Black and White Challenge with the theme of Natural Framing

 So, I've been getting a lot of finalists in the various challenges I enter over at 365project.org.

The latest (today) was bw-56.  That's the 56th edition of the black-and-white photography challenge.  This round carries the theme "Natural Framing".  My image was selected as one of 5 finalists, selected from 31 entries.

Check out all of the finalists:

And my entry:

The black and white challenge is one of my favorites.  They've had 8 rounds this year.  I've entered 7, have 5 finalists and 1 win.  I couldn't enter the 8th, as I was hosting (as prior winner).

Viceroy

Bot too long ago, I posted a photo of a Viceroy butterfly, taken at Columbia Bottoms.  I thought it was a good, if somewhat "clinical" photo.  The butterfly was sunning on a rock, and the bright sunshine really showed off the wear and tear to the wings.

So... the other day I was up at Watershed Nature Center, late afternoon on a day with a solid, but thin cloud cover.  And I found this Viceroy being much more cooperative about posing, in a much more appealing settings, with more conducive lighting.

I quite like the results:  

 

September 1970

  Fifty years ago this month, what what happening on the music charts?

Well, during the 4 weeks of September 1970, there were 54 songs that spent time in the Top 40. Lots of great stuff.

Ony two (2) songs made the Top spot: Edwin Star's "War" and Diana Ross' version of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" each spent 2 weeks at the top.

Here's the top 10 songs of the month, ranked by average chart position over the 4 weeks of the month:

1. War - Edwin Starr - 1.5
2. Ain't No Mountain High Enough - Diana Ross - 1.5
3. Patches - Clarence Carter - 5.3
4. Lookin' Out My Back Door - Creedence Clearwater Revival - 5.3
5. 25 Or 6 To 4 - Chicago - 6.5
6. In The Summertime - Mungo Jerry - 7.3
7. Julie, Do Ya Love Me - Bobby Sherman - 7.5
8. (They Long To Be) Close To You - Carpenters - 9.5
9. Make It With You - Bread - 10.5
10. Candida - Dawn - 11.3

I made a Spotify playlist of the Top 10, if anybody wants to listen:  September 1970

Nineteen (19) songs made their Top 40 debut, here they are (listed by entering position):

• Long Long Time - Linda Ronstadt -31
• Look What They've Done To My Song Ma - The New Seekers featuring Eve Graham - 34
• Indiana Wants Me - R. Dean Taylor - 35
• Out In The Country - Three Dog Night - 35
• Closer To Home (I'm Your Captain) - Grand Funk Railroad - 35
• Joanne - Michael Nesmith & The First National Band - 36
• Peace Will Come (According To Plan) - Melanie - 37
• That's Where I Went Wrong - The Poppy Family (Featuring Susan Jacks) - 37
• It's Only Make Believe - Glen Campbell - 37
• Neanderthal Man - Hotlegs - 38
• El Condor Pasa (If I Could) - Simon & Garfunkel - 38
• Everything's Tuesday - Chairman Of The Board - 38
• Green-Eyed Lady - Sugarloaf - 39
• Express Yourself - Charles Wright And The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band - 39
• Still Water (Love) - Four Tops - 39
• All Right Now - Free - 40
• I'll Be There - Jackson 5 - 40
• Lola - The Kinks - 40
• Fire And Rain - James Taylor - 40

Cleveland Skyline

 

Cleveland skyline, from Ohio City.  Maybe somebody can identify the landmarks?

Time In A Bottle

 

We recently visited my wife's sister's family just outside Cleveland.  We had a really nice visit which included hanging out on their rooftop patio, watching the sunset and catching up on our lives.  I snagged this photo of a water bottle, and ice bucket.  Simple little still life, I quite like it.

There's a different version I especially like over at my 365project, check it out!

Instant Party

 Well, Instagram...

I've had an Instagram channel since April 2014, lsqrd42.  But I haven't been particularly active there.   Over the first 6 years there, I had just over 400 posts.With 56 followers,  not exactly an influencer...

Anyway, around mid-July I decided to ramp up the site, and see if I could get some traction.  Over the past 56 days, I've had 49 posts, and added 4 followers.  And it seems that my "Likes" per post is up about 2/3.

Still, don't think I'll be going full time.  But it'll be interesting to see if it trends at all.

I'm not intending for this to take the place of this blog, and certainly not of my 365project, but for now, I'm having fun. I'm trying to vary the content between platforms, but there's going to be some overlap.

Check it out!

Here's a few recent photos

Counting Cameras

 So....  I was browsing around on 365project on a Saturday morning, which is not uncommon for me.  In the course of my wandering, I was looking at the Popular Cameras page, which lists the most used cameras on 365 Project in the last 30 days".

It would be nice if it had links to specific photos, but I guess they're still working on that.  Anyway, it's still  interesting.  A couple of things I notice:

• My Fujifim X-T3 didn't make the Top 50. Its predecessor, the X-T2, was the only Fujifilm on the list, at #34.  Not too surprising, though.  I had never thought about Fujifilm until I attended a session with Karen Hutton in November 2018.  She shoots Fufifilm (or was shooting), and was kind enough to chat with me about the brand after her session.  That kicked in my "I got a Nikon Camera" door, and after some more digging, I made the switch.  I haven't looked back.
• Phones made up 14 of the 50 spots, almost all of them iPhones.  It would be interesting to see the trend here, I suspect phone cameras are continuing to grow.  Besides the convenience factor, the quality has gotten really great.  Roughly 1/3 of the images I've uploaded to my 365project in 2020 are from my iPhone.  
• In the long standing Nikon vs Canon battle, Nikon gets an edge here.  Nikon took 14 of the Top 50 spots, vs Canon with 10.  In terms of photos, Nikon represented 26% of the images from the Top 50 Cameras, Canon 19%.  Nikon placed higher (5 and 6), but Canon had more in the Top 10 (3 vs 2).  Of course, I'll always have a soft spot for Nikon, they were my brand from 1982 through 2018.

Of course, this is all just navel gazing, but I couldn't resist.

Look Out Cleveland...

 Ohio sunset, from my sister-in-law's rooftop patio.  Ohio City, Ohio, just across the Cuyahoga from downtown Cleveland.

Butterflies, Flutterbies, Gutterflies?

 

From a midday vist to Columbia Bottom Conservation Area:

This is NOT a Monarch Butterfly.  My "Seek" phone ap identified it as a Viceroy, and some internet sleuthing confirmed it.  A subtle difference to somebody like me (aka ignorant), but pretty clear when drawn out.  See HERE.

Also seen at the same time, this Common Buckeye

Pretty cool!

Standing Tall

 

Just back from a quick trip to Pittsburgh and Cleveland...  This groundhog was hanging out in my brother's back yard...

Wawatam Lighthouse

 The Wawatam lighthouse is in Saint Ignace, Michigan, just across the Mackinac Bridge from Mackinaw City.  And its history is a little bit less auspicious than the other lighthouses we visited.

From wikipedia:  The current lighthouse was originally built in 1998 as an architectural folly at the Monroe Welcome Center on Interstate 75 in the southeastern corner of the state near the Ohio border. It was a functional lighthouse structure that was constructed far away from navigational waters as an element of the tourist heritage of the state. In 2004, the Welcome Center was renovated, and the lighthouse determined to be obsolete.  St. Ignace civic leaders applied to be the location of the small tower, and the lighthouse was trucked more than 330 miles to East Moran Bay in St. Ignace.  

After reassembly, the Wawatam Lighthouse was relit on August 20, 2006. The lighthouse is now an official United States Coast Guard privately maintained aid to navigation.

The tower is 52 feet tall, but rated it as 62 feet tall from the water.

Here's a snip from Google Earth, showing where the lighthouse and the passage light are  (not my photo!):

Round Island Lighthouse

 

The Round Island Lighthouse sits just 0.40 miles south of the Round Island Passage Light, the 

From wikipedia:  The Round Island Light, also known as the "Old Round Island Point Lighthouse" is a lighthouse located on the west shore of Round Island in the shipping lanes of the Straits of Mackinac. It was deemed necessary because the island is a significant hazard to navigation in the straits, and was seen as an effective complement to the other lights in the area. Because of its color scheme and form — red stone base and wood tower — it has been likened to an old-fashioned schoolhouse.  Ferries regularly pass it on their way to (and from) Mackinac Island, and it is a recognizable icon of the upper Great Lakes.

Round Island Lighthouse was constructed in 1895. The beacon was automated in 1924 and became the responsibility of the United States Coast Guard in 1939, when the Coast Guard took over all of the nation's lighthouses. To support World War II efforts, most of the original machinery on the first floor was removed for scrap.  The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1947, when the Round Island Passage Light was automated, and was transferred to Hiawatha National Forest in 1958.  

I thought it was really interesting that this lighthouse sits on a tiny island, about 500' from land.  But subsequent research reveals that the "island" effect id due to high water in the lakes.  It's even a high water emergency.

Here's a snip from Google Earth, showing where the lighthouse and the passage light are  (not my photo!):

Round Island Passage Light

 

Just outside the north breakwater at Mackinac Island, Round Island Passage Light is an automated, unmanned lighthouse located in the Round Island Channel in the Straits of Mackinac, Michigan.  Built in 1948 to mark the northern side of the navigable channel.  According to Wikipedia, the Passage Light was one of the last lights to be constructed on the Great Lakes, and was relighted as a private aid to navigation in 1996.

Still from wikipedia:  The Round Island Passage Light is constructed on a timber crib foundation which is 56 feet square. The timber crib has perimeter cells filled with concrete, and internal cells filled with rock. Atop the crib is a concrete superstructure with a 41-foot square reinforced concrete deck. The superstructure is octagonal, with four vertical and four sloping sides.  Atop the tower's concrete deck is a red-painted enclosure, 11-feet high.  Above the enclosure is a five-story octagonal steel tower, 41-1/2 feet high and 12 feet across. Each side of the tower contains a four-foot bronze relief Indian head, commemorating the fact that Mackinac Island was a sacred spot for Native American tribes. The light originally had a 47-foot steel antenna atop the tower, but it was removed in the early 2000s.

Here's a snip from Google Earth, showing where the lighthouse is.  (not my photo!):

Mission Point Lighthouse

Mission Point Lighthouse sits on the end of a peninsula between the East arm and West arm of Grand Traverse Bay.  In Traverse City Michigan.

From the lighthouse's web site:  During the 1860’s a large ship hit a shallow reef and sank just in front of where Mission Point Lighthouse now sits. At this point that Congress set aside funds for the construction of the lighthouse. However, it wasn’t completed until 1870 due to the Civil War. From 1870 through 1933, Mission Point’s light kept the waters at the end of Old Mission Peninsula safe for mariners. It was in 1933 that the lighthouse was decommissioned and later replaced with an automatic buoy light just offshore.

Like many other lighthouses, whale oil (and later kerosene) was used to light the 5th Order Fresnel lens that refracted and magnified its modest light source into an intense beam that could be seen up to 13 miles away. The building was only one and one half stories tall. However, its placement on a sand bank 14 feet above the lake's surface created a lens focal plane of 47 feet. 

During our visit, the lighthouse tower was closed, but they have a small museum and gift shop which were open.  There are steps in front of the lighthouse down the dune to a small beach area.

- - - 

Here's a snip from Google Earth, showing where the lighthouse and the passage light are  (not my photo!):

Point Betsie Lighthouse

Continuing the review of lighthouses from our recent trip to northern Michigan.  Today we'll look at Point Betsie Lighthouse, in Mackinaw City, Michigan.

Point Betsie Light is located on the northeast shore of Lake Michigan — at the southern entrance to the Manitou Passage.  Established in 1858, it was automated in 1983.  The lighthouse sits on a dune, with a concrete "seawall" in front.  The tower is 39' tall, and the high base, the light could be seen for 24 nautical miles.

This oldest standing structure in Benzie County, built in 1858, it marks the all-important entrance to southern end of the Manitou Passage, a once-vital maritime shipping channel. Although the lane is no longer used by large commercial vessels, the operating light signal remains a US Coast Guard aid to navigation to this day, and the site shines as a treasured landmark to mariners and landlubbers alike. 

The building and immdeiate grounds were close when we were there, but we were able to wander around the area, including the public beach immediately to the south of the lighthouse.

Here's a snip from Google Earth, showing where the lighthouse is.  (not my photo!):