Light Up the Square! - Christmas begins in Cincinnati

With Thanksgiving meals from yesterday digesting and credit cards maxed out from all the black Friday deals, hundreds, maybe thousands, made their way to Fountain Square to officially kick off the holiday's in the Queen City. Marking the second year of the "new" Fountain Square, a massive, generously donated, Blue Spruce tree on the square's Southwest corner prepared to become host to a large light display and the start of Cincinnati's holiday celebration.

I arrived downtown right around five o clock to find a full Fountain Square Garage. After fighting for a parking space at the city lot on Sixth and Race St., I made my way to the square, camera in hand. Despite the unusually warm weather, the scene tonight at Fountain Square looked like a scene straight out of "A Christmas Story." You know, the scene where the family goes downtown to the Christmas parade and to see Santa in Macy's? There was a lot going on. Vendors selling hot dogs, hot chocolate, ice cream, promoting radio stations and even Cincinnati Bell had a booth down there try to sell their lackluster line up of pre-paid cell phones and plans for sub-par service. As with past years, the square is home to ice skating.

Back in Cincinnati.

2.5 hours across the state, from the Southeast to the Southwest. After 10 weeks of stress, lack of sleep and frustration I got to go home. I promise to update more in the coming weeks while I'm home, but here are some photographs from this weekend:

The Queen City From the Sky - Aerial Photos from Nov. 8, 2008

-Gabriel (right) and his father (left) at the controls of the Cessna Skyhawk II

Back in October my friend Gabriel offered to take me flying with him and his father. The plan was to photograph the construction of Kings Island Amusement Park's newest and tallest roller coaster, Diamondback, from the sky for KICentral.com. Our friend Bill would also be joining us. I had met both of them through KICentral once I started contributing photographs to it in 2005. Gabriel and his father had been flying ever since Gabriel was little and Gabe had been contributing his aerial photographs of Kings Island to KICentral since 2004. I had gone flying with them before but I was really excited about this time since I had some newer and nicer camera equipment and lenses. Usually after we photograph the park Gabe and his dad are kind enough to take us over downtown Cincinnati and the surrounding area. So on the morning of Nov. 8 I picked up Bill and we met at the Blue Ash airport.

And Consolidated came tumbling down. . .

On October 21, 2008 I got a text message from RJ17, a fellow explorer and photographer from Cincinnati, telling me Consolidated Grain was being torn down. What does that mean? Well you probably should know what Consolidated Grain is first. The Consolidated Grain and Barge Company once built some grain silos right along the mill creek in the South Cumminsville neighborhood of Cincinnati. I'm not sure when they were built, when they closed, but I do know one thing: once the neighboring rail line closed the silos were doomed and the site was abandoned.