in his house. I actually know the house he’s moving to (I shot that one too, oddly enough), but I think my attempts to speak highly about where he’s moving hit like a “you’ll get over it” to the widow at her husband’s funeral. I’m sure it’ll pass for him, but deep down I understood what he was going through. I’ll always have a soft spot for my old 4th Street apartment—my final residence before cohabitation. When a place is yours, it hits different.

11.30.22The Worst Part of My RideThe 11th Street Bridge in Covington sucks. I hate riding it every time I go into the shop. There was a high-profile killing of a bicyclist on it this past summer that rocked the community and spurred interest in reclaiming one of the four lanes of traffic for a protected bike lane. While that will not come to pass for awhile, I have to ride on the lone sidewalk to get as far away from the +40mph drivers as possible. When someone else is riding the opposite direction or someone’s walking, I have to get off and walk my bike to get past them, sometimes on the shoulder to allow enough room. Of course, this bad bridge is preferable to Covington’s other bridge on 4th Street. That one’s somehow even more aggressive to anything that isn’t a car. Is it too much to ask for a single, safe way for cyclists to cross the Licking River?