Photos from January - April 2025
Contents:Winter Days,
Public Places,
Changing Seasons
Having now a lot more experience with both these point and shoot cameras, I began going out more to capture as many different things as possible. This roll of film shows images taken from the Olmsted Falls River park, the place I worked at these early months, our hotel in Chicago during a Cyber Security competition, and naturally, my dog Jake.
This roll picks up the same theme from the previous gallery, mainly that of loneliness. I feel like this goes hand-in-hand with the Winter season, yet some of these pictures feel more colorful and alive.
Location: Home; Living Room
About: This is Jakes favorite place in the whole house. It's a safe space for him, but also mighty comfortable. My error with this picture is the focus not being set on him properly, which is a challenge considering his inability to sit still whenever someone comes by.
Location: Home; Living Room
About: Another picture of Jake, which I am especially fond of. Every time he gets out of his bed after taking a nap he does the same two stretches; this image captures one of them. The lighting here I think is perfect, and he's looking directing at the camera too.
Location: Home; Kitchen
About: Often when we are eating, Jake will sit right below us, sometimes trying to jump up to get our attention. You can see he's looking past the camera, likely at whatever was on the table. Same as with the previous picture, I think the lighting here is really good, and the focus is perfectly set onto Jake.
Location: Olmsted Falls; A Neighborhood
About: Not much to say about this picture, other than I took it while out for a walk. The one oddity is in the middle on the far right, that is, the apparent glowing you see. I'm not sure why it's there or what caused it, but it keeps distracting me.
Location: Brecksville; Office Building
About: I worked inside an IT Depot for a few months during my last semester at school. My main responsibility was helping to relocate their warehouse from one building to another. The new space we were moving into is directly connected to this office space pictured above. We had gone in a few times to take furniture out and into the new warehouse.
Location: Brecksville; Office Building
About: Another view of the empty office, closer to the front windows (thus the brightness). Exploring places like this is so special to me; knowing this office was once alive and full of people, but is now quiet.
Location: Brecksville; Office Building
About: A conference room in the center of the office space. Because of this, it was totally dark inside, requiring the use of flash to see anything. What this image shows is how good the flash is on this camera; lighting up the entire room and even reflecting off the ceiling lights, making it look like they are on. You can also see notes written on the white board; makes me wonder about the last meeting they had in this room.
Location: Brecksville; Office Building
About: One last view of the empty office, the wall to the far right is where the conference room is, as seen in the previous picture. It was very clean and organized inside; other than the desks, tables and some chairs, nothing was left behind. Makes me wonder what it looked like with everybody's desk decorated.
Location: Brecksville
About: I got off work early one day and decided to drive around since the sun was up and the temperature was warm. These massive machines I found along one dead end road. Machines like this amaze me because of their complexity; bigger ones terrify me.
Location: Brecksville
About: I often passed by this building on my way to work; the photo doesn't do justice to its size and presence. I love this style of building, knowing how strong and fortified it is I'd feel safe inside here if it was placed in the middle of a tornado or hurricane. The bright parts of this building contrast well to the more limited shadowy parts. The blue sky compliments this image very well too.
Location: Chicago; Double Tree Hilton Hotel
About: This image does a number of things that are interesting. I may be wrong, but I don't remember the lights being this orange, the ceiling also looks lower than you'd expect. When looking at the ceiling, then down the hallway, it almost looks like everything is closing in on you; a creepy vibe radiates from this image.
Location: Chicago; Double Tree Hilton Hotel
About: The view of our hotel from outside. If you look at the pine tree to the right you can tell the flash went off, which was totally unnecessary. When we visited Chicago for the cyber competition, everything look like this; dead, boring, and dull colors. This is the side of Winter I really don't enjoy, that is when the snow melts (or just doesn't come) and everything is dead.
Location: Aunts Home; Living Room
About: A picture of the Christmas tree at my Aunts house. Unfortunately, the lighting from the window darked everything else, so it's hard to see detail of the presents below the tree or the giant nutcracker.
Location: Home; Living Room
About: Taken late at night, this is the tree we have set up in our living room. My Dad takes great pride in setting up and decorating it all by himself. I like how the tree is bright but all else around it is dark and shadowy. My issue with this image is that I should have lowered the camera to better center the subject into frame.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: I came out to the River Park to see what it was like in Winter, especially since we had received a bunch of snow over the last couple of days. The following picture capture what I saw, but seeing this in person is far more amazing.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: Normally these steps and fencing would be difficult to see due to the trees and all the plant life obstructing it, but can be clearly seen now. The water below also appears still.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: Crossing this bridge will take you to the other side seen in the previous picture. Unlike that picture also is the water, which is far more rough (although not dangerous). It's especially important to watch your step here because ice, snow, and water cover the ground.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: Another look at rocks and trees covered in snow. These photos have a lot of white due to the snow and the sky; I wonder if using black and white film would have been better.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: In this picture I am standing on a stone bridge looking at the covered bridged in the distance. I took a similar picture in the fall from this same spot, although I do think the bridge is harder to spot in the winter time.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: Pictured here is the stone bridge I was standing on in the previous photo. As with all the photos here, this is a very pretty site this time of year.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: On top of the bridge connecting both sides of the park. You get a good view of the rough landscape below, some fallen trees, and the waterfalls.
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: On top of the bridge connecting both sides of the park, from the opposite side. The river looks endless from here, and the white sky taking up a third of the frame I think is better than if I angled the camera down more to capture less of it. Tucked away you can also see a house on the right side; it took me a while to notice it was there!
Location: Olmsted Falls; River Park
About: Another view of the park from a high up point. This camera does really well capturing details even from far away.
Location: Olmsted Falls; Covered Bridge
About: This is the covered bridge at the River Park. The bridge fits very well with the white snowy environment surrounding it on all sides.
Location: Olmsted Falls; Covered Bridge
About: Another shot of the bridge. By now the snow had starting falling and was getting worse. The white spot right in the middle is a snow flake that got right in front of the lense at the perfect time. I see this both as a good and bad thing for this picture, and am conflicted on what to think of it.
Location: Olmsted Falls; Covered Bridge
About: Here you can see the stone bridge from the previous pictures, taken from inside the covered bridge; it blends in very well with the snow and river. I love how the river looks leading up to the bridge.
Location: Olmsted Falls; Downtown Olmsted Falls
About: This train is set on display in the small downtown area of Olmsted Falls, near the ice cream shop. Seeing the train covered in snow was an unfamiliar sight to me, as we were usually only down here when the weather was nice. Because of this, you can't read a lot of the writing and decorations on the train, but it's still a pretty site overall.
Location: Home; Office
About: I love the way the light shines through the front window, especially in the Winter season. This image captures two different settings that blend together well, the darker cozy inside and the bright snowy outside.
Overall, I'm iffy about a lot of the photos from this roll of film. I feel like some pictures turned out great (like the library) while others turned out poorly or look confusing (fireplace mantel, Tower City).
If nothing else, these photos help me to identify problems that I can think about and try to prevent when taking pictures in the future.
Location: Home; Office
About: We have these cute porcelain houses as decoration in our office. I think the wooden setting and the dim orange light above all goes together very well together; the main issue here is with the lighting, a common error in many of the following photos. It would've have helped to have another light shining on the houses from the front, as the one light above isn't very strong and using flash would have been too strong.
Location: Home; Living Room
About: I like the simplicity of the mantel with the two plants and the painting, yet still, there are a bunch of issues here to go over. Obviously the lighting is bad; likely taken in the early morning. The framing of the painting is also far from being centered, which is my own mistake. The last thing is the brighter strip on the right side; this is part of the next image which was mistakenly scanned in at the photo lab. I don't mind this error as it can be easily cropped out, but I'm surprised it happened.
Location: Nanas House; Living Room
About: More flowers that were hand-knit by my Nana. There's a lot of dimension to this image, from the two flower pots, the christmas present glass boxes, the painting, and the flowers them self. I do think these fit together well, but I also think I did a poor job framing everything properly, as the painting looks crooked and the table is not straight.
Location: Home; Back Yard
About: The tree in out front yard sheds a ton of sticks throughout the year, so by the time Spring arrives we have a ton of sticks collected and stored on the side of our house. This picture captures us in the middle of burning that entire pile we built up, hence the sticks littered everywhere on and around the fire pit.
Location: South Park Mall; Second Floor
About: A view of the Mall from the second floor, looking out at the food court. There were a lot of people out this day especially in this part of the Mall. South Park Mall is massive, well kept, and most important lively, which is in contrast to the Mall seen in upcoming pictures.
Location: Baldwin Wallace University; Knowlton Center
About: Taken from inside one of the classrooms looking out. The building in picture is Telfer, where Biology and Chemistry students study. I like the vibe given from this photo, the time of day and the duller lights is nostalgic to me even if the picture didn't turn out the greatest.
Location: Baldwin Wallace University; Burrell Observatory
About: This is is the observatory we have on campus, which is facing the Knowlton Center. This might be one of my favorite buildings, it's old, has a big telescope, and very interesting rooms on the inside. I learned they wanted to put a planetarium inside but was unable to get funding to do so. This picture could have been better angled and centered.
Location: Mentor; Mentor Mall
About: Heading home from Mentor, I saw there was a Mall in the area and wanted to check it out. The entire Mall was empty like pictured, there were many stores with people working inside, but no one shopping at them. It felt so weird to see this; although I will admit it was an odd time on a normal weekday so I'm sure it does get some activity. I just can't shake off the feeling of sadness; they had one of those trains that goes around the Mall, the conductor was this old man sitting around just waiting for someone, yet no one ever came.
Location: Mentor; Mentor Mall
About: A look inside the gaming room from the previous picture (Round1). Like the rest of the Mall, no one was in here, just a bunch of games with no one playing them. I really do hope this place experiences activity and fun by people, seeing it like this makes me so sad.
Location: Mentor; Mentor Mall
About: You can probably tell from the previous images that this Mall isn't the most up-to-date, this vending machine I found really shows its age. I was so excited to find this; stuff like this is so cool and far more interesting looking than vending machines today.
Location: Cleveland Public Library; Second Floor
About: I went to Cleveland one day to explore around different sites; there's a lot to do and see with one of my favorites being the Public Library. The picture here was taken from their arts section of the library. I love these small hallways, and I think this picture perfectly captures the real look and vibe you experience here.
Location: Downtown Cleveland; The Mall
About: I find it interesting that we have this statue of Lincoln in Cleveland, which is just one dedicated to the former president. I mean no complaint by this, I love Lincoln, we all love him, and this picture turned out good too. It's unfortunate that the text is unreadable in this image, but it's also difficult to read in person; even so, the wear from the metal adds great character.
Location: Downtown Cleveland; County Court of Domestic Relations
About: This impressive building is a county court house. Massive stone buildings like this are fairly common to find in downtown Cleveland, and just like the outside, the inside is very beautiful (although I've never been inside, I've seen pictures though!) This picture turned out very well, the blue sky compliments the building well, and the flags above look amazing. One oddity of this image is the line that goes through from the top middle to bottom middle, likely something with the film itself.
Location: Cleveland Public Square; Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument
About: In Cleveland Public Square you can find this monument recognizing soldiers and sailors, hence the name. It's very hard to see, but you can make out a mortar and men working around it. I really like this monument, so it's unfortunate the image turned out like this. I think this was because this day was very sunny and the sun was starting to set as well.
Location: Cleveland Public Square; Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument
About: A much better view of the monument from the previous picture, looking at a different side now. The man on the left next to the American flag is President Lincoln, holding what appears to be a rifle. Although it's very yellow like the last picture, I do like the way it turned out.
Location: Tower City; Entrance
About: This is the railway entrance to Tower City. Tower City is like a mall, offering shops, food, and sometimes shows. This is a place from my childhood that I hold very dearly; my Nana used to take us here to walk around, eat, and things like that. I could ramble for a while how much I love the inside of this building, from the low ceilings to the general architecture, I love it. When I got the film developed and scanned, the tech must have thought the hanging light was a lamp because the image was rotated 180 degrees.
Location: Tower City; Entrance
About: Another view into the entrance of Tower City. You can see the multiple floors where shops are. This image suffers from darkness, but in my defense it is generally pretty dark inside, at least in this part of the building.
Location: Tower City; Center
About: The big center room of Tower City. All the windows bring in a lot of light (contrast with the previous two pictures). Even then, this image turned out dark likely due to the focus having been set on the outside. This is a great place to just hang out and enjoy the environment while people-watching. Sadly, although located right in the middle of downtown Cleveland, not many people frequent this place. South Park Mall in comparison draws a lot more people.
Looking through these pictures you'll notice that the dates span a long time. The picture from the Cavs basketball game was from January, the pictures of the tree and flowers was from April, and the pictures from Cedar Point are from May. One roll of film spanned all these months, because the camera I largely used was the Olympus Infinity Stylus during this time.
I'm very happy with how many of these pictures turned out, with my favorites being the pink and white flowered trees and the pictures from Cedar point (more pictures of CP can be found in the following gallery for May-June).
Location: Cleveland; Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
About: The camera I used here has a zoom function which I never really needed to use, but was perfect for this game. As you can see from the following pictures our seats were really far back and high up. Here, I tested the zoom and am very happy with the quality of the picture; everything is clear and focused without motion blur; it is a bit grainy but that should be expected for higher ISO films. I love that I captured the dog mascot with his arm up.
Location: Cleveland; Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
About: I don't often get the chance to see sport games live like this, so I was very exciting seeing all the performances they had throughout the game. The lighting and sound are all very impressive, and another thing I love are the swords that shoot fire (each corner of the scoreboard has a sword that bends down and shoots fire, in our seats you can feel the heat of the flames). My only regret for this image is not capturing the fire.
Location: Cleveland; Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
About: A standard shot showing the stadium, the players mid-game, and all the people sitting around.
Location: Cleveland; Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
About: A zoomed in shot similar to the previous image. Here you can see #2 getting ready to shoot the ball in. If I focused the lighting on the court itself, the players would be easier to see.
Location: Cleveland; Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
About: At one point everyone took out their phones and turned the light on, I think they even shut off the lights briefly so the stadium was just lit by everyone's phone light; very pretty. Also just to note, we did win this game!
Location: Home; Second Floor
About: A classic photo of one of Jakes favorite pass times, sitting out in the sun on a Winter day. Improvements for this photo would be to better set the lighting so Jake is easier to see and to prop the camera up further as to not get the railing in the bottom of the frame.
Location: Unknown
About: My favorite thing in nature are clouds. This picture to me is so dreamy and relaxing to look at.
Location: Home; Front Yard
About: My favorite type of rodent, so cute, especially when eating something. We have a lot og squirrels around us as you'll see in the upcoming pictures.
Location: Home; Back Patio
About: This was captured from inside our house, looking through a sliding glass door. Although the focus was set ON THE FLOWER IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT FOR SOME REASON, this image very well captures the morning feel and this squirrel looking for some nuts.
Location: Home; Back Patio
About: Again captured from inside, although what you don't see is Jake sitting right next to me watching in silence. This image turned out well except for the orange light leeks present right in the middle. This also happened with another photo later in this roll, I'm not sure how this would have happened.
Location: Olmsted Falls; Falls Ice Cream
About: In downtown Olmsted Falls is a small ice cream shop right in the center. The entire area is rather small, but very beautiful with the older rustic look. This stone lion sits in front of what used to be a hotel; finding things like this is not hard challenge in this town.
Location: North Olmsted; A Neighborhood
About: Taken from a house I mow the lawn at. With Spring starting up again and the trees all flowing, I caught this picture showing the tree as well as the old basketball hoop. I love this image, but really wish the lighting was better as it feels too dark.
Location: North Olmsted; A Neighborhood
About: Another capture of the tree from the previous image, this time with better lighting so you really can see the color of the flowers in full vibrancy. This is the only time of year I like this tree, after the flowers all fall off, it's just a dirt producing mess; beautiful flowers though!
Location: vibrancy
About: Taken from under the tree in the previous two pictures. I'm not sure what type of flowers these are, but I really enjoy them. This image turned out great, with the flowers in focus, the background blurry, the stone brick in the foreground; the white flower in the top right is very sneaky, I'm only just noticing it.
Location: Unknown
About: As previously stated, I love clouds. These big ones that looks as though they were mountains are my favorite. I like this image, but feel as though the "Winter Clouds" picture came out better.
Location: Home; Neighbor's Yard
About: Our neighbors have this tree which flowers as shown every year. These trees with the white flowers are my favorite, especially with the dark wood. The only thing that would have made this picture better is if there were no clouds in the background so the sky was solid blue.
Location: Home; Neighbor's Yard
About: Same tree from the previous picture, this time with no clouds in frame. Probably among my favorite pictures I've taken; I can only best describe this image as beautiful, or reminiscent of Spring. The only error are the orange "light leaks" visible around the middle, but these don't take away from the quality of image at all. The sky is so blue, and in contrast with the white flowers, it's just so beautiful.
Location: Baldwin Wallace University; Outside Knowlton Center
About: In April we went around campus to take senior pictures; it was a sunny day in the evening. Although we had a professional photographer with us, I had my mother take a few pictures with this point and shoot. This picture is outside Knowlton Center, where the Computer Science, Cyber Security, Engineering, etc, departments are; the building I spend most time in at BW.
Location: Baldwin Wallace University; Outside Knowlton Center
About: When you're inside Knowlton Center looking outside South, you'll see this massive tree right in the middle of what is called North Quad. The tree was just starting to fill with leaves and the flowers below had yet to bud. If this was just a few weeks later the background would have been so much better. There's a lot of nature at and around campus, and I think this pictures gives a good hint to that.
Location: Baldwin Wallace University; Outside Telfer Hall
About: Looking at the tree from the previous photo, directly right is this building, called Telfer Hall. It's actually three separate buildings fused together to home the Biology, Geology, and Nursing students. I didn't spend too much time in here other than for a few classes, but I really like the look of it from the outside.
Location: Sandusky; Cedar Point
About: The park center of Cedar Point, there's a whole lot to look at; from this picture you can see five different coasters, the ski lift ride, places to buy food, and lots of people, although when we went it was not at all busy in comparison to their busier days later in the summer. This picture turned out well, and I'm glad because it really captures the look of the park when walking through it.
Location: Sandusky; Cedar Point
About: This is the Power Tower; it sends you up and down really fast. I think this image does an okay job at showing how high this ride is, even then, this picture doesn't do justice to it's true size when standing right below it.
Location: Sandusky; Cedar Point
About: Camp Snoopy is a location within the main park geared towards younger kids. I remember having a lot of fun riding on these rides and exploring this area as a kid. I'm not sure how much this part of the park has changed since I was young.
Location: Sandusky; Cedar Point
About: Captured from the heart of the western themed portion of the park. This picture is really unique as there's not a single person anywhere in the shot. When we first entered the park we headed straight here (which is towards the back) in the hopes that the rides would be less of a wait (which they were).
Location: Sandusky; Cedar Point
About: The first ride we went on was Maverick, and it's probably my favorite ride in the entire park. Rumour has it that when passing through the wooden hut you can smell maple syrup (per my brother, I didn't smell anything). I'm also beginning to see these "light leaks" more often, so there's a problem with this camera I'll need to address.
Location: Sandusky; Cedar Point
About: In the very back of the park is this coaster, the Steel Vengeance. I opted out of riding it this day, but I've been on it before and it's a very good coaster. The framing you see is all made out of wood with orange-brown rails for the coaster itself. I like this image, that I got the trees to the left and the coaster in the background, my only complaint is that I'd have preferred the coaster to be in focus, which isn't the easiest with this camera as the focus is automatic.
Location: Sandusky; Cedar Point
About: Another view of Steel Vengeance from right below it. Seeing all the wood framing up close is so interesting to me, especially the parts where the rails go upside-down.