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On Sunday, the Cleveland Clinic alumni’s association sponsored its annual boat cruise for residents and fellows. This was aboard the Goodtime III, a dining/cruise boat that goes around the Cleveland/Lake Erie waterfront, and up the Cuyahoga River to just past the Tower City Center area. We didn’t actually know anyone — the Clinic has hundreds of residents — so it was a time to take pictures, eat, sit back and watch the scenery.

There was also a B-25 buzzing around the lakefront, apparently taking off from Burke field, possibly giving tours. I was able to get off a few quick shots as it flew by. The engines are very loud on this plane. We were also moored a few hundred feet from the end of the runway, near the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

I was actually surprised that we entered the river: the boat seemed too large to do that, but it was apparently no problem. Also we found out that the draw bridges still moved: the river is still a working river, and the bridges are working bridges. We, in fact, waited at the mouth of the river for some fifteen minutes for a train to arrive and pass, before the bridge could be raised to let us through. On the way back out the river and into the lake, we waited for two trains to pass, and we saw a large lake freighter being tugged up the river past us.

Here are the photos:

This was also a chance to try out the 50mm f/1.8D lens on the D70. Reasonable results: I was able to continue shooting much longer than if I had only the kit lens: it’s how picture #50 (_DSC0070.JPG) came out, with the family standing at the end of the breakwater, waving at passing ships. The fixed focal length was a little bit annoying for composition reasons, mainly because we were on a boat and couldn’t control where we were standing relative to the subject, but being able to shoot for an extra hour was worth it. I did like how #40 (_DSC0052.JPG) came out with the kit lens, though.

The last photo in the set was my playing around with the GIMP (yes, I’m too cheap to pay for PhotoShop, especially when there is a free alternative and I don’t have the skill to take advantage of any differences between the two) on a relatively noisy photo (ISO 1600 after nightfall on a moving boat). You now, take advantage of noise/grain and all that. It would have helped if I saw this tutorial first. Maybe I should pick up books on this program. The first three shots were an attempt at a panorama, but I realized that I didn’t have the tools or the skills for this. Anyway, the shots weren’t off a tripod, so the angles are going to be wrong.

Posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2004 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Cleveland, Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.