From the Archives of 2005—2
May 17, 2020
Here are some photographs I took in Ohio in 2005.
1 Yes, Ohio. This photograph featuring a portrait of Joseph Stalin was taken at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, Ohio, where a movie set in a Soviet prison was shot. The 1994 movie The Shawshank Redemption was also filmed here. The reformatory has long been shut down, and the facilities are now used for special events, like my husband’s high-school reunion.
2 The Flats—A.K.A. the floodplain of the Cuyahoga River—requires many bridges. The sun was setting on this one.
3 Otto’s Greenhouses once thrived near Vermilion, Ohio.
4 Morning light hit the redbud tree outside the second-floor window of my former residence in May.
5 I used to pass this field on my walk from my former home to the Vermilion River.
6
7 This is a young film of Leptothrix discophora, one of the iron bacteria, on the Vermilion River.
8 Algae clings to the undersides of some leaves floating on the surface of the Back Pond at Schoepfle Garden.
9 The reflection of a maple tree is almost obliterated by the tree’s leaves.
10 This view is one I often spent time taking in on my walk back home from the river.
Romancing Reality 
Beautiful pictures, my friend; 8 is my favourite and, for a reason I can’t quite place, 5 too. 🙂
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May 17, 2020 at 4:40 AM
Thank you, Adrian. I wonder if #5 gets to you with its feeling rather than its composition. I think that’s what it is for me.
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May 17, 2020 at 9:53 AM
Yes, its feeling I think. 🙂
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May 17, 2020 at 9:54 AM
So many framable beauties, but I especially like algae on the undersides of leaves.
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May 17, 2020 at 5:07 AM
Thanks, Lynda. In all the years I’ve been going to Schoepfle Garden and visiting the Back Pond, I think I’ve seen the algae clinging to floating leaves maybe one other time.
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May 17, 2020 at 9:55 AM
Stalin in Ohio: what an incongruity. On the other hand, he was incongruous with life wherever he was.
The flowers in #3 look like what’s called called wild mustard or bastard cabbage, Rapistrum rugosum, that has become an invasive nuisance in Texas. Do you know if that’s what was growing between the greenhouses?
Redbuds are a species Texas shares with you.
An expanse of dry plants can be appealing, as in #6.
You did a good job merging two worlds in #8.
In #9, would you have preferred a denser raft of leaves to obscure the tree altogether, or are you happy the reflected tree was there for contrast?
#10 gave me the feel of a painting.
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May 17, 2020 at 8:21 AM
Thanks for your detailed comments, Steve. My resident botanist says that from this distance the plant in #3 does look like Rapistrum rugosum. He can’t be sure, he says, because there are many similar-looking weedy species of mustard. In #9 I liked the occluded tree reflection because of the graphic quality it added to an otherwise simple mass of leaves. Do you think you would have preferred not to see the reflection?
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May 17, 2020 at 10:19 AM
I see an advantage each way, so I can’t say I have a preference.
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May 17, 2020 at 10:48 AM
Beautiful set of photos, Linda. I especially like #10. The tones and contrast are outstanding.
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May 17, 2020 at 8:59 AM
Thank you, Ken. Funny thing about #10. I can usually remember taking or processing my favorite photographs, but I don’t remember taking or processing this one. Maybe I didn’t think it was all that special back in 2005. This time around, I really liked it.
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May 17, 2020 at 11:11 AM
Beautiful set, Linda! votes go to 6, 4 and 8
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May 17, 2020 at 9:05 AM
Thanks, Harrie. I enjoy seeing that different people prefer different photographs.
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May 17, 2020 at 11:14 AM
This is a fascinating and beautiful group of photos. Thank you, Linda!
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May 17, 2020 at 10:24 AM
Thank you, Sandi.
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May 17, 2020 at 11:16 AM
A wonderful series. I’ll go for 4, 6, and 10. Every time I think of the Cuyahoga, I think of Randy Newman.
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May 17, 2020 at 12:18 PM
Thank you, Michael. I think a lot of people remember when the Cuyahoga burned when they hear or read the river’s name. I haven’t spent much time along its shores and none actually on the river. Still, I’m a little familiar with it and couldn’t imagine large ships and barges going down the river to Lake Erie as the song says. So I Googled and found this video of a ship going up the river: https://www.cleveland.com/metro/2017/04/watch_time-lapse_videos_of_the.html. It must also come down. Thanks for making me Google.
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May 17, 2020 at 4:10 PM
What a wonderful, varied tour, Linda!
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May 17, 2020 at 3:02 PM
Thanks, Marjorie.
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May 17, 2020 at 4:12 PM
Once again, it’s interesting to see the themes have been at work in your brain for years. 🙂 The images that speak the most to me are #5 (that would be one that I’d be tempted to try in a variety of processing modes, like black and white, etc.) the Leptothrix film and #10, which has an elegiac kind of beauty. It seems at once grand, graceful, and tragic. Why I don’t know, but more and more, I’m interested in images that clearly don’t pander but are emotionally resonant, and this seems to do that, for me. Have a good week, Linda!
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May 25, 2020 at 5:24 PM
One more time…at my peril.
Ha. This time I landed in the right place. 🙂 Wow. A class reunion in a reformatory. That must have been quite the class. 🙂 I hope this doesn’t say too much about me, but I love the bacteria film image. Of course if it does then I guess I am in good company with the photographer who made it.
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May 27, 2020 at 3:04 PM
Third time’s the charm. I’ll try to stay more current in the future and not have all this confusion.
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May 27, 2020 at 3:05 PM
As I said in the wrong post, I thought having a class reunion in a reformatory was pretty weird, but when we got there—thank goodness I had my camera—I found the building quite interesting. Looking at the website, it seems more jazzed up now. Wonder if Stalin (and Lenin, whose portrait was there, too) still looks down on the room. So glad the bacterial film image gets to you. I love that stuff.
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May 27, 2020 at 3:11 PM
No. 8 is incredible! It looks like little green monsters emerging from the water 🙂
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June 9, 2020 at 4:35 AM