Glendale Cemetery shoot and Chippawa Amusement Park

Last weekend was great! The photo shoot at Glendale Cemetery in Akron, Ohio was so awesome. Who would ever think a cemetery could be so delightful? Well it is worth the drive to just walk around this lovely place. The grounds are so peaceful and so beautiful. I have never seen so many elaborate tombstones, statues and the mausoleums were so ornate and so many of them. I took over 1000 shots. Of course, I did 5 frames for each shot so I could process in HDR. It was a great day for photography!

I met one of  the members at the cemetery and she invited Wendy and myself to meet with her the next day at the Chippawa Amusement park for another day of shooting! Wendy and I were just talking about the amusement park and how I missed the shoot last year. Lo and behold we meet Dee by chance and she invites us to tag along with her and the Cleveland Photography Club. We jumped on it right away. How excited we were for Sunday to come. The amusement park is scheduled for demolition and this may have been our only chance to photograph the ruins.

So up early again and on the road. Wendy and I arrived around 10:30 am. It was a great day again. The sun was bright and it was hot out. Great light for HDR again. And that is what we shot. The park is so overgrown with trees and shrubs. But we got some great shots. I am so glad to have gotten to photograph the park. It would be great if it would not be leveled. I hear that a few of the rides will be moved to a park across the road for display.

Starved Rock State Park

What a beautiful place to visit with great photo opportunities!

There are 10 waterfalls all total. We had time to visit and photograph 4 of them. The weather turned out great even though it was very windy we were protected by the caves.

We had a storm come through on Friday night. Not much rain as we had hoped there would be to add to the water falls. Never the less the falls were stunning.

Much hiking to do. It is a good idea to try to be in some kind of shape before doing this. How were we to know that? My legs I think are back to normal now that a week has past since I hiked the park.

We all had a great time! Look forward to doing this again maybe next fall. The fall colors will give a totally different look to the area.

After the shoot came to an end.. Dawn and myself turned further west toward Iowa to photograph the White Pelicans that migrate to the area of Lock and Dam 14 on the Mississippi river. We stayed on the Illinois side instead of crossing into Iowa. It was great to see the area where we photographed the Canadian Bald Eagles last Winter and late Spring.. Of course we were on the Iowa side then.

I got some great shots of the White Pelicans.
Here you can see a pelican that caught a large fish. They float in front of the dam where they wait patiently for the fish to jump over the dam into the waiting mouths of 50 or more pelicans. This shot shows the surrounding pelicans hoping to steal away the fish from the lucky one. The eagles do the same thing.. survival of the fittest.

I use my new Canon 7D camera with the 400mm prime lens to capture the pelican shots. I am very happy with the performance of the camera and the lens. The lens is as sharp as a tack!

After we left the Pelicans we found a place for lunch and headed toward Indiana to Michigan city to scope out the lighthouse. I got some great HDR shots of the lighthouse. And am sure Dawn did also.

I believe Sand Hill Ridge is next on the agenda for the MPEG photo shoots. May 16th I believe is the date. So until then..